Those who went out as
labourers no sooner reached the colony than they were tempted by the
superabundance of good land to become landowners."
The writer proceeds to state, that Mr. Peel (who, as he had been
informed, had brought out a capital of L50,000 and 300 persons of the
labouring class) had been thus left without a servant 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.
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