become general. It was so now among the principal people. But, whether married or not, the children were well taken care of, and they lived together in families. It was not easy to distinguish them in their habits from married people. Though the ceremony might not have been performed, the tie seemed to be practically binding. They generally lived one man with one woman. The parents do provide for the children. He saw no marks of destitution any where. The country seemed improving, and trade increasing between his two visits (p. 212, 214).

The estate the admiral visited near the Cape was large. It was calculated to make 300 hogsheads of sugar. The whole was cultivated with plantains, and Indian corn or manioc intermixed. It was beautifully laid out, and as well managed as any estate he had seen in the West Indies. He was told that this estate, though so good, was inferior in fertility to others in the interior. The culture of sugar, however, was comparatively not much followed in Hayti. Their means of properly manufacturing it are indifferent, and they have not capital to set up sugar works again. The reasons assigned were the entire destruction of the former works, and the want of capital to re-erect them. They had also other and more urgent and profitable things to attend to. The Haytian government too seemed to think that they might excite jealousies in other countries if they went much on sugar. He had never heard the unwillingness of the Negroes to engage in it assigned as a cause they were very ready to work if paid. Nor had he heard the high rate of wages assigned as a cause he believed sugar could be made cheaper in Hayti than in our islands, if the Haytian government did not discourage it. The insecurity of the country is still a hindrance to expensive works. They are hardly out of their revolutionary state. When he was there, Spain had been making a claim on them for the Spanish part, and they were raising a large army to resist it. This occupied their attention and discouraged such undertakings. His official correspondence, as admiral, with the Haytian government made him attribute much efficiency to it, and it bore very strong marks of civilization. There was a much better police in Hayti than in the New South American States; the communication through the country was more rapid; the roads were much better; one had been cut from Port au Prince to Cape Haytian that would do honour to any government. A regular post was established. He had sent regular couriers from Cape Nicolas Mole to Port au Prince, a distance of 80 leagues. The government is one quite worthy of a civilized people. The government still feared an attack from France, even during his last visit; and this had the effect of retarding their progress. The convention with France had not been fulfilled. Only one instalment of the money stipulated to be paid had been paid. Hence partly their apprehensions. The people were very much against paying, and blamed the government much for agreeing to pay it. The Negroes of Hayti are certainly richer and happier and in a better condition than any he had ever seen elsewhere. They were all working in the fields when he was there. He rode about very much. He did not think any acts

of oppression were practised on the people of Hayti by the government (p. 213-216).

The emancipation of the slaves in the Caraccas took place, the admiral thinks, in 1821. Bolivar had taken refuge in Hayti some time before, for which benefit the Haytian government stipulated that he should emancipate his slaves, and he did so (p. 216).

He had frequently visited the Bahamas when last in the West Indies. There are more slaves there than free. Sugar is grown in small quantities both by slaves and free, but little or none is manufactured. Both are employed in growing provisions, fishing, and taking care of cattle, and in looking after wrecks. They are all very orderly, and no difficulty is found in preserving order. The proportion of free blacks and persons of colour is greater than in Jamaica: it is about one third. The liberated Africans there seem equally civilized with the creole slaves. The African apprentices, knowing they are to be free after a certain time, intermarry with free blacks, and they become civilized by this intercourse in a very short time indeed. In seven years they are quite equal to any of the creole slaves in our islands. They are all married. Concubinage is not permitted them. There are missionaries there who instruct them, and they are all required to go to divine worship. They are very industrious. They cultivate their own grounds, and also work for wages. The rate of wages in the Bahamas is about a dollar a day; but they do not get much employment, as it is only at a particular time of the year that they are wanted. The wages are high because there is not regular employment but at particular seasons. If there were regular employment they would take less. They all have land which they cultivate, selling the produce they do not want. They get nothing from government but the land. The free blacks, as well as the slaves, in the Bahamas, are much more moral than in any other colony except Bermuda. In Bermuda and Bahamas there is no sugar cultivation, and there certainly the black population, both slave and free, are much more moral than in any other island he had visited. There are more pains taken with them. Almost all are Christians. They go regularly to places of worship. They are married and much better treated. The proprietors are smaller proprietors, who live almost with the slaves, and are very kind to them. The slaves in the Bahamas and Bermuda are quite a different race; they speak better English and are much more intelligent than those elsewhere. He had no hesitation in asserting that the best effect was produced by religious knowledge on their morals, manners, and civilization; and this he asserted on his own actual knowledge of the fact. The liberated Africans become, before their apprenticeships expire, as civilized as those born and bred there. He only knew of one of these Africans being punished all the time he was in the Bahamas. He lived frequently on shore there, and he could himself observe their great advance in civilization. He found in every cottage beds, and cooking utensils of all kinds. Their huts were better than in the other islands, perhaps because more exposed to hurricanes. They had comforts far beyond the mere necessaries of life. They showed not the slightest disposition to return to the habits of savage life. On the contrary,

