What then must be their sufferings, to be forced for ever from their country, which includes them all?
Which contains the _spot_, in which they were born and nurtured; which contains their _relations_ and _friends_; which contains the whole body of the _people_, among whom they were bred and educated.
In these sufferings, which arise to men, both in bidding, and in having bid, adieu to all that they esteem as dear and valuable, _banishment_ consists in part; and we may agree therefore with the ancients, without adding other melancholy circumstances to the account, that it is no inconsiderable punishment of itself.
With respect to the _loss_ of _liberty_, which is the second consideration in the punishment, it is evident that men bear nothing worse; that there is nothing, that they lay more at heart; and that they have shewn, by many and memorable instances, that even death is to be preferred.

How many could be named here, who, having suffered the _loss_ of _liberty_, have put a period to their existence! How many, that have willingly undergone the hazard of their lives to destroy a tyrant! How many, that have even gloried to perish in the attempt! How many bloody and publick wars have been undertaken (not to mention the numerous _servile_ insurrections, with which history is stained) for the cause of _freedom_! But if nothing is dearer than _liberty_ to men, with which, the barren rock is able to afford its joys, and without which, the glorious fun shines upon them but in vain, and all the sweets and delicacies of life are tasteless and unenjoyed; what punishment can be more severe than the loss of so great a blessing?
But if to this _deprivation_ of _liberty_, we add the agonizing pangs of _banishment_; and if to the complicated stings of both, we add the incessant _stripes, wounds_, and _miseries_, which are undergone by those, who are sold into this horrid _servitude_; what crime can we possibly imagine to be so enormous, as to be worthy of so great a punishment?
How contrary then to reason, justice, and nature, must those act, who apply this, the severest of human punishments, to the most insignificant offence! yet such is the custom with the Africans: for, from the time, in which the Europeans first intoxicated the African princes with their foreign draughts, no crime has been committed, no shadow of a crime devised, that has not immediately been punished with _servitude_.
But for what purpose is the punishment applied?
Is it applied to amend the manners of the criminal, and thus render him a better subject?
No, for if you banish him, he can no longer be a subject, and you can no longer therefore be solicitous for his morals.

Add to this, that if you banish him to a place, where he is to experience the hardships of want and hunger (so powerfully does hunger compel men to the perpetration of crimes) you force him rather to corrupt, than amend his manners, and to be wicked, when he might otherwise be just.
Is it applied then, that others may be deterred from the same proceedings, and that crimes may become less frequent?
No, but that _avarice_ may be gratified; that the prince may experience the emoluments of the sale: for, horrid and melancholy thought! the more crimes his subjects commit, the richer is he made; the more _abandoned_ the subject, the _happier_ is the prince! Neither can we allow that the punishment thus applied, tends in any degree to answer _publick happiness_; for if men can be sentenced to slavery, right or wrong; if shadows can be turned into substances, and virtues into crimes; it is evident that none can be happy, because none can be secure.
But if the punishment is infinitely greater than the offence, (which has been shewn before) and if it is inflicted, neither to amend the criminal, nor to deter others from the same proceedings, nor to advance, in any degree, the happiness of the publick, it is scarce necessary to observe, that it is totally unjust, since it is repugnant to _reason_, the dictates of _nature_, and the very principles of _government_.
* * * * * CHAP.

VII.
We come now to the fourth and last order of slaves, to _prisoners of war_.

As the _sellers_ lay a particular stress on this order of men, and infer much, from its _antiquity_, in support of the justice of their cause, we shall examine the principle, on which it subsisted among the ancients.