chap, v.] WEST INDIES. 361 
in most of their women 3 who are exposed to 
temptations which they cannot resist. They hold 
chastity in so little estimation, that barrenness, and 
frequent abortions, the usual effects of a promiscu¬ 
ous intercourse, are very generally prevalent among 
them. To the same origin may be ascribed that 
neglect, and want of maternal affection towards 
the children produced by former connections, ob¬ 
servable in many of the black females. 
The circumstances thus enumerated, operating 
with combined energy, are abundantly sufficient to 
account for the annual diminution in the number of 
the slaves 3 and I see no good reason why it should 
not be frnakly admitted, that slavery itself, in its 
mildest form, is unfriendly to population. The hu¬ 
man race, to increase in numbers, must be placed in 
favourable circumstances 3 and, unless reason and 
sentiment in some degree co-operate with corpo¬ 
real instinct, its offspring is born but to perish. 
Among men who are deprived of free agency, or 
by whom it is but imperfectly enjoyed, neither rea¬ 
son nor sentiment can be the ruling principle. It is 
needless to pursue this argument any farther. Men 
of reflection, apprised of the fact that such dispro¬ 
portion between the sexes exists among the ne¬ 
groes, will draw the proper conclusions from it, 
and agree that an abolition of the slave trade will 
not afford a remedy. 
Thus have I delivered, in a detail which the 
reader will probably find too diffuse and minute, 
Vol. IT. 
t z 
