"Nothing."

"Well then, he'll be pretty hungry now;
so you may put an end to his fast. Take him
a herring."

"Good, massa," said the bastinado, with an
expression that proved that the order would
be willingly obeyed; " and also some banana
and water ?"

"Do what I tell you," thundered the
director; " no more- no less."

"Good, massa," replied the bastinado, in a
very different tone, and at once executed the
order.

Both the women who in the morning had
solicited pardon for Herman, belonged to
that category of plantation slaves called
domestic slaves. Their occupation consisted of
household labour, and they never left the
house or its neighbourhood. It need not be
said that the director so took his measures as
to prevent them from going in secret to
assist the poor cowkeeper. But still he could
not prevent them from anxiously watching
all that transpired with regard to the
imprisoned slave. Thus they saw the bastinado
hurrying to the coffee-loft. What he carried
they could not exactly make out,' but they
supposed it was food for the poor slave, and
the thought gladdened their hearts.

The bastinado entered the coffee-loft, spoke
not a word, but laid the herring down on the
floor.

The famished negro seized it as a tiger
seizes his prey. He planted his teeth in the
fish, and though the salt flayed his tongue,
palate and throat, it did not prevent him
from eagerly swallowing the food thus placed
before him.

But who can describe the state of the man
who, after having been kept without a drop
of water for twice twenty four hours to cool
his burning lips and parched palate, now
endeavoured to still his hunger in such a
way as this ?  Who can describe the fire that
was consuming his burning entrails- the
fearful thirst that tortured him ? His
sufferings made him desperate; his despair
drove him to madness.

"Water," he groaned; " water! " And
like one deprived of reason, he paces up and
down the loft. "Water!" he cries, and
groans, through the open window; but
nobody answers him. And the intensity of his
agony increases every moment; and the
blood seems to settle on his brain; and his
eyes start from their sockets; and his chest
heaves with oppression and torment; and all
the time he sees the water of the river- he
hears its ripple; it draws him with
irresistible power to it. Suddenly he throws
himself out of the window; he falls on his
head on the stones below; a fall- a heavy
fall- is heard; the bastinado and the slaves,
mother and daughter, rush frantically to the
spot, and find a corpse!

We afterwards find this Legree director

punished by fine and imprisonment, by the
law of the Netherlands; not for his diabolical
cruelty to poor old Herman-  his death
remains unavenged- but for his subsequent
violence to Herman's daughter. The law is
strangely tolerant of slaveholder's cruelties;
while, as Mr. Van Hoëvell's work abundantly
proves, it is brutally severe in respect to
slaves.

II.

The Moravian Brethren, it seems, have
made this colony of Surinam a field for their
missionary enterprise. We quote the
following characteristic sketch from Mr. Van
Hoëvell's volumes.

"There are two more Moravian brethren
just come; have you heard of it ? " asked
Pastor A., of Elder B., who had called to pay
him a visit.

"So! " answered the vestry official; and
he added, with all the contempt that words
can express: " I'm not at all partial to these
people; they come here only to spoil our
slaves, and make them refractory."

The pastor stared at his brother elder with
consternation. He had not been long in the
colony; the society in which he lived was
still new to him. Such a judgment on men
for whose self-denial he had always
entertained the deepest respect, and whom he had
never heard spoken of in Holland but with
the greatest esteem, seemed to him so
unaccountable, that he was at a loss what answer
to give.

"Ah, dominé, you don't know these people
yet," continued Mr. B., when he observed the
pastor's surprise; " when you have been here
somewhat longer, you will admit that they
are a great evil in this country."

"I must confess, sir, I do not understand
you. Pray explain yourself. The Moravians
an evil for the colony ?"

"Slaves can be governed only by holding
them at a distance. Between them and the
free there must be a deep, wide gulf. They
must fear and respect us, as superior beings.
They must have the conviction that we are
their masters, who may dispose of them as
we choose, and whose fate is entirely in our
hands. But that notion they have lost
entirely, on account of these cursed
Moravians."

"I cannot see that. I have always heard
that the missionaries teach them to be
obedient to their masters."

"Possibly they may teach them that. But
still these slaves lose their respect for us
when they are of the same religion as
ourselves. I have had a striking instance of this
recently among my own slaves."

"Be so good as to tell me the history, for
I must confess I am altogether at a loss to
comprehend your meaning."

"With pleasure. I have a slave- one
Present- who has been thirty years in my
service. Before, he never gave me cause to