couple of heifers were slaughtered for them: they were allowed as much
rum, and sugar, and noise, and dancing as they chose; and as to the two
latter, certainly they profited by the permission. About two o’clock
they began to assemble round the house, all drest in their holiday
clothes, which, both for men and women, were chiefly white; only that
the women were decked out with a profusion of beads and corals, and gold
ornaments of all descriptions; and that while the blacks wore jackets,
the mulattoes generally wore cloth coats; and inasmuch as they were all
plainly clean instead of being shabbily fashionable, and affected to
be nothing except that which they really were, they looked twenty times
more like gentlemen than nine tenths of the bankers’ clerks who swagger
up and down Bond Street. It is a custom as to the mulatto children, that
the males born on an estate should never be employed as field negroes,
but as tradesmen; the females are brought up as domestics about the
house. I had particularly invited “Mr. John-Canoe” (which I found to be
the polite manner in which the negroes spoke of him), and there arrived
a couple of very gay and gaudy ones. I enquired whether one of them was
“John-Crayfish;” but I was told that John-Crayfish was John-Ca-noe’s
rival and enemy, and might belong to the factions of “the Blues and the
Reds;” but on Cornwall they were all friends, and therefore there
were only the father and the son---Mr. John-Canoe, senior, and Mr.
John-Canoe, junior.
The person who gave me this information was a young mulatto carpenter,
called Nicholas, whom I had noticed in the crowd, on my first arrival,
for his clean appearance and intelligent countenance; and he now begged
me to notice the smaller of the two John-Canoe machines. “To be sure,”
he said, “it was not so large nor so showy as the other, but then it
was much better _proportioned_ (his own word), and altogether much
prettier;” and he said so much in praise of it, that I asked him whether
he knew the maker? and then out came the motive: “Oh, yes! it was made
by John Fuller, who lived in the next house to him, and worked in the
same shop, and indeed they were just like brothers.” So I desired to see
his _fidas Achates_, and he brought me as smart and intelligent a little
fellow as eye ever beheld, who came grinning from ear to ear to tell me
that he had made every bit of the canoe with his own hands, and had set
to work upon it the moment that he knew of massa’s coming to Jamaica.
And indeed it was as fine as paint, pasteboard, gilt paper, and
looking-glass could make it! Unluckily, the breeze being very strong
blew off a fine glittering umbrella, surmounted with a plume of John
Crow feathers, which crowned the top; and a little wag of a negro boy
whipped it up, clapped it upon his head, and performed the part of an
impromptu Mr. John-Canoe with so much fun and grotesqueness, that he
fairly beat the original performers out of the pit, and carried off
all the applause of the spectators, and a couple of my dollars. The
John-Canoes are fitted out at the expense of the rich negroes, who
afterwards share the money collected from the spectators during their
performance, allotting one share to the representator himself; and it
is usual for the master of the estate to give them a couple of guineas
apiece.
This Nicholas, whom I mentioned, is a very interesting person, both from
his good looks and gentle manners, and from his story. He is the son
of a white man, who on his death-bed charged his nephew and heir to
purchase the freedom of this natural child. The nephew had promised to
do so; I had consented; nothing was necessary but to find the substitute
(which now is no easy matter); when about six months ago the nephew
broke his neck, and the property went to a distant relation. Application
in behalf of poor Nicholas has been made to the heir, and I heartily
hope that he will enable me to release him. I felt strongly tempted to
set him at liberty at once; but if I were to begin in that way, there
would be no stopping; and it would be doing a kindness to an individual
at the expense of all my other negroes--others would expect the same;
and then I must either contrive to cultivate my estate with fewer
hands--or must cease to cultivate it altogether--and, from inability to
maintain them, send my negroes to seek bread for themselves--which, as
two thirds of them have been born upon the estate, and many of them
are lame, dropsical, and of a great age, would, of all misfortunes that
could happen to them, be the most cruel. Even when Nicholas was speaking
to me about his liberty, he said, “It is not that I wish to go away,
sir; it is only for the name and honour of being free: but I
would always stay here and be your servant; and I had rather be an
under-workman on Cornwall, than a head carpenter any where else.”
