The fishermen here drag ashore many fishes in their seines. Without other evidence than the vast quantities of smaller ones left on the shore, the abundant supply of the New York market might be inferred. I bathe twice a-day, on the spot where General Howe first effected the landing of his army.[6] A farmer very obligingly gives me the key of his fishing house on the beach, that I may dress and undress in it. The farmers here catch great quantities of fish, with which they manure their land. There are still a considerable number of slaves in Long Island; they are treated with a degree of {13} humanity that slaves in some other parts of the world never experience; they are well fed, and the whip is very seldom resorted to. Notwithstanding their comparative advantages, they detest the unnatural yoke, and frequently run off. It often happens that the master neither pursues nor inquires after the fugitive. What becomes of the self-emancipated is not here well understood. I have heard that many of them get to Boston, or some other of the northern ports, from whence they are carried to the Southern States, sold, and placed under a harsher treatment. A great part of the slaves of the State of New York are to be emancipated in the year 1827.[7] It is difficult to predict the consequences of this liberation. It is to be feared that people who have been compelled to work, will, of their own choice, become banditti, rather than adopt industrious habits. Arrangements must necessarily be made before the arrival of this revolution; but many satisfy themselves by saying, that the legislature will devise some plan that will enable them to get over the difficulty. Some suggest that the Negroes shall be returned to Africa. On this measure, the African Association, so much talked of in America, proceeds.[8] The expense of transporting, settling, supporting, and governing a new colony, must be immense. The design is as benevolent as the difficulties to be encountered are great. The support it meets with in slave-keeping states, looks like a pledge of sincerity, and an omen that forebodes success to the undertaking. {14} The project of removing blacks to the back-woods of America seems to be altogether objectionable. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to prevent their return from exile; their previous habits and disposition render them ill-calculated to the work of subduing the forests. Besides, they would commit depredations on the neighboring settlers, and on the Indian people.