village. I walked through my own to-day, and visited the houses of the
drivers, and other principal persons; and if I were to decide according
to my own taste, I should infinitely have preferred their habitations
to my own. Each house is surrounded by a separate garden, and the
whole village is intersected by lanes, bordered with all kinds of
sweet-smelling and flowering plants; but not such gardens as those
belonging to our English cottages, where a few cabbages and carrots just
peep up and grovel upon the earth between hedges, in square narrow beds,
and where the tallest tree is a gooseberry bush: the vegetables of the
negroes are all cultivated in their provision-grounds; these form their
_kitchen-gardens_, and these are all for ornament or luxury, and are
filled with a profusion of oranges, shaddocks, cocoa-nuts, and peppers
of all descriptions: in particular I was shown the abba, or palm-tree,
resembling the cocoa-tree, but much more beautiful, as its leaves are
larger and more numerous, and, feathering to the ground as they grow
old, they form a kind of natural arbour. It bears a large fruit, or
rather vegetable, towards the top of the tree, in shape like the cone of
the pine, but formed of seeds, some scarlet and bright as coral, others
of a brownish-red or purple. The abba requires a length of years to
arrive at maturity: a very fine one, which was shown me this morning,
was supposed to be upwards of an hundred years old; and one of a very
moderate size had been planted at the least twenty years, and had only
borne fruit once.
It appears to me a strong proof of the good treatment which the negroes
on Cornwall have been accustomed to receive, that there are many very
old people upon it; I saw to-day a woman near a hundred years of age;
and I am told that there are several of sixty, seventy, and eighty. I
was glad, also, to find, that several negroes who have obtained their
freedom, and possess little properties of their own in the mountains,
and at Savannah la Mar, look upon my estate so little as the scene of
their former sufferings while slaves, that they frequently come down
to pass a few days in their ancient habitations with their former
companions, by way of relaxation. One woman in particular expressed her
hopes, that I should not be offended at her still coming to Cornwall now
and then, although she belonged to it no longer; and begged me to give
directions before my return to England, that her visits should not be
hindered on the grounds of her having no business there.
My visit to Jamaica has at least produced one advantage to myself.
Several runaways, who had disappeared for some time (some even for
several months), have again made their appearance in the field, and I
have desired that no questions should be asked. On the other hand, after
enjoying herself during the Saturday and Sunday, which were allowed for
holidays on my arrival, one of my ladies chose to _pull foot_, and did
not return from her hiding-place in the mountains till this morning. Her
name is Marcia; but so unlike is she to Addison’s Marcia, that she is
not only as black as Juba, (instead of being “fair, oh! how divinely
fair!”) but,--whereas Sempronius complains, that “Marcia, the lovely
Marcia, is left behind,” the complaint against my heroine is, that
“Marcia, the lovely Marcia,” is always running away. In excuse for her
disappearance she alleged, that so far was her husband from thinking
that “she towered above her sex,” that he had called her “a very bad
woman,” which had provoked her so much, that she could not bear to stay
with him; and she assured me, that he was himself “a very bad man;”
which, if true, was certainly enough to justify any lady, black
or white, in making a little incognito excursion for a week or so;
therefore, as it appeared to be nothing more than a conjugal quarrel,
and as Marcia engaged never to run away any more (at the same time
allowing that she had suffered her resentment to carry her too far, when
it had carried her all the way to the mountains), I desired that an act
of oblivion might be passed in favour of Cato’s daughter, and away she
went, quite happy, to pick hog’s meat.
The negro houses are composed of wattles on the outside, with rafters of
sweet-wood, and are well plastered within and whitewashed; they consist
of two chambers, one for cooking and the other for sleeping, and are, in
general, well furnished with chairs, tables, &c., and I saw none without
a four-post bedstead and plenty of bed-clothes; for, in spite of the
warmth of the climate, when the sun is not above the horizon the negro
always feels very chilly. I am assured that many of my slaves are very
rich (and their property is inviolable), and that they are I’ll never
without salt provisions, porter, and even wine, to entertain their
friends and their visiters from the bay or the mountains. As I passed
through their grounds, many little requests were preferred to me: one
wanted an additional supply of lime for the whitewashing his house;
another was building a new house for a superannuated wife (for they have
all so much decency as to call their sexual attachments by a conjugal
name), and wanted a little assistance towards the finishing it; a third
requested a new axe to work with; and several entreated me to negotiate
the purchase of some relation or friend belonging to another estate, and
with whom they were anxious to be reunited: but all their requests were
for additional indulgences; not one complained of ill-treatment, hunger,
or over-work.
