130 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



their value when you know that last year Deme- 

 rara numbered seventy-two thousand nine hun- 

 dred and ninety-nine slaves. They made about 

 forty-four million pounds of sugar, near two mil- 

 lion gallons of rum, above eleven million pounds 

 of coffee, and three million eight hundred and 

 nineteen thousand five hundred and twelve pounds 

 of cotton; the receipt into the public chest was 

 five himdred and fifty-three thousand nine 

 hundred and fifty-six guilders; the public ex- 

 penditure, four hundred and fifty-one thousand 

 six hundred and three guilders. 



Slavery can never be defended ; he whose heart 

 is not of iron can never wish to be able to defend 

 it: while he heaves a sigh for the poor negro in 

 captivity, he wishes from his soul that the traffic 

 had been stifled in its birth; but, unfortunately, 

 the governments of Europe nourished it, and 

 now they are exerting themselves to do away the 

 evil, and ensure liberty to the sons of Africa, the 

 situation of the plantation slaves is depicted as 

 truly deplorable, and their condition wretched. It 

 is not so. A Briton's heart, proverbially kind 

 and generous, is not changed by climate, or its 

 streams of compassion dried up by the scorching 

 heat of a Demerara sun; he cheers his negroes 

 in labour, comforts them in sickness, is kind to 

 them in old age, and never forgets that they are 

 his fellow-creatures. 



Instances of cruelty and depravity certainly 

 occur here as well as all the world over ; but the 

 edicts of the colonial government are well calcu- 

 lated to prevent them; and the British planter, 

 except here and there one, feels for the wrongs 



