entence
the children of slaves to servitude, if they mean to dispute upon the
justice of their cause; either allow them to have been _brutes_
from their birth, or to have been guilty of crimes at a time, when they
were incapable of offending the very _King of Kings_.

* * * * *

CHAP. IV.

But to return to the narration. When the wretched Africans are conveyed
to the plantations, they are considered as _beasts of labour_, and
are put to their respective work. Having led, in their own country, a
life of indolence and ease, where the earth brings forth spontaneously
the comforts of life, and spares frequently the toil and trouble of
cultivation, they can hardly be expected to endure the drudgeries of
servitude. Calculations are accordingly made upon their lives. It is
conjectured, that if three in four survive what is called the
_seasoning_, the bargain is highly favourable. This seasoning is
said to expire, when the two first years of their servitude are
completed: It is the time which an African must take to be so accustomed
to the colony, as to be able to endure the common labour of a
plantation, and to be put into the _gang_. At the end of this
period the calculations become verified, _twenty thousand_[059] of
those, who are annually imported, dying before the seasoning is over.
This is surely an horrid and awful consideration: and thus does it
appear, (and let it be remembered, that it is the lowest calculation
that has been ever made upon the subject) that out of every annual
supply that is shipped from the coast of Africa, _forty thousand
lives_[060] are regularly expended, even before it can be said, that
there is really any additional stock for the colonies.

When the seasoning is over, and the survivors are thus enabled to endure
the usual task of slaves, they are considered as real and substantial
supplies. From this period[061] therefore we shall describe their
situation.

They are summoned at five in the morning to begin their work. This work
may be divided into two kinds, the culture of the fields, and the
collection of grass for cattle. The last is the most laborious and
intolerable employment; as the grass can only be collected blade by
blade, and is to be fetched frequently twice a day at a considerable
distance from the plantation. In these two occupations they are jointly
taken up, with no other intermission than that of taking their
subsistence twice, til