are all brilliant with their numbers. In the day they seem to be torpid
beetles of a dull reddish colour, but at night they become of a shining
purple. The fire proceeds from two small spots in the back part of the
head. It is yellow in the light, and requires motion to throw out its
radiance in perfection; but as soon as it is touched, the fly struggles
violently, and bends itself together with a clicking noise like the snap
of a spring; and I understand that this effort is necessary to set it in
motion. It is sufficiently strong to turn itself upwards with a single
movement, if lying on its back: some people say that it is always
obliged to throw itself upon its back in order to take wing; but this
I have, again, heard others contradict. When confined in a glass, the
light seems almost extinguished; nothing can be discerned but two pale
yellow spots; but on being pressed by the hand it becomes more brilliant
than any emerald, and when on the wing it seems entirely composed of the
most beautifully coloured fire.
FEBRUARY 20.
I attended the Slave Court, where a negro was tried for sheep-stealing,
and a black servant girl for attempting to poison her master. The former
was sentenced to be transported. The latter was a girl of fifteen,
called Minetta: she acknowledged the having infused corrosive sublimate
in some brandy and water; but asserted that she had taken it from the
medicine chest without knowing it to be poison, and had given it to
her master at her grandmother’s desire. This account was evidently a
fabrication: there was no doubt of the grandmother’s innocence, although
some suspicion attached to the mother’s influence; but as to the girl
herself, nothing could be more hardened than her conduct through the
whole transaction. She stood by the bed to see her master drink the
poison; witnessed his agonies without one expression of surprise or
pity; and when she was ordered to leave the room, she pretended to
be fast asleep, and not to hear what was said to her. Even since her
imprisonment, she could never be prevailed upon to say that she was
sorry for her master’s having been poisoned; and she told the people in
the gaol, that “they could do nothing to her, for she had turned king’s
evidence against her grandmother.” She was condemned to die on Thursday
next, the day after to-morrow: she heard the sentence pronounced without
the least emotion; and I am told, that when she went down the steps of
the courthouse, she was seen to laugh.
The trial appeared to be conducted with all possible justice and
propriety; the jury consisted of nine respectable persons; the bench of
three magistrates, and a senior one to preside. There were no lawyers
employed on either side; consequently no appeals to the passions, no
false lights thrown out, no traps, no flaws, no quibbles, no artful
cross-examinings, and no brow-beating of witnesses; and I cannot say
that the trial appeared to me to go on at all the worse. Nobody appeared
to be either for or against the prisoner; the only object of all present
was evidently to come at the truth, and I sincerely believe that they
obtained their object. The only part of the trial of which I disapproved
was the ordering the culprit to such immediate execution, that
sufficient time was not allowed for the exercise of the royal
prerogative, should the governor have been disposed to commute the
punishment for that of transportation.
FEBRUARY 21.
During my excursion to Spanish Town, the complaining negroes of
Friendship, who had applied to me for relief, were summoned to Savannah
la Mar, before the Council of Protection, and the business thoroughly
investigated. Their examination has been sent to me, and they appear
to have had a very fair hearing. The journals of the estate were
produced;--the book-keepers examined upon oath; and in order to make out
a case at all, the chief complainant contradicted himself so grossly,
as left no doubt that the whole was a fabrication. They were, therefore,
dismissed without relief, but also without punishment, in spite of their
gross falsehoods and calumnies; and although they did not gain their
object, I make no doubt that they will go on more contentedly for having
had attention paid to their complaints. It was indeed evident, that
Nelly (the chief complainant) was actuated more by wounded pride than
any real feeling of hardship; for what she laid the most stress upon
was, the overseer’s turning his back upon her, when she stated herself
to be injured, and walking away without giving her any answer.
