I might have told you in my last letter that the eighth inst., the day after our return from our river excursion, was the Stadtholder’s birth-day, and consequently a day of festivity at Demarara. It was commemorated, by the Dutch officers, in our service, giving a splendid ball and supper at their barrack in the evening: all the best company of the colony was assembled on the occasion. The ball-room was extremely crowded; and although it was so intensely hot that it was matter of astonishment how any person could support the fatigue of dancing in it, still the ladies, feeble and languid as they commonly appear, so much enjoyed their favorite amusement, as not to retire to the supper-room until nearly two o’clock in the morning. The supper was elegant, and very handsomely served. It consisted of nearly 150 dishes, and was composed of the choice fruits and dainties of the colony. Unhappily the harmony of the festival was interrupted by the perverse conduct of one of the party, a soi-disant patriot, who, in the violence of his politics, opposed himself to the general will of the company, and refused to stand up to drink the health of the Stadtholder. The officers were highly incensed, at meeting with such an act of rudeness and insult, from one of their guests, and some of them proposed to toss the “patriot and his chair” out at window.

We read with great satisfaction, the arrival of the ship Cotton-Planter at Portsmouth, after a passage of a hundred and eight days from Demarara. Not having sooner heard of her, we had many anxious conjectures regarding her safety. She is one of the heavy Dutch vessels which fell into our possession on the capture of these colonies; and being a large ship, commodious for conveying troops across the Atlantic, we put a party of invalids, with ulcers, on board her, to be carried to England, under the immediate care of Mr. Beane, one of the mates of the general hospital; and subject to the command of the Hon. Captain De Courcy of the 93d regiment. Both from her form and bulk, we had expected that she might make a tedious passage; but, even with all the delays of our late ill-fated expedition in remembrance, our anticipations had not led us to imagine that, without some great disaster, the voyage could have been protracted to a period of nearly sixteen weeks.

I have again been led to attend one of those humiliating scenes—a sale of human merchandise; where I saw, what is here termed, a prime cargo of three hundred men and women, from the Gold Coast of Africa, all beings of our own species, exposed to public vendue, even as the herds of sheep and oxen in Smithfield market! But, notwithstanding I had been more than a year in the West Indies, I found that my European feelings were not so blunted, as to allow me to witness such a scene without experiencing the painful sensations, which naturally arise in the breast of an Englishman, upon seeing his fellow-creatures so miserably degraded.

The poor blacks were not exposed to view upon a high stool, in order to be first examined, and then knocked down at the hammer, as at the sale at Berbische, but were divided into three great lots, according to their value; and, the price being fixed, the purchasers were left to select from whichever division they might prefer. Boys, from eleven to fourteen years of age, sold for 600 or 700 guilders: the price of the women was from 700 to 800; and of the men from 700 to 900; but a few of the strongest were valued somewhat higher. The agent who conducted the sale is a liberal man, possessed of humane sentiments, and a cultivated mind, but it is, unfortunately, his calling to deal in human flesh. He very justly remarked to me, that, in following this occupation, it is necessary to give an opiate to the finer feelings of nature.

The coarse airs, and indecent vulgarity exhibited by a negress (who had probably been herself exposed in a similar manner), and a mulatto woman, her associate, towards some of these poor African girls, were equally striking and disgusting. Each of these cloudy nymphs had wheedled her lord to grant her the privilege of choosing a slave, to be the immediate attendant of her person; and in making their selection they used as little delicacy in touching, turning about, and trying their fellow blacks, as a butcher would in examining a pen of any other sort of cattle in an open market. Common decency was outraged in these proceedings, which grossly aggravated a scene that is at best cruelly humiliating.

Shocked at what I had witnessed, and led into painful reflections upon the sadly chequered lot of our species, I made my retreat from this market of human woe, where not only the laws of decorum are openly invaded, and the rules of propriety set at defiance, but where all the social ties of our nature are broken down and bartered for gold.

Amidst a scene, every way repugnant to humanity I was pleased to remark that a general sympathy was excited towards one particular family, whose appeals to the compassion of the multitude were not less powerful than their claims. This family consisted of a mother, three daughters, and a son. The parent, whose days of youth were past, was still a well-looking woman; the children appeared to be from fourteen to twenty years of age: they were very like the mother, and still more resembled each other, being all of distinguished face and figure, and decidedly the handsomest negroes of the cargo. Their distress, lest they should be separated, and sold to different masters, was so strongly depicted upon their countenances, and expressed in such lively, and impressive appeals, that the whole crowd were, impulsively, led to commiserate their sufferings; and, by universal consent, they were removed from the three great lots, and placed in a corner by themselves, in order that they might all be sold to the same master.

