I 791' THE KEGRO beggar's PETITIOK. 6^ 



To the Editor of the Bee. 

 Sir, 

 I AM forry I have ic in vnj power to affure you, that 

 the ilory which gave rife to the following lines, is not 

 fiftitious, but a real fa£l, that happened in the Ifland of 

 Jamaica, not many years ago. The man who perpe- 

 trated the deed, a Scotchman too, is, I, believe, alive 

 in that Ifland at this time. It was the praclice of this 

 man, from deliberate fyflem, to work oyt his flaves 

 with hard labour ; and when the doctor reported that 

 they were no longer able to work, nor any hopes re- 

 mained of their recovery, they were ordered to be car- 

 ried immediately to the laur.ch, an inclined plane rr.ade 

 of leveral boards faftened together, whofe lower extre- 

 mity pointed over the edge of a precipice feveral hun- 

 dred feet in height, that hung over a deep ravine on 

 his plantation. This was, in general, a pretty certain 

 launch into eternity, though, in the prefent cafe, it failed. 

 Nojfak had been declared by the Doftor incapable of 

 any further fervice, and was ordered, as ufual, to the 

 launch. The poor fellow begged hard that he mig'it 

 not be carried to the launch, as he faid he was not yet 

 dead : — But nothing could prevail with his inhuman 

 matter. Like his fellows, he mutt take his fate ; but, 

 by a kind of miracle, he efcaped with life, and made a 

 fbift to crawl away from the foot of the rocks. Some 

 of his black friends fell in with him, had compaffion 

 on him, and ufed means for his recovery. Some time 

 after, the mercilefs wretch who had caufed him to be laun- 

 ched over the precipice, was fomewhat furprized atfeeing 

 his flave, whom lie had beheved to be in the other world, 

 begging in one of the ftreets of a neighbouring town^ 

 but had the modettaffurance to wiih to reclaim him as his 

 property. The poor fellow's ftory, however, prevailed, e- 

 vc:j in the Weft Indies, to nv\ke all agree ia thinking he 