in a tour he had made with the governor through the islands, he found that they all wished to acquire property; that many had acquired property; that their children were well taken care of; that they were well clothed, and the women dressed out in unnecessary finery. He had seen no exceptions to the general industry but in two old men, who could read Arabic, and were looked on as priests, and who, besides doing something for themselves, had also supplies from the others, who looked to them with veneration as old men.-He saw in Lane Island a man who came up and complained to Governor Grant of his having been kept longer than his apprenticeship. His master, being sent for, stated that he had kept him because he had five children, and, his wife having died, he could not maintain them if he were free. The man answered, "If with two hands I can feed them in three days out of fourteen, why should I not feed them all in ten days, go to market on Saturday, and to church on Sunday?" The governor freed him. Admiral F. saw him next year, on the land that had been allotted to him; he was in perfect comfort; his land was well cultivated, and his children were all taught to read. The blacks have taken advantage of the manumission law which exists in Bahamas; and then they either hire themselves to work, or rent land from the owners. The value of slaves, however, is not fixed in the Bahamas; there is no tariff. The exports from the Bahamas are salt, cotton, onions, pineapples to the United States, platt, salt-fish, logwood, fustic, and other woods. In all the labours of the Bahamas the free and the slaves are intermixed, and especially in cutting wood, which is the hardest work of all (p. 217-219).

He had often heard in Jamaica of transferring their allegiance to America, and it had a considerable effect in adding to the discontent of the slaves. He had heard this said in the presence of the slaves, particularly on the occasion of the disallowed slave-law of 1826, and on other occasions, and he then observed that they must first get the consent of the 300,000 slaves, which would be very difficult. There were slaves present at the time. He had even heard the same language used at his own table. "The conduct of the government," it was said, "would make the star-spangled banner be hailed with delight in Jamaica." One gentleman, on taking leave of him, said he perhaps should never visit the island again as a British Colony. That this conversation produced discontent among the slaves, he had learnt from the slaves themselves. They spoke to him frequently of it in the conversations he had with them at different times. They often asked him if it was true that the island was to be given up to the Americans. One man, who asked him the question, was Frank, a slave belonging to Prospect, who was a very intelligent person.-He had lived little with the white inhabitants of Jamaica generally ; but some were always with him or he with them. He was much with Sir John Keane, who then lived in Kingston. He conversed much with the slaves, in going about, as he would have done with the peasantry in this country. Being asked whether he had not gone out with strong opinions previously formed, he said, No, till he had returned the last time to Jamaica, when he found that little or no

improvement had taken place. He was very much struck with the difference between the slaves of the Bahamas and those of Jamaica. The condition of the former was very superior. At the same time, on many estates in Jamaica, the slaves were well clothed, fed, and used; but that was by no means the case throughout the island. They were not improved to the extent he had expected since 1797. He had been in the Negro houses of sugar estates in Jamaica: some of them had the appearance of comfort. He thought the slaves had much more cause to be discontented in Jamaica than in Trinidad. They are not so effectually protected in the former as the latter, from harsh treatment. On estates where the proprietor resides, and on some others, they are well treated; but attorneys and receivers are often very oppressive. He thought that a general emancipation would now be less dangerous than no emancipation, yet more difficult than it would have been before the late insurrection. But any plan short of immediate emancipation, like that in Columbia, which should give protection to the slaves, and give them the certainty of ultimate emancipation, might perhaps avert danger and be more favourable to the interests of the planters. The danger is infinitely greater from leaving things as they are than from any even immediate emancipation (p. 219-222).

