every animal . . .
. . . North America also furnishes the West Indies with rice . . . . . .
North America not only furnishes the West Indies with bread, but with
meat, with sheep, with poultry, and some live cattle; but the demand for
these is infinitely short of the demand for the salted beef, pork, and
fish. Salted fish, (if the expression may be permitted in contrast with
bread,) is the meat of all the lower ranks in Barbadoes and the Leeward
Islands. It is the meat of all the slaves in the West Indies. Nor is it
disdained by persons in better condition. The North American colonies
also furnishes the sugar colonies with salt from Turks' Island, Sal
Tortuga, and Anguilla; although these islands are themselves a part of
the West Indies. The testimony which some experience has enabled me to
bear, you will find confirmed, Sir, by official accounts. The same
accounts will distinguish the source of the principal, the great supply
of corn and provisions. They will fix it precisely in the middle
colonies of North America; in those colonies who have made a public
agreement in their Congress, to withhold all their supplies after the
tenth of next September. How far that agreement may be precipitated in
its execution, may be retarded or frustrated, it is for the wisdom of
Parliament to consider: but if it is persisted in, I am well founded to
say, that nothing will save Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands from the
dreadful consequences of absolute famine. I repeat, the famine will not
be prevented. The distress will fall upon them suddenly; they will be
overwhelmed with it, before they can turn themselves about to look for
relief. What a scene! when rapine, stimulated by hunger, has broken down
all screens, confounded the rich with the poor, and leveled the freeman
with his slave! The distress will be sudden. The body of the people do
not look forward to distant events; if they should do this, they will
put their trust in the wisdom of Parliament. Suppose them to be less
confident in the wisdom of Parliament, they are destitute of the means
of purchasing an extraordinary stock. Suppose them possessed of the
means; a very extraordinary stock is not to be found at market. There is
a plain reason in the nature of the thing, which prevents any
extraordinary stock at market, and which would forbid the planter from
laying it in, if there was; it is, that the objects of it are
perishable. In those climates, the flour will not keep over si