MONTSERRAT.
87
ship Act came into operation, was six thousand four hundred and one ; of whom one thousand one hundred and thirty were freed on the first of August, being under six years of age ; of the otliers two thousand nine hundred and twenty-eiglit are females, and two thousand one hundred and sixty-thi-ee males. The remaining one hundred and eighty includes those who have been since manumitted, as well as a considerable number who have been sold to Demerara. This dis足 graceful traffic has been successfully carried on in this little and poverty-stricken colony ; the ignorant apprentices having been induced by presents of a few dollars, and delusive representations, to have themselves appraised. The money is advanced by the apprentice trader, who immediately takes them on board his ship, where they receive a mock form of manumission, and then indent themselves to servitude in British Guiana. Many of the proprietors have set their faces against these proceedings ; but others, of whom a few are in high station, have countenanced them, and have them足 selves driven a lucrative trade in the sinews of their apprentices. As we had reason to believe that in many of the colonies the apprentices had been fraudulently classified, we inquired of various persons, and find that all the plantation negros were returned by the valuers as predial attached laborers, by which this island, on the supposition that the other colonies were more hon足 est, obtained a disproportionate share of the Compen足 sation. There is also every reason to fear, that when the 1st of August, 1838, arrives, the domestics, and tradesmen or mechanics on the plantations, will be detained in servitude, or obtain their freedom according as their owners are conscientious or otherwise. This will assuredly occur if the Government do not take into