off, that the water-mill did not work properly, and it was concluded
that the grating was clogged up with rubbish. To clear it away, a negro
immediately jumped down into the trench upon a log of wood; when he felt
the log move under him, and of course jumped out again with all possible
expedition. It was then discovered that the impediment in question
proceeded from a large alligator which had wandered from the morass,
and, in the hope of finding his way to the river, had swam up the
mill-trench till he found himself stopped by the grating; and the banks
being too high for him to gain them by leaping upwards, and the place
of his confinement too narrow to admit of his turning round to go back
again, his escape was impossible, and a ball, lodged near his eye, soon
put an end to him. I went over to see him this morning; but I was not
contented with merely seeing him, so I begged to have a steak cut off
for me, brought it home, and ordered it to be broiled for dinner. One of
the negroes happened to see it in the kitchen; the news spread through
the estate like wildfire; and I had immediately half a dozen different
deputations, all hoping that massa would not think of eating the
alligator, for it was poisonous. However, I was obstinate, and found the
taste of the flesh, when broiled with pepper and salt, and assisted by
an onion sauce, by no means to be despised; but the consistence of the
meat was disagreeable, being as tough as a piece of eel-skin. Perhaps
any body who wishes to eat alligator steaks in perfection, ought to keep
them for two or three days before dressing them; or the animal’s age
might be in fault, for the fellow was so old that he had scarcely
a tooth in his head; I therefore contented myself with two or three
morsels; but a person who was dining with me ate a whole steak, and
pronounced the dish to be a very good one. The eggs are said to be
very palatable; nor have the negroes who live near morasses, the same
objection with those of Cornwall to eating the flesh; it is, however,
true that the gall of the alligator, if not extracted carefully, will
render the whole animal unfit for food; and when this gall is reduced to
powder, it forms a poison of the most dangerous nature, as the negroes
know but too well.
FEBRUARY 26.
I had given the most positive orders that no person whatever should
presume to strike a negro, or give him abusive language, or, however
great the offence might be, should inflict any punishment, except by
the sole direction of the trustee himself. Yet, although I had already
discharged one bookkeeper on this account, this evening another of them
had a dispute in the boiling-house with an African named Frank, because
a pool of water was not removed fast enough; upon which he called him a
rascal, sluiced him with the dirty water, and finally knocked him down
with the broom. The African came to me instantly; four eye-witnesses,
who were examined separately, proved the truth of his ill-usage; and I
immediately discharged the book-keeper, who had contented himself with
simply denying the blow having been given by him: but I told him that I
could not possibly allow his single unsupported denial to outweigh five
concordant witnesses to the assertion; and that, if he grounded his
claim to being believed merely upon his having a white skin, he
would find that, on Cornwall estate at least, that claim would not be
admitted. The fact was established as evident as the sun; and nothing
should induce me to retain him on my property, except his finding some
means of appeasing the injured negro, and prevailing on him to intercede
in his behalf. This was an humiliation to which he could not bring
himself to stoop; and, accordingly, the man has left the estate.
Probably, indeed, the attempt at reconciliation would have been
unsuccessful; for when one of his companions asked Frank whether, if
Mr. Barker would make him a present, he had not better take it, and
beg massa to let him stay, he exclaimed, in the true spirit of a
Zanga,--“No, no, no! me no want present! me no want noting! Me no beg
for Mr. Barker! him go away!”--I was kept awake the greatest part of the
night by the songs and rejoicings of the negroes, at their triumph over
the offending book-keeper.
FEBRUARY 27.
The only horned cattle said to be fit for Jamaica work, are those which
have a great deal of black in them. The white are terribly tormented
by the insects, and they are weak and sluggish in proportion to their
quantity of white. On the contrary I am told that such a thing as
a black horse is not to be found in the island; those which may be
imported black soon change their colour into a bay; and colts are said
to have been dropped perfectly black, which afterwards grew lighter and
lighter till they arrived at being perfectly white.
FEBRUARY 28.