There are so many pleasing and amusing parts of the character of
negroes, that it seems to me scarcely possible not to like them. But
when they are once disposed to evil, they seem to set no bounds to the
indulgence of their bad passions. A poor girl came into the hospital
to-day, who had had some trifling dispute with two of her companions; on
which the two friends seized her together, and each fixing her teeth on
one of the girl’s hands, bit her so severely, that we greatly fear her
losing the use of both of them. I happened also to ask, this morning, to
whom a skull had belonged, which I had observed fixed on a pole by the
roadside, when returning last from Montego Bay. I was told, that about
five years ago a Mr. Dunbar had given some discontent to his negroes in
the article of clothing them, although, in other respects, he was by no
means a severe master. However, this was sufficient to induce his head
driver, who had been brought up in his own house from infancy, to form
a plot among his slaves to assassinate him; and he was assisted in
this laudable design by two young men from a neighbouring property, who
barely knew Mr. Dunbar by sight, had no enmity against him whatever, and
only joined in the conspiracy in compliment to their worthy friend
the driver. During several months a variety of attempts were made for
effecting their purpose; but accident defeated them; till at length they
were made certain of his intention to dine out at some distance, and of
his being absolutely obliged to return in the evening. An ambuscade was
therefore laid to intercept him; and on his passing a clump of trees,
the assassins sprang upon him, the driver knocked him from his horse,
and in a few moments their clubs despatched him. No one suspected the
driver; but in the course of enquiry, his house as well as the other was
searched, and not only Mr. Dunbar’s watch was found concealed there,
but with it one of his ears, which the villain had carried away, from a
negro belief that, as long as the murderer possesses one of the ears
of his victim, he will never be haunted by his spectre. The
stranger-youths, two of Dunbar’s negroes, and the driver, were tried,
confessed the crime, and were all executed; the head of the latter being
fixed upon a pole _in terrorem_. But while the offenders were still in
prison, the overseer upon a neighbouring property had occasion to find
fault in the field with a woman belonging to a gang hired to perform
some particular work; upon which she flew upon him with the greatest
fury, grasped him by the throat, cried to her fellows--“Come here! come
here! Let us Dunbar him!” and through her strength and the suddenness
of her attack had nearly accomplished her purpose, before his own slaves
could come to his assistance. This woman was also executed.
This happened about five years ago, when the mountains were in a very
rebellious state. Every thing there is at present quiet. But only last
year a book-keeper belonging to the next estate to me was found with
his skull fractured in one of my own cane-pieces; nor have any enquiries
been able to discover the murderer.
FEBRUARY 22.
During many years the Moravians have been established upon the
neighbouring estate of Mesopotamia. As the ecclesiastical commissaries
had said so much to me respecting the great appetite of the negroes for
religious instruction, I was desirous of learning what progress had been
made in this quarter, and this morning I went over to see one of the
teachers. He told me, that he and his wife had jointly used their best
efforts to produce a sense of religion in the minds of the slaves; that
they were all permitted to attend his morning and evening lectures,
if they chose it; but that he could not say that they showed any great
avidity on the subject. It seems that there are at least three hundred
negroes on the estate; the number of believers has rather increased than
diminished, to be sure, but still in a very small proportion. When this
gentleman arrived, there were not more than forty baptised persons: he
has been here upwards of five years, and still the number of persons
“belonging to his church” (as he expressed it) does not exceed fifty. Of
these, seldom more than ten or a dozen attend his lectures at a time. As
to the remaining two hundred and fifty, they take no more notice of his
lectures or his exhortations, than if there were no such person on the
property, are only very civil to him when they see him, and go on in
their own old way, without suffering him to interfere in any shape. By
the overseer of Greenwich’s express desire, the Moravian has, however,
agreed to give up an hour every day for the religious instruction of the
negro children on that property: and I should certainly request him to
extend his labours to Cornwall, if I did not think it right to give
the Church of England clergymen full room for a trial of their intended
periodical visitations; which would not be the case, if the negroes
were to be interfered with by the professors of any other communion:
otherwise I am myself ready to give free ingress and egress upon my
several estates to the teachers of any Christian sect whatever, the
Methodists always excepted, and “Miss Peg, who faints at the sound of an
organ.”
For my own part, I have no hope of any material benefit arising from
these religious visitations made at quarterly intervals. It seems to me
as nugatory as if a man were to sow a field with horse-hair, and expect
a crop of colts.
FEBRUARY 23.
This morning my picture was drawn by a self-taught genius, a negro
Apelles, belonging to Dr. Pope, the minister; and the picture was
exactly such as a self-taught genius might be expected to produce. It
was a straight hard outline, without shade or perspective; the hair
was a large black patch, and the face covered with an uniform layer
of flesh-colour, with a red spot in the centre of each cheek. As to
likeness, there was not even an attempt to take any. But still, such as
they were, there were eyes, nose, and mouth, to be sure. A long red
nose supplied the place of my own snub; an enormous pair of whiskers
stretched themselves to the very corner of my mouth; and in place
of three hairs and a half, the painter, in the superabundance of his
generosity, bestowed upon me a pair of eye-brows more bushy than Dr.
Johnson’s, and which, being formed in an exact semicircle, made the eyes
beneath them stare with an expression of the utmost astonishment. The
negroes, however, are in the highest admiration of the painter’s skill,
and consider the portrait as a striking resemblance; for there is a very
blue coat with very yellow buttons, and white gaiters and trow-sers, and
an eye-glass so big and so blue, that it looks as if I had hung a pewter
plate about my neck; and a bunch of watch-seals larger than those with
which Pope has decorated Belinda’s great great grandsire. John Fuller
(to whom, jointly with Nicholas, the charge of this inestimable treasure
is to be entrusted) could not find words to express his satisfaction at
the performance. “Dere massa coat! and dere him chair him sit in! and
dere massa seals, all just de very same ting! just all as one! And oh!
ki! dere massa pye-glass!” In the midst of his raptures he dropped the
picture, and fractured the frame-glass. His despair now equalled his
former joy;--“Oh, now what for him do? Such a pity! Just to break it
after it was all done so well! All so pretty!” However, we stuck the
broken glass together with wafers, and he carried it off, assuring me,
“that when massa gone, he should talk to it every morning, all one as
if massa still here.” Indeed, this “talking to massa” is a favourite
amusement among the negroes, and extremely inconvenient: they come to me
perpetually with complaints so frivolous, and requests so unreasonable,
that I am persuaded they invent them only to have an excuse for “talk
to massa;” and when I have given them a plump refusal, they go away
perfectly satisfied, and “tank massa for dis here great indulgence of
talk.”
