322
JAMAICA.
of the settlements, European colonization has been en couraged, by the grant of an indiscriminate bounty of fifteen pounds a head, to the importers of immigrants ; a plan which could promote no other end than the introduction of the European vices of drunkenness, and housebreaking ; so that in some of the parishes a further expence has been incurred in order to deport them. Europeans have also been settled by individual proprietors on many of the estates almost uniformly, . with an unfavorable result. Notwithstanding, how ever, the experience of the past, the mania for immi gration still continues as if there were a charm in a European birth, and white complexion. These at tempts may be traced to the boasted knowledge, but real ignorance, of the colonists, of the negro charac ter. The present condition of the low, white popula tion of Barbados has been forgotten or disregarded ; as well as the fact that the introduction of Europeans, as laborers, must in the first instance be attended with an enormous waste of life, and when this difiiculty is overcome, they can never compete with the superior adaptation of the negros to a tropical climate. The true motive of the immigration policy, appears to have been to create such a considerable body of whites as to neutralise the anticipated political importance of the enfranchised negros. Such schemes, involving the most lavish expenditure of money, deserve the scruti nizing attention of the bona fide proprietors of the soil, whether resident or absentee, as it is generally believed that the " power of the purse" is in the hands of men in the colony, whose fortunes are no longer susceptible of injury, either by private or public extravagance. About mid day, we proceeded to Moore Town, which settlement is as beautiful in situation as Altamont. It