Page:Slave trade.pdf/21

( 21 ) motion of the ſhip. The excruciating pain which the poor ſufferers feel from being obd to continue in ſuch a dreadful ſituation, frequently for ſeveral weeks, in caſe they happen to live ſo long, is not to be conved or deſcribed. Few, indeed, are ever e to withſtand the fatal effects of it. The oſt ſkill of the ſurgeon is here ineffectual. If plaiſters be applied; they are very n diſplaced by the friction of the ſhip; when bandages are uſed, the negroes y ſoon take them off, and appropriate m to other purpoſes.

Almoſt the only means by which the surgeon can render himſelf uſeful to the es, is by ſeeing that their food is properly cooked, and diſtributed among them. s true, when they arrive near the mars for which they are deſtined, care is en to poliſh then for ſale, by an application of the lunar cauſtic to ſuch as are ceted with the yaws. This, however, ords but a temporary relief, as the diſeaſe moſt aſſuredly breaks out, whenever the patient is put upon a vegetable diet.

The loſs of ſlaves, through mortality, ing from the cauſes juſt mentioned, are frequently very conſiderable. One half, sometimes two thirds, and even beyond that, have been known to periſh. On the Windward coaſt, where ſlaves are procured ſlow very few die, in proportion to the