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"I wish I had a slave," said Charles to his papa one evening, after he had been playing with Peter. "Do you know, papa, when Peter was at home in the West-Indies, he had a slave of his own, a black boy, to wait upon him, and do every thing he wanted; and Peter was his master, and he was not older, then, than I am.
I continued to wear the chain peaceably for two or three days, when my master asked me with contemptuous hard names whether I had not better be freed from my chains and go to work. I answered him, No. Well then, said he, I will send you to the West-Indies or banish you, for I am resolved not to keep you. I answered him I crossed the waters to come here, and I am willing to cross them to return.
As Ginger is very common in the West-Indies, so the Roots are either preserved or pickled, when they are fresh taken out of the Ground, and we have now Ginger, growing in Pots, almost in every Garden where there is a Stove; and in a Year's time a single Root will almost fill a Pot; so that one might easily have enough of our own, to preserve every Year.
Five large French ships put in here loaded with slaves from the east coast of Africa, and bound to the West-Indies. On the 20th of October, La Nymphe frigate arrived here from the Isle of France, and the same day the packet sailed. On the 2d of November, we passed the Island of St. Helena, with a strong gale at south-east; and on the 7th, we saw the Island of Ascension.
Sea turtle, or tortoises, are often found at sea by the mariners, in these latitudes: but they are not the green sort, so much in request among the aldermen of London. All the Mediterranean turtle are of the kind called loggerhead, which in the West-Indies are eaten by none but hungry seamen, negroes, and the lowest class of people.
Those innumerable groups of islands, keys and sandbanks, known as the West-Indies, are peculiarly adapted from their locality and formation, to be a favorite resort for pirates; many of them are composed of coral rocks, on which a few cocoa trees raise their lofty heads; where there is sufficient earth for vegetation between the interstices of the rocks, stunted brushwood grows.
The king, therefore, by an order of council, dated February the eleventh, 1788, directed that a commitee of privy council should sit as a board of trade, "to take into their consideration the present state of the African trade, particularly as far as related to the practice and manner of purchasing or obtaining slaves on the coast of Africa, and the importation and sale thereof, either in the British colonies and settlements, or in the foreign colonies and settlements in America or the West-Indies; and also as far as related to the effects and consequences of the trade both in Africa and in the said colonies and settlements, and to the general commerce of this kingdom; and that they should report to him in council the result of their inquiries, with such observations as they might have to offer thereupon."
That, hearing the gentleman was gone to the West-Indies, and believing it to be good for nothing else, he had used it as waste paper. He said I was welcome to what remained, and he was heartily sorry for what was missing, as I seemed to set some value on it.
Governor West found it necessary to encourage and reward such of the colonists as would take the field against them for the public defence. Accordingly, a price was fixed on every Indian the settlers should take prisoner, and bring to Charlestown. These captive savages were disposed of to the traders, who sent them to the West-Indies, and there sold them for slaves.
"Oh, how beautiful!" exclaimed Charles: "I should like to go to the West-Indies, if it was only to see a sugar plantation; but how do they get the sugar, papa?" "When the canes are ripe, Charles, the negroes cut them down, and tie them up in bundles, and carry them to a mill, where the juice is pressed out.
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