These were the most frequent offences of slaves. Those of a higher degree, such as murders, and running away for more than three months, were, as we have already seen, punished in a severer manner. Although the slave-owner had redress by the laws of the island, for all faults committed by his slaves, revolting as it is to think of, there were some masters who thought thirty-nine lashes[8] too mild a punishment for such crimes: they would rather take the law into their own hands, and flog their slaves by the hour. They liked to see mangled bodies,—to hear heart-rending groans, and have the supreme felicity of ordering them back to their dungeons, garnished, perhaps, with chains, as in the case of Mr. ——. I have laid before my readers, or at least endeavoured to do so, slaves’ crimes and slaves’ punishments; and it is for them to say whether they deserved such severe discipline. In another part I shall have to enlarge upon the vices of negroes, and their perverseness of disposition; but it now remains for me to give one or two more instances of cruelty; and I will then banish from these pages the melancholy subject. A gentleman of this island, as I have been made to understand, had a female _mustee_[9] slave belonging to him. This slave committed some misdemeanor, whether great or small I am unable to say; but at all events, her master had her locked up for the night in a place of horrors, called the “Rock Dungeon.” The woman was in the last stage of pregnancy; in that place, removed from all assistance, she was confined during the night; and when the morning came, and that den of misery was opened, her poor baby was found to be devoured by the rats! This deed was done by one of our great men, an honourable too. It may be said, he could not foresee the catastrophe, and the woman might have given him great provocation, which no doubt she did; but still, would any humane master have shut up a female in such a condition in such a place? By the advice of the magistrates, this woman and her remaining children were afterwards sold, as her master and herself could never agree. This is not the only instance in which his name has been brought before the public. Some strange reports were abroad of his shooting one of his negro boys; and of his killing another, and burying him in a pond. These circumstances were brought before the slavery committee of the House of Lords in 1832; and in an examination of a divine, the rector of the parish in which the gentleman resided, he was asked if he knew anything about them? The Rev. Mr. —— returned for answer—“Yes, I heard a report about them, but do not know if they were correct.” And again—“I never heard of his killing a negro; but I heard of his burying a white matross in the sand; but that was only hearsay. I only heard of it from persons, perhaps, that were not his friends. With regard to shooting a negro, he went and gave himself up for that; and I believe he was acquitted, or the