Hearing that a manati (the sea-cow) had been taken at the mouth of
the Cabrita River, and was kept alive at the Hope Wharf I got a
sailing-boat, and went about eight miles to see the animal. It was
suffered to live in the sea, a rope being fastened round it, by which
it could be landed at pleasure. It was a male, and a very young one, not
exceeding nine feet in length, whereas they have frequently been found
on the outside of eighteen. The females yield a quart of milk at a
time: a gentleman told me that he had tasted it, and could not have
distinguished it from the sweetest cow’s milk. Unlike the seal, it never
comes on shore, although it ventures up rivers in the night, to feed on
the grass of their banks; but during the day it constantly inhabits the
ocean, where its chief enemy is the shark, whose attacks it beats off
with its tail, the strength of which is prodigious. It was killed this
morning, and the gentleman to whom it belonged was obliging enough
to send me part of it; we roasted it for dinner, and, except that its
consistence was rather firmer, I should not have known it from veal.
FEBRUARY 29.
The wife of an old negro on the neighbouring estate of Anchovy had
lately forsaken him for a younger lover. One night, when she happened to
be alone, the incensed husband entered her hut unexpectedly, abused her
with all the rage of jealousy, and demanded the clothes to be restored,
which he had formerly given her. On her refusal he drew a knife, and
threatened to cut them off her back; nor could she persuade him to
depart, till she had received a severe beating. He had but just left the
hut, when he encountered his successful rival, who was returning home:
a quarrel instantly ensued; and the husband, having the knife still
unsheathed in his hand, plunged it into the neck of his antagonist. It
pierced the jugular vein; of course the man fell dead on the spot; and
the murderer has been sent to Montego Bay, to take his trial.
MARCH 1. (Friday.)
One of my house-boys, named Prince, is son to the Duke of Sully; and
to-day his Grace came to beg that, when I should leave Jamaica, I would
direct the boy to be made a tradesman, instead of being sent back to be
a common field-negro: but my own shops are not only full at present, but
loaded with future engagements. Sully then requested that I would send
his son to learn some other trade (a tailor’s, for instance) at Savannah
la Mar, as had been frequently done in former times; but this, also, I
was obliged to refuse. I told him, that formerly a master could pay for
the apprenticeship of a clever negro boy, and, instead of employing him
afterwards on the estate, could content himself with being repaid by
a share of the profits; but that, since The Abolition had made it
impossible for the proprietor of an estate to supply the place of one
negro by the purchase of another, it would be unjust to his companions
to suffer any one in particular to be withdrawn from service; as in
that case two hundred and ninety-nine would have to do the work, which
was now performed by three hundred; and, therefore, I could allow my
negroes to apply themselves to no trades but such as related to the
business of the property, such as carpenters, coopers, smiths, &c. “All
true, massa,” said Sully; “all fair and just; and, to be sure, a tailor
or a saddler would be of no great use towards your planting and getting
in your crop; nor----”
He hesitated for a moment, and then added, with a look of doubt, and in
a lower voice,--“Nor--nor a fiddler either, I suppose, massa?” I began
to laugh. “No, indeed, Sully; nor a fiddler either!” It seems the lad,
who is about sixteen, very thoughtless, and _un tantino_ stupid, has a
passion for playing the fiddle, and, among other trades, had suggested
this to his father, as one which would be extremely to his taste. We
finally settled, that when the plough should be introduced on my estate
(which I am very anxious to accomplish, and substitute the labour of
oxen for that of negroes, wherever it can possibly be done), Prince
should be instructed in farming business, and in the mean while should
officiate as a pen-keeper to look after the cattle.
Just now Prince came to me with a request of his own. “Massa, please, me
want one little coat.”--“A little coat! For what?”--“Massa, please, for
wear when me go down to the Bay.”--“And why should you wear a little
coat when you go to the Bay?”--“Massa, please, make me look eerie
(buckish) when me go abroad.” So I assured him that he looked quite
eerie enough already; and that, as I was going away too soon to admit
of my seeing him in his little coat, there could not be the slightest
occasion for his being a bit _eerier_ than he was. A master in England
would probably have been not a little astonished at receiving such a
request from one of his groom-boys; but here one gets quite accustomed
to them; and when they are refused, the petitioners frequently laugh
themselves at their own unreasonableness.
MARCH 2.
