ii8 THE BRAZILS. 
Slime a regular government, or fall into a state of general 
anarchy. In the former case, they will use every endeavour 
to set the rest of their brethren free ; and, in the latter, the 
thirst of plunder, and aversion for labour, wiil drive them to 
predatory excursions on the neighbouring islands, where the 
slaves will be but too read}^ to join them. Whatever the hne 
of conduct may be which they eventually shall adopt, to 
bring them back to slavery would be a task that all the 
legions of Buonaparte can never accomphsh. The secret 
spell, that caused the negro to tremble at the presence of the 
white man, is in a great degree dissolved ; the supposed su- 
periority, by which a hundred of the former were kept in aAve 
and submission by one of the latter, is no longer acknow- 
ledged ; the mind has broken its fetters with those of the 
body, and freedom of thought has produced energy of action. 
If it should unfortunately happen that our colonies in the 
West Indies may ultimately be involved in the fate of St. 
Domingo, a considerable mass of property will no doubt be 
lost to this country ; but, at the same time, it cannot well be 
denied that this loss would be productive of a most important 
saving to the state, by the number of British subjects who, 
in their removal to a better climate, would escape a prema- 
ture death. The most valuable productions of the West India 
islands were originally transplanted from the East, where the 
labour of slaves is not required, nor any extraordinary waste 
of Europeans occasioned. To this source we may again re- 
cur, and India and China may eventually prove the great 
sheet anchors of our commercial prosperity. 
7 
