It would have been much more fair if he himself had explained the word _promoted_.

The truth was, that, for the sake of exercise, these miserable wretches, loaded with chains and oppressed with disease, were forced to dance by the terror of the lash, and sometimes by the actual use of it.

"I," said one of the evidences, "was employed to dance the men, while another person danced the women." Such then was the meaning of the word _promoted_; and it might also be observed with respect to food, that instruments were sometimes carried out, in order to force them to eat; which was the same sort of proof, how much they enjoyed themselves in this instance also.

With respect to their singing, it consisted of songs of lamentation for the loss of their country.

While they sung they were in tears: so that one of the captains, more humane probably than the rest, threatened a woman with a flogging because the mournfulness of her song was too painful for his feelings.