Most of those negroes who are tolerably industrious, breed cattle on my
estate, which are their own peculiar property, and by the sale of which
they obtain considerable sums. The pasturage of a steer would amount, in
this country, to £12 a year; but the negro cattle get their grass from
me without its costing them a farthing; and as they were very desirous
that I should be their general purchaser, I ordered them to agree among
themselves as to what the price should be. It was, therefore, settled
that I should take their whole stock, good and bad indifferently, at the
rate of £15 a head for every three-year-old beast; and they expressed
themselves not only satisfied, but very grateful for my acceptance of
their proposal. John Fuller and the beautiful Psyche had each a steer
to sell (how Psyche came to be so rich, I had too much discretion to
enquire), and they were paid down their £15 a piece instantly, which
they carried off with much glee.
MARCH 3. (Sunday.)
In this country it may be truly said that “it never rains but it pours.”
After a drought of three months, it began to rain on Thursday morning,
and has never stopped raining since, with thunder all the day, and
lightning all the night; one consequence of which incessant showers is,
that it has brought out all sorts of insects and reptiles in crowds: the
ground is covered with lizards; the air is filled with mosquitoes, and
their bite is infinitely more envenomed than on my first arrival. A
centipede was found squeezed to death under the door of my bed-room this
morning. As to the cock-roaches, they are absolutely in legions; every
evening my negro boys are set to hunt them, and they kill them by dozens
on the chairs and sofas, in the covers of my books, and among the leaves
in my fruit-baskets. Yesterday I wanted to send away a note in a great
hurry, snatched up a wafer, and was on the point of putting it into my
mouth, when I felt it move, and found it to be a cockroach, which had
worked its way into the wafer-box.
MARCH 4. (Monday.)
Since my arrival in Jamaica, I am not conscious of having omitted any
means of satisfying my negroes, and rendering them happy and secure from
oppression. I have suffered no person to be punished, except the two
female demons who almost bit a girl’s hands off (for which they received
a slight switching), and the most worthless rascal on the estate, whom
for manifold offences I was compelled, for the sake of discipline, to
allow to pass two days in the bilboes. I have never refused a
favour that I could possibly grant. I have listened patiently to all
complaints. I have increased the number of negro holidays, and have
given away money and presents of all kinds incessantly. Now for my
reward. On Saturday morning there were no fewer than forty-five persons
(not including children) in the hospital; which makes nearly a fifth of
my whole gang. Of these, the medical people assured me that not above
seven had any thing whatever the matter with them; the rest were only
feigning sickness out of mere idleness, and in order to sit doing
nothing, while their companions were forced to perform their part of
the estate-duty. And sure enough, on Sunday morning they all walked away
from the hospital to amuse themselves, except about seven or eight: they
will, perhaps, go to the field for a couple of days; and on Wednesday we
may expect to have them all back again, complaining of pains, which (not
existing) it is not possible to remove. Jenny (the girl whose hands were
bitten) was told by the doctoress, that having been in the hospital
all the week, she ought not, for very shame, to go out on Sunday.
She answered, “She wanted to go to the mountains, and go she would.”
“Then,” said the doctoress, “you must not come back again on Monday at
least.”
“Yes,” Jenny said, “she _should_ come back;” and back this morning
Jenny came. But as her wounds were almost completely well, she had tied
packthread round them so as to cut deep into the flesh, had rubbed dirt
into them, and, in short, had played such tricks as nearly to produce a
mortification in one of her fingers.
The most worthless fellow on the whole property is one Nato,--a thief, a
liar, a runaway, and one who has never been two days together out of the
hospital since my arrival, although he has nothing the matter with him;
indeed, when the other negroes abused him for his laziness, and leaving
them to do his work for him, he told them plainly that he did not mean
to work, and that nobody should make him. The only real illness which
brought him to the hospital, within my knowledge, was the consequence of
a beating received from his own father, who had caught him in the act of
robbing his house by the help of a false key. In the hospital he found
his wife, Philippa, the mad woman, with whom he instantly quarrelled,
and she cut his head open with a plate; and as she might have served
one of the children in the same way, we were obliged to confine her.
