i^iS 



232 



SLAVERY. 



depends upon the inclinations of the master, 

 who will however be very careful in refusing to 

 manumit, owing to the well-known opinion of 

 every priest in favour of this regulation, to the 

 feelings of the individuals of his own class in 

 society, and to those of the lower orders of 

 people, and likewise he will be afraid of losing 

 his slave ; he may escape with his money, and 

 the master will then run much risk of never 

 seeing him again, particularly if the individual 

 is a creole slave. * In general therefore no 



the influence of wealth and power. I did not see a copy of 

 the law or regulation on the subject, but I never met with 

 any one who made a doubt of its existence. I never met 

 with any one who doubted that the slave had a right to ap- 

 peal, if he thought proper • whether he would be heard or 

 not was another question. 



* The major part of the slaves that abscond, are brought 

 back to their owners, but some do escape, and are never 

 afterwards heard of. They remove to some distant district, 

 and there reside as free men. Those who have once tasted 

 of the sweets of free agency, for any length of time, even 

 if they are brought back to their masters, scarcely ever re- 

 main longer than is requisite to seek an opportunity of 

 finding the vigilance of those whose business it is tc watch 

 them ; they soon brave the risk of another detection. A 

 young and handsome mulatto man of these unsettled habits 

 once applied to me to purchase him. He had by mere ac- 

 cident been discovered only a short time before, by a friend 

 of his master in the Sertam, where he had married a free 

 woman, and had been considered as free himself. He was 

 brought back to his master, was sold to another person, 

 escaped, returned, and again fled, and had not, when I left 

 the country, been heard of for a twelvemonth. 



