mill. These going round, near to each other, are fed with the cotton,

which they take in, without receiving the seeds, leaving them to fall to the ground, or into a basket below, while the cotton, drawn between the rollers, is ejected into a box on the opposite side. The process is so entirely simple, that it might be performed equally well by a smaller instrument worked with the hand, or the foot, and which we are told is the method practised in many of the colonies.

Among the novelties which meet the eye of an European upon his arrival in the West Indies, is the practice of carrying the children across the hip, instead of seating them upon the arm. The lower class of white women, in Barbadoes, have adopted this custom, from the example of the negroes, among whom it seems to be the universal mode of nursing. A deformed negro is a very rare object, and this may probably be attributed, in great measure, to the management of them in their infancy: they have the advantage of being allowed to crawl about upon their hands and feet at a very early age, in perfect freedom, unrestrained by ligatures, or tight garments.

Although the mode of carrying children upon the hip is the common method among the slaves, yet, when they have to take them to a great distance, they neither place them upon the hip, nor the arm, but upon the back; for which purpose a mere pocket-handkerchief, tied carelessly round the mother, often suffices.

A few evenings ago I witnessed a scene of cruelty, which strongly exemplified the abject and wretched condition to which human beings are subjected in a life of slavery. It happened that I was waiting upon the quay for the Lord Sheffield’s boat, when two men, apparently white creoles, came up, and seized a negro, who was standing near me, accusing him of having run away from his master. The poor black assured them that he had no master,—that he belonged to Mrs. ——, that he was well known in the town, and that they must, certainly, have mistaken his person! Upon these grounds he strongly urged the impropriety of their taking him to prison: but, regardless of his remonstrances, and of their own error, they tied him with a thick cord, fastened his hands, and forced him towards the place of confinement! Curiosity led me to follow them. The poor man still pleaded his innocence, and the wrong they had committed, begging and praying to be allowed to refer them to his mistress, or to another family in the town, to identify his person. Heedless of his protestations and entreaties they still dragged him on, and from his only expressing a reluctance at being thus, unjustly, hurried to a prison, one of these hardened wretches struck him a violent blow on the head, with a large stick, calling out to the other, in broad Barbadoes accent, “Daa-am him, cut him down.”

A little before they reached the prison they had to pass a door-way where there happened to be a strong light, by means of which one of these cruel instruments of the law of _force_ instantly recognised the poor ill-treated slave, and finding that they were actually guilty of the mistake which the negro had stated, he called out to his savage comrade, who had struck the helpless black upon the head, “Daa-am him, I know the fellow, we must let him go;” upon which, they both, with dreadful imprecations, ordered him to stand, _without stirring_, whilst they should untie him: and, upon his only moving his arm to expedite the loosening of the cord, they swore, that if he dared “_to stir_, or _look savage_,” they would “cut him down,” or put him “directly into prison.” Such was the compensation dealt him for the unjust and cruel treatment which he had already received. The wretches not only dragged the unoffending slave to a prison, in defiance of his solemn assurances of their having erroneously seized him, and without allowing him an appeal to any one who knew his person, but, because he ventured to say they were committing an error, had the inhumanity to strike him with a force sufficient to have fractured his skull, and to threaten him with the further severity of death, or a dungeon, should he dare only to cast a _look_ of displeasure.

What must have been the feelings of this injured man! who, after being abused and maltreated, was put in fear of his life, if he should only permit nature to assume her seat on his brow,—if the cruelty, pain, and injustice which he had suffered, should only cause a mark of disapprobation to appear upon his countenance! But nature, however proscribed, was not to be restrained by such command! While the power of memory remains to me I can never—_never_ forget the indignant, but hopeless expression of injury which overspread the features of this poor slave, as he retired! He felt aggrieved, and was conscious that——he had no remedy,—no appeal!