180 



number of lashes which it is permitted to give 

 at a time. Persons who have not lived in the 

 colonies, or have inhabited only the West India 

 islands, believe in general, that the interest of 

 the master in the preservation of his slaves must 

 render their condition so much the milder as their 

 number is less considerable. Nevertheless, even 

 at Cariaco, a few weeks before my arrival in 

 the province, a planter, who had only eight ne- 

 groes, killed six by beating them in the most 

 barbarous mannei*. He thus voluntarily de- 

 stroyed the greater part of his fortune. Two 

 of his slaves expired on the spot. He embark- 

 ed with four, who seemed more robust, for the 

 Port of Cumana, but they died on the passage. 

 This act of cruelty had been preceded in the 

 same year by another, the circumstances of 

 which are equally horrible. Such great crimes 

 remain almost always unpunished ; the spirit, 

 that dictated the laws, is not that which pre- 

 sides over their execution. The governor of 

 Cumana was a just and humane man ; but the 

 judiciary forms are prescribed, and the power 

 of the governor does not extend to a reform of 

 abuses, which are almost inherent in every sys- 

 tem of European colonization. 



The road we followed across the forest of 

 Catuaro resembles the descent of the mountain 

 Santa Maria ; and the most difficult passages 

 are called here also by names equally whim si- 



