The _marshal_, an officer answering to our sheriff, superintends his execution, and the master receives the value of the slave from the publick treasury.

We may observe here, that in all cases where the delinquent is a criminal of the state, he is executed, and his value is received in the same manner; He is tried and condemned by two or three justices of the peace, and without any intervention of a _jury_.] [Footnote 067: Particularly in Jamaica.

These observations were made by disinterested people, who were there for three or four years during the late war.] * * * * * CHAP.

V.
Some people may suppose, from the melancholy account that has been given in the preceding chapter, that we have been absolutely dealing in romance: that the scene exhibited is rather a dreary picture of the imagination, than a representation of fact.

Would to heaven, for the honour of human nature, that this were really the case! We wish we could say, that we have no testimony to produce for any of our assertions, and that our description of the general treatment of slaves has been greatly exaggerated.
But the _receivers_, notwithstanding the ample and disinterested evidence, that can be brought on the occasion, do not admit the description to be true.