There is an Eboe carpenter named Strap, who was lately sick and in great
danger, and whom I nursed with particular care. The poor fellow thinks
that he never can express his gratitude sufficiently; and whenever he
meets me in the public road, or in the streets of Savannah la Mar, he
rushes towards the carriage, roars out to the postilion to stop, and if
the boy does not obey instantly, he abuses him with all his power; “for
why him no stop when him want talk to massa?”--“But look, Strap, your
beast is getting away!”--“Oh! damn beast, massa.”--“But you should go to
your mountain, or you will get no vittle.”--“Oh, damn vittle, and damn
mountain! me no want vittle, me want talk wid massa;” and then, all that
he has got to say is, “Oh massa, massa! God bless you, massa! me quite,
_quite_ glad to see you come back, my own massa!” And then he bursts
into a roar of laughter so wild and so loud, that the passers-by cannot
help stopping to stare and laugh too.
FEBRUARY 24.
On the Sunday after my first arrival, the whole body of Eboe negroes
came to me to complain of the attorney, and more particularly of one of
the book-keepers. I listened to them, if not with unwearied patience,
at least with unsubdued fortitude, for above an hour and a half; and
finding some grounds for their complaint against the latter, in a few
days I went down to their quarter of the village, told them that to
please them I had discharged the book-keeper, named a day for examining
their other grievances, and listened to them for an hour more. When the
day of trial came, they sent me word that they were perfectly satisfied,
and had no complaint to make. I was, therefore, much surprised to
receive a visit from Edward, the Eboe, yesterday evening, who informed
me, that during my absence his fellows had formed a plan of making a
complaint _en masse_ to a neighbouring magistrate; and that, not only
against the attorney, but against myself “for not listening to them when
they were injured;” and Edward claimed great merit with me for having
prevented their taking this step, and convinced them, that while I was
on the estate myself, there could be no occasion for applying to a third
person. Now, having made me aware of my great obligations to him, here
Edward meant the matter to rest; but being a good deal incensed at
their ingratitude, I instantly sent for the Eboes, and enquired into the
matter; when it appeared, that Edward (who is a clever fellow, and has
great influence over the rest) had first goaded them into a resolution
of complaining to a magistrate, had then stopped them from putting their
plan into execution, and that the whole was a plot of Edward’s, in order
to make a merit with me for himself at the expense of his countrymen.
However, as they confessed their having had the intention of applying
to Mr. Hill as a magistrate, I insisted upon their executing their
intention. I told them, that as Mr. Hill was the person whom they had
selected for their protector, to Mr. Hill they should go; that they
should either make their complaint to him against me, or confess that
they had been telling lies, and had no complaint to make; and that, as
the next day was to be a play-day given them by me, instead of passing
it at home in singing and dancing, they should pass it at the Bay in
stating their grievances.
This threw them into terrible confusion; they cried out that they wanted
to make no complaint whatever, and that it was all Edward’s fault, who
had misled them. Three of them, one after the other, gave him the lie to
his face; and each and all (Edward as well as the rest) declared that go
to the Bay they absolutely would _not_. The next morning they were all
at the door waiting for my coming out: they positively refused to go to
Mr. Hill, and begged and prayed, and humbled themselves; now scraping
and bowing to me, and then blackguarding Edward with all their might and
main; and when I ordered the driver to take charge of them, and carry
them to Mr. Hill, some of them fairly took to their heels, and ran away.
However, the rest soon brought them back again, for they swore that
if one went, all should go; and away they were marched, in a string of
about twenty, with the driver at their head. When they got to the Bay,
they told Mr. Hill that, as to their massa, they had no complaint to
make against him, except that he had compelled them to make one; and
what they said against the attorney was so trifling, that the magistrate
bade the driver take them all back again. Upon which they slunk away to
their houses, while the Creoles cried out “Shame! shame!” as they passed
along.
