nt to make his bed,
or to fetch him water from the river; and that, in the absence of his
people, his capital had perished. "The same thing," he adds, "happened
in many cases." Further on, it is stated that some of the labourers, who
had become independent landowners, died of hunger, at a period when a
large supply of food had reached the colony, and that they were starved
because where they had settled was not known to the Governor, nor even
to themselves--"such," says this writer, "was the dispersion of these
colonists, in consequence of superabundance of good land." It is added,
that the settlers who remained had petitioned for convicts, though one
of the chief inducements to settling in the colony was an undertaking,
on the part of the English Government, that none should be sent thither.

If this writer's statement be correct, that labourers on their arrival,
tempted by the superabundance of good land, did with impunity desert
their masters, leaving their property to perish, and did themselves
become landowners, it will be apparent, either that there were then no
laws in the colony, or that they were not in force. The reverse,
however, is the fact--there were laws, and they were enforced.

The following is No. 8 of the land regulations: "No grant of land will
be made to servants under indenture; nor shall persons receive grants
who shall appear to have come to the settlement at the expense of other
individuals without sufficient assurance of their having fulfilled the
condition of any agreement under which they may have come." The author
does not remember an instance of this regulation being relaxed; and it
is manifest that destruction of property and the ruin of the capitalist
must have been inevitable, had the Government not enforced it.

Equally without foundation is the statement that the indentured servant
could desert his master with impunity. The indenture was binding equally
on master and servant, and was strictly enforced by the colonial law. If
the master failed to give the wages, food, or whatever else might have
been stipulated for in the indenture, the servant, on establishing his
complaint before a magistrate, obtained his discharge. On the other
hand, if the master proved a breach of the indenture by the servant
unduly absenting himself, refusing to work, etc., the magistrate was
under obligation to imprison the servant. Also any person employing an
indentured servant, without permission of the mast