On arriving at the town, we were fur- 

 prized to find it quite a holyday, or a kind of 

 public fair. The fale feemed to have excited 

 general attention, and to have brought to- 

 gether all the inhabitants of the colony. The 

 planters came down from the eftates with 

 their wives and families all arrayed in their 

 gayeft apparel : the belles and beaux appeared 

 in their Sunday fuits : even the children were 

 in fulh-drefs ; and their flaves decked out in 

 holyday clothes. It was quite a gala-day, and 

 greater numbers of people were collected than 

 we had fuppofed to have been in the colony. 

 Short jackets, with tawdry wide- flowered pet- 

 ticoats, and loofe Dutch flippers formed the 

 prevailing drefs of the females. Scarlet, erf m- 

 fon, and poppy, with all the bright colours 

 ufed in a northern winter, rivalled a tropical 

 fun, and reigned confpicuous in the flaming 

 broad-patterned petticoat. To the inhabitants 

 it feemed a day of feafting and hilarity, but to 

 the poor Africans it was a period of heavy 

 grief and affliction ; for they were to be fol4 

 as beafts of burden — torn from each other — 

 and widely difperfed about the colony, to 

 wear out their days in the hppelefs toils of 

 flavery. 



