At five o’clock in the morning, the _capitam-mor_, my friend, myself, and three servants proceeded to the distance of three leagues without any addition to our party; but we were soon joined by the adjutant of the district and several other officers, in uniforms of dark blue with yellow facings most monstrously broad—the gay cuffs reaching half way up to the elbows; they wore round hats with short feathers, straight swords of most prodigious length, and very loose nankeen pantaloons and boots; the former were thrust within the latter, which caused the higher part of the pantaloons to appear to be of preposterous width. We dismounted at a sugar plantation, being the third we had passed through this morning; here we were invited to stay to breakfast, but this we could not do, and were therefore regaled with pine-apples and oranges. The owner of this place had taken great pains with his garden, and had reared several fruits which require much care; but it is strange that, although there are many which may be raised with very little trouble, still upon far the greater number of plantations even oranges are not to be found. The ant is, I well know, a great persecutor of this tree, but when care is taken in this respect, and a little water is afforded during the dry months for two or three years, none else is necessary. Upon the same plantation have been practised the most monstrous cruelties; the conduct of the owner towards his slaves is often spoken of with abhorrence, but yet he is visited and treated with the same respect which is paid to an individual of unblemished character. It is however almost the only instance of which I heard of systematic, continued, wanton enormity; but it has here occurred and has passed unpunished, and this one is sufficient, even if none other existed, to stamp the slave system as an abomination which ought to be rooted out. The estate was inherited by the person in question, with sixty good slaves upon it; fifteen years have elapsed since that time to the period of which I speak, and there were then remaining only four or five individuals who were able to work. Some have fled and have escaped, others have died, God knows how, and others again have committed suicide in sight of their master’s residence.