Observing their extreme agitation, I was led particularly to notice their conduct, as influenced by the terror of being torn from each other, when I may truly say, that I witnessed a just and faithful representation of ... the distressed mother! and such as might bid defiance even to the powers of a Siddons! for the fears of the parent, lest she should be separated from her children, or these from each other, were anxious and watchful beyond all that imagination could paint, or the most vivid fancy portray. When any one approached their little group, or chanced to look towards them with the attentive eye of a purchaser, the children, in deep sobs, crouched nearer together, and the tearful mother, in agonizing impulse, instantly fell down before the spectator, bowed herself to the earth, and kissed his feet; then, alternately clinging to his legs, and pressing her children to her bosom, she fixed herself upon her knees, clasped her hands together, and, in anguish, cast up a look of humble petition, which might have found its way to the heart of a Caligula! Thus, in Nature’s truest language, did the afflicted parent urge her strongest appeal to his compassion, while she implored the purchaser, in dealing out to her the hard lot of slavery, to spare her the additional pang of being torn from her children—to forbear exposing her to the accumulated wretchedness which would arise from forcing those asunder, whom the all-wise Disposer of events had bound together by the most sacred ties of nature and affection.

I mentioned in my former letter, when speaking of the phenomenon I had seen, in the person of a twisted and broken mulatto at Garden-Eden, that he was the property of Mr. Cuming, our very hospitable neighbour at the plantation Kitty, near to Fort William Frederic; where, I may now tell you that, since my return from “the falls,” I have had an opportunity of seeing two other singular aberrations from the common characteristics of our species, in the persons of a white negro, and a piebald negress. These are very uncommon objects, more particularly the latter, and it is remarkable that the three most striking examples of natural curiosity in the colony, or perhaps in the West Indies, should happen all to be the property of the same individual.

The white negro, as he is denominated, is a boy about twelve years of age, who was born on board a ship, on the passage from Guinea, of perfectly white skin, although both his father and mother were jet black. He is even whiter, but I know not if I should say fairer, than Europeans, for it is a dull chalk-white, without the agreeable relief of the fine blue veins, and ruddy tints of an extra-tropical, or more especially of a British skin. In form and feature he strictly resembles other negroes, having the head and face long, with the hair short and curling like wool, the mouth large, with thick lips, and the nose broad and flat. His eyes are blue, the eyebrows and eyelashes white, as is likewise the hair, which from being slightly tinged with yellow, assumes, in a small degree, that particular hue, which is, more commonly than correctly, termed red. On looking at a strong light, his eyes are affected with a twinkling motion, such as is observed in the Albinos or Nyctalops; and from the axes of the eyes not accurately converging, a slight degree of squinting is perceptible. It would seem therefore that it is a variation which stands much in the same relation with respect to the negroes, as the Nyctalops with respect to ourselves. His skin being more than usually irritable, is highly susceptible of injury; it rises quickly into blisters, if he be exposed to the open rays of the sun.

The case of the woman is even more singular than that of the boy; her peculiarity being the effect of an extraordinary change, and not of original conformation. She is about thirty years of age, and, until the last six or seven years, was of completely sable skin, differing in no respect from other negroes; nor do her form or features now offer any thing remarkable, but, from the profoundest black, her surface is growing perfectly white. She is of good figure, has been always regarded as having a strong and healthy constitution, and, for many years, has been employed as a washerwoman in Mr. Cuming’s family.

No probable cause is known, or even suggested, for the change, but about five or six years ago, some white spots appeared upon her extremities, and, from that time, she has been gradually losing the natural blackness of her surface.

This uncommon change commenced in the parts most remote from the great organ of circulation, and is slowly, though regularly, proceeding towards the parts nearer to the heart. The feet, hands, legs, and arms, have already lost their sable hue, and are even whiter than those of an European. Her nose and ears are also white, and some patches are spreading upon the face, neck, and bosom; but her body yet remains entirely black; and although this extraordinary conversion seems to be progressively advancing, if it proceed as slowly as it has hitherto done, it may be still several years before the whole of the dark colouring be removed. Her hair and eyes retain their original blackness, and have not yet any appearance of participating in the change.

It is remarkable that the cuticle of the parts which have grown white, like the pale skin of the boy just mentioned, is very subject to rise into blisters upon being exposed to the sun, while no such effect is produced upon the parts which continue dark.

The woman is still in good health, and appears to be quite free from disease; as she was, at the time this peculiar change began; but she is extremely low and dejected concerning this event, which she regards as the severest evil that could have befallen her. She has a great dislike to be seen, or to have questions asked her, more particularly by strangers, When sent for, that I might look at her, she came to me with reluctance, exhibited strong marks of agitation while she remained, and went away in tears. She is the wife of one of Mr. Cuming’s slaves, and has had several children, who differ in no respect from the offspring of other negroes.