the utmost minuteness every individual beneath its
roof, frequently stopping to make some inquiry of those who had the poor
wretches in charge.

At ten o'clock a small shrivelled-up specimen of a Spaniard, dressed
entirely in white, made his appearance in the square, followed by four
negroes bearing a couple of chairs and a lightly-constructed rostrum,
and accompanied by a sallow cadaverous-looking individual, with a large
book under his arm, a pen behind his ear, and a silver-mounted ink-horn
at his button-hole.

Selecting a suitable spot for the purpose, the negroes placed the
rostrum on the ground, with one chair in and the other in front of it;
the shrivelled-up Spaniard mounted into position, his clerk seated
himself in front, a negro perambulated the square, ringing a large
hand-bell, and the sale began.

The blacks were offered first, and of these a large proportion had
evidently been landed very recently from a slaver. For the most part
they were a tall, fine-looking set of men and women; that is to say,
they _had_ been; but disease and privation had done almost their worst
upon them; and as they took their places upon the block, one by one,
their forms showed gaunt and spare as so many skeletons. In spite,
however, of their poor condition, competition ran high; the bidding was
brisk, and they were rapidly "knocked down," one after the other, until
the whole of the cargo was cleared.

Then came a gang of negroes--slaves already--belonging to the estate of
a tobacco planter, recently deceased, whose heir was disposing of
everything prior to a trip to Europe.

Most of these poor wretches had been born on the estate; others had been
on it long enough to form family connections upon it; and now husbands
and wives, parents and children, were in many cases about to be
ruthlessly torn from each other for ever. It was pitiful--it was
heart-breaking--to those unaccustomed to such a scene to witness the
expression of utter despair on the faces of these poor creatures. Then,
as the sale proceeded, this expression would sometimes give way to one
of feverish hope as the purchaser of a husband or parent would become a
bidder for the wife or child. In one or two rare cases the hope was
realised; and as husband and wife, or parent and child, found themselves
once more reunited--once more the property of the same man--their joy
was enough to wring tears from the heart of a stone. But in most cases
the families were u