BOOK II. CHAP. XIII. 269 



diat, if the enabling his Negroes to undergo their labour, by al- 

 lowing them expedient food, be the true motive, as they affirm it 

 is, for the planter's care of his Negroes; the fame motive mufl 

 necefl'arily induce him to be equally alfiduous for the prefervatioii 

 of their lives and health. This, indeed, is imj^lied; fince, if they 

 are abandoned to ficknefs, or fufFered to perifh for w ant of his care, 

 he mull of courfc be deprived of the benefit of their labour, which 

 alone (as they rightly obferve) is the foundation of his riches. 

 Thus the planter is affirmed to take care of the life and healtli of 

 his Negroes, that he may profit by their labour; and yet to let 

 them die through barbarity and negleft ; by which he mufl 

 eventually be a. lofer of all that benefit. In one paragraph he is 

 made to ftarve and wear them out before they have half finiflied 

 their term of life ; in the next he is faid to allow them plenty of 

 food, to fupport them in the continuance of their labour. How' 

 they can be hacked and ftarved to death, like pofl-horfes, 01' 

 fand-afl'es, and yet fattened like oxen for Leadenhall-market, at one 

 and the fame time, is ib far beyond the humble limits of a planter's 

 comprehenfion, that it mufl be left to be further reconciled and 

 explained by thefe two fagacious writers ; and the perplexing 

 aeriigma, they are defi red to lolve, is,- by what means it comes to 

 pafsi that the planter gains equally, whether he ftirves and deflroys 

 them, or whether hefeeds and takes care of them ? 



1 will aliert, in my turn, and I hope without iiiconfiftency or 

 untruth, that there are no men, nor orders of men, in Great-Bri- 

 tain, poficfied of more difuiterefted charity, philanthropy, and cle- 

 mency, than the Creole gentlemen of this ifland. 1 have never 

 known, and rarely heard, of any cruelty either pra>5lifed or tole- 

 rated by them over their Negroes. It cruelties are praftifed, they 

 happen without their knowledge or confcnt. Some few- of their 

 Britilh overfeers have given proofs of a favage difpofition ; but in- 

 ftances are not wanting to (hew, that, upon juft complaint and in- 

 formation of inhuman ufage, the planters have punifhed the a«flor 

 as far they were able, by turning him out of their employ, and 

 frequently refuting a certificate that might introduce him into any 

 other perfon's. Thefe barbarians are imported from among the li- 

 berty-loving inhabitants of Britain and Ireland. Let the reproach 



then 



