378 J A M A I C A. 



implies leifure, they enjoy enough of it. In regard to their laws 

 and government, thefe may, with them, be more properly ranged 

 under the title of cuftoms and manners ; they have no regulations 

 didlated by forefight : they are the fimple refult of a revengeful 

 felfirti fpirit, put in motion by the crimes that prevail among them; 

 confequently their edicts are moftly vindidive, and death or flavery 

 the almoft only modes of punilhment ; they feem to have no polity, 

 nor any comprehenfion of the ufe of civil inftitutions. Their pu- 

 niHiments are actuated either by a motive of revenge or of avarice; 

 they have none to balance the allurements of pleafure, nor the 

 flrength of the paflions, nor to operate as incitements to induftry 

 and worthy adions. In many of their provinces they are often re- 

 duced to the utmoft ftraights for want of corn, of which they might 

 enjoy the grcateft abundance, if they were but animated with the 

 fmallefl: portion of induftry. li no rules of civil polity exifi: among 

 them, does it not betray an egregious want of common fenfe, that 

 no fuch rules have been formed ? It it be true, tliat in other coun- 

 tries mankind have cultivated fome arts, through the impulfe of the 

 neceffities under which they laboured, what origin (hall we give to 

 thofe contrivances and arts, which have fprung up after thofe ne- 

 ceffities were provided for ? Thefe are furely no other than the 

 refult of innate vigour and energy of the mind, inquifitive, inven- 

 tive, and hurrying on with a divine cnthufiafm to new attainments. 

 The jurifprudence, the cuftoms and manners of the Negroes, feem 

 perfeftly fuited to the mcafure of their narrow intelle<ft. Laws 

 have juftly been regarded as the mafter-piece of human genius : 

 what then are we to think of thofe focieties of men, who either 

 have none, or fuch only as are irrational and ridiculous .'' 



Religion and Religious Opinions among the Negroes. 



They are faid to have as many religions almoft as they have 

 deities, and thefe are innumerable; but fome have been taught to 

 believe the exiftence of a fupreme God. Thefe fay that God is 

 partial to the Whites, and treats them as his own children, but 

 takes pleafure in afflidling the Blacks with a thoufand evils; that 

 they are indebted to him for nothing but fhowers, without which 

 the earth would not afford them provifions ; but even in this, they 



alledge 



