6766. POPULATION, Malefactors and.—
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)