Poor Nicholas gave me a fresh instance of his being one of those whom
Fortune pitches upon to show her spite: he has had four children, none
of whom are alive; and the eldest of them, a fine little girl of four
years old, fell into the mill-stream, and was drowned before any one was
aware of her danger. His wife told me that she had had fifteen children,
had taken the utmost care of them, and yet had now but two alive:
she said, indeed, fifteen at the first, but she afterwards corrected
herself, and explained that she had had twelve whole children and three
half ones by which she meant miscarriages.
Besides the profits arising from their superabundance of provisions,
which the better sort of negroes are enabled to sell regularly once
a week at Savannah la Mar to a considerable amount, they keep a large
stock of poultry, and pigs without number; which latter cost their
owners but little, though they cost me a great deal; for they generally
make their way into the cane-pieces, and sometimes eat me up an hogshead
of sugar in the course of the morning: but the most expensive of the
planter’s enemies are the rats, whose numbers are incredible, and are so
destructive that a reward is given for killing them. During the last six
months my agent has paid for three thousand rats killed upon Cornwall.
Nor is the sugar which they consume the worst damage which they commit;
the worst mischief is, that if through the carelessness of those whose
business it is to supply the mill, one cane which has been gnawed by the
rats is allowed admittance, that single damaged piece is sufficient to
produce acidity enough to spoil the whole sugar.
JANUARY 17.
In this country there is scarcely any twilight, and all nature seems to
wake at the same moment. About six o’clock the darkness disperses, the
sun rises, and instantly every thing is in motion: the negroes are
going to the field, the cattle are driving to pasture, the pigs and the
poultry are pouring out from their hutches, the old women are preparing
food on the lawn for the _pickaninnies_ (the very small children), whom
they keep feeding at all hours of the day; and all seem to be going to
their employments, none to their work, the men and the women just as
quietly and leisurely as the pigs and the poultry. The sight is really
quite gay and amusing, and I am generally out of bed in time to enjoy
it, especially as the continuance of the cool north breezes renders the
weather still delicious, though the pleasure is rather an expensive
one. Not a drop of rain has fallen since the 16th of November; the young
canes are burning; and the drying quality of these norths is still more
detrimental than the want of rain, so that these winds may be said to
blow my pockets inside out; and as every draught of air, which I inhale
with so much pleasure, is estimated to cost me a guinea, I feel, while
breathing it, like Miss Burney’s Citizen at Vauxhall, who kept muttering
to himself with every bit of ham that he put into his mouth, “There goes
sixpence, and there goes a shilling!”
JANUARY 18.
A Galli-wasp, which was killed in the neighbouring morass, has just
been brought to me. This is the Alligator in miniature, and is even more
dreaded by the negroes than its great relation: it is only to be found
in swamps and morasses: that which was brought to me was about eighteen
inches in length, and I understand that it is seldom longer, although,
as it grows in years, its thickness and the size of its jaws and
head become greatly increased. It runs away on being encountered, and
conceals itself; and it is only dangerous if trampled upon by accident,
or if attacked; but then its bite is a dreadful one, not only from its
tongue being armed with a sting (the venom of which is very powerful,
although not mortal), but from its teeth being so brittle that they
generally break in the wound, and as it is hardly possible to extract
the pieces entirely, the wound corrupts, and becomes an incurable sore
of the most offensive nature. Luckily, these reptiles are very scarce,
but nothing can exceed the terror and aversion in which they are held by
the negroes. This dead one had been lying in the room for several
hours, yet, on my servant’s accidentally stirring the board on which
the galli-wasp was stretched for my inspection, my little negro servant
George darted out of the room in terror, and was at the bottom of the
staircase in a moment. The skin of this animal appeared to be like
shagreen in looks and strength, and was almost entirely composed of
layers of very small scales; the colours were brownish-yellow and
olive-green, the teeth numerous and piercing, and the claws of the feet
very long and sharp: altogether it is a hideous and disgusting creature.