Indeed, the Creoles could not have received a greater pleasure than
the mortification of the Eboes; for the two bodies hate each other as
cordially as the Guelphs and Ghibellines; and after their departure
for the Bay, I heard the head cook haranguing a large audience, and
declaring it to be her fixed opinion, “that massa ought to sell all the
Eboes, and buy Creoles instead.” Probably, Mrs. Cook was not the less
loud in her exclamations against the ingratitude of the Eboes, from her
own loyalty having lately been questioned. She had found fault one day
in the hospital with some women who feigned sickness in order to remain
idle. “You no work willing for massa,” said Mrs. Cook, “and him so vex,
him say him go to Kingston to-morrow, and him wish him neber come back
again!”--“What!” cried Philippa, the mad woman, “you wish massa neber
come back from Kingston?” So she gave Mrs. Cook a box on the ear with
all her might; upon which Mrs. Cook snatched up a stick and broke the
mad woman’s pate with it. But though she could beat a hole in her head,
she never could beat out of it her having said that she wished massa
might never come back. And although Philippa has recovered her senses,
in her belief of Mrs. Cook’s disloyalty she continues firm; and they
never meet without renewing the dispute.
To-day being a play-day, the gaiety of the negroes was promoted by a
distribution of an additional quantity of salt-fish (which forms a most
acceptable ingredient in their pepper-pots), and as much rum and sugar
as they chose to drink. But there was also a dinner prepared at the
house where the “white people” reside, expressly for none but the
_piccaninny-mothers_; that is, for the women who had children living. I
had taken care, when this play-day was announced by the head driver, to
make him inform the negroes that they were indebted for it entirely to
these mothers; and to show them the more respect, I went to them after
dinner myself, and drank their healths. The most respectable blacks on
the estate were also assembled in the room; and I then told them that
clothes would wear out, and money would be spent, and that I wished to
give them something more lasting than clothes or money. The law
only allows them, as a matter of right, every alternate Saturday for
themselves, and holidays for three days at Christmas, which, with all
Sundays, forms their whole legal time of relaxation. I therefore granted
them as a matter of right, and of which no person should deprive them on
any account whatever, _every_ Saturday to cultivate their grounds; and
in addition to their holidays at Christmas, I gave them for play-days
Good-Friday, the second Friday in October, and the second Friday in
July. By which means, they will in future have the same number of
holidays four times a year, which hitherto they have been allowed only
once, i.e. at Christmas. The first is to be called “the royal play-day,”
in honour of that excellent Princess, the Duchess of York; and the
negroes are directed to give three cheers upon the head driver’s
announcing “The health of our good lady, H. R. H. the Duchess of York.”
And I told them, that before my leaving the island, I should hear them
drink this health, and should not fail to let Her Royal Highness know,
that the negroes of Cornwall drank her health every year. This evidently
touched the right chord of their vanity, and they all bowed and
courtesied down to the very ground, and said, that would do them much
high honour. The ninth being my own birthday, the July play-day is to
be called “the massa’s” and that in October is to be in honour of the
piccaninny-mothers, from whom it is to take its name.
The poor creatures overflowed with gratitude; and the prospective
indulgences which had just been announced, gave them such an increase of
spirits, that on returning to my own residence, they fell to singing and
dancing again with as much violence as if they had been a pack of French
furies at the Opera. The favourite song of the night was,
“Since massa come, we very well off;”
which words they repeated in chorus, without intermission (dancing all
the time), for hours together; till, at half-past three, neither my eyes
nor my brain could endure it any longer, and I was obliged to send them
word that I wanted to go to bed, and could not sleep till the noise
should cease. The idea of my going to bed seemed never to have occurred
to them till that moment. Fortunately, like Johnson’s definition of wit,
“the idea, although novel, was immediately acknowledged to be just.” So
instantly the drums and gumbies left off beating; the children left
off singing; the women and men left off dancing; and they all with one
accord fell to kicking, and pulling, and thumping about two dozen of
their companions, who were lying fast asleep upon the floor. Some were
roused, some resisted, some began fighting, some got up and lay down
again; but at length, by dint of their leading some, carrying others,
and rolling the remainder down the steps, I got my house clear of my
black guests about four in the morning.
Another of their popular songs this evening was--
“All the stories them telling you are lies, oh!”
which was meant as a satire upon the Eboes. My friend Strap being an
Eboe, and one who had hitherto generally taken a leading part in all
the discontents and squabbles of his countrymen, I was not without
apprehensions of his having been concerned in the late complaint. I was,
therefore, much pleased to find that he had positively refused to take
any share in the business, and had been to the full as violent as any of
the Creoles in reprobating the ingratitude of the Eboes. Today he
came up to the house dressed in his best clothes, to show me his seven
children; and he marched at their head in all the dignity of paternal
pride. He begged me particularly to notice two fine little girls, who
were twins. I told him that I had seen them already. “Iss! iss!” he
said; “massa see um; but massa no _admire_ um enough yet.” Upon which
I fell to admiring them, tooth and nail, and the father went away quite
proud and satisfied.
FEBRUARY 25.