While these scenes were transpiring upon the plantation of Mount
Welcome, others of a still more exciting nature were being enacted on
that which adjoined it--the property of Jacob Jessuron, slave-merchant
and penn-keeper.
Besides a "baracoon" in the Bay, where his slaves were usually exposed
for sale, the Jew was owner of a large plantation in the country, on
which he habitually resided. It lay contiguous to the estate of the
Custos Vaughan--separated from the latter by one of the wooded ridges
already mentioned as bounding the valley of Mount Welcome.
Like the latter, it had once been a sugar estate, and an extensive one;
but that was before Jessuron became its owner. Now it was in the
condition termed _ruinate_. The fields where the golden cane had waved
in the tropic breeze were choked up by a tangled "second growth,"
restoring them almost to their primitive wildness. With that quickness
characteristic of equatorial vegetation, huge trees had already sprung
up, and stood thickly over the ground--logwoods, bread-nuts, cotton, and
calabash trees, which, with their pendent parasites, almost usurped
dominion over the soil. Here and there, where the fields still remained
open, instead of cultivation, there appeared only the wild nursery of
nature--glades mottled with flowering weeds, as the Mexican horn-poppy,
swallow-worts, West Indian vervains, and small _passiflorae_.
At intervals, where the underwood permitted them to peep out, might be
seen stretches of "dry wall," or stone fence, without mortar or cement,
mostly tumbled down, the ruins thickly trellised with creeping plants--
as convolvuli, cereus, and aristolochia; cleome, with the cheerful
blossoming _lantana_; and, spreading over all, like the web of a
gigantic spider, the yellow leafless stems of the American dodder.
In the midst of this domain, almost reconquered by nature, stood the
"great house"--except in size, no longer deserving the appellation. It
consisted rather of a _pile_ than a single building--the old "sugar
works" having been joined under the same roof with the dwelling--and
negro cabins, stables, offices, all inclosed within an immense high
wall, that gave to the place the air of a penitentiary or barrack,
rather than that of a country mansion. The enclosure was a modern
construction--an afterthought--designed for a purpose very different
from that of sugar-making.
Garden there was none, though evidence that there _had been_ was seen
everywhere around the building, in the trees that still bloomed: some
loaded with delicious fruits, others with clustering flowers, shedding
their incense on the air. Half wild, grew citrons, and _avocado_ pears,
sop and custard apples, mangoes, guavas, and pawpaws; while the
crown-like tops of cocoa-palms soared high above the humble denizens of
this wild orchard, their recurvant fronds drooping as in sorrow at the
desolation that surrounded them.
Close to the buildings stood several huge trees, whose tortuous limbs,
now leafless, rendered it easy to identify them. They were the giants
of the West Indian forest--the silk-cotton-tree (_Eriodendron
anfractuosum_). The limbs of these vegetable monsters--each itself as
large as an ordinary tree--were loaded with parasites of many species;
among which might be distinguished ragged _cactacae_, with various
species of wild pines, from the noble _vriesia_ to the hoary, beard-like
"Spanish moss," whose long streaming festoons waved like winding-sheets
in the breeze--an appropriate draping for the eyrie of the black
vultures (John-Crows) that might at all times be seen seated in solemn
silence upon the topmost branches.
In the olden time, this plantation had borne the name of "Happy Valley";
but during the ownership of Jessuron, this designation--perhaps deemed
inappropriate--had been generally dropped; and the place was never
spoken of by any other name than that of the "Jew's Penn."
Into a "penn" (grazing farm) Jessuron had changed it, and it served well
enough for the purpose: many of the old sugar fields, now overgrown by
the valuable Guinea grass, affording excellent pasturage for horses and
cattle.
In breeding and rearing the former for the use of the sugar estates, and
fattening the latter for the beef markets of the Bay, the industrious
Israelite had discovered a road to riches, as short as that he had been
travelling in the capacity of slave-dealer; and of late years he had
come to regard the latter only as a secondary calling.
In his old age, Jessuron had become ambitious of social distinction; and
for this reason, was desirous of sinking the slave-merchant in the more
respectable profession of penn-keeper. He had even succeeded so far in
his views as to have himself appointed a justice of the peace--an office
that in Jamaica, as elsewhere, is more distinctive of wealth than
respectability.
In addition to penn-keeper, the Jew was also an extensive
spice-cultivator, or rather spice-gatherer: for the indigenous pimento
forests that covered the hills upon his estate required no cultivation--
nothing further than to collect the aromatic berries, and cure them on
the _barbacoa_.
Though changed from a plantation to a penn, the estate of Jacob Jessuron
was not less a scene of active industrial life.
In the fields adjacent to the house, and through the glades of Guinea
grass, horses and half wild cattle might be seen in turns neighing and
bellowing, pursued by mounted herdsmen, black and half-naked.
Among the groves of pimento on the hills, gangs of negro wenches could
be heard screaming and chattering continually, as they picked the
allspice berries from the branches; or, with the filled baskets poised
on their heads, marched in long, chanting files towards the _barbacoa_.
Outside the gate-entrance, upon the broad avenue leading to the main
road, negro horse-tamers might every day be seen, giving their first
lessons to rough colts fresh caught from the pastures; while inside the
grand enclosure, fat oxen were being slaughtered to supply the markets
of the Bay--huge, gaunt dogs holding carnival over the offal--while
black butchers, naked to the waist, their brown arms reeking with red
gore, stalked over the ground, brandishing blood-stained blades, and
other instruments of their sanguinary calling.
