94 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



nine hundred and ninety-nine slaves. They made about 

 forty-four million pounds of sugar, near two million 

 gallons of rum, above eleven million pounds of coffee, 

 and three million eight hundred and nineteen thousand 

 rive hundred and twelve pounds of cotton ; the receipt 

 into the public chest was five hundred and fifty-three 

 thousand nine hundred and fifty-six guilders ; the 

 public expenditure, four hundred and fifty-one thousand 

 six hundred and three guilders. 



Slavery can never be defended ; he whose 



a ^ ery * heart is not of iron can never wish to be able 

 to defend it : while he heaves a sigh for the poor negro 

 in captivity, he wishes from his soul that the traffic had 

 been stifled in its birth ; but, unfortunately, the govern- 

 ments of Europe nourished it, and now that they are 

 exerting themselves to do away the evil, and ensure 

 liberty to the sons of Africa, the situation of the 

 plantation slaves is depicted as truly deplorable, and 

 their condition wretched. It is not so. A Briton's 

 heart, proverbially kind and generous, is not changed 

 by climate, or its streams of compassion dried up by 

 the scorching heat of a Demerara sun ; he cheers his, 

 negroes in labour, comforts them in sickness, is kind to 

 them in old age, and never forgets that they are his 

 fellow-creatures. 



Instances of cruelty and depravity certainly occur 

 here as well as all the world over ; but the edicts of 

 the colonial government are well calculated to prevent 

 them ; and the British planter, except here and there 

 one, feels for the wrongs done to a poor ill-treated slave, 

 and shows that his heart grieves for him by causing 

 immediate redress, and preventing a repetition. 



Long may ye flourish, peaceful and liberal inhabitants 



