Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/14

xii In the Barbadoes Gazette of Jan. 14, 1784, the reader will find this advertisement— "Absented herself from the service of the subscriber, a yellow skin negro wench, named Sarah Deroral," whose person and surmised place of concealment, being very particularly described, the advertisement ends with these words "Whoever will apprehend the said wench ALIVE or DEAD, shall receive two reward from

The clauses, preambles, and advertisements just cited will, it is presumed, without any farther extracts, bring additional conviction to the mind of the reader, that the Admirals could have known little or nothing about the treatment of the slaves during their residence in the islands: for they shew, first, that the slaves have been insufficiently fed, lodged, and clothed; that they have been under the power of the master and overseer to an unreasonable degree; that they have been often turned adrift, when incapable of labour, "to beg, steal, or starve;" that their ears and noses have been slit and cut off; that they have been also otherwise disfigured as well as deprived of limbs and members; that they have been suddenly murdered and buried; and that in some cases where they have run away, rewards have been offered to indifferent persons to bring them to their owners alive or dead. They shew, secondly, that these different circumstances have happened, and that many of them