EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 



remark, fhewing how far population is afFe6led by this C 

 moil infamous treatment. 



In Surinam there are, upon an average, about 75,000 

 negro Haves, as I have Itated ; from which if we fubtrad^t 

 children, and fuperannuated men and women, there will 

 not be found above 50,000 really fit for labour. There 

 are from fix to twelve Guinea fliips, that import from 250 

 to 300 Haves each from Africa annually : we may there- 

 fore compute the yearly importation at an average of 

 2,500, necelTary to fupply and keep complete the above 

 50,000; fo that the annual deaths exceed the births by the 

 number of 2,500, though each man negro has a wife or 

 two if he chufes, which is, upon the mafs, juft 5 per cent, 

 and confequently proves that the whole race of healthy 

 Haves, confifling of 50,000, are totally extincSl once every 

 twenty years. 



Truth and juftice however oblige me to declare, that 

 the inhuman barbarities I have been juft defcribing are 

 not univerfal. Compaffionate Heaven has ordained fome 

 exceptions, as I fhall impartially fhew, by reverfing the 

 picture : not, like fome writers who have treated this 

 fubje6l, and carefully concealed the moft pleafing touches 

 of goodnefs and humanity, whilft only the darkeft fhades 

 have been expofed to the public eye, but by candidly 

 exhibiting both fides with equal juftice and precifion ; 

 and it is indeed with pleafure I can affirm, that the negro 

 flaves on fojne eftates are treated, in my opinion, as men 



ought 



