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their complement of negroes decrease, and having 

 no means of recruiting them, proprietors of two 

 estates have in numerous instances found them- 

 selves obliged to give up one of them, and draw 

 off the negroes for the purpose of properly cul- 

 tivating the other. 



I have just had an instance strikingly convincing 

 of the extreme nicety required in rearing negro 

 children. Two have been born since my arrival. 

 My housekeeper was hardly ever out of the lying-in 

 apartment ; I always visited it myself once a day, 

 and sometimes twice, in order that I might be cer- 

 tain of the women being well taken care of; not a 

 day passed without the inspection of a physician ; 

 nothing of indulgence, that was proper for them, 

 was denied ; and, besides their ordinary food, the 

 mothers received every day the most nourishing and 

 palatable dish that was brought to my own table. 

 Add to this, that the women themselves were kind- 

 hearted creatures, and particularly anxious to rear 

 these children, because I had promised to be their 

 godfather myself. Yet, in spite of all this atten- 

 tion and indulgence, one of the mothers, during 

 the nurse's absence for ten minutes, grew alarmed 

 at her infant's apparent sleepiness. To rouse it, 

 she began dancing and shaking it till it was in a 

 strong perspiration, and then she stood with it for 

 some minutes at an open window, while a strong 

 north wind was blowing. In consequence, it 

 caught cold, and the next morning symptoms of 



