The probable loss,
therefore, now to be expected was very inconsiderable indeed.
There was, however, one circumstance to be added, which the West India
gentlemen, in stating this matter, had entirely overlooked; and which was
so material, as clearly to reduce the probable diminution in the population
of Jamaica down to nothing. In all the calculations he had referred to of
the comparative number of births and deaths, all the Negros in the island
were included. The newly imported, who died in the seasoning, made a part.
But these swelled, most materially, the number of the deaths. Now as these
extraordinary deaths would cease, as soon as the importations ceased, a
deduction of them ought to be made from his present calculation.
But the number of those, who thus died in the seasoning, would make up of
itself nearly the whole of that one per cent., which had been stated. He
particularly pressed an attention to this circumstance; for the complaint
of being likely to want hands in Jamaica, arose from the mistake of
including the present unnatural deaths, caused by the seasoning, among the
natural and perpetual causes of mortality. These deaths, being erroneously
taken into the calculations, gave the planters an idea, that the numbers
could not be kept up.
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