560 sheep. By this agreement, the national flock was to consist of
15,120; that is the undivided part of the island was by such means
ideally divisible into as many parts or shares; to which
nevertheless no certain determinate quantity of land was affixed;
for they knew not how much the island contained, nor could the most
judicious surveyor fix this small quota as to quality and quantity.
Further they agreed, in case the grass should grow better by
feeding, that then four sheep should represent a cow, and two cows a
horse: such was the method this wise people took to enjoy in common
their new settlement; such was the mode of their first
establishment, which may be truly and literally called a pastoral
one. Several hundred of sheep-pasture titles have since been divided
on those different tracts, which are now cultivated; the rest by
inheritance and intermarriages have been so subdivided that it is
very common for a girl to have no other portion but her outset and
four sheep pastures or the privilege of feeding a cow. But as this
privilege is founded on an ideal, though real title to some unknown
piece of land, which one day or another may be ascertained; these
sheep-pasture titles should convey to your imagination, something
more valuable and of greater credit than the mere advantage arising
from the benefit of a cow, which in that case would be no more than
a right of commonage. Whereas, here as labour grows cheaper, as
misfortunes from their sea adventures may happen, each person
possessed of a sufficient number of these sheep-pasture titles may
one day realise them on some peculiar spot, such as shall be
adjudged by the council of the proprietors to be adequate to their
value; and this is the reason that these people very unwillingly
sell those small rights, and esteem them more than you would
imagine. They are the representation of a future freehold, they
cherish in the mind of the possessor a latent, though distant, hope,