for
three years, at 18 per cent. per an. 3,240
------
Total 30,320
Total receipts 41,922
------
Increase 11,602

RECEIPTS. Dollars.
As before, deducting wood, coffee,
plantation and buildings, 12,910
Trimmed ebony sent to the town 375,
6000 lbs. at 2 D. per 100, 7,512
Timber sent to Port Louis in 4 years,
640 loads at 25 D. each, 16,000
Two habitations stripped of the best
wood may sell for, with buildings, 4,000
Asses and additional slaves, 1,500
------
Total 41,922

These statements will give a general idea of a plantation at Vacouas, the
employments of the more considerable inhabitants, of the food of the
slaves, etc., and will render unnecessary any further explanation on
these heads.

It was considered a fair estimate, that a habitation should give yearly
20 per cent. on the capital employed, after allowance made for all common
losses; and money placed on good security obtained from 9 to 18 per cent.
in time of war, and 12 to 24 in the preceding peace. Had my planter put
his 18,000 dollars out at interest, instead of employing them on a
plantation at Vacouas, and been able to obtain 15 per cent, he would at
the end of five years, after expending 150 dollars each month in the town
of Port Louis, have increased his capital nearly 5,000 dollars; but it is
more than probable that he would have fallen into the luxury of the
place, and have rather diminished than increased his fortune.

The woods of Vacouas are exceedingly thick, and so interwoven with
different kinds of climbing plants, that it is difficult to force a
passage through; and to take a ride where no roads have been cut, is as
impossible as to take a flight in the air. Except morasses and the
borders of lakes, I did not see a space of five square yards in these
woods, which was covered with grass and unencumbered with shrubs or
trees; even the paths not much frequented, if not impassable, are
rendered very embarrassing by the raspberries, wild tobacco, and other
shrubs with which they are quickly overgrown. Cleared lands which have
ceased to be cultivated, are usually clothed with a strong, coarse gras