BOOK III. CHAP. III. 4n 



•at their death ; and few among them, that are at all hiduftrlous and 

 fmgal, lay np lefs than 20 or 30/. For in this Ifland they have the 

 greateft part of the fmall filver circulating among them, which they 

 gain by fale of their hogs, poultry, fifh, corn, fruits, and other com- 

 modities, at the markets in town and country. 



They in general love their children, though fometimes they treat 

 them with a rigour bordering upon cruelty. They feem alfo to feel a 

 patriotic aflfedion for the ifland which has given them birth ; they re- 

 joice at its profperity, lament its lofTes, and intercft themfelves in the 

 affairs and politics that are the talk of the day. Whoever has ftudied 

 their dilpofition and fentiments attentively, will be of opinion, that, 

 with mild and humane ufage, they are more likely to become the de- 

 fenders than the deftroyers of their country. As a large fliare of va- 

 nity and pride may be obferveable among them, fo the better fort ap- 

 pear fenfible to fliame. I have known a very confiderable number of 

 them on a plantation kept in due decorum for feveral years, with no 

 other difcipline than keen and well-timed rebukes; and my obferva- 

 tions have tended to confirm me in opinion, that our Creole Blacks 

 (for I fpeak of them only) may, with a very moderate inllrudion in the 

 ChrilVian rules, be kept in good order, without the whip. Rafli cor- 

 reftion has often rendered them llubborn, negligent, and perverfe, 

 when they might have been influenced chcari'ully to perform everv 

 thing required of them, by judicioufly working on their vanity; by 

 beftowing feafonable rewards and encomiums on their praife- worthy 

 condutl, and by iVniging reproaches for their mifdemeanors. There 

 are many artifices to be prattifed with the greatefl: fuccefs ; fuch as, 

 degrading for a while from fome employment efleemed among them 

 a port of dilVuiftion, and authority ; holding them up to the ridicule 

 of their fellow Blacks, and the like. What they endure, upon thefe 

 occafions, has nothing in it ot that fcnfe of vile abafement, which 

 corporal inflictions are apt to produce ; and whenever corporal punifli- 

 ment is carried to extreme, it is fure to excite a hearty and indelible 

 contempt and abhorrence for the infllclor. 



The force of ridicule, on the contrary, brings u:!on them the cut- 

 ting fneers of the other Negroes, and always turns tlie edge of their 

 contempt and rage from their mafter, to themfelves ; and hence they 

 may fmart more feverely under fuch r^prehenfion, than they would 



G g g 2 under 



