48 It is computed in the West Indies that a stock of slaves grow worse five per cent. every year unless new slaves be bought to recruit them. They are not able to keep up their number even in those warm countries where clothes and provisions are so easily got. How much more must this happen in European countries, and in or near great cities?

49 Corn. Nepos in Vita Attici. We may remark that Atticus’s estate lay chiefly in Epirus, which being a remote, desolate place, would render it profitable for him to rear slaves there.

50 κλινοποι οι, makers of those beds which the ancients lay upon at meals.