1836] HORRORS OF SLAVERY. 489 



vividness my feelings, wlien passing a house near Pernam- 



buco, I heaid the most pitiable moans, and could not but 



suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, 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 Janeiro 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 mulatto, 



daily and hourly, was reviled, beaten, and persecuted 



enough to break the spirit of the lowest animal. I have 



seen a little boy, six or seven years old, struck thrice with 



a horse-whip (before I could interfere) on his naked head, 



for having handed me a glass of water not quite clean ; I 



saw his father tremble 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 Portuguese, English, 



or other European nations. I have seen at Rio Janeiro a 



powerful negro afraid 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 for ever, the men, 



women, and little children, of a large number of families 



who had long lived together. I will not even allude to the 



many heart-sickening atrocities which I authentically heard 



of: — nor would I have mentioned the above revolting 



details, had I not met with several people, so blinded by 



the constitutional gaiety 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 



inquirers 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. 



It is argued thnt self-interest will prevent excessive 



I uelty; as if self-interest protected our domestic animals, 



!iich are far less likely than degraded slaves to stir up the 



ge of their savage masters. It is an argument long 



lice protested against with noble feeling, and strikingly 



omplified, by the ever illustrious Humboldt. It is often 



tempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of 



ives with our poorer countrymen : if the misery of our poor 



caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, 



