Mestees, beyond which last the distinction of colour is lost. This mixed race will be spoken of in a subsequent chapter.

The negroes, though so rude and ignorant in their savage state, have a natural shrewdness and genius, which is doubtless susceptible of culture and improvement. Many of them are wonderfully ingenious in making a variety of articles for their own use, or to sell to others; and such as are properly brought up to any trade, shew a skill and dexterity in it but little inferior to the civilized European. Their ideas only want a proper clue to exhibit an equal degree of acuteness and discrimination. In reckoning numbers, they are peculiarly puzzled, being obliged to mark the decimals as they proceed on. Some author mentions a nation who were so barbarous and stu

pid, that they could not reckon beyond the number four! The negro can go far beyond this; indeed, give him time, and he will, by a mode of combination of his own, make out a pretty round sum; but he is utterly perplexed by the minuter combinations of figures according to the European system of arithmetic.

By way of illustrating what has been said of the favourable part of the character of the negro, a few facts and anecdotes may not be improper. These may convey a more correct opinion on the subject than volumes of observations. The negro forms a considerable portion of the human race,

and whatever relates to him must therefore be interesting.

It has been said, that though the generality of the negroes appear to be strangely stupid and perverse, yet there are some who are susceptible of all the advantages of culture and instruction. The author has known many, whose ingenuity as mechanics was astonishing; and others, whose sagacity and discrimination (without the aid of acquired information) could hardly be surpassed, without such aid.

Toussaint L'Ouverture, the celebrated St. Domingo chief, received, it is said, the benefit of a tolerably liberal education, being sent by his master, who was fond of him, when very young, to France for that purpose. Toussaint had the reputation of an excellent general, legislator, and politician. He was brave, resolute, and prompt, in all his measures. He was obliged (perhaps against his inclination, but this cannot be vouched for) to employ severe measures in order to keep his banditti in order and subjection. This banditti had recently emancipated themselves from the yoke of European masters, and they required a resolute and prudent hand to direct and govern them this task Toussaint had to perform. Captain Rainsford, an officer of the British army, offers a handsome testimony in favour of his character. Captain Rainsford was taken prisoner on his passage to join his regiment at Martinique;

carried to St. Domingo, and sentenced there to death, on suspicion of being a spy. Toussaint, by his humane and friendly interference, saved him; and afterwards behaved towards him as a generous enemy ought to do. The Captain, in speaking of his benefactor, says,

"he was a man of general humanity, great suavity of manners, and possessing uncommon discernment." It is said of Toussaint, that his gratitude towards his quondam master, impelled him to continue remitting to him annually, while his power lasted, a moiety of the produce of his estates in St. Domingo. Whatever fate may have befallen this man on his going to France, certain it is that his talents and influence might have been more effectually employed than legions of troops, to have restored that valuable colony to its foriner masters; and he might doubtless have been won over by kindness and favour, to employ himself in this undertaking.

Many indeed are the examples which are given us of the gratitude and attachment of the negro

race.

These are far from being surprising. On the contrary, nothing is more easy than for a humane master to attach to him, by ties of gratitude, a slave of good dispositions whom he is in the habit of employing near his person, where a reciprocity of indulgence and fidelity between them, must in course produce that effect. But how seldom will it happen, that two such shall

come together. Much oftener will the indulgent master and the perverse slave, or the faithful servant and the harsh unfeeling master, meet unhappily together. As for the great bulk of the slaves, they are beyond the ken of their master's immediate observation: indeed there are many, both masters and agents, who do not personally know a tenth part of the numerous slaves whom they own, or are concerned for.

Two instances may here be given of uncommon gratitude and attachment in slaves towards their masters; both of which are pretty well authenticated.

Soon after the breaking out of the insurrection in St. Domingo, when the unfortunate whites were every where hunted and massacred, and their dwellings given up to fire and pillage, a negro, who loved his master, hastened to him with the first intelligence of the revolt, and the imminent danger in which he stood; but, added this faithful slave, "I will save you, or perish myself in the attempt!" He immediately conveyed away his master to a place of safety, where he could lie concealed for a while. In the dead of night he put him into a sack, and placing him across a mule, conveyed him to some distance before day dawn, and again concealed him in the cavern of a rock: at night he again renewed his journey; and in this manner did this faithful creature safely conduct his master a distance of an

hundred miles, till he brought him to a navigable river, where he procured a canoe, and at night paddled it down with the stream till he came to a post occupied by the whites, to whom he delivered his master in safety and unhurt!

The other instance occurred in Jamaica during he Maroon war, and is well attested by several respectable gentlemen, who were eye-witnesses of the transaction. During the ambuscade attack of the Maroons on lieutenant-colonel Sandford's party of dragoons and militia, at a narrow defile leading from the new to the old Trelawney Maroontown, a gentleman's negro servant, being close to his master, and observing a Maroon's piece levelled at him, he instantly threw himself between him and the danger, and received the shot in his body! Happily it did not prove mortal: this generous negro lived to enjoy the well-earned fruits of his master's gratitude. Many other instances might here be given of the gratitude and attachment of negroes towards their masters, which proves that they are not devoid of those amiable feelings. But at the same time, the author must lament, that more numerous examples have come within his knowledge of an opposite description. He has had occasion to witness the most hardened ingratitude in wretches of the race, not only towards their masters and their fellow slaves, but even towards their very parents, when age and decrepitude have rendered their kindness