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frequently, terminates in death, eſpecially among the women. Moſt of the ſhips the ſlave-trade are provided, between decks, with five or ſix air-ports on each ſide of the ſhip, of about ſix inches in length, four in breadth; in addition to which, ſo few ſhips have wind ſails. But whenever the ſea is rough, and the rain heavy, it be comes neceſſary to ſhut theſe, and every other conveyance by which the air is admitted. The freſh air being thus excluded, negroes rooms very ſoon grow intolerably hot. The confined air rendered noxious by the effluvia exhaled from their bodies and by being repeatedly breathed, ſoon produces fevers and fluxes, which generally carry off great numbers of them.
The place alloted for the ſick negroes under the half deck, where they lie on the bare planks. By this means, thoſe who are emaciated, frequently have their ſkin, and even their fleſh, entirely rubbed off, by the motion of the ſhip, from the prominent part of the ſhoulders, elbows, and hips, ſo as to render the bones in thoſe parts quite bare. And some of them by conſtantly lying in the blood and mucus, that had flowed from thoſe afflicted with the flux, and which, as before obſerved, is generally ſo violent as to prevent their being kept clean, have their fleſh much ſooner rubbed off, than thoſe who have only to contend with the mere
