Down went the cane a second time.

We thought it must have broken every bone in the boy's hand.

This was repeated several times, the boy extending each hand alternately, and recoiling at every blow.

"Now lay on to his back," sternly vociferated the commander--"give it to him--_hard_--_lay on harder_." The old seaman, who had some mercy in his heart, seemed very loth to lay out his strength on the boy with such a club.

The commander became furious--cursed and swore--and again yelled, "_Give it to him harder, more_--MORE--MORE--there, stop." "you infernal villain"-- speaking to the quarter-master and using the most horrid oaths--"You infernal villain, if you do not _lay on harder_ the next time I command you, I'll have you put in irons." The boy limped away, writhing in every joint, and crying piteously, when the commander called at him, "Silence there, you imp--or I'll give you a second edition." One of the first things the commander did after we left Barbadoes, was to have a man flogged, and the last order we heard him give as we left the steamer at Kingston, was to put two of the men _in irons_.] It is not a little remarkable that the apprenticeship should be regarded by the planters themselves, as well as by other persons generally throughout the colony, as merely a modified form of slavery.