I had them," says he, "were very free and I'auiiliar ; sometimes sauntering among the whites at meal-time, with hat on head, and freely joining occasionally in conversation, as if they were one and all of the same lK)Uschold." ' "Yet," says Watson, "no case had ever occurred of 'amalgamation,' and no instance of

j mixed colour had been seen until produced by some in the British army coming among them. The first

{ instance of the kind j)roduced emotions of surprise

j and dislike."

One of the Old World customs brought over by the early settlers was the investiture "by turtf and twigg,"

I a relic of feudal times. It consisted in the delivery

I of a turf, a stone, a branch or some other object as a .symbol of the transfer of the soil. Anciently this had been practiced by the feudal lord in conl'erring a fief upon his vassal. It was observed on Mauursing

PK I .M ITI V E ( H EE.se- PR ES.S.

speech. Captain Graydon, who was quartered at Flatbusli while a prisoner in the war of independence, testifies to this : " Their blacks, when they

inrolTeil a return of the lar;garil to slavery. In KiKi the General Assembly proviiled penalties fur selling any coniniodity to any slave and for any person buying from tlieni or giving them credit. The same enactment includoil a rigid fugitive slave law and conuuanded all constables and inferior oHicers '• to prejw men. horses, boats or pinnaces to pnmie" runaway slaves "by sea or land, and to make diligent hue and cry, as by the law rcijuired." Later statutes pennitted masters to puu'sh al>Te6 with any chastisement nut extending to life or member ; forblde the assemblage of more than three slaves ; ordered that the children of slave women shall be slaves: that each town or manor may have k whipper of slaves ; that any slave presuming to strike any Christian or Jew shall be committed to prison and suffer corporal punishment ; forbide the harboring of slaves; provided that every nui-ster or the •X«cat«<r of a will freeing a slave must give two hundred iwunds Mcurity that such slave shall not become a public charge, and that the owners of slaves executoil for murder, arson or other terrible crime.s •hall be paiil for them.