During half the year, while the canes were planted and growing, these assistants superintended the agricultural labors and attended to various other matters, and in "crop time," in addition to their usual duties, one had charge of the distillery and the other looked after the manufacture of sugar.
These assistants were called BOOKKEEPERS or OVERSEERS.

They were principally young men, of good characters, steady habits, and well educated, who had left their homes in Scotland to seek their fortunes in the West Indies.

Those who were not swept off by malignant diseases incident to tropical climates, and who continued correct in their conduct which was not always the case after a few years would be promoted to the situation of manager; and perhaps in time, if they evinced sufficient capacity, would reach the highest object of their ambition and become an attorney.

It will be recollected that the poet Burns passed a whole day in taking leave of his "Highland Mary," when he had made his arrangements for going to the West Indies and obtaining a situation as overseer on a sugar plantation.

Very few cases ever came to my knowledge where a creole, a white person born and "brought up" in the West Indies, was engaged on an estate in any capacity.