177 
-shap. iv.] WEST INDIES. 
.auction, or in any other way, wives are tom from 
•their husbands, or husbands from their wives, and 
carried off to distant islands, though the brethren 
do not advise, yet they cannot hinder a regular 
marriage with another person, especially, if a fa¬ 
mily of young children, or other circumstances, 
seem to render an helpmate necessary; and, as is 
mostly the case, no hopes remain of the former 
.ever returning. A certificate of baptism is given 
to every baptized negro., that must thus leave the 
congregation; and there have been instances, that 
by their godly walk and conversation in distant 
parts, they have caused others to hearken to their 
word, and believe. 
Though all the above injunctions are of such a 
nature, that they not only war against their hea¬ 
thenish propensities, but even against what some 
might call excusable indulgences ; yet it is a fact, 
-that at this present time, some thousand negroes 
in Antigua, and other islands, submit to them with 
willingness. 
The number of converted negro slaves undef 
the care of the brethren, at the end of the year 
1787, was,— 
