As soon as the signal for the march was given, the slaves were forced to join their detachments, and, in case of delay for one minute only, the whip and butt-end of the musket were again at work. Old men and infirm women, bent down with the weight of years and care, who could scarcely creep along, suffered like treatment, and when too weak to move on were left to perish on the sand. Children were not allowed to take leave of their nearest relatives; a tear and a look of sorrow was the only tribute they could pay to the unfortunate beings delivered over to their doom. To prevent a father or a mother from perishing in this miserable manner, their wives or daughters, who were unfettered, would take one of these wretches between two of them, who, passing his arms round the neck of both, was thus dragged on, or even at times carried. Children above six years of age, or even at the age of four, were forced to walk; they also generally succumb to the fatigues of the march, and are then carried by their mothers or sisters. I have seen a mother with an infant on one arm, and a child of two years of age on the other, at last charge herself with a grown boy on her back, until she sank herself exhausted under this triple load. The officers commanding on these expeditions are more especially to blame for the cruelty of the troops, for, riding at a distance in front, or in the rear of the transport, they do not trouble themselves about the condition of their prisoners, but leave them entirely to the mercy of a ruthless soldiery. If an officer of more feeling should happen to be in command, the circumstance is instantly known by the diminished mortality on the road. I once met with one of them who feelingly attended to the children and the sick; who ordered them to be mounted on the beasts of burden when too weak to proceed, and I saw him even take one or even two of the children on his own horse. This man may lay his head on his pillow in peace, free from the reproach of having augmented the sufferings of his unfortunate fellow-creatures, whilst many of his comrades must quail under the pangs of a guilty conscience for the fearful death of hundreds of human beings.