Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/130

Rh seen the slaves' white teeth shine out, and heard them chattering and laughing as they devoured the white rice grains, of which they are very fond (many times helping themselves to them with their fingers). They have besides salt fish and smoked meat; I saw also, in some of their rooms, bunches of bananas and tomatoes. According to law, a planter must furnish each slave with a certain measure of dried fish or salted meat per week, together with a certain number of bananas. But the slave-master, of course, does just as he pleases, for what law will call him to account? The appearance, however, of the slaves on this plantation testifies evidently of their being well fed and well contented.

I often made the inquiry as I pointed to their food, E buono? and always received in reply the words, Si e buono! with a contented and ready smile.

I have already heard it said in America that the French were considered the most judicious of slave-holders; and my host here, Mr. C., who is of French origin, born in St. Domingo, is a proof to me of the truth of this assertion. He works his slaves very hard; but he feeds them well, and takes good care of them, and they do their work cheerfully and quickly.

Mr. C. is a courteous, lively, and loquacious Frenchman, with a good deal of acuteness and sagacity of mind; and I have to thank him for much valuable information, among other things on the various negro tribes of Africa, their character, life, and social state on the coast, from which the greater number of slaves are brought hither—for the most part purchased from African chiefs, according to agreement with the white slave-dealer,—Mr. C. having himself been there, and being therefore good authority on the subject. I have also learned from him how to distinguish the different tribes by their characteristic features, and their various modes of tattooing themselves.

The Congo-negroes, called the Frenchmen of Africa, are