ia6 NARRATIVE OF AN 



CHAP, take the liberty of contradi6ling, having experienced the 

 , . J J contrary efFe£t : it is alfo alledged, that they have been 

 found in Surinam above twenty feet long, but one of 

 that length never yet came within the fcope of my ob- 

 fervation ; nor have I ever heard of any perfon being 

 killed by them, according to the account which is given 

 by the fame author, Alexander Gard-on, M. D. F. R. S. 

 in a letter to John Ellis, Efq. dated Charleftown, South 

 Carolina, Auguft 14th, 1774. 



It is a painful circumftance, that the narrative of my 

 travels muft fo frequently prove the record of cruelty 

 and barbarity : but once for all I muft declare, that I 

 ftate thefe fads merely in the hope that it may, in fome 

 mode or other, operate for their future prevention. Before 

 my departure, I was informed of a moft lliocking inftance 

 of depravity, which had juft occurred. A Jewefs, im- 

 pelled by a groundiefs jealoufy, (for fuch her hufband 

 made it appear) put an end to the life of a young 

 and beautiful Quadroon girl, by the infernal means of 

 plunging into her body a red-hot poker. But what is 

 moft incredible, and what indeed will fcarcely be be- 

 lieved in a civilized country, is, that for this moft dia- 

 bolical crime the murderefs was only baniflied to the 

 Jew-Savannah, a village which I fhall afterwards de- 

 fcribe, and condemned in a trifling fine to the fifcal or 

 town-clerk of the colony. 



Another young negro woman, having her ancles chain- 

 ed fo clofe together that fhe could fcarcely move her 



feet, 