As to the alligator of Jamaica, it is a timid animal, which never
was known to attack the human species, though it frequently takes the
liberty of running away with a dog or two, which appears to be their
venison and turtle. There is no river on my estate large enough for
their inhabiting; but, in Paradise River, which is not above four miles
off, I understand that they are common.
JANUARY 19.
A young mulatto carpenter, belonging to Horace Beckford’s estate of
Shrewsbury, came to beg my intercession with his overseer. He had been
absent two days without leave, and on these occasions it is customary
for the slaves to apply to some neighbouring gentleman for a note in
their behalf’ which, as I am told, never fails to obtain the pardon
required, as the managers of estates are in general but too happy to
find an excuse for passing over without punishment any offences which
are not very heinous; indeed, what with the excellent laws already
enacted for the protection of the slaves, and which every year are still
further ameliorated, and what with the difficulty of procuring more
negroes--(which can now only be done by purchasing them from other
estates),--which makes it absolutely necessary for the managers to
preserve the slaves, if they mean to preserve their own situations,--I
am fully persuaded that instances of tyranny to negroes are now very
rare, at least in this island. But I must still acknowledge, from my own
sad experience, since my arrival, that unless a West-Indian proprietor
occasionally visit his estates himself, it is utterly impossible for him
to be _certain_ that his deputed authority is not abused, however good
may be his intentions, and however vigilant his anxiety.
My father was one of the most humane and generous persons that ever
existed; there was no indulgence which he ever denied his negroes, and
his letters were filled with the most absolute injunctions for their
good treatment. When his estates became mine, the one upon which I am
now residing was managed by an attorney, considerably advanced in years,
who had been long in our employment, and who bore the highest character
for probity and humanity. He was both attorney and overseer; and it was
a particular recommendation to me that he lived in my own house, and
therefore had my slaves so immediately under his eye, that it was
impossible for any subaltern to misuse them without his knowledge. His
letters to me expressed the greatest anxiety and attention respecting
the welfare and comfort of the slaves;--so much so, indeed, that when I
detailed his mode of management to Lord Holland, he observed, “that if
he did all that was mentioned in his letters, he did as much as could
possibly be expected or wished from an attorney;” and on parting with
his own, Lord Holland was induced to take mine to manage his estates,
which are in the immediate neighbourhood of Cornwall. This man died
about two years ago, and since my arrival, I happened to hear, that
during his management a remarkably fine young penn-keeper, named Richard
(the brother of my intelligent carpenter, John Fuller), had run away
several times to the mountains. I had taken occasion to let the
brothers know, between jest and earnest, that I was aware of Richard’s
misconduct; and at length, one morning, John, while he blamed his
brother’s running away, let fall, that he had some excuse in the extreme
ill-usage which he had received from one of the bookkeepers, who “had
had a spite against him.” The hint alarmed me; I followed it, and
nothing could equal my anger and surprise at learning the whole truth.
It seems, that while I fancied my attorney to be resident on Cornwall,
he was, in fact, generally attending to a property of his own, or
looking after estates of which also he had the management in distant
parts of the island. During his absence, an overseer of his own
appointing, without my knowledge, was left in absolute possession of
his power, which he abused to such a degree, that almost every slave
of respectability on the estate was compelled to become a runaway. The
property was nearly ruined, and absolutely in a state of rebellion; and
at length he committed an act of such severity, that the negroes,
one and all, fled to Savannah la Mar, and threw themselves upon the
protection of the magistrates, who immediately came over to Cornwall,
investigated the complaint, and _now_, at length, the attorney, who
had known frequent instances of the overseer’s tyranny, had frequently
rebuked him for them, and had redressed the sufferers, but who still
had dared to abuse my confidence so grossly as to continue him in his
situation, upon this public exposure thought proper to dismiss him. Yet,
while all this was going on--while my negroes were groaning under the
iron rod of this petty tyrant--and while the public magistrature was
obliged to interfere to protect them from his cruelty--my attorney had
the insolence and falsehood to write me letters, filled with assurances
of his perpetual vigilance for their welfare--of their perfect good
treatment and satisfaction; nor, if I had not come myself to Jamaica,
in all probability should I ever have had the most distant idea how
abominably the poor creatures had been misused.