The following is the tariff which Admiral Fleming procured from the two Alcaldes in the Caraccas, who were in charge of the public documents of that colony. It was given to him on the 18th April, 1829. The value is here stated in sterling money.

Children of Eight days old

Ditto of One

Ditto of Ten years

7 10

4758

15

18

400000

year

Ditto of Five years

27

Adults of Fifteen years to Forty

45

Ditto of Forty-five years

Ditto of Fifty years

30 0

Ditto of Fifty-five years

18 15

Ditto of Sixty years

7 10

Ditto of Sixty-four years

0 15

For each intermediate year a proportionate increase or deduction is made, as the age advances to 15 or rises above 40. If upwards of sixty-four, the slaves are deemed of no value.

From the age of fifteen to forty the slaves are valued at forty-five pounds; but if they have any particular trade, acquired at the cost of the master, or taught by him, the highest value is to be given, unless it be for their manumission. And where there is any blemish, defect, or disease, which diminishes their value, the value is to be lowered according as the blemish, defect, or disease may be considered to lessen their daily labour or the expense of their care. The above was the tariff established at Caraccas in 1801; and it was also in force at Trinidad. This document could not be found at Trinidad, but Admiral Fleming discovered it at the Caraccas. Many with whom he had conversed, at Trinidad and the Caraccas, ad

mitted that this law was in force in Trinidad. A Columbian, in particular, of the name of Mundosa, told him that he himself had resided in Trinidad, and the law was then in force, prior to its capture by the British, and that he himself had had a slave emancipated by it. The law applied equally to domestic and field slaves. Admiral F. knew it to be common in Cuba, and that plantation slaves were freed under it (p. 239, 240).

Admiral Fleming also laid before the committee authenticated extracts from the Spanish Slave Code which he had obtained, by order of the governor of the Caraccas, from the proper officers there. These laws are too long to be inserted here, but they breathe a spirit of morality and humanity which is highly creditable to the Spanish government. They provide for the careful instruction of slaves in the Catholic religion, and for their enjoying all the holidays of precept. They also provide for their food and clothing; for the regulation of their daily tasks, according to their ages, powers, and strength; prohibiting laborious tasks to the aged, or to children under seventeen, or to females, which last shall not be employed in labours unbecoming their sex, or in any which may oblige them to mix with male slaves. Time is also to be allowed to them for simple and innocent amusement, in which all excess in drinking is to be prevented. Separate dwellings are also to be provided for the unmarried of both sexes, and all their dwellings are to be commodious, and to have bedsteads, blankets, and other necessaries; and there is to be a separate house for the sick. Various other regulations are prescribed, all bearing the character of great benevolence, for the temporal and spiritual interests of the slaves (p. 240, 241, 242).

IX. ROBERT SUTHERLAND, Esq., had visited Hayti four times since 1815. He remained there for some time in 1819, 1820, and 1821, and afterwards saw it in 1824 and 1827. His experience of the Haytians is that they are a free people, working for wages or for shares of produce, and not coerced to labour, except by their wants. Great numbers of them have land of their own, which they cultivate themselves, while others labour for hire, though the number of labourers for hire was complained of as deficient. The Code Rurale he did not consider as an oppressive code by any means. There is decidedly no such thing in Hayti, practically, as compulsory labour. All corporal punishment is abolished in Hayti. Those who resided on their own farms appeared to him to live in the happiest state possible. Those who were employed for hire on plantations wrought five days in the week, having Saturday and Sunday entirely to themselves (p. 223).

X. The Rev. N. PAUL, a coloured native of the United States, and a Baptist minister. An act was passed by the legislature of New York, in 1817, abolishing slavery in 1827. The number thus freed was upwards of 10,000. No means, that he knew of, were employed to prepare these slaves for emancipation, and no disturbance of any kind was caused by it, either at the time, or at any time thereafter; and he heard no complaints of the subsequent conduct of the emancipated