The white inhabitants are all English, who, as they are not permitted by the East India Company, to whom the island belongs, to carry on any trade or commerce on their own account, subsist wholly by supplying such ships as touch at the place with refreshments, which, however, they do not provide in proportion to the fertility of the soil, and the temperament of the climate, which would enable them, by cultivation, to produce all the fruits and vegetables both of Europe and India. This island, indeed, small as it is, enjoys the different advantages of different climates, for the cabbage-trees which grow upon the highest ridges, can by no art be cultivated upon the ridges next below, where the red-wood and gum-wood both flourish, which will not grow upon the ridges above, and neither of the three are to be found in the valleys, which, in general, are covered with European plants, and the more common ones of India. Here are a few horses, but they are kept only for the saddle, so that all labour is performed by slaves; nor are they furnished with any of the various machines which art has invented to facilitate their task. The ground is not every where too steep for a cart, and where it is, the wheel-barrow might be used with great advantage, yet there is no wheel-barrow in the whole island; every thing is conveyed from place to place by the slaves, and they are not furnished even with the simple convenience of a porter’s knot, but carry their burden upon their heads. They are indeed very numerous, and are brought to almost every part of the world, but they appeared to be a miserable race, worn out partly by excessive labour, and partly by ill usage, of which they frequently complained; and I am sorry to say, that instances of wanton cruelty are much more frequent among my countrymen here, than among the Dutch, who are, and perhaps not without reason, generally reproached with want of humanity at Batavia and the Cape. Among the native products of this island, which are not numerous, must be reckoned ebony, though the trees are now nearly extinct, and are not remembered to have been plenty: pieces of the wood are frequently found in the valleys, of a fine black colour, and a hardness almost equal to iron: these pieces, however, are always so short and crooked, that no use can be made of them. Whether the tree is the same with that which produces ebony upon the isle of Bourbon, or the islands adjacent, is not known, as the French have not yet published any account of it.