degree his caprice may incline him; for the slightest offence, the most trivial fault; an offence or fault existing, perhaps, only in his own apprehension, or originating in his own neglect. Nay, for virtues rather than vices, are they frequently punished. A female slave is sometimes flogged for declining the impure embraces of her tyrant.

The very monster that wishes to humble her, perhaps, drives her, naked, hungry, and covered with blood, next hour, to accomplish a task, which he has disabled her to perform. Repeatedly have I witnessed the perpetration of crimes I cannot relate; nature blushes at them. But were not such scandalous crimes, such shameful enormities, punished? No; the perpetrators escaped with impunity. But can such monstrous transgressors always escape? The punishment of man they may escape; but there is a God, who will by no means clear the guilty. Considered merely as commercial machines, are not these poor slaves entitled to the notice and protection of government? Does the British parliament pass laws to regulate horses and dogs, and every article of manufacture and commerce, and neglect them? The natives of the West-India isl ands, who, from their infancy, are accustomed to barbarity, are generally blamed for the cruel

treatment of the slaves; but unjustly. I have, in repeated instances, seen greater barbarities and cruelties committed by adventurers from Europe, than ever I witnessed in the natives. At this we, in a great measure, cease to wonder, when we recollect, that many of these adventurers are the refuse of every family, and profession, and, I had almost added, prison in the mother country.

On the particular treatment of slaves in the British colonies, I need not enlarge. It does not materially differ from the general account I gave in the first chapter. The discipline of a sugar plantation is as regular and strict as that of a regiment of soldiers, or a ship of war. At the early hour of four, the plantation-bell rings, or the driver cracks his whip as loud as he can, to call the slaves to their labour; which is to manure, dig, and plow the ground; to plant, weed, and cut the cane; and carry it to the mills, that the juice may be pressed out, and boiled into sugar. I need not repeat, in this place, that most grievous and fatal part of all their work, the picking of grass for the cattle. How easily might this part of their labour, which, to many, is attended with such direful consequences, and all its fatal effects be prevented? Might not a few acres, even of the most

unproductive part of the plantation, be allotted and prepared for artificial grass, and a few young slaves appropriated to the picking of it for their horses and other cattle? Such was the severity of some of the managers with whom I was acquainted, that the least appearance of neglect of labour, or other fault, was with them sufficient to procure punishment. Such was the manager of the last estate on which I lived, I have seen him cause a slave to be flogged with great severity, because he imagined he saw the appearance of the mark of a whip on a horse's back. And yet the monster could, with composure, if not an accursed pleasure, see a poor slave whipped till his back was almost turned into a jelly. One stroke of the cart-whip, the instrument the overseers commonly use, is sufficient to cut out a flake of skin and flesh from the back of the unfortunate slave; and yet the usual punishment, even for a petty offence, amounts to no less than one hundred strokes. Immediately after receiving this severe punishment, the unhappy slave, covered with wounds and blood, is ordered to his work; be the weather wet or dry. In this situation death sometimes sets the slave free. And to him death is no small deliverance. During the season of boiling the sugar, slaves are almost totally deprived of rest; being obliged to attend the labour of the

mill and boiling-house from morning to evening, and sometimes from evening to morning. How inhumane and cruel!

How uncomfotrable are the huts of the poor slaves in the British colonies, as well as other islands! How costly and splendid the stables in which the owners keep their English horses! These animals, in point of attention and esteem, they seem to exalt far above the rank of brutes. On those human beings they have compelled to become slaves and dupes to their avarice and other passions, they do not bestow half the attention and care they shew to their animals.

How inhumane is the management of the unhappy slaves during sickness! They are lodged in a sort of hospital, rather a prison, and fed with water gruel. The owners, indeed, I have sometimes seen, allow them a little wine; but I as often saw the managers and their concubines, instead of giving it to the sick, drink it themselves. It may appear strange, but it is not less true, that there are proprietors of estates, who would prefer for manager or overseer, a man, who has, perhaps, twenty girls of colour for concubines, than place a virtuous married man on their plantations. The reason for this is, they pretend that a family is attended with more expence than an

unmarried manager or overseer. But egregiously are they mistaken.

Often have I contrasted, in my own mind, the situation of the proprietors of estates in the WestIndia islands, who live in the very height of extravagance and splendour in the metropolis of Great Britain; and the condition of the wretched slaves who cultivate their estates. A proprietor has remitted to him from his estate, annually, perhaps, fifty, or, it may be, a hundred thousand pounds, which he expends in every species of luxury, dissipation, and debauchery. He rides, during the day, in his gilded chariot; and at night he reposes on a bed of down. From day to day, and from year to year, he is supported, in all his extravagance; by the sweat and the blood of his slaves abroad; the most wretched of the human race. They are starved, and naked, and tormented, and often murdered! Is he supported at the expence of human blood? Accursed support! And a curse must, doubtless, attend the man that enjoys it. Do I envy him? No. I do, God knows, from my inmost soul, pity him. Though swimming in wealth, he is an abhorrence to God, and to all good men. He is rich and encreased in wealth; and yet poor, and wretched, and miserable. Go, thou wretch, view thy hungry, naked,

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