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270 



SLAVERY. 



to whom they please. Many of them rear pigs 

 and poultry, and occasionally a horse is kept, 

 from the hire of which money may be ob- 

 tained. * 



The newly-imported negroes are usually sent 

 to work too soon after their arrival upon the 

 estates ; if proper care is taken of them, they 

 may indeed be employed in almost any descrip- 

 tion of labour at the end of eight or ten months, 

 but not much before this period. Damp situ- 

 ations should be avoided, and they ought not 

 to be sent out in the morning earlier than eight 

 o'clock, and they should breakfast before they 

 leave home : by these precautions the loss of 

 many slaves might be prevented; and they 

 should be followed without any deviation, at 

 least until the new negroes have been for a 

 twelvemonth in the- country to which they have 

 been transported, t 



* Horses are usually marked upon the right haunch with 

 the private mark of their owners ; but the beasts which have 

 been bred by slaves are marked on the left haunch or on the 

 shoulder-blade. This proves, among many other corro- 

 borating circumstances, that though the law may prohibit a 

 slave from possessing property, custom has established a 

 practice which is better adapted to the present state of the 

 country. 



f The plan of distributing the new-comers among the old- 

 established negroes to be taken care of by them, as is prac- 

 tised in Jamaica, has not been adopted in Brazil. I think 

 the effect of this must be good, for thus each established 



