Said Candide to Cacambo, "You see, my dear friend, how perishable
the riches of this world are; there is nothing solid but virtue."
"Very true," said Cacambo, "but we have still two sheep remaining,
with more treasure than ever the King of Spain will be possessed of;
and I espy a town at a distance, which I take to be Surinam, a town
belonging to the Dutch. We are now at the end of our troubles, and
at the beginning of happiness."
As they drew near the town they saw a Negro stretched on the
ground with only one half of his habit, which was a kind of linen
frock; for the poor man had lost his left leg and his right hand.
"Good God," said Candide in Dutch, "what dost thou here, friend,
in this deplorable condition?"
"I am waiting for my master, Mynheer Vanderdendur, the famous
trader," answered the Negro.
"Was it Mynheer Vanderdendur that used you in this cruel manner?"
"Yes, sir," said the Negro; "it is the custom here. They give a
linen garment twice a year, and that is all our covering. When we
labor in the sugar works, and the mill happens to snatch hold of a
finger, they instantly chop off our hand; and when we attempt to run
away, they cut off a leg. Both these cases have happened to me, and it
is at this expense that you eat sugar in Europe; and yet when my
mother sold me for ten patacoons on the coast of Guinea, she said to
me, 'My dear child, bless our fetishes; adore them forever; they
will make thee live happy; thou hast the honor to be a slave to our
lords the whites, by which thou wilt make the fortune of us thy
parents.
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