pons called pins, might be fome objection to the general introduction of the fashion into England. The children are nurfed but little, not confined by any fwathing or bandages; and being fuffered to roll about the floor, foon learn to walk and shift for themfelves. When cradles are used, they fwing suspended from the cielings of the rooms. FUNERALS. AT their funerals the corpfe is carried to the place of iaterment on a broad plank, which is kept for the public fervice, and lafts many generations. It is constantly rubbed with lime, either to prevent its decay, or to keep it pare. No coffin is made ufe of, the body being fimply wrapped in white cloth. In forming the grave, after digging to a convenient depth, they make a cavity in the fide, at bottom, of fufficient dimensions to con tain the body; by which means the earth lies literally light upon it and this cavity, after firewing flowers in it, they ftop up by two boards, faftened angularly to each other, so that the one is on the top of the corpfe, while the other defends it on the open fide, the edge refting on the bottom of the grave. The outer hole is then filled up with earth; and little white flags, or ftreamers, are stuck in order around. They likewise plant a fhrub, bearing a white flower, and in fome places marjoram. The women who attend the funeral, make a hideous noife, not unlike the Irish howl. The EATING of HUMAN FLESH. I find that fome perfons ftill doubt the reality of the fact, that human flesh is any where eaten by mankind, and think that the proofs hitherto adduced, are infufficient to establish a point of fo much moment in the hiftory of the fpecies. It is objected to me, that I never was an eye-witnefs of a feaft of this nature, and that my authority is not completely decifive. I am fenfible of the weight of this reafoning, and am not anxious to force any man's belief, much lefs to deceive him by pretences to the highest degree of certainty, when I can only lay claim to the next degree. I can only fay, that I thoroughly believe the fact myfelf, and that my conviction has arisen from the following circumftances, fome of lefs, fome of more authority. It is, in the first place, a matter of general and uncontroverted notoriety in the island: I have talked on the fubject with natives of the country, who acknowledge the practice, and became ashamed of it, when they refided among more humanifed people. It has been my chance to have had no less than three brothers, chiets of of the fettlements of Natal and Tappanooly, who all affure me of the truth of it. The fame account I have had from other gentlemen, who had equal or fuperior opportunities of knowing the manners of the people; and all their relations agree in every material point. A refident at Tappanooly [Mr. Bradly] fined a Raja, a few years fince, for having a prifoner eaten too clofe to the Company's fettlement. Mr. Alexander Hall made a charge in his public accounts of a fum paid to a Raja, to induce him to spare a man whom Mr. Hall had feen preparing for a victim. Thus the experience of later days is found to agree with the uniform teftimony of old writers; and though I am aware that each and every of these proofs, taken fingly, may admit of fome cavil, yet in the aggregate, I think, they amount to fatisfactory evidence, and fuch as may induce any perfon, not very incredulous, to admit it as a fact that human flesh is eaten by the inhabitants of Sumatra, as we have pofitive authority it is by the inhabitants of New Zealand. SIR, Το the PRINTER. SHEPTON-MALLET, June 12, 1783. OR the benefit of fociety, as it is the feafon for fowing bered with weeds and turf, not to burn the weeds, c. as is commonly done before the feed is fown; but, after the land is plowed, fow your turnip-feed; then rake the weeds in heaps, about ten yards diftant from each other, and referve both the weeds and turf 'till the turnip appears fpringing into leaves; then fet fire to each heap, adding to the fame a handful of foot, with a little fulphur. Take a winnow into the field, that is ufed to fan the chaff from the corn by the turning of this winnow near the fire, it will force the fulphureous fmoak between every crevice of the plowed land, from one heap of weeds, &c. to the other, and kill the fmall infects that deftroy the turnips. When. the fire is extinguifhed, fcatter the afhes thinly over the ground; the falts of them will naturally feed the plants; and though fome few may be deftroyed, yet in general you will fave a hundred fold by this method, more than by the common practice. For cauliflowers, cucumbers, potatoes, &c. in a garden, take half a buhel of ftone lime, the fame quantity of foot, and one pail of urine; mix them together: put this into a hogshead,. then fill it up with water: let the mixture ftand for a fhorttime, and it will be warm; then water fuch vegetables well round round the roots you would wish to be forced, but not the leaf, and you will find the falts will have the defired effect, and caufe a great encrease in the kitchen garden. If people with to have plenty of wall-fruit, &c. in their gar dens, they should fave the weeds in the spring, then burn them at a proper diftance from the trees, and adding foot and fulphur, force them with a winnow in the manner before directed: but this must be done in the evening, after the fetting of the fun, and in the morning, before the fun rifes. It will keep of the blight; and if there be a good blowth, you may expect plenty of wall-fruit, &c.