new married couple cannot fulfil the object of marriage, the wife shall follow her husband whose master shall buy her at a fair valuation set upon her by skilful men who shall be nominated by the two parties; and in case of disagreement a third shall be nominated to fix the price. If the master of the husband does notagree to the purchase, the master of the wife shall have the same faculty.

CHAPTER VIII.

Obligations and Punishments of Slaves.

As Masters of Slaves are obliged to maintain them, to educate and to employ them in useful work proportioned to their strengh, age and sex, without forsaking their children and those who are old and sickly, so, on the other hand, there is an obligation on slaves to obey and respect their Masters and the Stewards, to perform the work which is given them to do conformable to their strengh, and to venerate them as heads of the family. Thus he who will not fulfil any of those obligations must be punished, either by the master of the Estate or by his Steward, according to the nature of the offence, with prison, chains or lashes, which must not exceed the number of twenty five, and those must be given in such a mannerasno to cause any contusion or effusion of blood; which punishments cannot be imposed on slaves but by their Masters or the Stewards.

CHAPTER IX.

Of the Imposition of greater Punishments.

When slaves commit crimes against their Masters, Mistresses, the children, stewards, or any other person which require greater punishment than those mentioned in the beforegoing Chapter, the Master, his Steward or any one else who was present when the offence was committed shall secure the delinquent and inform the justice of it, that in the audience of the Slave's Master and of the Attorney who defends the cause of the former, a law suit may be commenced against him, and a punishment imposed upon him according to the importance and circumstances of the offence, observing in every thing what is ordered by the Laws with respect

to the causes of other delinquents in general; and if the slave be sentenced to pay one third of the charges of the Law suit, his master shall be responsible for it, besides the corporal punishment which, according to the importance of the crime, the delinquent shall suffer, after having been approved of by the Audience of the District, whether it be death or mutilation of members.

Defects or Excess of their Masters and their
Stewards.

The Master, or his Steward who does not fulfil what is ordered in the foregoing Chapters with respect to the education, aliments, clothes, diversions, habitations, etc., of slaves, or who should forsake their children and those that are old and sickly, shall be fined fifty dollars for the first time, one hundred dollars for the second and two hundred dollars for the third; and those fines shall be paid by the master even in the case that the fault had been committed by his steward only, if the latter were not able to pay it, one third of which belongs to the informer, another to the Judge, and the other is to be put into the Fine Chest, which will be treated afterwards; and in case the before mentioned Fines should not produce the disired effect, and they should commit the same fault again, other greater punishments shall be inflicted upon them as disobedient to my Royal Orders; and as soon as I am informed of their disobedience I shall take my measures accordingly. When their Masters or their Stevards are guilty of excess in punishing the slaves, causing them contusion, effusion of blood or mutilation of members, besides paying the above Fines they shall be prosecuted as criminals, and have a punishment inflicted upon them according to the crime which they had committed, and the slave shall be confiscated and sold to another master if he is able to work, putting the amount into the Fine Chest; and if he cannot be sold on account of being unable to work, he shall not be returned to his master who shall be obliged to allow him a daily sum which shall be fixed upon by the justice for his maintenance and clothes during the remainder of his life, paying it every three months in advance.

CHAPTER XI.

Of those who injure Slaves.

As Masters and Stewards can only chastise slaves with that moderation which is required, no other person, who is not their Master or his Steward, shall injure, chastise, wound or kill them. without incurring the punishment enacted by the Laws against those who commit the like excesses towards free people; and the master of the slave who has been injured, chastised or killed shall commence a Law suit against the criminal, and the Attorney as Protector of Slaves, shall defend his cause.

The Masters of slaves shall be obliged every year to deliver into the justice of the Town or Village in the district of which their Estates are situated a List signed and sworn to by them of all the slaves which they have, with distinction of sexes and ages, in order that the notary of the Town House may take account of them in a separate Book which is to be kept for this purpose at the said Town House togather with the List presented by the master who whenever any of his slaves die or absent themselves from his Estate, must inform the justice of it within the term of three days, that by order of the Attorney General it may be noted in the Book, in order to avoid all suspicion of having been killed; and if the Master does not fulfil this, he shall be obliged fully to prove either the absence of the slave or his natural death, for on the contrary, a Law suit will be entered against him.

CHAPTER XIII. —Method of investigating the Excesses of Masters or Stewards.

The distance of some Estates from the Towns, the inconvenience which would result from permitting slaves to go out without an order from their master, under the pretext of complaining, and the just regulation of the Law which orders that no fugitive slave shall be assisted, protected or concealed, require that means be

facilitated which are proportioned to all those circumstances in order that it may be known how they are treated by their masters; and one of those is that the priests who go to the Estates to explain to them the Christian doctrine and to say mass, do obtain information from the said slaves how they are treated by their Masters and the Stewards, and if every thing be observed which is ordered in the beforegoing Chapters in order that they may give a secret and reserved notice of it to the Attorney General and that he may cause it to be investigated, whether the Masters or their Stewards are wanting in the whole or in part to their respective obligations; and the said priests who by reason of their ministry dogive the said secret notice shall not be answerable for any thing even if supposing that the complaints of the slaves were not just; for this notice is only given to the Attorney General that he may demand from the justice to nominate an individual of the Town House, or another person of approved conduct who is to investigate the business, and to form the first proceeding, which he is to deliver into the justice, who shall pursue the proceedings and determine the cause according to the Law, giving information of it to the Audience of the District, and admitting of appeals in all such cases as they are authorized by the Laws.

Besides those means it will be necessary that people of good character and conduct be appointed by the justices and magistrates to visit the Estates three times a year and to make enquiry whether every thing be observed which is ordered in the beforegoing Chapters, informing the said justices of it, who must apply the remedy; and it is likewise declared to be a popular action, that of informing against a master or his steward for not having fulfilled one or the whole of the said Chapters; as the name of the informer shall not be made known and he shall have the part of the fine which he is entitled to, without being responsible in any other case than in that where it is proved that the information is false.

And lastly, it is likewise declared that the justices and Attorney General, as Protector of Slaves, will be made answerable for any neglect of theirs of not having made use of the necessary means to have my Royal Resolutions put into execution.

In the Towns and Villages where the before mentioned regulations are to be formed, and where the Courts of Justice are, a Chest with three keys shall be made and kept in the Town House, one of which keys shall be delivered to the Justice of the Peace, another to the Governor and the third to the Attorney General in order to keep in the said Chest the produce of the fines which are to be laid on those who do not fulfil my Royal Orders; and the said produce shall be employed in the necessary means of making them to be observed, neither can that be a single maravedis taken out of it for any other purpose without an order signed by the three who keep the keys, expressing its destination, and they shall remain responsible and under the obligation of restoring what has been spent or employed to other purposes, for fear, that for those reasons or for others, their accounts which must be remitted every year to the Intendant of the Province together with the attestation of the produce of fines, may not be approved by him.

In order that all the Rules prescribed in the beforegoing chapters may be fulfilled, I annul every Law, Royal Order and custom which are opposed to them; and I command my Supreme Council of the Indies, Viceroys, Presidents, Audiences, Governors, Intendants, Justices, Ministers, etc., that they fulfil and cause to be executed what ever is decreed in this my Royal Order: for this is my will.

Published at Aranjuez 31st may 1789.