The white inhabitants of Dominica are composed of English, French, Spaniards, Italians, and Genoese, who are natives of those countries in Europe, or their issue, born in the West Indies; which latter are called Creoles, to distinguish them from Europeans. There are also some few Americans, white people, who are called American refugees, and who retired thither after the establishment of the last peace, and independence of North America. The British inhabitants consist of English, Scotch, Irish, and the said American refugees, who altogether, including men, women, and children, do not exceed the number of six hundred, exclusive of the regular troops stationed there. This is indeed a very small number of English subjects for so very large and fine an island, the value of its possession by Great Britain being thereby considerably lessened; for so few inhabitants are totally insufficient to render it of that importance, which it is capable of being, to the mother-country. The customs and manners of the English are much the same, as distinguish the different descriptions of the same people in the several parts of Great Britain, from whence they came; and their religious persuasions are also the same. It is much to be lamented, that in the English West India islands in general, there prevails a great aversion to forming matrimonial connections, as colonization is thereby much impeded, and many evils, to the disadvantage of the British empire in that part of the world, are thereby greatly promoted. This aversion is, in a great measure, to be attributed to the views of the generality of Europeans, who having submitted to a voluntary exile, which they suppose is to be only for a few years, flatter themselves they shall soon return wealthy to their own countries. Buoyed up with these notions, they look upon matrimony as a bar to their expectations; and in the mean time, content themselves with the company of a mulatto or negro mistress, who brings them a spurious race of children, the maintenance of whom, together with the extravagance of their sable mothers, soon dissipates the first savings of their keeper’s hard-earned wealth. When, as often is the case, worn out by the climate, or other disasters, they at last see their folly, but generally too late to prevent its consequences. But were such adventurers only to consider, how few who go to the West Indies live to acquire affluence, or ever return to their own countries; together with the superior advantage to be derived from the society of a wife and children of their own colour, it is probable, that so many would not decline an eligible situation for prospects that are so uncertain.