t of the scene, and in a moment of
intoxication the fatal bargain was sealed. Encouraged to spend more
than they owned, a jail or the slave-ship became the only alternatives.
The superiority of wages was likewise a strong inducement; but this
was a cheat. The wages of the sailors were half paid in the currency
of the country where the vessel carried her slaves; and thus they
were actually lower than in other trades, while they were nominally
higher.

In such an employment the morals of the seamen of course became corrupt,
like their masters; and every species of fraud was thought allowable
to deceive the ignorant Africans, by means of false weights, false
measures, adulterated commodities, and the like.

Of the cruelties on board slave-ships, I will mention but a few
instances; though a large volume might be filled with such detestable
anecdotes perfectly well authenticated.

"A child on board a slave-ship, of about ten months old, took sulk
and would not eat; the captain flogged it with a cat-o'-nine-tails;
swearing that he would make it eat, or kill it. From this, and other
ill-treatment, the limbs swelled. He then ordered some water to be made
hot to abate the swelling. But even his tender mercies were cruel. The
cook, on putting his hand into the water, said it was too hot. Upon this
the captain swore at him, and ordered the feet to be put in. This was
done. The nails and skin came off. Oiled cloths were then put around
them. The child was at length tied to a heavy log. Two or three days
afterwards, the captain caught it up again, and repeated that he would
make it eat, or kill it. He immediately flogged it again, and in a
quarter of an hour it died. And after the babe was dead, whom should the
barbarian select to throw it overboard, but the wretched mother! In vain
she tried to avoid the office. He beat her, till he made her take up the
child and carry it to the side of the vessel. She then dropped it into
the sea, turning her head the other way, that she might not see it."[D]

[Footnote D: Clarkson's History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade.]

"In 1780, a slave-trader, detained by contrary winds on the American
coast, and in distress, selected one hundred and thirty-two of his sick
slaves, and threw them into the sea, tied together in pairs, that they
might not escape by swimming. He hoped the Insurance Company would
indemnify him for his loss; and in the law-suit, to which this gave
birth, he observed tha