1797. CONVICTS, Transported.—
The
malefactors sent to America were not sufficient
in number to merit enumeration, as one class
out of three which peopled America. It was
at a late period of their history that this practice
began. * * * I do not think the whole
number sent would amount to two thousand,
and being principally men, eaten up with disease,
they married seldom and propagated little.
I do not suppose that themselves and their descendants
are at present four thousand, which
is little more than one-thousandth part of the
whole inhabitants.—
To M. de Meunier. Washington ed. ix, 254.
Ford ed., iv, 158.
(P.
1786)