Possibly, this was all palaver (in which the negroes are great dealers),
but at least he _seemed_ to be sincere; and I was heartily grieved that
I could not allow myself to say more to him than that I sincerely wished
him to get his liberty, and would receive the very lowest exchange for
him that common prudence would authorize. And even for those few kind
words, the poor fellow seemed to think it impossible to find means
strong enough to express his gratitude.
Nor is this the only instance in which Nicholas has been unlucky. It
seems that he was the first lover of the beautiful Psyche, whom I
had noticed on my arrival. This evening, after the performance of the
John-Canoes, I desired to see some of the girls dance; and by general
acclamation Psyche was brought forward to exhibit, she being avowedly
the best dancer on the estate; and certainly nothing could be more
light, graceful, easy, and spirited, than her performance. She perfectly
answered the description of Sallust’s Sempronia, who was said--“Sal tare
elegantius, quam necesse est probæ, et cui cariora semper omnia, quam
decus et pudicitia fuit.” When her dance was over, I called her to me,
and gave her a handful of silver. “Ah, Psyche,” said Nicholas, who was
standing at my elbow, “Massa no give you all that if massa know you
so bad girl! she run away from me, massa!” Psyche gave him a kind of
pouting look, half kind, and half reproachful, and turned away. And then
he told me that Psyche had been his wife (_one_ of his wives he should
have said); that he had had a child by her, and then she had left him
for one of my “white people” (as they call the book-keepers), because
he had a good salary, and could afford to give her more presents than a
slave could. “Was there not another reason for your quarrelling?” said
my agent. “Was there not a shade of colour too much?”--“Oh, massa!”
answered Nicholas, “the child is not my own, that is certain; it is
a black man’s child. But still I will always take care of the child
because it have no friends, and me wish make it good neger for
massa--and _she_ take good care of it too,” he added, throwing his arm
round the waist of a sickly-looking woman rather in years; “she my wife,
too, massa, long ago; old now and sick, but always good to me, so I
still live with her, and will never leave her, never, massa; she Polly’s
mother, sir.” Polly is a pretty, delicate-looking girl, nursing a
young child; she belongs to the mansion-house, and seems to think it as
necessary a part of her duty to nurse _me_ as the child. To be sure she
has not as yet insisted upon suckling me; but if I open a _jalousie_
in the evening, Polly walks in and shuts it without saying a word. “Oh,
don’t shut the window, Polly.”--“Night-air not good for massa;” and she
shuts the casement without mercy. I am drinking orangeade, or some such
liquid; Polly walks up to the table, and seizes it; “Leave that jug,
Polly, I am dying with thirst.”--“More hurt, massa;” and away go Polly
and the orangeade. So that I begin to fancy myself Sancho in Barataria,
and that Polly is the Señor Doctor Pedro in petticoats.
The difference of colour, which had offended Nicholas so much in
Psyche’s child, is a fault which no mulatto will pardon; nor can the
separation of castes in India be more rigidly observed, than that
of complexional shades among the Creoles. My black page, Cubina, is
married: I told him that I hoped he had married a pretty woman; why had
he not married Mary Wiggins? He seemed quite shocked at the very idea.
“Oh, massa, me black, Mary Wiggins sambo; that not allowed.”
The dances performed to-night seldom admitted more than three persons
at a time: to me they appeared to be movements entirely dictated by the
caprice of the moment; but I am told that there is a regular figure, and
that the least mistake, or a single false step, is immediately noticed
by the rest. I could indeed sometimes fancy, that one story represented
an old duenna guarding a girl from a lover; and another, the pursuit of
a young woman by two suitors, the one young and the other old; but this
might be only fancy. However, I am told, that they have dances which not
only represent courtship and marriage, but being brought to bed. Their
music consisted of nothing but Gambys (Eboe drums), Shaky-shekies, and
Kitty-katties: the latter is nothing but any flat piece of board beat
upon with two sticks, and the former is a bladder with a parcel of
pebbles in it. But the principal part of the music to which they dance
is vocal; one girl generally singing two lines by herself, and being
answered by a chorus. To make out either the rhyme of the air, or
meaning of the words, was out of the question. But one very long song
was about the Duke of Wellington, every stanza being chorussed with,
“Ay! hey-day! Waterloo!
