fcarcely, if at all, attain, await the flightest indication of his wishes. When I fay his wife is fuffered to attend him, I don't mean merely that she is suffered to fit up with and watch him at night; but that in a cafe where the diforder is ferious, and the danger confiderable, at his or her wifh, fhe is withdrawn from the labour of the field, and permitted to bestow her unremitting care and attention on him; his children too are always within his call.

The pregnant woman is alfo cherished with care; fhe is fcarce five months gone with child before the demands a relaxation of labour, and it is in general with fo much difficulty that women in that fituation can be induced to work, after that period, until a full month after their delivery, that many people confider the children, born upon an eftate, as not worth the expence of raifing; and, perhaps, if the attachment of negroes who have children, to their mafters, and the estates they live upon, was not taken into the account, there might be some truth in the observation. Those, however, who are of that opinion, when they purchase flaves, prefer buying males to females, the confequence is, that fuch eftates must require continual fupplies. But, notwithstanding fuch difference in opinion, with refpect to the advantage or disadvantage attending women's breeding upon an eftate, I do not, in a refidence of many years in different islands in the WestIndies, remember a proprietor who did not treat pregnant women with gentleness. It is in vain, as they advance in their pregnancy, to tell them that a certain degree of labour and exercise is beneficial both to them and the unborn infant; many of them will not work at all, and fcarcely any will do much, and few indeed

compel

compel them. When their time is accomplished, an experienced midwife is always at hand, baby clothes, and every thing proper is provided. During the time they fuckle their children, they are allowed to be an hour and an half, or two hours later in the field of a morning; they fometimes quit it sooner at noon, and are always excufed bringing grafs, &c. for the mules and cattle, when they leave work in the field at night. If, at any time, the child is fick, either from teething, or those other diseases infants are fubject to, the mother quits all labour, to stay at home and nurse it. Should I contraft this picture with that of the labourer, or his wife, in England, would it not cause the gentlemen met in the Old Jewry, to blufh at the charges of inhumanity they have brought forth, by means of their advertisements, and exhortations to people, to relate all fuch accounts of cruelty exercifed in the West Indies, as they may have seen or heard of; or would any perfon, who knew how the poor are treated in England, believe, that people who had fuch strong claims upon their humanity fo near them, would neglect them, to liften after ftories of the traveller from Africa, or the oppofite fide of the Atlantic, who tells them,

Of Antres vaft, and defarts idle!

Of Anthropophagi, who each other eat,

"And men, whofe heads do grow beneath their shoulders."

Well, but, fay the petitioners, we hear nothing of the unremitting labour of these flaves; the dreadful punishments they undergo; the cruel torments they fuffer; the dropping melted fealing wax; pouring boiling pitch upon them, or putting them into iron coffins,

and

and keeping hot afhes round those engines of torture, till the poor devils are barbecued fufficiently.

I will give all the fatisfaction I can to the humane and benevolent part of the fociety, who complain of the treatment of the West Indians to their flaves, becaufe they believe the falfhoods which have been fo induftriously propagated by ignorant, defigning, and wicked men; for which purpose I now enter upon a description of the labours of the flave. It will be unneceffary to particularize the nature of the bufinefs of those who attend in the houfe; who navigate the veffels employed in collecting the produce of the estates, and carrying them to the fhips, or to market, or in fishing, or fimilar fervices. The number of domeftics, and the mildnefs of the climate, must be fufficient to convince any reafonable man, that their labour is not more, and that they are not fubject to half the inconveniences people experience, who are employed in the fame manner in England. The account, therefore, which I am about to give, refpects the labour in the field, upon a fugar eftate, which is the fevereft employment they have. The flaves are generally divided into three companies, or gangs: the first confifts of all the ableft and ftouteft men and women, and, in a gang of 200, there may be about 60 to 80 of this defcription; they are expected to be in the field by the time the fun is risen, that is, about twenty minutes before fix in the fummer, and as much after in the winter half year; about eight or nine o'clock they fit down in the field to their breakfaft, which is generally prepared by the women over night, and confifts of roasted or boiled yams, eddowes, or plantains, or fuch like, and a piece of falt fish, or herrings, by way of feafoning; the fecond gang break

taft

faft at the fame time, and, generally, amongst the fame number of negroes upon an estate as before mentioned, confist of from 18 to 30-they are made up of young boys and girls, breeding women, and convalescents; they are under feparate negro drivers, or commanders, and are not put to so hard work, nor expected to be fo diligent, as the former, who, notwithstanding, would not, with all their efforts, earn the fourth part of the hire of a labourer in England, if they were only paid in proportion to the work they do. The third fet are young children, from eight to twelve years old; and may be to the number of fifteen or twenty, who are attended by a careful old woman, and are either employed in fetching grafs or vines for the flock, hogs, &c. or in weeding light grafs, or fome fuch gentle exercise, just to keep them employed, and to prevent a habit of idleness growing upon them.

To give the gentlemen in England, who thus kindly watch over the interests of humanity, even in parts fo remote from them, fome rule, by which to judge of the gentleness or feverity of the negroes labour, I do myself the honour to inform them, that in tolerable light land, fuch as two horfes and a man, with a Rotherham or Suffex plough, will plough about an 'acre or an acre and a quarter of in a day, in the latter end of September; about 40 negroes with hoes, will hole, or prepare, for planting, about an acre of land.* As this is fome of the very hardest work they are employed in, they are generally allowed rum, either mixed with

water,

Thefe holes may be about four feet fquare, and about five or fix inches deep. In St. Kitt's, where the foil is very light and rich, the holes are deeper.

water, or in a dram, once or twice a day, all the while they are fo employed, as they also are if engaged in any other labour which is confidered as rather heavier than ufual, or when the weather is very fultry or rainy : in the latter cafe, if the rains are continual, they are always called home from their work. The reft of the gang of 200, confift of those who are in the hospital with maladies real or pretended, or fores; tradesmen, cooks, nurses, watchmen, old people, or young children, fempftreffes, washerwomen, and domeftics. In crop time, the diftribution of labour on fugar eftates is different. The negroes employed in the mill and in the boiling-house often work very late, and some even all night; but they are divided into watches, and it does not come to the fame perfon's turn to fit up in the night oftener than twice in the week, or, at most, every other night; and it is remarkable, that not only the negroes in general, but the stock, cattle, and mules, are heartier and healthier in crop time than at any other feafon of the year.

To attempt to disprove the charge of cruel punishments, torture, mutilation, &c. would furely be to suppose the perfons I am writing to ideots: it is fufficient to declare them to be abfolute falfities. That now and then a vicious, a paffionate, or a mad man, may abuse his flaves, particularly those idle and diffolute ones, which no mild or gentle admonition, or correction, will reclaim, is not to be doubted. Are there not in England brutal mafters, who ill-treat, nay, fometimes murder their apprentices and fervants?Inftances even are not wanting there, of parents behaving with horrid cruelty to their own children; but to fuppofe it as a general custom, or even common, in

the