When three or four Hundred Slaves are put in the Hold of a Vessel in a hot Climate, their Breathing soon affects the Air. Were that Number of free People to go Passengers with all Things proper for their Voyage, there would Inconvenience arise from their Number; but Slaves are taken by Violence, and frequently endeavour to kill the white People, that they may return to their Native Land. Hence they are frequently kept under some Sort of Confinement, by Means of which a Scent ariseth in the Hold of a Ship, and Distempers often break out amongst them, of which many die. Of this tainted Air in the Hold of Ships freighted with Slaves, I have had several Accounts, some in Print, and some verbal, and all agree that the Scent is grievous. When these People are sold in _America_, and in the Islands, they are made to labour in a Manner more servile and constant, than that which they were used to at Home, that with Grief, with different Diet from what has been common with them, and with hard Labour, some Thousands are computed to die every Year, in what is called the Seasoning. Thus it appears evident, that great Numbers of these People are brought every Year to an untimely End; many of them being such who never injured us. When the Innocent suffer under hard-hearted Men, even unto Death, and the Channels of Equity are so obstructed, that the Cause of the Sufferers is not judged in Righteousness, _the Land is polluted with Blood_, Numb. xxxv. 33. When Blood hath been shed unrighteously, and remains unatoned for, the Cry thereof is very piercing. Under the humbling Dispensations of Divine Providence, this Cry hath deeply affected my Heart, and I feel a Concern to open, as I may be enabled, that which lieth heavy on my Mind. When _the Iniquity of the House of_ Israel _and of_ Judah _was exceeding great, when the Land was defiled with Blood, and the City full of Perverseness_, Ezek. ix. 9. _some were found sighing and crying for the Abominations of the Times_, Ezek. ix. 4. and such who live under a right Feeling of our Condition as a Nation, these I trust will be sensible that the Lord at this Day doth call to Mourning, though many are ignorant of it. So powerful are bad Customs when they become general, that People growing bold thro' the Examples one of another, have often been unmoved at the most serious Warnings. Our blessed Saviour speaking of the People of the old World, said, _They eat, they drank, they married, and were given in Marriage, until the Day that_ Noah _went into the Ark, and the Flood came and destroy'd them all_, Luke xvii. 27. The like he spake concerning the People of _Sodom_, who are also represented by the Prophet as haughty, luxurious, and oppressive; _This was the Sin of_ Sodom, _Pride, Fulness of Bread, and Abundance of Idleness was found in her, and in her Daughters; neither did she strengthen the Hands of the Poor and Needy_, Ezek. xvi. 49.