Waterloo! ho! ho! ho!”
_I_ too had a great deal to do in the business, for every third word was
“massa;” though how I came there, I have no more idea than the Duke.
The singing began about six o’clock, and lasted without a moment’s pause
till two in the morning; and such a noise never did I hear till then.
The whole of the floor which was not taken up by the dancers was,
through every part of the house except the bed-rooms, occupied by men,
women, and children, fast asleep. But although they were allowed rum and
sugar by whole pailfuls, and were most of them _merry_ in consequence,
there was not one of them drunk; except indeed, one person, and that
was an old woman, who sang, and shouted, and tossed herself about in an
elbow chair, till she tumbled it over, and rolled about the room in a
manner which shocked the delicacy of even the least prudish part of the
company. At twelve, my agent wanted to dismiss them; but I would not
suffer them to be interrupted on the first holiday that I had given
them; so they continued to dance and shout till two; when human nature
could bear no more, and they left me to my bed, and a violent headache.
JANUARY 7. (Sunday.)
In spite of their exertions of last night, the negroes were again with
me by two o’clock in the day, with their drums and their chorusses.
However, they found themselves unable to keep it up as they had done on
the former night, and were content to withdraw to their own houses
by ten in the evening. But first they requested to have tomorrow to
themselves, in order that they might go to the mountains for provisions.
For although their cottages are always surrounded with trees and shrubs,
their provision grounds are kept quite distinct, and are at a distance
among the mountains. Of course, I made no difficulty of acceding to
their request, but upon condition, that they should ask for no
more holidays till the crop should be completed. For the purpose of
cultivating their provision-grounds, they are allowed every Saturday;
but on the occasion of my arrival, they obtained permission to have the
Saturday to themselves, and to fetch their week’s provisions from the
mountains on the following Monday. All the slaves maintain themselves
in this manner by their own labour; even the domestic attendants are not
exempted, but are expected to feed themselves, except stated allowances
of salt fish, salt pork, &c.
JANUARY 8.
I really believe that the negresses can produce children at pleasure;
and where they are barren, it is just as hens will frequently not lay
eggs on shipboard, because they do not like their situation. Cubina’s
wife is in a family way, and I told him that if the child should live,
I would christen it for him, if he wished it. “Tank you, kind massa,
me like it very much: much oblige if massa do that for _me_, too.” So
I promised to baptize the father and the baby on the same day, and said
that I would be godfather to any children that might be born on the
estate during my residence in Jamaica. This was soon spread about, and
although I have not yet been here a week, two women are in the straw
already, Jug Betty and Minerva: the first is wife to my head driver, the
Duke of Sully; but my sense of propriety was much gratified at finding
that Minerva’s husband was called Captain.
I think nobody will be able to accuse me of neglecting the religious
education of my negroes: for I have not only promised to baptize all the
infants, but, meeting a little black boy this morning, who said that his
name was Moses, I gave him a piece of silver, and told him that it was
for the sake of Aaron; which, I flatter myself, was planting in his
young mind the rudiments of Christianity.
In my evening’s drive I met the negroes, returning from the mountains,
with baskets of provisions sufficient to last them for the week. By
law they are only allowed every other Saturday for the purpose of
cultivating their own grounds, which, indeed, is sufficient; but by
giving them every alternate Saturday into the bargain, it enables them
to perform their task with so much ease as almost converts it into
an amusement; and the frequent visiting their grounds makes them grow
habitually as much attached to them as they are to their houses and
gardens. It is also adviseable for them to bring home only a week’s
provisions at a time, rather than a fortnight’s; for they are so
thoughtless and improvident, that, when they find themselves in
possession of a larger supply than is requisite for their immediate
occasions, they will sell half to the wandering higglers, or at Savanna
la Mar, in exchange for spirits; and then, at the end of the week, they
find themselves entirely unprovided with food, and come to beg a supply
from the master’s storehouse.
