2 TRINIDAD. 
Xegro slave consulted only his advantage whether he 
shoidd speak truth or falsehood; and honesty was 
hardly to he expected when the supply of rations was 
often both scanty and bad, whilst virtue was not only 
not taught, but its opposite encouraged, both by precept 
and example. Maniage, God’s ordinance, and which 
is honourable in all, was not allowed among slaves — 
that was an institution only for free men. 
Such being the state of morals during slavery, it 
would have been surprising indeed if the people, .upon 
gaining their liberty, had become truthful, honest, and 
chaste. Human nature is the same among all races, 
and throughout all ages. The slaves who came out of 
Egypt, though guided by a divinely conunissioned 
leader, were still slaves, and unruly and dissolute they 
were. The slaves of the West Indies generally retained 
the vices among which they had been born, and in the 
practice of whicli they had lived till tlieir death, whilst 
the example of the parents was too faithfully followed 
by their liberated children. And even now, though 
many years have roUed by, and the second and third 
generations occupy their fathers’ places, still the vices 
of the parents are indulged in by the children, Alas! 
that it shoidd be so 1 Many, not knowing the people 
thoroughly, would not, perhaps, imagine that such is 
tlie case ; but an intimate acquaintance with the people 
of the West Indies, will only show their extreme 
laxity of morals. 
It is not said, that nothiug has been done towards the 
