96 NARRATIVE OF AN 



CHAP, fion ; but on one of which, called Schovnort, I was the 

 ^' , witnefs to a fcene of barbarity which I cannot help re- 

 lating. 



The vi(Stim of thi^ cruelty was a fxoe old negro (lave, 

 who having been as he thought undefervedly fentenced 

 to receive fome hundred laflies by^the lacerating whips 

 of two negro - drivers, in the midft of the execution 

 pulled out a knife, which, after having made a fruitlefs 

 thruft at his perfecutor the overfeer, he plunged up to 

 the haft in his own bowels, repeating the blow till he 

 dropped down at the tyrant's feet. For this crime he 

 was, being firft recovered, condemned to be chained to 

 the furnace which diftils the hll-devil^'^ there to keep 

 in the intenfe heat of a perpetual fire night and day, 

 being bliftered all over, till he Ihould expire by infirmity 

 or old age, of the latter of which however he had but 

 little chance. He lliewed me his wounds with a fmile of 

 contempt, which I returned with a figh and a fmall do- 

 nation : nor fhall I ever forget the miferable man, who, 

 like Cerberus, was loaded with irons, and chained to 

 everlafting torment. As for every thing elfe I obferved 

 in this little tour, I muft acknowledge it to be elegant 

 and fplendid, and my reception hofpitable beyond my 

 expe(5tation : but thefe Elyfian fields could not diffipate 



* Kill-devil is a fpaties of rum which the negroes; many Europeans alfo, froni 

 is diftilled from the fcum and dregs of a point of ceconomy, make ufe of it, to 

 Aigar cauldrons. This is much drunk in whom it proves no better than a flow but 

 this colony, aad the only fpirits allowed fatal poifon. 



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