l nine at night. They then separate for their
respective huts, when they gather sticks, prepare their supper, and
attend their families. This employs them till midnight, when they go to
rest. Such is their daily way of life for rather more than half the
year. They are _sixteen_ hours, including two intervals at meals,
in the service of their masters: they are employed _three_
afterwards in their own necessary concerns; _five_ only remain for
sleep, and their day is finished.

During the remaining portion of the year, or the time of crop, the
nature, as well as the time of their employment, is considerably
changed. The whole gang is generally divided into two or three bodies.
One of these, besides the ordinary labour of the day, is kept in turn at
the mills, that are constantly going, during the whole of the night.
This is a dreadful encroachment upon their time of rest, which was
before too short to permit them perfectly to refresh their wearied
limbs, and actually reduces their sleep, as long as this season lasts,
to about three hours and an half a night, upon a moderate
computation[062]. Those who can keep their eyes open during their
nightly labour, and are willing to resist the drowsiness that is
continually coming upon them, are presently worn out; while some of
those, who are overcome, and who feed the mill between asleep and awake,
suffer, for thus obeying the calls of nature, by the loss of a
limb[063]. In this manner they go on, with little or no respite from
their work, till the crop season is over, when the year (from the time
of our first description) is completed.

To support[064] a life of such unparalleled drudgery, we should at least
expect: to find, that they were comfortably clothed, and plentifully
fed. But sad reverse! they have scarcely a covering to defend themselves
against the inclemency of the night. Their provisions are frequently
bad, and are always dealt out to them with such a sparing hand, that the
means of a bare livelihood are not placed within the reach of four out
of five of these unhappy people. It is a fact, that many of the
disorders of slaves are contracted from eating the vegetables, which
their little spots produce, before they are sufficiently ripe: a clear
indication, that the calls of hunger are frequently so pressing, as not
to suffer them to wait, till they can really enjoy them.

This, situation, of a want of the common necessaries of life, added to
that of hard and conti