SLAVERY. 



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are sometimes only preserved from being crippled 

 by their removal to a part of the country in which 

 it does not exist. The dryness of the air and 

 soil of the Sertam generally removes agues of 

 long standing, and likewise the complaint which 

 frequently proceeds from the ague, and is called 

 amarellidam, or yellowness. The Africans are 

 seldom attacked by the ague, but they have 

 often the amarellidam. 



In the back settlements, beyond the plains 

 of the Sertam, bordering upon the mountains 

 where cotton is planted, and from which the 

 plains are in part supplied with food, the num- 

 ber of negroes is becoming considerable. I have 

 had opportunities of conversing with negroes 

 from the Sertam, and have invariably found 

 that they preferred their residence in the cattle- 

 districts even to a removal into the country 

 bordering upon the sea. The diet of the Sertam 

 negro is preferable to that of the plantation- 

 slave, so that this circumstance, independently 

 of all others, would make th^fcbrmer be well 

 aware of the superiority of his situation. Fresh 

 beef and mutton are the usual food of the 

 Sertam slaves, but upon the plantations these 

 are rarely served out. 



The most dreadful complaint to which negroes 

 are subject more than other descriptions of men, 

 is that which, in the Columbian islands, is known 

 under the name of yaws, and in Brazil by that 



