way slave,
is told by a respectable gentleman from South Carolina, with whom I am
acquainted. He was young, when the circumstance occurred, in the
neighborhood of his home; and it filled him with horror. A slave being
missing, several planters united in a negro hunt, as it is called. They
set out with dogs, guns, and horses, as they would to chase a tiger.
The poor fellow, being discovered, took refuge in a tree; where he was
deliberately shot by his pursuers.

In some of the West Indies, blood-hounds are employed to hunt negroes;
and this fact is the foundation of one of the most painfully interesting
scenes in Miss Martineau's Demerara. A writer by the name of Dallas
has the hardihood to assert that it is mere sophistry to censure the
practice of training dogs to devour men. He asks, "Did not the Asiatics
employ elephants in war? If a man were bitten by a mad dog, would he
hesitate to cut off the wounded part in order to save his life?"

It is said that when the first pack of blood-hounds arrived in St.
Domingo, the white planters delivered to them the first negro they
found, merely by way of experiment: and when they saw him immediately
torn in pieces, they were highly delighted to find the dogs so well
trained to their business.

Some authentic records of female cruelty would seem perfectly
incredible, were it not an established law of our nature that tyranny
becomes a habit, and scenes of suffering, often repeated, render the
heart callous.

A young friend of mine, remarkable for the kindness of his disposition
and the courtesy of his manners, told me that he was really alarmed at
the change produced in his character by a few months' residence in the
West Indies. The family who owned the plantation were absent, and he saw
nothing around him but slaves; the consequence was that he insensibly
acquired a dictatorial manner, and habitual disregard to the convenience
of his inferiors. The candid admonition of a friend made him aware of
this, and his natural amiability was restored.

The ladies who remove from the free States into the slaveholding
ones almost invariably write that the sight of slavery was at first
exceedingly painful; but that they soon become habituated to it; and,
after awhile, they are very apt to vindicate the system, upon the
ground that it is extremely convenient to have such submissive servants.
This reason was actually given by a lady of my acquaintance, who is
considered an unusually ferve