_He knew this by experience; this was the case with_ his _apprentices_.

His house-servants especially were very bad.

But there was one complaint he had against them all, domestics and praedials--they always hold him to the letter of the law, and are ready to arraign him before the special magistrate for every infraction of it on his part, however trifling.

How ungrateful, truly! After being provided for with parental care from earliest infancy, and supplied yearly with two suits of clothes, and as many yams is they could eat and only having to work thirteen or fifteen hours per day in return; and now when they are no longer slaves, and new privileges are conferred to exact them to the full extent of the law which secures them--what ingratitude! How soon are the kindnesses of the past, and the hand that bestowed them, forgotten! Had these people possessed the sentiments of human beings, they would have been willing to take the boon of freedom and lay it at their master's feet, dedicating the remainder of their days to his discretionary service! But with all his violent prejudices, this planter stated some facts which are highly favorable to the apprentices.
1.

He frankly acknowledged that his estates were never under better cultivation than at the present time: and he could say the same of the estates throughout the island.