.

But the increase of the Negroes, where their treatment was better than
ordinary, was confirmed in the evidence by instances in various parts of
the world. From one end of the continent of America to the other, their
increase had been undeniably established; and this to a prodigious
extent, though they had to contend with the severe cold of the winter,
and in some parts with noxious exhalations in the summer. This was the
case, also, in the settlement of Bencoolen in the East Indies. It
appeared from the evidence of Mr. Botham, that a number of Negroes, who
had been imported there in the same disproportion of the sexes as in
West Indian cargoes, and who lived under the same disadvantages, as in
the islands, of promiscuous intercourse and general prostitution, began,
after they had been settled a short time, annually to increase.

But to return to the West Indies.--A slave-ship had been, many years
ago, wrecked near St. Vincent's. The slaves on board, who escaped to the
island, were without necessaries; and, besides, were obliged to maintain
a war with the native Caribbs: yet they soon multiplied to an
astonishing number; and, according to Mr. Ottley, they were now on the
increase. From Sir John Dalrymple's evidence it appeared that the
domestic slaves in Jamaica, who were less worked than those in the
field, increased; and from Mr. Long, that the free Blacks and Mulattoes
there increased also.

But there was an instance which militated against these facts (and the
only one in the evidence), which he would now examine. Sir Archibald
Campbell had heard that the Maroons in Jamaica, in the year 1739,
amounted to three thousand men fit to carry arms. This supposed their
whole number to have been about twelve thousand; but in the year 1782,
after a real muster by himself, he found, to his great astonishment,
that the fighting men did not then amount to three hundred. Now the fact
was, that Sir Archibald Campbell's first position was founded upon
rumour only, and was not true; for, according to Mr. Long, the Maroons
were actually numbered in 1749, when they amounted to about six hundred
and sixty in all, having only a hundred and fifty men fit to carry arms.
Hence, if when mustered by Sir Archibald Campbell he found three hundred
fighting men, they must from 1749 to 1782 have actually doubled their
population.

Was it possible, after these instances, to suppose that the Negroes
could not keep up their numbers, if their n