* LITTLE NEGRO. 89. 
both here and elsewhere, have convinced me that the general 
government would subserve the cause of humanity by pro- 
hibiting any Indians from holding them; they look upon them 
as mere beasts of burden, and treat them accordingly. 
At this place there were two slaves; one an old woman of 
seventy years of age, and lame with inflammatory rheumatism, 
the other a child of eight years old, who were compelled to do 
all the hard work about the farm. We saw the old woman 
sent out to catch and saddle a horse, and the boy, with no 
clothing on but a coarse, ragged, filthy tow shirt, chopping 
logs of wood, and then shouldering and carrying into the 
_ house, a log larger than himself. 
Our sympathies were very much excited, and on remonstra- 
ting with the old man, and telling him that the boy would 
be strained and injured for sale, he merely shrugged his 
shoulders, and replied, “He strong ’nough, me work hard 
when me boy, me seventy year old, me strong yet.” 
One of the party gave the little fellow an old shirt, which 
he donned immediately, half wild with delight, and strutted 
off to show his prize, but he soon came back in tears, with. 
the shirt hanging in ribbons about him, his unusual appear- 
ance having excited the anger of the big bull of the herd, and 
in making his escape, he lost the most of his finery in the 
bushes. 
Another of our party offered to buy the boy, but the 
avaricious old wretch, immediately put up his price beyond 
his means, and upon being told that his price was unreason~ 
