SLAVERY. 



289 



obtained his liberty ; but a Creole may have 

 been born free, and consequently his former 

 state as a slave he wishes to conceal. Creole 

 slaves, and more especially mulattos, often do 

 escape, and are never afterwards heard of by 

 their masters j but even these are sometimes 

 brought back. 



A case of great hardship occurred at Recife 

 a short time before I left that place. A negro 

 and his wife had escaped, and as their master 

 had not received any tidings of them for sixteen 

 or seventeen years, he supposed that both of 

 them had died. However, one day there ar- 

 rived at his door in Recife, a number of capi- 

 taens-do-campo with several persons in custody. 

 He soon recognised his negro and negress, and 

 was told that the five young persons who were 

 with them were their children, and consequent- 

 ly his slaves. These poor creatures had been 

 brought up until this period of their lives with 

 the idea that they were free j and thus a young 

 man of sixteen, and his sister of fourteen years 

 of age, were at the season of joy and gladness 

 to commence a life of misery. The master 

 confined them all, until he could dispose of them 

 to some slave-dealer, which he soon accomplish- 

 ed, and they were shipped from Recife for Ma- 

 ranham. I never heard how the discovery had 

 been made, that these people were not free. 

 vol. ii. u 



