dissatisfied with the pay of 2s. a day. As their services are
necessary in landing cargo, their demand of 3s. a day has been
acceded to, and they have consented to work when it suits them!--for
they take occasional holidays, for dancing and eating. At Algoa Bay,
the Fingoes are often paid 6s. a day for working as Coolies."

These men have all the habits of the savage. They leave to the women
the tilling of the ground, the hoeing of the corn, the carrying of
water, and all the heavy work; and to the boys and old men the tending
of the cattle, while they themselves spend the year in hunting,
dancing, eating, and robbing their neighbours--except when
occasionally they deem it expedient to do a few days' work at such
wages as they may think proper to dictate.

How it has operated in the West Indies we may next inquire, and with
that view will take Jamaica, one of the oldest, and, until lately, one
of the most prosperous of the colonies. That island embraces about
four millions of acres of land, "of which," says Mr. Bigelow,--

"There are not, probably, any ten lying adjacent to each other which
are not susceptible of the highest cultivation, while not more than
500,000 acres have ever been reclaimed, or even appropriated."[14]

"It is traversed by over two hundred streams, forty of which are from
twenty-five to one hundred feet in breadth; and, it deserves to be
mentioned, furnish water-power sufficient to manufacture every thing
produced by the soil, or consumed by the inhabitants. Far less
expense than is usually incurred on the same surface in the United
States for manure, would irrigate all the dry lands of the island,
and enable them to defy the most protracted droughts by which it is