and miserable-looking Spaniards,
ragged and dirty, bearing barrels of water strapped upon their
shoulders, and a goat-herd or two driving his flock of milch goats from
door to door--they emerged at last into a large open square, in the
centre of which stood a tall, ugly stone fountain, from which more
negroes and Spaniards were filling their barrels. From the wide basin
of this fountain George and his companions in misery were allowed to
slake their thirst, and then they were conducted to a large open shed
which stood on one side of the square, and, under the welcome shade of
its wide shingled roof, ordered to sit down.

They had not been here long when another gang of unfortunates--negroes
this time--were driven into the square and under the shed; then another,
and another; making in all some four hundred human beings huddled
together there, like cattle in a pound.

Then, for the first time, the full horror of their position burst upon
George and his wretched companions; they were in a slave-market, and
were about to be sold as slaves.

The conviction that this was actually to be their fate fell upon them
like a thunder-bolt; it was almost too much for even George's courage to
bear up against; and as for poor Bowen, for a moment it seemed that he
would go out of his senses altogether; he prayed; he cursed himself and
everybody else; he swore solemnly that he would kill the man who dared
to buy him, and finally, in a paroxysm of mad fury, started to his feet,
dragging at the chain and exerting such an extraordinary amount of
strength--in spite of all his recent sufferings--in his efforts to break
away, that for a moment it seemed almost possible that he would succeed.
A cruel lash across the face from the Spaniard's whip--a lash which
tore away the skin and left a livid bloody weal on both cheeks--only
maddened him the more; seeing which, the negro who, with the Spaniard,
was in charge of the party, sprang upon him, and, gripping him by the
throat, hurled him to the ground with such brutal force that the poor
fellow lay there, for a time stunned.

At about nine o'clock the square gradually began to fill, a large number
of Spanish gentlemen arriving upon the scene; some on horseback, and
others in gigs drawn by a pair of horses driven tandem-fashion. They
all smoked incessantly, and nearly all of them, on reaching the square,
proceeded at once to the shed, and, walking up and down its entire
length, examined with