JANUARY 9.
The sensitive plant is a great nuisance in Jamaica: it over-runs the
pastures, and, being armed with very strong sharp prickles, it wounds
the mouths of the cattle, and, in some places, makes it quite impossible
for them to feed. Various endeavours have been made to eradicate this
inconvenient weed, but none as yet have proved effectual.
JANUARY 10.
The houses here are generally built and arranged according to one
and the same model. My own is of wood, partly raised upon pillars; it
consists of a single floor: a long gallery, called a piazza, terminated
at each end by a square room, runs the whole length of the house. On
each side of the piazza is a range of bed-rooms, and the porticoes of
the two fronts form two more rooms, with balustrades, and flights of
steps descending to the lawn. The whole house is virandoed with shifting
Venetian blinds to admit air; except that one of the end rooms has
sash-windows on account of the rains, which, when they arrive, are so
heavy, and shift with the wind so suddenly from the one side to the
other, that all the blinds are obliged to be kept closed; consequently
the whole house is in total darkness during their continuance, except
the single sash-windowed room. There is nothing underneath except a few
store-rooms and a kind of waiting-hall; but none of the domestic negroes
sleep in the house, all going home at night to their respective cottages
and families.
Cornwall House itself stands on a dead flat, and the works are built in
its immediate neighbourhood, for the convenience of their being the more
under the agent’s personal inspection (a point of material consequence
with them all, but more particularly for the hospital). This dead flat
is only ornamented with a few scattered bread-fruit and cotton trees, a
grove of mangoes, and the branch of a small river, which turns the mill.
Several of these buildings are ugly enough; but the shops of the cooper,
carpenter, and blacksmith, some of the trees in their vicinity, and the
negro-huts, embowered in shrubberies, and groves of oranges, plantains,
cocoas, and pepper-trees, would be reckoned picturesque in the most
ornamented grounds. A large spreading tamarind fronts me at this moment,
and overshadows the stables, which are formed of open wickerwork; and an
orange-tree, loaded with fruit, grows against the window at which I am
writing.
On three sides of the landscape the prospect is bounded by lofty purple
mountains; and the variety of occupations going on all around me, and
at the same time, give an inconceivable air of life and animation to the
whole scene, especially as all those occupations look clean,--even those
which in England look dirty. All the tradespeople are dressed either
in white jackets and trousers, or with stripes of red and sky-blue. One
band of negroes are carrying the ripe canes on their heads to the mill;
another set are conveying away the _trash_, after the juice has been
extracted; flocks of turkeys are sheltering from the heat under the
trees; the river is filled with ducks and geese; the coopers and
carpenters are employed about the puncheons; carts drawn some by six,
others by eight, oxen, are bringing loads of Indian corn from the
fields; the black children are employed in gathering it into the
granary, and in quarrelling with pigs as black as themselves, who are
equally busy in stealing the corn whenever the children are looking
another way: in short, a plantation possesses all the movement and
interest of a farm, without its dung, and its stench, and its dirty
accompaniments.
JANUARY 11.