I have made it my business to mix as much as possible among the negroes,
and have given them every encouragement to repose confidence in me; and
I have uniformly found all those, upon whom any reliance can be
placed, unite in praising the humanity of their present superintendant.
Instantly on his arrival, he took the whole power of punishment into his
own hands: he forbade the slightest interference in this respect of any
person whatever on the estate, white or black; nor have I been able to
find as yet any one negro who has any charge of harsh treatment to bring
against him.
However, having been already so grossly deceived, I will never again
place implicit confidence in any person whatever in a matter of such
importance. Before my departure, I shall take every possible measure
that may prevent any misconduct taking place without my being apprised
of it as soon as possible; and I have already exhorted my negroes to
apply to the magistrates on the very first instance of ill-usage, should
any occur during my absence.
I am indeed assured by every one about me, that to manage a West-Indian
estate without the occasional use of the cart-whip, however rarely, is
impossible; and they insist upon it, that it is absurd in me to call
my slaves ill-treated, because, when they act grossly wrong, they are
treated like English soldiers and sailors. All this may be very true;
but there is something to me so shocking in the idea of this execrable
cart-whip, that I have positively forbidden the use of it on Cornwall;
and if the estate must go to rack and ruin without its use, to rack
and ruin the estate must go. Probably, I should care less about this
punishment, if I had not been living among those on whom it may be
inflicted; but now, when I am accustomed to see every face that looks
upon me, grinning from ear to ear with pleasure at my notice, and
hear every voice cry “God bless you, massa,” as I pass, one must be an
absolute brute not to feel unwilling to leave them subject to the lash;
besides, they are excellent cajolers, and lay it on with a trowel.
Nicholas and John Fuller came to me this morning to beg a favour, “and
beg massa hard, quite hard!” It was, that when massa went away, “he would
leave his picture for the negroes;” that they might talk to it, “all just
as they did to massa.” Shakspeare says--
“A little flattery does well sometimes!”
But, although the mode of expressing it may be artifice, the sentiment
of good-will may be shown. A dog grows attached to the person who feeds
and makes much of him; and as they have never experienced as yet any but
kind treatment from me personally, it would be against common sense and
nature to suppose that my negroes do not feel kindly towards me.
JANUARY 20.
THE RUNAWAY.
Peter, Peter was a black boy;
Peter, him pull foot one day:
Buckra girl, him * Peter’s joy;
Lilly white girl entice him away.
Fye, Missy Sally, fye on you!
Poor Blacky Peter why undo?
Oh! Peter, Peter was a bad boy;
Peter was a runaway.
* _The negroes never distinguish between “him” and “her” in their
conversation_.
Peter, him Massa thief--Oh! fye!
Missy Sally, him say him do so.
Him money spent, Sally bid him bye.
And from Peter away him go;
Fye, Missy Sally, fye on you!
Poor Blacky Peter what him do?
Oh! Peter, Peter was a sad boy;
Peter was a runaway!
Peter, him go to him Massa back;
There him humbly own him crime:
“Massa, forgib one poor young Black!
Oh! Massa, good Massa, forgib dis time!”--
Then in come him Missy so fine, so gay,
And to him Peter thus him say:
“Oh! Missy, good Missy, you for me pray!
Beg Massa forgib poor runaway!”
“Missy, you cheeks so red, so white;
Missy, you eyes like diamond shine I
Missy, you Massa’s sole delight,
And Lilly Sally, him was mine!
