Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1858-09-17

Sheriff, rendered it his duty to proceed
against them, and being unwilling, under all
circumstances, to force conflict of iurisdic-
ton between the State and Federal Govern
mcnts, unnecessary TO the objects contempla-
ted by the act, he determined TO forego meas
ures to carry the law into effect in this case"
A correspondent who visited the negroes
gives the following graphic description Of
their condition:
"The result of the whole visit was intense
sympathy for them and indignation towards
their captors. You may read Of the horrors
of the middle passage, but the half cannot
be told as one view Of these unfortunates will
tell the tale. Dysentery, dropsy and OPP
thalmia--all | believe, the Productions Of
cantact, want Of ventilation and want Of exer-
cise--are the prevailing diseases. But even
whore these were not visible, the spectacle
was narrowing. A skeleton taken down
from the nail Of doctors closet, and pre-
sonted to your view, would scarcely be
more descriptive Of anatomy than many OF
these living walking specimens Of the human
frame. The effect was very startling, whom
you saw them squatting on their launches,
with their knees drawn up behind their cl-
bows in an attitude common to apes and bab-
oons but which no human frame clothed in
flesh can attain. Some, when sitting and told
to rise, did so with great difficulty. and nov
ed with a step as tottering as ever saw after
illness. The very head seemed like skull
oncased in a black covering. 1t is common
to speak Of q man being reduced to skin and
bone, but one who saw these can scarcely use
the expression again.
/ But if this is to be said Of those compara-
lively in health, what language can describe
the sick | saw one poor creature swollen
to the most wonderful size with dropsy and
as he lay on his back he moved his hands,
signifyng 70 ono Of our party request for
his segar which. when given to him, he
smoked with the greatest avdity Another
manifested similar wants and replied to our
beckonings to come to us, by pointing to his
leg, which we construed into inability to
move. Two lay near, whose troubles here
had ceased in death while another. the most
affecting sight Of ala child of six or eight
years, lay ON its side in the sun on the stone
wharf, with eyes closed and no other evidence
of life than the slight motion Of the stomach
indicating breathing. The poor creature,
alone and unattended, had rested its head on
its little hand as naturally rs our own little
oncs do, and in this touching attitude of suf-
fering childhood was fast losing the conscious
ness of life whose experience had been only
that Of sorrow and suffering.
One thing impressed me forcibly-the com
plete docilty, amounting to mere mechanical
submission, of all these creatures. In the
sick ward the physicians were applying caus-
tic to the eyes of their patients. When this
painful remedy was applicd-and, poor croa-
lures, they knew not that it was a remedy,
or anything but part of the system of cruelty
to which they had been subjectod-they COW
cred their faces with their hands in plin and
with their heads all bowed in meek submis-
sion and though many were young children,
not sound, not murmur escaped. The
scene was truly touching. 70 one Of any SEN
sibility the horrors Of battlefield were less
so. / left the scene chastened and humblcd,
but with gratitude, too, trust, to Almighty
God for lot cast in a Christian land
These negroes purchased on tho West
Coast at from fifty cents to one dollar, and
costing scarcely more than $40 or SIS to be
delivered on the coast Of Cuba, were all to be
sold by contract at $3.50 round, or ono hum
drcd and seyenty-seven thousand nine hun
dred and eighty dollars Sl77,9SO) for the
cargo. Such gains are too tempting TO b. re-
sisted by those who make haste to be rich