I 
CHAP. V.] WEST INDIES. 
337 
CHAFFER V. 
Arrival and sale in the West Indies.—Negroes newly 
purchased, how disposed of and employed.—■Detail of 
the management of negroes on a sugar plantation .— 
Mode of 'maintaining them. — Houses , cloathing, and 
medical care. — Abases.—Late regulations for their 
protection and security.—Causes of their annual de¬ 
crease .— Polygamy, She.—Slavery in its mildest form 
unfriendly to population.—General observations. — Pro¬ 
posals for the further meliorating the condition of the 
slaves, with which the subject concludes. 
FIE arrival of a Guinea ship in the West In- 
JL dies is announced by public advertisement, 
specifying the number of negroes imported, the 
country from whence, and day of sale. It was the 
practice until of late, to open the sale on ship¬ 
board, the males being arranged in one part of the 
ship, and the females in another: but, as visitors 
of all descriptions were admitted without hesitation 
or inquiry, it frequently happened, when slave- 
ships were scarce, that such crowds of people went 
on board, and began so disgraceful a scramble, as 
Vol. II. 
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