ds,
suggested by violence or fraud or lust, to keep those decks well stocked
over which the lilies of France drooped with immunity.

All these negroes differed much in their sensitiveness to the condition
of slavery. Many of them suffered silently, and soon disappeared, killed
by labor and homesickness. Others committed suicide, in the belief that
their spirits would return to the native scenes. It was not uncommon for
a whole family to attempt to reinhabit their old cabin in this way. The
planters attributed these expensive deeds of manumission to a depraved
taste or mania; but we do not know that they laid Greek under
contribution for a term, as Dr. Cartwright did, who applied the word
_drapetomania_ to the malady of the American fugitive. Many negroes
sought relief in a marooning life; but their number was not so great
as we might expect. After two or three days' experience, hunger and
exposure drove them back, if they were not caught before. The number of
permanent maroons did not reach a thousand.

But a few tribes were so turbulent and sullen that the planter avoided
buying them, unless his need of field-hands was very urgent. He was
obliged to be circumspect, however; for the traders knew how to jockey a
man with a sick, disabled, or impracticable negro. The Jews made a good
business of buying refuse negroes and furbishing them up for the market.
The French traders thought it merit to deceive a Jew; but the latter
feigned to be abjectly helpless, in order to enjoy this refitting branch
of the business.

The Coromantine negroes were especial objects of suspicion, on account
of their quarrelsome and incendiary temper. Such powerful and capable
men ought to have valued more highly the privileges of their position;
but they could never quite conquer their prejudices, and were
continually interpreting the excellent constitutional motto, _Vera pro
gratis_, into, _Liberty instead of sugar!_ An English physician of the
last century, James Grainger by name, wrote a poem in four books upon
the "Sugar-Cane," published in 1764. Perhaps it would be more correct to
say that he exhibited a dose; but the production yields the following
lines which show that the Coromantine of Jamaica was no better than his
brother of San Domingo:--

"Yet, if thine own, thy children's life, be dear,
Buy not a Cormantee, though healthy, young,
Of breed too generous for the servile field:
They, born to freedom in their native land,