under the most
exquisite torture, were certainly circumstances sufficiently strong
to touch the heart of any one possessed of the smallest degree of
common humanity. The usual preparations being made, the old man
quietly stripped off his upper garments, and lay down upon the
board--he was then tied by his legs, middle, above the elbows, and
at each wrist. Mr. ---- then called out to the driver, 'I hope you
will do your duty--he is not sent here for nothing.' At the first
lash the skin started up; and at the third, the blood began to flow;
ere the driver had given ten, the cat was covered with gore; and he
stopped to change it for a dry one, which appeared to me somewhat
longer than the first. When the poor tortured creature had received
sixteen, his violent struggles enabled him to get one of his hands
loose, which he put instantly to his back--the driver stopped to
retie him, and then proceeded to give the remaining four. The
struggles of the poor old man from the first lash bespoke the most
extreme torture; and his cries were to me most distressing. 'Oh! oh!
mercy! mercy! mercy! oh! massa! massa! dat enough--enough! oh,
enough! O, massa, have pity! O, massa! massa! dat enough--enough!
Oh, never do de like again--only pity me--forgive me dis once! oh!
pity! mercy! mercy! oh! oh!' were the cries he perpetually uttered.
I shall remember them while I live; and would not for ten thousand
worlds have been the cause of producing them. It was some minutes
after he was loosed ere he could rise to his feet, and as he
attempted to rise, he continued calling out, 'My back! oh! my back!
my back is broken.' A long time he remained half-doubled, the blood
flowing round his body; 'I serve my master,' said the aged sufferer,
'at all times; get no Saturday, no Sunday; yet this is de way
dem use me.'

With such planters, and such magistrates to play into their hands,
is it to be wondered at that the apprentices do badly? Enough has
been said, we think, to satisfy any candid person as to the _causes
of the evils in Jamaica_. If any thing further were needed, we might
speak of the peculiar facilities which these men have for
perpetrating acts of cruelty and injustice. The major part of the
island is exceedingly mountainous, and a large portion of the sugar
estates, and most of the coffee plantatio