Page:Remarks upon the Situation of Negroes in Jamaica.pdf/72

 but my objections. The condition of negroes in their own country, whether hereditary, or accidental, muſt be firſt conſidered, their cuſtoms deſcribed, their maxims explained, and polity known. If we be aſcertained how, as natives they live, we may be brought to conceive what, as emigrants, they endure. That they lead a life of warfare, fatigue, and blood, we are inſtruted by hiſtory to believe; that the priſoners who are taken in battle, if not ſold, would be treated with a cruelty, at which humanity would ſhudder, or would ſuffer the forfeit of an ignominious, or painful death; the zealots of miſtaken compaſſion will hardly deny. If therefore we can reſcue them from a ſlavery that would be intolerable, to a life which we know by experience they can endure, or protect them from that death which would be certain, to place them in a ſituation that might be rendered comfortable at leaſt, if not happy, there conſequently would be much gained upon the ſcore of humanity: but to puſh the idea further, and to make that problematical, which we know to be feaſible, would introduce confuſion, and mar at once, and for ever defeat thoſe