About this time the number of white inhabitants, including men, women, and children, was computed to amount to fourteen thousand, an increase, in the space of fifty-four years after the arrival of first colony, very small and inconsiderable, and occasioned, no doubt, both by the unhealthiness of the climate and by the discouragements and troubles which prevailed during the proprietary government. The province now furnished the inhabitants with provisions in abundance, and exported what it could spare to the West Indies. The white inhabitants lived frugally, as luxury had not yet crept in among them, and, except a little rum and sugar, tea and coffee, were contented with what their plantations afforded. Maize and Indian pease seemed congenial with the soil and climate: and as they had been cultivated by the savages for provision, they were found also to be excellent food for European labourers, and more wholesome and nourishing than rice. Maize delights not to grow on a watry soil, but on dry and loose land, such as the higher spots on the maritime parts of the province. As the use of the plow could not be introduced until the lands were cleared of the roots of trees, to prepare a field for planting it great labour was requisite. They commonly made ridges with the hoe about five feet asunder, upon the top of which they planted the seed three inches deep. One gallon of maize will sow an acre, which, with skilful management on good lands, will yield in favourable seasons from thirty to fifty bushels. While it grows it requires to be frequently weeded, and the earth carefully thrown up about the root of the plant, to facilitate its progress. As it rises high, at the root of it the Indian pease are usually planted, which climb up its stalk like a vine, so that the lands yield a double crop. From the stem of maize large blades spring, which the planters carefully gather, and which, when properly cured, the horses or cattle will prefer before the finest hay. These two articles, maize, Indian pease, together with the Spanish potatoes, are the chief subsistence of their slaves, consisting chiefly of negroes and a few Indians, and who, at this time, men, women, and children, amounted to between sixteen and twenty thousand.