Fellow slaves, or free persons of colour, are usually the sponsors in Brazil; but it is better, I think, that fellow-slaves, that is, belonging to the same master, should be sponsors, for they take a considerable interest in their god-children. The god-child, indeed, in any of the ranks of life, never approaches either of its sponsors without begging for their blessing. Labat, in speaking of a negro whom he had made renoncer tous ses pactes implicites et explicites qu’il pouvoit avoir fait avec le diable, says,—“Je chargeai sont maitre, qui étoit aussi son parrain de vieller soigneusement sur sa conduite.”—Nouveau Voyage, &c. tom. ii. p.54.
I never heard of the master in Brazil being likewise the god-father, nor do I think that this ever happens; for such is the connection between two persons which this is supposed to produce, that the master would never think of ordering the slave to be chastised.
[219] The same occurs in the Spanish and French colonies. Du Tertre, who seems from the general tenor of his work, to have been a much better man than friars usually are, speaks of the difficulty of converting the Caribs, and of their indifference to religion, and then adds, “Mais les négres sont certainement touchez de Dieu, puis qu’ils conservent, jusqu’à la mort, la religion qu’ils ont embrassée; qu’ils en pratiquent les vertus et en exercent les œuvres, et je puis dire avec verité qu’ils y vivent bien plus Chrestiennement dans leur condition, que beaucoup de François.”—Histoire des Antilles, tom. ii. p. 502.
[220] Labat says that the inhabitants of St. Domingo were in the habit of marking the negroes which they bought by burning the skin, and he adds, in his Dominican way, “De sorte qu’un esclave qui auroit été vendu et revendu plusieurs fois paroîtroit à la fin aussi chargé de caracters, que ces obelisques d’Egypt.” This was not practised, as he tells us, in the islands (Martinique and Guadaloupe) and he adds that their negroes, and principally the creole slaves seroient au desespoir qu’on les marquât comme on fait les bœufs et les chevaux. The small islands did not require this practice, but St. Domingo un pais aussi vaste, could not do without it, because the slaves ran away to the mountains.—Nouveau Voyage, &c., tom. vii. p. 260.
The St. Domingo planters have paid severely for all their misdeeds, and therefore of them nothing need to be said in the present day. The vastness, however, of Brazil, which is a little more vaste than St. Domingo, does not require that the slaves should be marked like cattle.
[221] Edwards’ History of the West-Indies, vol. ii. p. 82, and 147.
[222] The base, the most abominable practice of some masters and mistresses, and of the latter oftener than the former, increases the bias which these miserable, these uneducated beings must be expected to have towards licentiousness. Females have been punished because they have not increased the number of their owners’ slaves. This is a fact; but it is almost too much to believe. On which side does the extreme of depravity lie?
[223] The following circumstances occurred within my own observation. A negro woman applied to a planter to be purchased, for which purpose she had brought a note from her master. She was accepted, and a bargain was concluded between the two persons; however, the day after she had taken up her abode upon the estate of her new master, she came to him, and falling down upon her knees, said that she had had a fellow-slave who wished likewise to serve him, and she begged him to purchase her companion. The new master spoke to the owner of the slave in question on the subject, but he refused to sell him, and the matter rested in this manner; but on the third day, he received a visit from the owner, offering the slave for sale, adding that the man had refused to work, and had threatened to hang himself; and as he was a Gabam negro, he much feared that he might put his threat in execution. The price was soon fixed, and on the following morning the man made his appearance. He proved to be a most excellent slave.
[224] The following occurrences took place upon the estate of a wealthy planter to the South of Recife, and the anecdote was related by the owner of the plantation himself. A negro complained to his master of the infidelity of his wife; she was immediately questioned; and other enquiries being made, and the truth of the statement respecting her conduct being proved, she was tied to a post to be flogged. Her husband was present, and at first he rather received pleasure from the sight of her sufferings; but he soon stopped the driver’s hand, and going to his master, begged him to order her to be unbound, and that he would pardon her, for he added, “If there are to be so many men, and so small a number of women upon the estate, how is it to be expected that the latter are to be faithful.” “Para que Senhor tem tantos negros et tam poucas negras.”
[225] The ships which are employed in this trade oftentimes fill some of their water casks with salt water, when they leave Brazil, that they may serve as ballast; and on taking their live cargo on board upon the coast of Africa, the salt water is replaced by that which is for the use of the additional number of persons. On one occasion a vessel had proceeded for some days on her voyage from Africa towards Brazil with a full cargo, when the discovery was made that the casks had not been filled with fresh water. The coast of either continent was too distant to enable the vessel to reach one or the other, before the greatest distress must be experienced, and therefore a most shocking expedient was resorted to,—a great number of the negroes were thrown overboard. This misfortune was accidental and occurred unintentionally, and a man must have been in a similar situation before he can declare that he would not act as the Portugueze did on this occasion; but the circumstances arose from the nature of this execrable trade.