Objects of novelty alone I think will be a sufficient excuse for my not before this addressing you. Notwithstanding the connection my nearest friends and family have had with this Island notwithstanding the familiarity I in consequence had with every thing respecting it yet I found myself a Stranger wandering among unknown objects and still continue to be so in a Degree. In many points I was agreeably disappointed. The Climate I find agreeing perfectly with me and by what I can judge is a healthy one to those who pay common attention to their conduct. Intemperance particularly with New Distilled Liquors seems chiefly to have been the foundation of the Character of Unhealthyness this Climate has acquired and when is concluded by I think Dr. Haygarth of Chester to fall every year the greater number must be Sailors who are intemperate from Custom and can only indulge in the harvest of the passing Season. The Commander at Kingston has taken the precaution of walling in the Camp since which I hear that from the Returns rendered to the War office the mortality is as small if not smaller than in the Garrison Towns in Europe. As their Pay is here doubled, when they had the liberty of Absenting themselves out of the Line of Duty, the mortality was prodigious. I think I have heard that or ¼ of the whole Number [torn] Annually fell.
The next point I was much deceived in was the Treatment of the Slaves. You never would suspect me of favoring Slavery and will therefore allow some weight to my assertion that their Condition is far better that that of the Poor in several parts of Europe nay than even in many Parts of England. The 1s. a day that a Labourer can often only earn for the support of a family of perhaps 6 or 7 is but a scanty allowance in comparison to the advantages of a Negro who is able to accumulate Property and to dispose of it either during life or after Death. That they can be cruelly treated is certain but instances are recited with horror and are therefore unfrequent. A certain check also has been already given to the Power over Slaves and without doubt will be increased. In short they live far better than the free Negroes of the Island who inhabit the interior parts and are refugees from Cruel treatment or Labour in former times. The Argument in favor of Slavery that Whites cannot go thro’ the fatigue of Blacks in this Climate is not true. It is less hot here than in America where Whites attend to Agriculture almost universally in some of the States and otherwise the Surveyors and Physicians who use constant and very violent exercise here are the healthiest of the Inhabitants; and the Sailors never date their Disorders from the of their Duty as far as I understand. The rise of the prejudice was probably from the necessity of seasoning before exertions are made by either Men or Beasts that come from a different Climate or rather Lattitude [torn] Negroes are born in a similar Climate and same Lattitude. The Ideas of Bin violent Men in England on the Subject of Slavery it does not seem possible to execute by a single effort in this Country, and from what in here I judge the Reformation will be as slow in the Southern States not but Le Poivre has well proved to the World the possibility of applying the Labour of Whites to the cultivation of Sugar &c yet men of Property will not sacrifice it to notions of Justice or even Morality.
However to leave these Matters till I have the pleasure of conversing with you, I must before I finish this letter give you one or two facts I have determined by the Thermometer and Hydrometer which latter is very sensible and varied but little in your Library only perhaps from the few changes of Air that took place in it. In coming from the North I found that the in Lattitude 20.27” ran near 12 Degrees to the North in the Gulph Stream returning the whole of its Heat in the Center of the Stream. I had the misfortune near Jamaica to have the Whalebone of my Hygrometer broke by a North Wind so that for or of the Whalebone and therefore should make a proportionable allowance in any observations made since however altho’ it lessens apparently the Differences that really take place in the Climate I shall give you the degrees of Dryness and Moisture with the Instrument as it is that are daily observed at Hamstead, a Property of my Fathers in the Mountains. In this Sun, the Instrument was 38 and 39 in the Shade 40 to 5; In the night it is from 78 to 85 which last is but 70 of the Scale removed from the effect of Water Itself on the Instrument. My Father has undertaken to keep a Diary of it. I have made some meteorological observations here that I have arrogance to think point out other Laws than those given in the ingenious Theory you have formed, and when at leisure I shall submit them to your Judgement as the best of their Worth young as I am I shall not be disappointed if your explain there objections.
We have heard from John that you are fast recovering. I hope now you are completely so. My Father joins with me very sincerely in wishes for your health and long life, was it only the benefit of the World and detached from every consideration of personal attachment to you. My Father is in health but neither his friends nor myself can yet induce him to quit the Country for Domestic Society. His Active Mind sees numbers of Improvements which he thinks his Eye can but execute. I do not think he will leave the Island till next Spring. He is very pleased with this Island at present, indeed his opinion in consequence of the Improvements that have taken place he first knew it has been totally changed and so far from the setting of a Son here giving him uneasiness it would give him were his Family residents here. This Country has grown just in the Way that America has, and is still growing, New Plantations are opening continually particularly small ones cultivate the country the best. It has become nearly independent with respect to food, and the manners and way of living of the In have improved with the Cultivation.
I beg my best Respects to Mr. and Mrs. Beache Mr. Franklin &c and remain dear Sir Your very devoted Servant