14 DESCRIPTION OF THE SLAVE-MARKET. 



happy. As long as they remained together, my 

 friend informed me, they were always so ; but 

 when they began to sell off, in proportion 

 as their numbers decreased, so their spirits fell, 

 till at last they became dull and sullen. No won- 

 der, poor wretches ! The smell and heat of the 

 room was very oppressive and offensive. Having 

 my pocket thermometer with me, I observed it 

 stood at 92°. It was then winter ; how they fare 

 at night in the summer, when they are shut up, 

 I do not know, for in this one room they live 

 and sleep, on the floor, like cattle in all re- 

 spects. In the next store there were about fifty 

 boys, of a different nation from the chil- 

 dren : they were not in such good spirits as 

 the little ones, probably feeling the loss of their 

 companions, and not knowing why or wherefore 

 they had left them, or for what purpose they re- 

 mained behind ; some might have been separated 

 from their fathers, mothers, brothers, or sisters, 

 and gone, they knew not where. The next store 

 contained fewer still, about eighteen or twenty. 



