ey from them, upon any account whatsoever: and it
is also death for any of these slaves (so they are called) to handle
arms. Those of every division of the country are distinguished by a
peculiar mark; which it is capital for them to lay aside, to go out of
their bounds, or to talk with a slave of another jurisdiction; and the
very attempt of an escape is no less penal than an escape itself; it is
death for any other slave to be accessory to it; and if a freeman
engages in it he is condemned to slavery. Those that discover it are
rewarded; if freemen, in money; and if slaves, with liberty, together
with a pardon for being accessory to it; that so they might find their
account, rather in repenting of their engaging in such a design, than in
persisting in it.

"These are their laws and rules in relation to robbery; and it is
obvious that they are as advantageous as they are mild and gentle;
since vice is not only destroyed, and men preserved, but they treated in
such a manner as to make them see the necessity of being honest, and of
employing the rest of their lives in repairing the injuries they have
formerly done to society. Nor is there any hazard of their falling back
to their old customs: and so little do travellers apprehend mischief
from them, that they generally make use of them for guides, from one
jurisdiction to another; for there is nothing left them by which they
can rob, or be the better for it, since as they are disarmed, so the
very having of money is a sufficient conviction: and as they are
certainly punished if discovered, so they cannot hope to escape; for
their habit being in all the parts of it different from what is commonly
worn, they cannot fly away, unless they would go naked, and even then
their cropped ear would betray them. The only danger to be feared from
them, is their conspiring against the government: but those of one
division and neighbourhood can do nothing to any purpose, unless a
general conspiracy were laid amongst all the slaves of the several
jurisdictions, which cannot be done, since they cannot meet or talk
together; nor will any venture on a design where the concealment would
be so dangerous, and the discovery so profitable. None are quite
hopeless of recovering their freedom, since by their obedience and
patience, and by giving good grounds to believe that they will change
their manner of life for the future, they may expect at last to obtain
their liberty: and some are every ye