cruelty was rendered delightful by its frequent exercise; with many other sufferings too numerous to mention, we cannot wonder at this horror on the part of these unfortunate beings, and that it should cause them to use all the means in their power to avoid so terrible a destiny.  The slave-trader, aware of all this, and fearful lest his victims might seek safety by flight, became increasingly careful of his property.  With these men, and upon such subjects, care is cruelty; and thus the apparent necessity of the case came in aid of the favorite disposition of their minds.  They charged their victims with being the authors of that cruelty, which had its true origin in their own remorseless hearts.  Their plea for additional rigor, being plausibly urged, was favorably received by a community darkened by prejudice.  Few regarded with pity, and most with stoical indifference, this barbarous correction for crimes anticipated, and rigorous penance for offences existing only in the diabolical fancies of their tormentors.  The truth is, it was the love these poor wretches bore their wives, children, and native soil, for which they were punished.  They were commonly bound two and two by chains, riveted to iron collars fastened around their necks, more and more closely, as their drivers had more and more reason to suspect a desire to escape.  If they were conveyed in wagons, as they sometimes were, additional chains were so fixed, as to connect the right ancle of one with the left ancle of another, so that they were fastened foot to foot, and neck to neck.  If a disposition to complain, or to grieve, was manifested by any of them, the mouths of such were instantly stopped with a gag.  If, notwithstanding this, the overflowings of sorrow found a passage through other channels, they were checked by the ’scourge inexorable;’—­the cruel monsters thus endeavoring to lessen the appearance of pain, by increasing its reality.  These were scenes of ordinary occurrence; troops of these poor slaves were continually seen fettered as before described, marching two and two, with commanders before and behind, swords by their sides, and pistols in their belts—­the triumphant victors over unarmed women and children.  The sufferings of their victims, were, if possible, increased, when they were compelled to stop for the night.  They were crowded in cellars, and loaded with an additional number of fetters.  On those routes usually taken by them to the South, stated taverns were selected as their resting places for the night.  In these, dungeons under ground were specially contrived for their reception.  Iron staples, with rings in them, were fixed at proper places in the walls; to these, chains were welded; and to these chains the fetters of the prisoners were locked, as the means of certain safety.  It was usual every day for these slave-drivers to keep a strict record of the imagined offences of their slaves; which, if not to their satisfaction expiated by suffering during the day, remained upon the register until its close; when, in the midst of midnight dungeon horrors, goaded with a weight of fetters, in addition to those which had galled them during their weary march, these reputed sins were atoned by their blood, which was made to trickle down ‘the scourge with triple thongs.’”