BOOK III. CHAP. III. 44l_ 



•* dogs nnd liorfes. 1 have feen, adds he, a planter, whole name 

 " was Chaperon, v/ho forced one of his Negroes to go into a heated 

 "oven, where the poor wretch' expired ; and his jaws being fliri- 

 **' veled up, the barbarous owner faid, " I bsHeve the fellow 

 " laugiis," and took a poker to Air him up. Since this event, he 

 " became the fcarecrow among all the flaves, who, when they do 

 " amifs, are threatened by their maflers to be fent to Chaperon." 

 What are we to think of the edidts and ordinances of any country, 

 where fo horrid a monfter is fuffered to live with impunity ; fend 

 of how little efficacy is the celebrated Code Noir, in giving pro- 

 tection to the French Negroes ? Such afts of wanton, di'kbolical 

 cruelty, are a (landing reproach to the laws of any country ; the 

 iadt might have feenied incredible, had it been related by any other 

 than a Frenchman ; and, I think, we are fairly warranted to judge 

 from it, that what we have been told of their regulations is not 

 entirely true ; for how docs it appear that their Negroes are pro- 

 tected from the cruelty of their mafters, whilfl: fuch atrocious ex- 

 amples of the contrary are to be feen in their colonies ? This 

 queftion is impartially deduced, and proves, that fo far as refpedts 

 the perfonal well-being of the Negroes, thefe boafted laws are fpe- 

 cious perhaps in their complexion, but ineffeftual and feeble in their 

 real operation. It is not enough to make iawsj it is alfo necefTary 

 to provide for their execution. 



However, we are fo fond of depreciating our own colonies, that 

 we paint our planters in the moft bloody colours, and reprefent 

 their Haves as the moft ill-treated and miferable of mankind. It is 

 no wonder therefore that Jamaica comes in for a large fhare of 

 abufe ; and even our common news -papers are made the vehicles 

 of it. I read in one of them not long fince, *■' that the cruel ufage 

 " ttnfliCled on Negro flaves in Jamaica by their mafters, is the 

 *' reafon why infurredlions there are more frequent than in the 

 *' French or other fugar-iflands." The firft enquiry to be made 

 in anfwer to fo invidious a charge is, whether the fadt here afTerted. 

 be really true ? and, 2dly, whether this frequency may not have 

 been owing to fome other caufe ? 



Vol. II. L 1 1 Within 