Him say--6 Come, Peter, mid me go!’--
Could me refuse him? Could me say 6 no?’--»
Poor Peter--‘no’ him could no say!
So Peter, Peter ran away!”--
Him Missy him pray; him Massa so kind
Was moved by him prayer, and to Peter him says
“Well, boy, for this once I forgive you!--but mind!
With the buckra girls you no more go away!
Though fair without, they’re foul within;
Their heart is black, though white their skin.
Then Peter, Peter with me stay;
Peter no more run away!”--
JANUARY 21. (Sunday.)
The hospital has been crowded, since my arrival, with patients who
have nothing the matter with them. On Wednesday there were about thirty
invalids, of whom only four were cases at all serious; the rest had “a
lilly pain here, Massa,” or “a bad pain me know nowhere, Massa,” and
evidently only came to the hospital in order to sit idle, and chat away
the time with their friends. Four of them the doctor ordered into the
field peremptorily; the next day there came into the sick-house six
others; upon this I resolved to try my own hand at curing them; and
I directed the head-driver to announce, that the presents which I had
brought from England should be distributed to-day, that the new-born
children should be christened, and that the negroes might take
possession of my house, and amuse themselves till twelve at night. The
effect of my prescription was magical; two thirds of the sick were hale
and hearty, at work in the field on Saturday morning, and to-day not a
soul remained in the hospital except the four serious cases.
The christening took place about four o’clock. Sully’s infant, which
had been destined to perform a part on this occasion, had died in
the hospital; but this morning the father came to complain of his
disappointment, and to beg leave to substitute a child _by another_
wife, which had been born about two months before my arrival; and as
the father is a very serviceable fellow, and the mother, besides having
brought up three children of her own, had the additional merit of having
reared an infant whose own mother had died in child-bed, I broke through
the rule of only christening those myself who should be born since my
coming to Jamaica, and granted his request. By good luck, the first
child to be named was the offspring of Minerva and Captain; so I told
the parents that as it would be highly proper to call the boy after
the greatest Captain that the world could produce, he should be named
Wellington; and that I hoped that he would grow up to serve _me_ in
Jamaica as well as the Duke of Wellington had served his massa, the
King of England, in Europe. The Duke of Sully’s child I wanted to call
Navarre; but the father had brought over a free negro from Savannah la
Mar to stand godfather, who was his _fidus Achates_, by the name of John
Davies, and I found that he had set his heart upon calling the boy John
Lewis, after his friend and myself; so John Lewis he was.
There ought to have been a third child, born at seven months, whom
the _graundee_ had reared with great difficulty, and dismissed, quite
strong, from the hospital; the mother had taken great care of it
till the tenth day, when she was entitled to an allowance of clothes,
provisions, &c.; but no sooner had she received her reward, than on that
very night she suffered the child to remain so long without food, while
she went herself to dance on a neighbouring estate, that it was brought,
in an exhausted state, back to the hospital; and, in spite of every
care, it expired within four and twenty hours after its return.
The ceremony was performed with perfect gravity and propriety by all
parties; I thought it as well to cut the reading part of it very short;
but I read a couple of prayers, marked the foreheads of the children
with the sign of the cross, and, instead of the concluding prayer, I
substituted a wish, “that God would bless the children, and make them
live to be as good servants to me, as I prayed him to make me a kind
massa to them;” upon which all present very gravely made me their lowest
bows and courtesies, and then gave me a loud huzza; so unusual a mode
of approbation at a christening that it had nearly overturned my
seriousness; and I made haste to serve out Madeira to the parents and
assistants, that they might drink the healths of the new Christians and
of each other. The mothers and the _graindee_ were then called up to
the table, and the ladies in a family way were arranged behind them.
_Their_ title in Jamaica is rather coarse, but very expressive. I asked
Cubina one day “who was that woman with a basket on her head?”
“Massa,” he answered, “that one belly-woman going to sell provisions
at the Bay.” As she was going to sell _provisions_, I supposed that
_belly_-woman was the name of her trade; but it afterwards appeared that
she was one of those females who had given in their names as being then
labouring under
“The pleasing punishment which women bear;”