the colonifts from the flanderous pens and tongues of those who calumniate them.

In my attempt to fatisfy the minds of thofe gentlemen, who, from motives of humanity, have joined the prefent pursuit, and have believed the falfe accounts circulated to the prejudice of West Indians, I fhall not fpend my time in enquiring after the truth or falfity of every ftory of cruelty or inhumanity, which the industry of the bufy inquirer may have picked up, and many of which may, perhaps, have fome foundation; as there are, doubtlefs, in the Weft-Indies, as well as in England, people whose vicious habits may make them deviate from, and difregard every principle of humanity, and facrifice their deareft intereft to the violence of their paffions, their caprice, their rage, or their refentment §. I fhall argue from more general grounds; and doubt not to fhew that the nature of man muft be abfolutely and effentially changed, by a paffage crofs the ocean, if he is not actuated by the fame motives of conduct, in one part of the world as in another. Whatever difference may be found, that is to be imputed to climate, will furely be in favour of those who dwell

What would gentlemen in England fay, if the West Indians were to collect from the feffion papers, and from the Judges Calendars of the feveral Courts of Oyer and Terminer throughout England, for the space of 20 or 30 years, an account of all the murders and enormous barbarities perpetrated within that period? Would the black catalogue, which muft certainly refult from fuch inquiry, juftify their abufing the whole inhabitants of Great Britain? Yet stories, not authenticated as thofe would be, picked up at random, happening in the courfe of a century, neither name, time, nor place ascertained, are the principal foundations of the prefent clamour.

dwell between the tropics, where every thing confpires to relax the fibre, and soften the mind.

The inhabitants of all tropical countries, when firft discovered, were found to be a mild, inoffenfive, hofpitable race of people, compared with the ferocious favages of the higher latitudes, where the fcarcity of nourifhment, for man and beaft, kept them both, as it were, in a ftate of warfare, and difpofed the individuals of the fame fpecies to prey one upon another. A very recent and striking proof of the effect of climate on the mind, is to be found in the discoveries lately made in the South Seas, and in the difference between the inhabitants of Otaheite, and thofe of New Zealand.

People used to reflection would have doubted, one would think, whether the inhabitants of the Weft Indies were in general addicted to cruelty, even if they only confidered the climate they lived under; but it is unaccountable that ftories of the inhumanity of the West Indians fhould be fo eafily credited by gentlemen who have long been used to affociate with them; many of the prefent inhabitants of thofe countries have been educated in Great Britain, and there are few counties in England in which fome of the gentlemen of that part of the world, have not been, or are not at prefent, refident. There are a few of the fubfcribers, of any confequence, who have not known fome of them, and ma-' ny have lived in habits of intimacy with people from one or other of the fugar colonies.

Thefe gentlemen, I am fure, will teftify, that whatever follies and vices they may have obferved amongst Weft-Indians, as they are called, philanthropy, bene

nevolence, and generofity, are good qualities they are not deficient in. Let the poor and the indigent, in the parishes in the country where thefe Weft-Indians take up their refidence, be asked whether they do not find as much relief from them in diftrefs, as much charity and hospitality exercised towards themselves, as they ever experienced from the former proprietors or occupiers of the mansions these planters live in, to the great advantage of the neighbourhood.

To the honour, and in proof of the humanity of the West India gentlemen, I beg leave to remark, with respect to such of them as refide in London, that it is very feldom a fervant falls ill in any of their families, (even of the small pox, unless circumstances in the latter cafe forbid it) that he has not the attendance of the physician and apothecary of the family, and every other comfort and affiftance the exigency of the case may require; instead of being sent to fome hofpital, where, though undoubtedly the affiftance and the treatment they receive, is fuperior to what is to be met with in any other part of Europe, it is not poffible people fhould meet with the fame care and tenderness they experience from their fellow fervants, with whom they have lived in habits of intimacy and friendship.

The truth of the foregoing facts are notorious to multitudes; and I do not believe I hazard contradiction when I affert, that the Weft India gentlemen have, at leaft, as good understandings, and as great a share of common sense as fall to the lot of an ordinary farmer. Their enemies and calumniators, impute to their avarice, their cruelty to their flaves; these people will, therefore, allow that they have, at least, as great a regard to their own intereft. Thus, at any rate,

it

it will not be unreasonable to conclude the planter will take care of his flave; if, as I have endeavoured to fhew, he is a man of benevolence and humanity, the flave is fecure of kind treatment, from his master's goodness of heart; if he is a felf-interested, avaricious being, his vices will have the fame effect on his conduct.

A farmer in England is obliged to have a team, or a team and a half of horfes, to cultivate a farm which he rents for 100 or 120l a year. Thefe horses will coft him, fay 141. fter. per head, one with another; he knows that, without the labour of thefe horfes, he could not do his bufinefs. What credit would a man obtain, who was to tell us in the Weft Indies, that the farmers in England fay, that a horse, with good treatment, will laft feven years; but that, if they can make him plough two acres a day, instead of one, they confider it more to their advantage to kill him in three years and a half. Should we not fay, "furely, Sir, you ftrive to impofe upon us: they must certainly have more understanding; they muft affuredly argue differently; they must reflect, that if they make their horses exert themselves beyond their strength, they will deftroy them, without benefiting themselves; that if they force them to plough two acres a day, when they ought to plough but one, they will probably kill them in a week; and that it is very neceffary not to exact top fevere labour from fo useful an animal; as they must have some time feen or heard, of a horfe dying on the fpot, when he has been over-rode or ftrained too hard."

Yet a reverend Dean, a native of the Weft Indies, and who, we may suppose, refided in the place of his

nativity (which appears to have been the island of Barbadoes) for fome time, and ought to know something of the fubject he writes on, does not blush to relate a ftory, full as incredible as ridiculous, in a Letter to the Treasurer of the Society inftituted for the purpose of effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade; and the Chairman of the Committee of that Society, Mr. Glanville Sharpe, is not afhamed to circulate fuch nonfenfe in print," for the fake of the advantage that may accrue to the cause of humanity, by the publication of the faid letter."

But to return to the English farmer. Let us confider how he conducts himself, without fuppofing him to be wifer or better than the common run of fuch people, or to have a remarkable fhare of humanity; if he is an attentive, industrious man, he will fee that his horfes are well curried, watered and fed; that they are well littered down at night. If his men work, drive, or ride them too hard, or otherwife abuse them, he will turn his men away. No fooner does his horfe, his ox, his cow, or even his fheep get fick, or either of the former refufe his oats, his grafs, or his water, but a farrier is fent for, every attention is paid to the poor animal, which is nurfed, fed, and watched with great care, The greater his avarice, or the poorer he is, the greater is his anxiety to fave the poor animal's life, on whofe fervices his fortune and his welfare depend, His ewes, his lambs, his poultry and his hogs, all call for his care and his protection, which his regard to his own intereft impels him to afford them, even although he should not have any humanity in his difpofition, a virtue which many among this class of

citizens