:266 NARRATIVE OF A 



CHAP. Having fufficicntly defcribed their figures after land* 

 ^^^^^Ij '^^Si we now may fuppofe them walking along the 

 water- fide, and through the llreets, where every plantef 

 picks out that number which he Hands in need of, to 

 fupply thofe loft by death or defertion, and begins to 

 make a bargain with the captain. Good negroes are ge- 

 nerally valued at from fifty to a hundred pounds each. 

 Amongft thefe, fliould a woman chance to be pregnant, 

 her price is augmented accordingly, for which reafon I 

 have known the captain of a Dutch Guinea veffel, who 

 acknowledged himfelf to be the father, take advantage, 

 with a brutality fcarcely credited in the ftory of Inkle and 

 Yarico, of doubling the value, by felling his own off- 

 fpring to the beft bidder ; for which however he was 

 highly cenfured by his companions. 



The next circumftance that takes place before the bar- 

 gain is ftruck, is to caufe the negroes for fale, one after 

 another, to mount on a hogfliead or a table, where they 

 are vifited by a furgeon, who obliges them to make all 

 the different geftures, with arms and legs, of a Merry- 

 Andrew upon the fiage, to prove their foundnefs or un- 

 foundnefs ; after which they are adopted by the buyer, 

 or rejected, as he finds them fit for his purpofe, or other- 

 wife. If he keeps them, the money is paid down ; and 

 the new-bought negroes are immediately branded on the 

 breaft or the thick part of the fhoulder, by a ftamp made 

 of filver, with the initial letters of the new mailer's name, 



as 



