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Thus, it must be manifeft to every one, that your tale cannot poffibly be true. But, if it had been so, do you conceive, Sir, that the planters in that, as well as in all the islands where the story would have been told, would not have taken warning from this man's fate, and have treated their negroes with humanity, especially when the example of Mr. Mapp was before their eyes, the value of whose eftates, you fay, were fo much augmented, as well as the number of his negroes, by a contrary conduct. I fear, however, that your panegyric as much exceeds the fober bounds of truth, as your account of Mr. M'Mahon's cruelty. Why fhould the negroes be excufed from labour from eleven. o'clock to three, if, as you fay, "extreme heat does not incommode them?"-but, as I am lefs defirous of finding errors in your eulogy than in your fatire, I will forbear examining critically into the truth of this anecdote. Sorry, however, am I to fay, that when I was at Barbadoes fometime about the year 1780, I faw Mr. Mapp's eftates, which were very fine ones, difmantled and defolate. The negroes having been fold, the boilers, ftills, &c. taken away from the fugar works, and even the very tiles taken off the buildings, and fold to fatisfy the creditors of those estates; the land of which was divided amongst them in small parcels; the greater part of which remained totally uncultivated.

I flatter myself, Sir, I have fhewn that the natural increase of the negroes, already in the islands, will not be adequate to the cultivation of them ;-I will now beg leave to fhew you, why I am apprehenfive they hardly ever will. Of the flaves annually brought off the coaft, not fo much as a third part are females, and amongst

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amongst them many are paft child bearing. This difproportion of males to females, you must naturally fee, will prevent any confiderable increase, and occafion a new fupply to be wanted.

The fmall number of females occafions them to be ftrongly folicited, in confequence of which many of them prostitute themselves. But, generally, when a planter purchases more young women than men, and preferves that fuperiority in the number of females over the males upon his eftate, the increafe is proportionable; few people, however, are in circumftances fo eafy as to be able to wait the flow, but natural improvement, of their fortunes, by thefe means; they prefer fupplying themselves with full grown male flaves, from whom they may expect more immediate unremitting labour, than from young females, who, as I have before mentioned, do very little work when advanced a few months in their pregnancy, and much less than males, while they are nurfing their children; and they have a custom amongst them, of not weaning them for two or three years, which occafions even the breeding women to have fewer children than might otherwise be expected.

If, Sir, I have, and I believe I have, proved, that the natural increase of the negroes in the iflands are not, nor will be fufficient for the purposes of their cultivation, other arguments than thofe of private interest may be brought against the abolition of this accurfed traffick. I have fhewn that this commerce was permitted, and even authorized, by the Deity, and that it is no where cenfured either in the Old, or, to the best of my recollection, in the New Teftament. It appears

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that the poffeffion of flaves, bond men and bond maids, was confidered as a bleffing by the antient patriarchs; and that the Deity has been pleased to point out to his chofen people, of whom they are to purchase them.— Why have you ventured to declare this traffick accurfed? Would it not better have become one of the minifters of the gospel to have faid, with Balaam-" how shall I curfe what God hath not curfed ""

You fay, Sir," you have not knowingly exaggerated, or misinformed the perfon you addrefs, intentionally."That your account of Mr. M'Mahon's cruelty, which I have remarked on, is violently exaggerated, I believe I have made very apparent. That the information you have given the fociety in the Old Jewry, is not true, in scarcely any of its particulars, is what I fhall proceed to fhew. If you are in your confcience fatisfied, that the other exaggerations and mifinformations which I shall convict you of, have not been knowingly and intentionally published by you,-I congratulate you thereon.

A neceffary degree of caution indeed, a very little attention to your own account, if you had beftowed it, would have prevented your publication, and faved me the trouble, and you the difpleasure, if you should feel any of this addrefs.

"Even extreme heat," you fay, "does not incommode the negroes, nor are they fo liable as the white people to the diforders of warm climates, when their blood is not impoverished by extreme labour, fcanty or unwholesome diet. In the Weft Indies, and in the fouthern colonies of North America, they will be full

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of health and vigour, at thofe feafons when the whites are affected with fevers and agues, and have swollen legs and jaundiced faces. But if the blacks are feized with flow fevers and dyfenteries, is there any wonder in it, when we confider that milk and fresh meat they never tafle."

I beg to be permitted a candid examination of the affertions contained in the foregoing paragraph; first obferving, that, if negroes are not incommoded with the heat, they are much better adapted to the cultivation of the lands in the Weft Indies than white people, who certainly are. That negroes are not fo liable to the diforders of warm climates, as the whites, I cannot allow. The lepra Grecorum, the lepra Arabum, the yaws, the black fcurvy, a fpecies of the King's evil, are all diforders of warm climates, with which the whites are no where affected. (At Barbadoes indeed, a fpecies of that frightful diforder the Elephantiafis is not uncommon, even among the most opulent and refpectable white inhabitants, as well as amongst the negroes, both male and female. Thefe diforders the negroes bring with them from Africa to the islands; as far as my obfervation extends, none of thefe disorders, except the yaws, are contagious, and therefore it is very rare to find even any of the creole negroes affected with any other of them. With refpect to the other diforders of warm climates, fevers and agues, fwelled legs and jaundiced faces,-you acknowledge the whites are affected with them, when the negroes are full of health and vigour. You imply ftrongly, alfo, that thofe diforders are occafioned by fcanty and unwholefome dict, and from the blood being im poverished by extreme labour.

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In this representation of facts, I intirely agree with you; but what conclufion will every man of candour and common fenfe draw from these premises? That the negroes are well nourished with plenty of wholefome food, and that their labour is moderate; but that, . on the contrary, the whites are obliged to labour above their strength, and have neither a fufficient quantity of food, nor of a good quality. That the fact is fo, let any one, who has ever been at Barbadoes, determine. The number of poor white people there, who are either unable, or unwilling, to work, exceed belief; and the miferable appearance they make, without shoes or ftockings, with their ulcerated legs and jaundiced faces, fufficiently proves, how much their interest impels the people of that Ifland, to cherish and take care of their negroes, beyond what their humanity leads them to; to relieve the diftreffes of their poor helpless white neighbours. They really seem, from that part of their conduct, to have no more compaflion, or humanity, than so many parish officers in England.

You infinuate, Sir, that the negroes, in Barbadoes, (for it is clear to me, from your letter, you have no knowledge of any other colony) are afflicted with flow fevers and dyfenteries. I reply to the first part of the infinuation, that the fact is otherwife. They are very little fubject to flow fevers: The fevers which moft generally attack the negroes, in that island, are highly inflammatory,

They are indeed, fometimes, in the rainy feafon, affected with dyfenteries and other putrid disorders; owing, as well to the ftate of the atmosphere, at that season, as to the irregularity of the negroes lives. Nothing

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