s, they were branded like sheep, with the owner's marks
of different forms; which, as the mate informed me with perfect
indifference, had been burnt in with red-hot iron. Over the hatchway
stood a ferocious looking fellow, the slave-driver of the ship, with
a scourge of many-twisted thongs in his hand; whenever he heard the
slightest noise from below, he shook it over them, and seemed eager
to exercise it.

"As soon as the poor creatures saw us looking down at them, their
melancholy visages brightened up. They perceived something of sympathy
and kindness in our looks, to which they had not been accustomed; and
feeling instinctively that we were friends, they immediately began to
shout and clap their hands. The women were particularly excited. They
all held up their arms, and when we bent down and shook hands with them,
they could not contain their delight; they endeavored to scramble upon
their knees, stretching up to kiss our hands, and we understood they
knew we had come to liberate them. Some, however, hung down their heads
in apparently hopeless dejection: some were greatly emaciated; and
some, particularly children, seemed dying. The heat of these horrid
places was so great, and the odor so offensive, that it was quite
impossible to enter them, even had there been room.

"The officers insisted that the poor, suffering creatures, should be
admitted on deck to get air and water. This was opposed by the mate of
the slaver, who (from a feeling that they deserved it,) declared they
should be all murdered. The officers, however, persisted, and the poor
beings were all turned out together. It is impossible to conceive the
effect of this eruption--five hundred and seventeen fellow-creatures, of
all ages and sexes, some children, some adults, some old men and women,
all entirely destitute of clothing, scrambling out together to taste the
luxury of a little fresh air and water. They came swarming up, like bees
from a hive, till the whole deck was crowded to suffocation from stem
to stern; so that it was impossible to imagine where they could all have
come from, or how they could have been stowed away. On looking into the
places where they had been crammed, there were found some children next
the sides of the ship, in the places most remote from light and air;
they were lying nearly in a torpid state, after the rest had turned out.
The little creatures seemed indifferent as to life or death; and when
they were carried on dec