—This method must be repeated several times, 'till the fruit appears. A FRIEND TO SOCIETY. ON SLAVERY. NUMBER IV. Extra& from Mr. PARKER'S " Evidence of our Tranfactions in the Eaft-Indies, and other Countries." TH HE conduct of this country to the people of Africa, has continued the fame for fo many years past, that the moft public endeavours of several individuals, to make us look ca that conduct as criminal in itself, have not produced any refor mation or removal of that fanction which is given by the ftate to the trade which at once produces and tolerates all the ill-treatment which the Africans receive at our hands. The people of Africa, it is evident, have the fame natural reluctance to leave their own country, and become our fervants, as the people of this country would have to leave our coaft, and go to that country, and become their fervants. They thew their unwillingness, by hazarding their lives in the mcft defperate battles, to prevent their being forced away from their native abode into our hands; and during the currency of our trade, as it is called, a much greater number appear to be yearly deftroyed, to prevent their being taken away, than all we obtain. We firft discovered what were the things which we could take from this country to their's, that would produce the fame effects as gold and filver would on the minds of men in any country, who are governed by no better principle than that of their own immediate gain, or gratifying their own inclinations. We weat to their coats, taking thofe articles with us, and offered them as inducements to their chief men to fell us thofe they had in their power, or could lay hold of among those who were not under their immediate authority. After fome time, we forced oar way way into the country, and built forts to protect the trade we had begun; and for years paft we have been carrying away thoufands of men, women, and children, annually to our colonies and plantations. With very few exceptions, if any, all that we have taken away that were of an age to know where they were going, were put into our power by force, and as much against their will as it could poffibly be against that of the people of England to be taken away by force, and made flaves of for life to the people of any other country in the world. The people thus carried away are fold as cattle; and if the formal refolutions we have made for governing them may be called laws, they are laws to place them in a condition much worse than cattle are used for any fort of labour in this country, befides beating and whipping them, to make them.do our work. An unruly horfe is often feen to be corrected with feverity; but who ever heard of it as a punishment eítablished among us, that if fuch an animal fhould be unruly to a certain degree, his master should chop off half a foot? But this is among the punishments provided for the people of Africa, in flavery to the people of this nation. That they are fed and taken care of, with a view to preferve them in health, and to prolong their lives, is certainly true; but, in general, the care and kind treatment which the working cattle in England meet with from thofe they belong to, places them in a fituation, as to all the comforts of mere animal life, much fuperior to the circumstances under which the people we bring from Africa live and die in our fervice. This conduct appears to be as much the conduct of the whole country, as any thing which is done by a few, can be made the act of all. Our national arms protect the fhips that carry these unhappy people to their endlefs flavery: we fight for, and defend the ground on which they fuffer their miferable oppreffions; we ufe the things which thefe men, women, and children, ate made flaves, in order to cultivate; and, as a nation, we have a conflant regard to the advantages which refult from their flavery. [To be continued occafionally.] HISTORY of a PROSTITUTE and PENITENT, with afked to visit a patient in London, and was conducted by an elderly woman up two or three pair of stairs, to a gloomy, VOL. II. 44. 3 G fhabby, WEEKLY ENTERTAINER. fhabby, fky-lighted apartment. When he entered, he perceived two young females fitting on the fide of a dirty bed, without curtains: on approaching, he found one of them nearly in the agonies of death, fupported by the other, who was perfuading her to take a bit of bread, dipped in fpirits. The pale emaciated figure refufed, faying, in a feeble, languid voice, that it would but contribute to prolong her mifery, which the hoped was drawing to an end. Looking at the doctor, fhe faid, "You have come too late, Sir, I want not your affiftance Oh! could't thou minifter to a mind diseased, Or stop th' access and paffage to remorse." Here the fetched a deep figh, and dropped upon the bed.-Every means of relief was offered, but in vain; for in less than two hours the expired. In a fmall box, by the fide of the bed, were found fome pa pers, by which it appeared that the young woman had more than an ordinary education; that he had changed her name, and concealed that of her parents, whom the pitied, and whofe greatest fault had been too much indulgence, and a misplaced confidence in the prudence of their favourite daughter. On the back of fome directions refpecting her funeral, the following pathetic lines were written, and fome little money in the box was affigned to have them engraved on a tomb-ftone: VERSES for my TOMB-STONE, if ever I fhould have one, THE wretched victim of a quick decay My foul fhrunk back, and wifh'd to be no more. Old e're of age, worn out when scarce mature; Of forc'd enjoyment, in affected luft; 9 Cover'd |