Title
A Voyage to the East Indies: Page 112
Description
Breeding Stock. Vegetables, those most essential Articles for Men sick of, or recovering from the Scurvy are not procurable, except the wild kind. As the Island is annually supplied with Stores, Provisions, etc. from England, if the Store Ship is taken or lost, they are plung’d into the utmost Distress. What then is this Island, without Provisions of either kind, but a kind of Rendezvous, where ships might assemble in order to save the Enemy the Trouble of cruizing for them. . There are many spots of the Company’s Land on the Island admirable calculated for a Garden, where Cabbages, Coleworts and every kind of culinary stuff, might with ease be rear’d to supply the shipping at such a regulated price as might indemnify the Company from Expence, nor would such a step deprive the Cattle of their Pasture if proper spots & corners were chosen. But since the Company have impolitically permitted individuals to engross the Land no Improvements will be made, as they have not spint sufficient to expend a present small sum notwithstanding there is the fairest prospect of its becoming of Advantage to them, and of utility to the Community. I have long deferr’d speaking of their Characters, and I am sorry that it will not redound to their Honour. A Man must be very partial indeed to give them such an one as would not distinguish them from all the world besides for innate and hereditary vices of the Heart. Yet as amongst Thorns, a rising flower will here & there attract our attention, so on the Island of St Helena there are a few, unpolluted by the general Corruption, and who observe the [end page 112]
