The Three Counties under the Dutch. 29 
cargo of several hundreds of human beings. As regards 
the horrors commonly supposed to have always prevailed 
on such slave ships, PlNCKARD, who had not only paid 
considerable attention to this subject but had also, in 
his official capacity, been obliged to devise means for 
preserving the healthfulness of the troops on board the 
transport ships, was of opinion that the slaves during 
their transport from Africa to the West Indies were, 
at least normally, well treated. " I took occasion," he 
writes — 
" to note in a former letter that the nakedness of the slaves was per- 
haps their greatest security against disease ; but in addition to their 
being without clothes, they are compelled to remain constantly upon 
deck in the day-time and are encouraged to exercise and amusement ; 
their sleeping places are completely washed out as soon as they quit 
them ; and no species of baggage, nor clothing — not a bundle, nor any 
article of bedding, not even a single blanket, nor a sheet, nor any kind 
of thing that can create filth or colle£t impurities, is admitted. Venti- 
lation and washing are strictly observed, and the slaves are encouraged 
or compelled to cleanliness of person ; and together with these means 
perhaps their simple diet of vegetables and water may greatly contri- 
bute, by diminishing the predisposition and lessening the susceptibility 
of disease." ' 
The writer of these words seemed to wish that in 
many respects, allowing of course for the fact that 
Europeans, unlike Africans, are the better for clothes, 
the rules of life which prevailed on board slave-ships 
could have been maintained on board troop-ships. 
The slave markets were conducted somewhat differently 
in Demerara and in Berbice. In the former place the 
slaves to be sold were divided into three lots according 
to their supposed value, and ' were exposed, naked, in a 
large empty building, like an open barn. Those who 
came with intention to purchase minutely inspected them, 
