which at times cause such depopulations in other countries; many of
them are extremely well acquainted with the Indian methods of curing
simple diseases, and practise them with success. You will hardly
find anywhere a community, composed of the same number of
individuals, possessing such uninterrupted health, and exhibiting so
many green old men, who show their advanced age by the maturity of
their wisdom, rather than by the wrinkles of their faces; and this
is indeed one of the principal blessings of the island, which richly
compensates their want of the richer soils of the south; where iliac
complaints and bilious fevers, grow by the side of the sugar cane,
the ambrosial ananas, etc. The situation of this island, the purity
of the air, the nature of their marine occupations, their virtue and
moderation, are the causes of that vigour and health which they
possess. The poverty of their soil has placed them, I hope, beyond
the danger of conquest, or the wanton desire of extirpation. Were
they to be driven from this spot, the only acquisition of the
conquerors would be a few acres of land, inclosed and cultivated; a
few houses, and some movables. The genius, the industry of the
inhabitants would accompany them; and it is those alone which
constitute the sole wealth of their island. Its present fame would
perish, and in a few years it would return to its pristine state of
barrenness and poverty: they might perhaps be allowed to transport
themselves in their own vessels to some other spot or island, which
they would soon fertilise by the same means with which they have
fertilised this.

One single lawyer has of late years found means to live here, but
his best fortune proceeds more from having married one of the
wealthiest heiresses of the island, than from the emoluments of his
practice: however he is sometimes employed in recovering money lent