304 SLAVKKV. 



It is argued that self-interest will prevent exces- 

 sive cruelty ; as if self-interest protected our do- 

 mestic animals, which are far less likely than de- 

 graded slaves to stir up the rage of their savage 

 masters. It is an argument long since protested 

 against with noble feeling, and strikingly exempli- 

 fied, by the ever illustrious Humboldt. It is often 

 attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the 

 state of slaves with our poorer countrymen : if the 

 misery of our poor be caused, not by the laws of na- 

 ture, but by our institutions, great is our sin ; but 

 how this bears on slavery I cannot see ; as well 

 might the use oi^ the thumb-screw be defended in 

 one land, by showing that men in another land 

 suffered from some dreadful disease. Those who 

 look tenderly at the slave-owner, and with a cold 

 heart at the slave, never seem to put themselves 

 into the position of the latter — what a cheerless 

 prospect, with not even a hope of change ! Picture 

 to yourself the chance, ever hanging over you, of 

 your wife and your little children — those objects 

 which nature urges even the slave to call his own 

 — being torn from you and sold like beasts to the 

 first bidder ! And these deeds are done and palli- 

 ated by men who profess to love their neighboui's 

 as themselves; who believe in Grod, and pray that 

 his will be done on earth ! It makes one's blood 

 boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we English- 

 men and our American descendants, with their 

 boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty : 

 but it is a consolation to reflect that we, at least, 

 have made a greater sacrifice than ever made by 

 any nation to expiate our sin. 



On the last day of August we anchored for the 

 second time at Porto Praya, in the Cape de Verd 

 Archipelago ; thence we proceeded to the Azores, 