Her husband was thought to be the fittest person to guard her; and
accordingly they were locked up together in a separate room from the
other invalids, till a straight waistcoat could be made. The husband was
then restored to freedom, and desired to go to work, which he declared
to be impossible from illness; yet he disappeared the whole of the next
day; and on his return on the following morning, he had the impudence to
assert that he had never been out of the hospital for an hour. For this
runaway offence, and for endeavouring to exasperate his wife’s phrensy,
he was put into the bilboes for two days: on the third he was released;
when he came to me with tears in his eyes, implored me most earnestly to
forgive what had past, and promised to behave better for the future,
“to so good a massa.” It appeared afterwards, that he had employed his
absence in complaining to Mr. Williams, a neighbouring magistrate,
that, “having a spite against them, although neither he nor his wife
had committed any fault, I had punished them both by locking them up
for several days in a solitary prison, under pretence of his wife’s
insanity, when, in fact, she was perfectly in her senses.” Unluckily,
one of my physicians had told Mr. Williams, that very morning, how much
he had been alarmed at Cornwall, when, upon going into a mad woman’s
room, her husband had fastened the door, and he had found himself shut
up between them; the woman really mad, and the man pretending to be so
too. The moment that Nato mentioned the mad woman as his wife, “What
then,” said Mr. Williams, “you are the fellow who alarmed the doctor so
much two days ago?” Upon which Nato had the impudence to burst into a
fit of laughter,--“Oh, ki, massa, doctor no need be fright; we no want
to hurt him; only make lilly bit fun wid him, massa, that all.” On which
he was ordered to get out of Mr. Williams’s house, slunk back into the
Cornwall hospital, and in a few days came to me with such a long story
of penitence, and “so good massa,” that he induced me to forgive him.
To sum up the whole, about three this morning an alarm was given that
the pen-keeper had suffered the cattle to get among the canes, where
they might do infinite mischief; the trustee was roused out of his bed;
the drivers blew their shells to summon the negroes to their assistance;
when it appeared, that there was not a single watchman at his post; the
watch-fires had all been suffered to expire; not a single domestic was
to be found, nor a horse to be procured; even the little servant boys,
whom the trustee had locked up in his own house, and had left fast
asleep when he went to bed, had got up again, and made their escape to
pass the night in play and rioting; and although they were perfectly
aware of the detriment which the cattle were doing to my interests, not
a negro could be prevailed upon to rouse himself and help to drive them
out, till at length Cubina (who had run down from his own house to mine
on the first alarm) with difficulty collected about half a dozen
to assist him: but long before this, one of my best cane-pieces was
trampled to pieces, and the produce of this year’s crop considerably
diminished.--And so much for negro gratitude! However, they still
continue their eternal song of “Now massa come, we very well off;”
but their satisfaction evidently begins and ends with themselves. They
rejoice sincerely at being very well off, but think it unnecessary to
make the slightest return to massa for making them so.
MARCH 5.
The worst of negro diseases is “the cocoa-bag” it is both hereditary and
contagious, and will lurk in the blood of persons apparently the most
healthy and of regular habits, till a certain age; when it declares
itself in the form of offensive sores, attended with extreme debility.
No cure for it has yet been discovered: there are negro doctors, who
understand how to prepare diet drinks from simples of the island, which
moderate its virulence for a time; but the disease itself is never
entirely subdued. On the contrary, “the yaws,” although it defies the
power of medicine, ultimately cures itself. This, also, is communicated
by contact, and that of so slight a nature, that a fly, which had
touched an ulcer produced by the yaws, has been known to convey the
infection by merely alighting on the wound of a cut finger. It generally
shows itself by a slight pimple, which is soon converted into a sore;
and this spreads itself gradually over the invalid’s whole body, till
having made its progress through the system completely, its virulence
gradually abates, and at length the disease disappears all together. As
“the yaws” can only be taken once, inoculation has been tried upon
the most hopeful subjects; but the disease showed itself with as much
violence as when contracted in the natural way.
MARCH 6.
Nato has kept his promise as yet, and has actually past a whole week
in the field; a thing which he was never known to do before within the
memory of man. So I sent him a piece of money to encourage him; and told
him, that I sent him a _maccarony_ for behaving well, and wished to know
whether any one had ever given him a maccarony for behaving ill. I hear
that he was highly delighted at my thinking him worthy to receive a
present from me, and sent me in return the most positive assurances of
perseverance in good conduct. On the other hand, Mackaroo has not
only run away himself, but has carried his wife away with him. This is
improving upon the profligacy of British manners with a vengeance. In
England, a man only runs away with another person’s wife: but to run
away with his own--what depravity!--As to my ungrateful demigod of a
sheep-stealer, Hercules, the poor wretch has brought down upon himself
a full punishment for all his misdeeds. By running away, and sleeping in
the woods, exposed to all the fury of the late heavy rains, he has
been struck by the palsy. Yesterday some of my negroes found him in the
mountains, unable to raise himself from the ground, and brought him in
a cart to the hospital; where he now lies, having quite lost the use of
one side, and without any hopes of recovery. He is still a young man,
and in every other respect strong and healthy; so that he may look
forward to a long and miserable existence.
