SLAVERY. 303 



suspect that some poor slave was being tortui-ed, 

 yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even 

 to remonstrate. I suspected that these moans were 

 from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was 

 the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janei- 

 ro I lived opposite to an old lady who kept screws 

 to crush the fingers of her female slaves. I have 

 stayed in a house where a young household mulat- 

 to daily and hourly was reviled, beaten, and perse- 

 cuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest aui- 

 mal. I have seen a little boy, six or seven years 

 old, struck thrice with a horsewhip (before I could 

 interfere) on his naked head for having handed me 

 a glass of water not quite clean ; I saw his father 

 treinble at a mere glance from his master's eye. 

 These latter cruelties were witnessed by me in a 

 Spanish colony, in which it has always been said 

 that slaves are better treated than by the Portu- 

 guese, English, or other European nations. I have 

 seen at Rio Janeiro a powerful negro afi-aid to 

 ward off a blow directed, as he thought, at his face. 

 I was present when a kind-hearted man was on the 

 point of separating forever the men, women, and 

 little children of a large nnmber of families who 

 had long lived together. I will not even allude to 

 the many heart-sickening atrocities which I authen- 

 tically heard of; nor would I have mentioned the 

 above revolting details had I not met with several 

 people so blinded by the constitutional gayety of 

 the negro as to speak of slavery as a tolerable 

 evil. Such people have generally visited at the 

 houses of the upper classes, where the domestic 

 slaves are usually well treated ; and they have not, 

 like myself, lived amongst the lower classes. Such 

 enquirers will ask slaves about their condition ; they 

 forget that the slave must indeed be dull who does 

 not calculate on the chance of his answer reaching 

 his master's ears. 



