ish Government, not that of the
nation; but of the planters themselves, of the white inhabitants of the
island. They refused to the last to take any steps to Christianise, to
educate, to raise the moral character of the negroes; and of course the
negroes, when no longer under restraint, revelled in the barbarism in
which they had been allowed to remain, with all the vices consequent on
slavery superadded.

Should these remarks be read by any citizens of the American Slave
States, I trust that they will remember what Old Jack says to them. He
has reason to wish them well, to love them, for he has received much
kindness at the hands of many of their fellow-countrymen; and he repeats
that they have the power in their own hands to remove for ever from off
them the stigma which now attaches to their name. He does not urge them
to do it in consequence of any pressure from without--not at the beck
and call of foreigners, but from their own sense of justice; because
they are convinced that they are doing their duty to God and man; and
lastly, that they will be much better served by educated, responsible
freemen, than by slaves groaning in bondage, and working only from
compulsion. [See Note.]

But avast! I cry. I have been driving a long way from the scene I was
describing. The negroes I have been mentioning were men who had been
slaves, and had made themselves free, and we see the way they treated
the whites whom they had got into their power. They were, it must be
granted, savages, barbarians, heathens. Their people, who had been
captured as rebels, had been treated by their white Christian conquerors
with every refinement of cruelty which the malice of man could invent:
they had been slain with the most agonising tortures; and yet these
savages, disdaining such an example, merely shot their prisoners,
killing them without inflicting an unnecessary pang. I cannot say that
at the time, however, I thought that they were otherwise than a most
barbarous set.

One after the other my companions were led out and shot, and treated as
their predecessors. One, a sturdy Englishman, who had not been long in
the country, it seemed, broke loose, and knocked down several of his
guards. He fought long and bravely with them. Had he been able to get
hold of a weapon, he would, I believe, have cut his way out from among
them. As it was, his fists served him in good stead; and he had already
very nearly cleared himself a path, w