MARCH 8.
THE HUMMING BIRD.
Deck’d with all that youth and beauty
E’er bestow’d on sable maid,
Gathering bloom her fragrant duty,
Down the lime-walk Zoè stray’d.
Many a logwood brake was ringing
With the chicka-chinky’s cry;
Many a mock-bird loudly singing
Bless’d the groves with melody.
Fly-birds, on whose plumage showers
Nature’s hand her wealth profuse,
Humming round, from banks of flowers
Suck’d the rich ambrosial juice.
There an orange-plant, perfuming
All the air with blossoms white,
Near a bush of roses blooming,
Charm’d at once the scent and sight.
Of that plant the loveliest daughter,
One sweet bloom-bough all preferr’d;
When his glittering eye had caught her,
Oh, how joy’d the Humming Bird!
Here the fairest blossoms thinking,
Swift he flies, nor loads the stem;
Poised in air, and odour drinking,
Fluttering hangs the feather’d Gem.
Sure, he deems, these cups untasted,
Many a honied drop allow!
Soon he finds his labour wasted;
Bees have robb’d that orange bough.
Wandering bees, at blush of morning,
Drain’d of all their sweets the bells;
Then the rifled beauty scorning,
How his angry throat he swells!
See his bill the blossoms rending;
Round their leaves in wrath he throws;
Then, once more his wings extending,
Flies to woo the opening rose.
(e Mark, my Zoe,” said her mother,
(t Mark that bough, so lovely late!
Thou in bloom art such another--
Such, perhaps, may be thy fate.
(e Some wild youth may charm and cheat thee,
Sip thy sweets, and break his vow;
Then the world will scorn and treat thee
As the Fly-Bird did just now.”
British mothers thus impress on
Virgin minds some maxim true;
Zoè heard and used the lesson
Just as British daughters do.
MARCH 9.
The shaddock contains generally thirty-two seeds, two of which only will
reproduce shaddocks; and these two it is impossible to distinguish: the
rest will yield, some sweet oranges, others bitter ones, others again
forbidden fruit, and, in short, all the varieties of the orange; but
until the trees actually are in bearing, no one can guess what the fruit
is likely to prove; and even then, the seeds which produce shaddocks,
although taken from a tree remarkable for the excellence of its fruit,
will frequently yield only such as are scarcely eatable. So also
the varieties of the mango are infinite: the fruit of no two trees
resembling each other; and the seeds of the very finest mango (although
sown and cultivated with the utmost care) seldom affording any thing
at all like the parent stock. The two first mangoes which I tasted were
nothing but turpentine and sugar; the third was very delicious; and yet
I was told that it was by no means of a superior quality. The _sweet_
cassava requires no preparation; the _bitter_ cassava, unless the juice
is carefully pressed out of it, is a deadly poison; there is a third
kind, called the _sweet-and-bitter_ cassava, which is perfectly
wholesome till a certain age, when it acquires its deleterious
qualities. Many persons have been poisoned by mistaking these various
kinds of cassava for each other. As soon as the plantain has done
bearing, it is cut down; when four or five suckers spring from each
root, which become plants themselves in their turn. Ratoons are suckers
of the sugar-cane: they are far preferable to the original plants,
where the soil is rich enough to support them; but they are much better
adapted to some estates than to others. Thus, on my estate in St.
Thomas’s in the East, they can allow of ten ratoons from the same plant,
and only dig cane-holes every eleventh year; while, at Cornwall, the
strength of the cane is exhausted in the fourth ratoon, or the fifth
at furthest. The fresh plants are cane-tops; but those canes which bear
_flags_ or feathers at their extremities will not answer the purpose, as
dry weather easily burns up the slight arrows to which the flags adhere,
and destroys them before they can acquire sufficient vigour to resist
the climate.
MARCH 10. (Sunday.)