not complain, since the fiat of the Almighty shall awfully adjudge the souls this fearful moment enlarges.
As Emanuel still walked by me, I sought from him to understand the cause

of the present insurrection, and the dif∣ferent motives of himself and compani∣ons. "Those of the slaves, said that ge∣nerous protector, are like their natures, wild and various—my own, simply jus∣tice and love. The tyrannic Mortimer, whose fate no being will ever deplore, established himself in this island, no less by the favor of Philip the Second, than by marrying the sister of the present Go∣vernor, Don Pedro de Sylva. In that no∣bleman he met a kindred mind; mean, mercenary, oppressive, and cruel; in one particular alone they differed; Mortimer was by nature bold and enterprizing; Don Pedro cautious and timid. The enor∣mities of the first, however, always found shelter in the injustice of the latter; and Don Pedro not daring to carry on in his own person that piratical and illicit trade which alone can enrich individuals in the infancy of a settlement, secretly shared with his brother-in-law the purchase and the profit, while Mortimer was the only ostensible person, had any legal enquiry arisen. The arrogance, cruelty, and va∣nity

of Mortimer, received a fatal increase by the accumulation of wealth, and set him above all restraint, Don Pedro, conscious he was in his power, ventured not to question, much less punish his con∣duct. The intervals between his frequent voyages destroyed the peace, and shor∣tened the days of Donna Victoria, the uncomplaining victim of her brother's and husband's rapacious league. I came with her into the family as her major domo, a post, which rendering me a wit∣ness of the brutality of Mortimer, soon turned the disgust he generally inspired into hatred. I was the foster brother of Victoria, and attached to her by a reve∣rence so profound, that I insensibly adopt∣ed her wrongs as my own. Ungoverned and licentious in every instance, but more especially when women were the objects, force generally was employed by Morti∣mer, where fraud failed to succeed; and those domestics, alone held rank in his fa∣mily, who were readily subservient to his gross and vicious pursuits. My views died with my lady, and I should gladly have

quitted him to return to Spain, but that he meanly retained a considerable sum I had been provident enough to save, as well as a legacy Donna Victoria had be∣queathed me. Every complaint, or even solicitation for my own, was silenced with the most haughty threats of perpetual im∣prisonment: a sentence I often saw