FUGITIVE NEGEOES. 
221 
of his coinpanious who were concealed amidst the trees, 
inspired ns with some mistrust. These blacks were no 
doubt maroon negroes : slaves escaped from prison. This 
unfortunate class are much to be feared : they have the 
Courage of despair, and a desire of vengeance excited by the 
severity of the whites. We were without arms ; the negroes 
appeared to be more numerous than we were, and, thinking 
that possibly they invited us to laud with the desire of 
taking possession of our canoe, we thought it most prudent 
to return on board. The aspect of a naked man, wandering 
on an uninhabited beach, unable to free himself from the 
chains fastened round his n.-ck and tho upper pai’t of his 
arm, was an object calculated to c.xcite tlie most painful 
impressions. Our sailors wished to return to the shore for 
the pur[)Ose of seizing the fugitives, to sell them secretly at 
Carthagena. In countries where slavery exists, the mind is 
familiarized with suffering, and that instinct of pity which 
characterizes and enobles our nature, is blunted. 
Whilst we lay at anchor near the island of Baru, iii the 
meridian of Punta Gigantes, I obsei’ved the eclipse of the 
moon of the 2'.)th of March, 1801. The total immersion 
took place at 11'* 30' 12-0“ mean time. Some groujis of 
vapours, scattered over the azure vault of the sky, rendered 
the observation of the immersion uncertain. 
During the total eclipse, the lunar disc displayed, as 
almost always happens, -a reddish tint, without disappearing; 
the edges, examined with a sextant, were strongly undula- 
ting, notwithstanding the considerable altitude ot the orb. 
It appeared to me that the moon was more luminous than 1 
had ever seen it in the temperate zone. The vividness of 
the light, it may be conceived, docs not depend solely on 
the state of tho atmosphere, which rcilpcts, more or less 
feebly, die solar rays, by inflecting them in tho cone of tho 
shade. The light is also modified by the variable trans- 
parency of that part of the atmosphere across which we 
perceived the moon eclipsed. Witliin the tropics, great 
serenity of tho sky, and a perfect dissolution of the vapours, 
diminish the extinction of the light sent back to us by the 
lunar disc. I was singularly struck, during the eclipse, by 
the want of uniformity in the distribution of the refracted 
light by the terrestial atmosphere. In the central region of 
