180 



no lawyers employed on either side ; consequently 

 no appeals to the passions, no false lights thrown 

 out, no traps, no flaws, no quibbles, no artful cross- 

 examinings, and no brow-beating of witnesses ; and 

 I cannot say that the trial appeared to me to go on 

 at all the worse. Nobody appeared to be either for 

 or against the prisoner ; the only object of all pre- 

 sent was evidently to come at the truth, and I sin- 

 cerely believe that they obtained' their object. The 

 only part of the trial of which I disapproved was the 

 ordering the culprit to such immediate execution, 

 that sufficient time was not allowed for the exer- 

 cise of the royal prerogative, should the governor 

 have been disposed to commute the punishment 

 for that of transportation. 



February 21. 



During my excursion to Spanish Town, the 

 complaining negroes of Friendship, who had ap- 

 plied to me for relief, were summoned to Savannah 

 la Mar, before the Council of Protection, and the 

 business thoroughly investigated. Their examin- 

 ation has been sent to me, and they appear to 

 have had a very fair hearing. The journals of the 

 estate were produced ; — the book-keepers exa- 

 mined upon oath ; and in order to make out a 

 case at all, the chief complainant contradicted 

 himself so grossly, as left no doubt that the whole 

 was a fabrication. They were, therefore, dismissed 

 without relief i but also without punishment, in 



