that half the slaves die in the seasoning, after arrival in the West-Indies. Surgeon Wilson says, that of the death of two thirds of those who died in his ship, the primary cause was melancholy. The disorders which carry off the slaves in such numbers, are ascribed by Falconbridge to a diseased mind, sudden transitions from heat to cold, a putrid atmosphere, wallowing in their own excrements, and being shackled together. The captains, surgeons, &c. who have quitted the African slave-trade, uniformly declare the reason to have been, that they could not conscientiously continue in it: they say, that it is an unnatural, iniquitous, and villainous trade, founded on injustice and treachery; manifestly carried on by oppression and cruelty, and not unfrequently terminating in murder. Capt. Hall says, he quitted it (in opposition to lucrative offers) from a conviction that it was perfectly illegal, and founded in blood. The Fourth Chapter gives an account of the general estimation and treatment of the slaves in the West-Indies. Dr. Jackson says, that the negroes are generally esteemed a species of inferior beings, whom the right of purchase gives the owner a power of using at his will. T. Woolrich says, he never knew the best master in the West-Indies use his slaves so well, as the worst master his servants in England: that their state is inconceivable--that a sight of a gang would convince more than all words. Slaves are either Field Slaves, or in or out Door Slaves. The field-slaves begin their work at break of day. They work in rows, without exception under the whip of drivers, and the weak are made to keep up with the strong. They continue their labour (with two intermissions, half an hour during the morning, and two hours at noon) till sun set. In the intervals they are made to pick grass for the cattle. Cook has known pregnant women worked and flogged a few days before their delivery. Some, however, are a little indulged when in that state. After the month they work with the children on their backs. In the crop-season the labour is of much longer duration[7]. The slaves sometimes work so long that they cannot help sleeping, and then it not unfrequently happens, that their arms are caught in the mill and torn off. They are said to be allowed one day in seven for rest, but this time is necessarily employed in raising food for the other days, and gathering grass for their master’s cattle. The best allowance of food is at Barbadoes, which is a pint of grain for twenty four hours, and half a rotten herring when to be had. When the herrings are unfit for the whites, they are bought up by planters for the slaves. Some allow nine pints of corn a week, and about one pound of salt fish, which is the greatest allowance mentioned in the whole course of the evidence. Some have no provision but what they raise themselves, and they are frequently so fatigued by the labour of the rest of the week, as scarcely to be able to