3f6 JAMAICA. 



makes this caution necefllhry, becaufe very dlfagreeable confeqneiiceg 

 might enfue to tlie trade, if it Ihould be negleded; for, many years 

 ago, when any violences of this nature were pradifed, they not only 

 put a ftop to commerce at the particular place where they 

 happened, but alarmed the neighbouring dillrifts; and fuch injuries 

 were ufually retaliated upon innocent navigators, who afterwards 

 touched there, and were often furprized and murthered by the na- 

 tives. Almoft every aft of this fort, perhaps, has thus been atoned 

 for at the price of blood ; and it is therefore highly improbable that, 

 under thefe circumflances, any fuch thefts can at prefent be com- 

 mitted ; nor would any planter knowingly purchafe Negroes ob- 

 tained in that furreptitious manner, through a juft fear, that they 

 would either fhorten tlieir lives with pining after their friends and 

 country, or take every opportunity of eloping from him; events 

 which he has not equal reafon to expeft from exiles, whom their 

 country has renounced, and vomited forth. 



Banifhment being now fubllituted throughout mofl part of the 

 Negroe territory in Afric, in place of death ; it is not furprizing, 

 that the convicts and captives entertain horrid notions of it, and 

 often flruggle for relief before they quit the coaft. Many of them, 

 it is probable, when they have committed fiults, were threatened to 

 be fold to the Europeans ; and this menace may be often ufed, as the 

 nam.e of Marlborough was by women in F^-ance, to frighten their 

 children into good behaviour. Perceiving that this is the general 

 courfc of punifhment, infllded on very capital crimes, they natu- 

 rally apprehend it to be a moft fevere and cruel pena-lty. This ap- 

 prehenfion mufl dwell upon their minds the more, as they remain 

 ignorant of the fate which has attended the many other thoufand 

 exiles, their predeceflbrs, none of whom return to tell the tale ; fo 

 that, no doubt, their imaginations paint the change in the mofl ter- 

 rific colours. Thefe prejudices are flrengthened by the neceflity 

 there is for treating them as condemned criminals and viiftims, 

 from the time of their firft delivery into the hands of the Negroe 

 merchants, by whom they are conduced through the country tied 

 together with thongs to prevent their efcaplng ; at the faftory they 

 are fliackled for the like reafon, and on board fliip they meet with 

 the like treatment. Thefe precautions are injurious to their health, 



and 



