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NEGROES.
all that I can say, but which on no account do I offer as an excuse, is, that the negroes are very stubborn, and given to prevarication. They have so often represented themselves ill, when such has not been the case, that they might avoid their day's labour, that when really suffering from sickness, they have seldom met with any sympathy.
CHAPTER XXXI. Negroes : palliations, but not excuses, for former cruelties—A harsh • planter—Crimes of slaves—The little negroes' dinner-hour—A character—Negroes' want of thought—Bartering their weekly provisions —Pilfering—The Rock Dungeon—A Tortolian slave-master—The murdered slave—Branding—Slave cargo—Remarks upon slavery— A good slave-master—A kind attorney—Negro gratitude.
I undertook this work, I laid down for myself one uniform rule, the propriety of which my readers must admit, w hich was, to adhere strictly to facts without fear or favour. I mourn to think that any one, much more a Briton, should have practised those cruel deeds which were perpetrated even in this island, in former days. I am well aware how much patience it requires to deal with negroes, and also howstrong the force of example is. We all of us are liable to err ; those passions which it has pleased the Giver of all to ingraft in our bosoms, although not to be extirpated, as the disciples of Zeno would have us believe, require to be kept under strict restraint, or else how soon we may be led to commit acts we ourselves would be the first to condemn. Self-control is no easy matter ; the wise man says—“ He who ruleth his own spirit is greater than he who taketh a city." Nothing will enable us to overcome ourselves but a deep feeling of religion. In those early times of slavery there was no settled place of worship—no sound of the "church-going" bell in Antigua; and men who might have left England with the best of feelings, from living in this WHEN