Such scenes might be witnessed diurnally on the estate of Jacob
Jessuron; but on the day succeeding that on which the slave-merchant had
made his unsuccessful errand to Mount Welcome, a spectacle of a somewhat
rarer kind was about to be exhibited at the penn.
The scene chosen for this exhibition was an inner inclosure, or
courtyard, contiguous to the dwelling--the great house itself forming
one side of this court, and opening upon it by a broad verandah, of a
dingy, dilapidated appearance.
_Vis-a-vis_ with the dwelling was another large building which shut in
the opposite side of the court--the two being connected by high massive
walls, that completed the quadrangle. A strong double gate, opening
near the centre of one of these walls, was the way out--that is, to the
larger enclosure of the cattle-penn.
From the absence of chimneys and windows, as well as from its plain
style of architecture, the building that stood opposite the
dwelling-house might have been taken for some large granary or barn.
But a peep into its interior at once controverted this idea. Inside
could be seen groups of human beings, of all colours, from ebony black
to jaundice yellow, in all attitudes--seated, standing, or lying upon
the floor--and not a few of them, in pairs, manacled to one another.
Their attitudes were not more various than the expressions upon their
faces. Some looked sad and sullen; some glanced fearfully around, as if
waking from horrid dreams, and under the belief that they were
realities; others wore the vacant stare of idiotcy; while here and there
a group--apparently regardless of past, present, or future--chattered in
their barbaric language with an air of gaiety that bespoke the most
philosophic _insouciance_.
The building that contained them was the baracoon--the storehouse of the
slave-merchant. Its occupants were his stores!
The "stock" had been just replenished by the cargo of the slave-ship,
though there were also some old "bales" on hand; and these were in the
act of entertaining the new comers, and initiating them into the ways of
the place. Their means, of showing hospitality had been limited--as
testified by the empty calabashes and clean-scraped wooden platters that
lay scattered over the floor. Not a grain of rice, not a spoonful of
the pepper-pot, not a slice of plantain, was left. The emptiness of the
vessels showed that the rations had been as short as the viands were
coarse and common.
Outside, in the yard, were many groups, happier to escape from the
stifled atmosphere of their crowded quarters; though that was freedom
when compared with the 'tween-decks of the _middle passage_.
Each group was gathered around some old hand--some compatriot who had
preceded them across the great sea--and who, himself initiated into
slavery under a western sky, was giving them some notions of what they
had to expect. Eager looks of all, from time to time, directed towards
the verandah, told that they were awaiting some event of more than
ordinary interest.
There were white men in the courtyard--three of them. Two were of dark
complexion--so swarth that many of the coloured slaves were as
fair-skinned as they. These two men were lounging by the stairway of
the verandah--one of them seated upon the steps. Both were sparely clad
in check shirts and trousers, having broad-brimmed palmetto hats on
their heads, and rough buskins on their feet and ankles.
Each carried a long, rapier-like blade--a _machete_--hanging over his
hip in its leathern sheath; while a brace of fierce dogs--looped in
cotton-rope leashes, attached to belts worn around their waists--
crouched upon the ground at their feet.
The faces of these men were clean-shaven--a pointed chin-tuft, or
"bigote," alone being left; and the hair on the heads of both was
close-cropped. Their sharp, angular features were thus fully displayed,
denoting a high order of intelligence; which might have produced a
pleasing effect, but for the pronounced expression of cruelty which
accompanied it.
The exclamations that from time to time escaped from their lips, with
the few words of conversation that passed between them, bespoke them of
Spanish race. Their costume--their arms and accoutrements--their
comrades, the fierce dogs--plainly proclaimed, their calling, as well as
the country from whence they came. They were _cacadores de negros_--
negro-hunters from the Island of Cuba.
The third white man who appeared in the courtyard differed essentially
from these--not so much in colour, for he was also of swarth
complexion--but in size, costume, and calling. A pair of horse-skin
riding-boots reached up to his thighs, on the heels of which appeared
heavy spurs, with rowels three inches in diameter. A sort of
monkey-jacket of thick cloth--notwithstanding its unsuitableness to the
climate--hung down to his hips; under which appeared a waistcoat of
scarlet plush, with tarnished metal buttons, and a wool comforter of the
same flaming colour. Crowning all was a felt hat; which, like the other
articles of his dress, gave evidence of exposure to all weathers--sun
and rain, storm and tornado.
A thick shock of curling hair, so dark in colour as to pass for black; a
heavy beard, jet-black, and running most of the way around his mouth;
amber-coloured eyes, with a sinister, shining light that never seemed to
pale; lips of an unnatural redness gleaming through the black beard; and
a nose of aquiline oblique, were the points in the personal appearance
of this man that most prominently presented themselves.
The effect of this combination was to impress you with the conviction,
that the individual in question belonged to the same nationality as the
proprietor of the penn. Such was in reality the case: for the bearded
man was another of the race of Abraham, and one of its least amiable
specimens. His name was Ravener, his calling that of overseer: he was
the overseer of Jessuron. The symbol of his profession he carried under
his arm--a huge cart-whip. He had it by him at all hours--by night, as
by day--for by night, as by day, was he accustomed to make use of it.
And the victims of his long lash were neither oxen nor horses--they were
men and _women_!
No sparing use made he of this hideous implement. "Crack, crack!" was
it heard from morn to eve; "crack, crack!" from eve to midnight; if need
be, from midnight to morning again: for some said that the overseer of
Jessuron never slept. "Crack, crack!" did he go through the courtyard,
apparently proud of exhibiting his power before the newly-arrived
negroes--here and there swinging his long bitter lash among the groups,
as if to break up and scatter them in sheer wantonness.
Volume One, Chapter XXI.