98
DOMINICA.
tree; the varieties of the citron tribe, some of the spices, the plaintain, banana and several farinaceous roots, the palma christi, medicinal aloe, and many others, which produce valuable articles for consump足 tion or export ; and some of which, even in the West Indies, are frequently the objects of difficult and costly culture. " The island imports great quantities of tim足 ber, and numbers of cattle and horses, though valuable trees grow on every estate, and there is pasturage suffi足 cient, without cultivation, to support uncounted herds.. If it be asked, why man does not put forth his hand and gather the good things which nature provides with such spontaneous bounty, the reply is, that there is no surplus labor to devote to such minor matters; the sugar and coffee cultivation absorb all the resources of the island. Nothing would be easier than to turn its natural wealth to most profitable account, if the two great desiderata of capital and labor, were but supplied. Fourteen thousand laborers are lost in such a fertile wilderness. When the sin and stain of slavery is wholly removed, we may indulge the hope that the tide of emigration will set in to this, and other of these beautiful and almost uninhabited islands. Many parts of the island have never been explored, except by the Maroons or runaway negros, and the rangers who were employed about twenty years ago, in the war of extermination against them. They were at that time about one thousand five hundred in num足 ber, but were entirely destroyed. Many were brought to Roseau and butchered in cold blood ; and there is a well there, which though of sweet water, and in the centre of the market place, remains unused to this day, from a belief that it is defiled with the blood of these unfortunate people. The governor who sanctioned