I saw the whole process of sugar-making this morning. The ripe canes
are brought in bundles to the mill, where the cleanest of the women
are appointed, one to put them into the machine for grinding them, and
another to draw them out after the juice has been extracted, when she
throws them into an opening in the floor close to her; another band of
negroes collects them below, when, under the name of _trash_, they are
carried away to serve for fuel. The juice, which is itself at first of a
pale ash-colour, gushes out in great streams, quite white with foam,
and passes through a wooden gutter into the boiling-house, where it is
received into the siphon or “cock copper.” where fire is applied to it,
and it is slaked with lime, in order to make it granulate. The feculent
parts of it rise to the top, while the purer and more fluid flow through
another gutter into the second copper. When little but the impure scum
on the surface remains to be drawn off, the first gutter communicating
with the copper is stopped, and the grosser parts are obliged to find a
new course through another gutter, which conveys them to the distillery,
where, being mixed with the molasses, or treacle, they are manufactured
into rum. From the second copper they are transmitted into the first,
and thence into two others, and in these four latter basins the scum is
removed with skimmers pierced with holes, till it becomes sufficiently
free from impurities to be _skipped off_, that is, to be again ladled
out of the coppers and spread into the coolers, where it is left
to granulate. The sugar is then formed, and is removed into the
_curing-house_, where it is put into hogsheads, and left to settle for a
certain time, during which those parts which are too poor and too liquid
to granulate, drip from the casks into vessels placed beneath them:
these drippings are the molasses, which, being carried into the
distillery, and mixed with the coarser scum formerly mentioned, form
that mixture from which the spirituous liquor of sugar is afterwards
produced by fermentation: when but once distilled, it is called “low
wine;” and it is not till after it has gone through a second
distillation, that it acquires the name of rum. The “trash” used for
fuel consists of the empty canes, that which is employed for fodder and
for thatching is furnished by the superabundant cane-tops; after so many
have been set apart as are required for planting. After these original
plants have been cut, their roots throw up suckers, which, in time,
become canes, and are called _ratoons_: they are far inferior in juice
to the planted canes; but then, on the other hand, they require much
less weeding, and spare the negroes the only laborious part of the
business of sugar-making, the digging holes for the plants; therefore,
although an acre of ratoons will produce but one hogshead of sugar,
while an acre of plants will produce two, the superiority of the
ratooned piece is very great, inasmuch as the saving of time and labour
will enable the proprietor to cultivate five acres of ratoons in the
same time with one of plants. Unluckily, after three crops, or five at
the utmost, in general the ratoons are totally exhausted, and you are
obliged to have recourse to fresh plants.
Last night a poor man, named Charles, who had been coachman to my uncle
ages ago, was brought into the hospital, having missed a step in the
boiling-house, and plunged his foot into the siphon: fortunately, the
fire had not long been kindled, and though the liquor was hot enough to
scald him, it was not sufficiently so to do him any material injury.
The old man had presented himself to me on Saturday’s holiday (or
_play-day_, in the negro dialect), and had shown me, with great
exultation, the coat and waistcoat which had been the last present
of his old massa. Charles is now my chief mason, and, as one of the
principal persons on the estate, was entitled, by old custom, to the
compliment of a _distinguishing_ dollar on my arrival; but at the same
time that I gave him the dollar, to which his situation entitled him, I
gave him another for himself, as a keepsake: he put it into the pocket
of “his old massa’s” waistcoat, and assured me that they should never
again be separated. On hearing of his accident, I went over to the
hospital to see that he was well taken care of; and immediately the poor
fellow began talking to me about my grandfather, and his young massa,
and the young missies, his sisters, and while I suffered him to chatter
away for an hour, he totally forgot the pain of his burnt leg.
It was particularly agreeable to me to observe, on Saturday, as a proof
of the good treatment which they had experienced, so many old servants
of the family, many of whom had been born on the estate, and who, though
turned of sixty and seventy, were still strong, healthy, and cheerful.
Many manumitted negroes, also, came from other parts of the country to
this festival, on hearing of my arrival, because, as they said,--“if
they did not come to see massa, they were afraid that it would look
ungrateful, and as if they cared no longer about him and Cornwall, now
that they were free.” So they stayed two or three days on the estate,
coming up to the house for their dinners, and going to sleep at night
among their friends in their own former habitations, the negro huts; and
when they went away, they assured me, that nothing should prevent their
coming back to bid me farewell, before I left the island. All this may
be palaver; but certainly they at least play their parts with such an
air of truth, and warmth, and enthusiasm, that, after the cold hearts
and repulsive manners of England, the contrast is infinitely agreeable.
“Je ne vois que des yeux toujours prêts à sourire.”
I find it quite impossible to resist the fascination of the conscious
pleasure of pleasing; and my own heart, which I have so long been
obliged to keep closed, seems to expand itself again in the sunshine of
the kind looks and words which meet me at every turn, and seem to wait
for mine as anxiously as if they were so many diamonds.
JANUARY 12.