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my going down to him myself, his voice thought 

 proper to return, and he began at once to complain 

 of his seclusion and justify his conduct. But 

 he no sooner opened his lips than the whole hos- 

 pital opened theirs to censure his folly, asking him 

 how he could presume to justify himself when he 

 knew that he had done wrong ? and advising him 

 to humble himself and beg my pardon ; and their 

 clamours were so loud and so general (Mrs. Sappho, 

 his wife, being one of the loudest, who not only 

 " gave it him on both sides of his ears," but en- 

 forced her arguments by a knock on the pate now 

 and then), that they fairly drove the evil spirit out 

 of him; he confessed his fault with great penitence, 

 engaged solemnly never to commit such another, 

 and set off to his work full of gratitude for my 

 granting him forgiveness. I am more and more 

 convinced every day, that the best and easiest 

 mode of governing negroes (and governed by some 

 mode or other they must be) is not by the detest- 

 able lash, but by confinement, solitary or other- 

 wise ; they cannot bear it, and the memory of it 

 seems to make a lasting impression upon their 

 minds; while the lash makes none but upon their 

 skins, and lasts no longer than the mark. The 

 order at my hospital is, that no negro should be 

 denied admittance; even if no symptoms of illness 

 appear, he is allowed one day to rest, and take 

 physic, if he choose it. On the second morning, 

 if the physician declares the man to be shamming, 



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