other hand, have given too much praise to the Jamaica kitchen. The first
cotton trees which I saw, were either withered by age, or struck by
lightning, or happened to be ill-shaped of their kind; but I have since
met with others, than which nothing could be more noble or picturesque,
from their gigantic height, the immense spread of their arms, the colour
of their stems and leaves, and the wild fantastic wreathings of their
roots and branches. As to the kitchen, nothing can be larger and
finer in appearance than the poultry of all kinds, but nothing can be
uniformly more tough and tasteless; and the same is the case with all
butcher’s meat, pork excepted, which is much better here than in Europe.
The fault is in the climate, which prevents any animal food from being
kept sufficiently long to become tender; so that when a man sits down
to a Jamaica dinner, he might almost fancy himself a guest at Macbeth’s
Covent-Garden banquet, where the fowls, hams, and legs of mutton are all
made of deal boards. I ordered a duck to be kept for two days; but it
was so completely spoiled, that there was no bearing it upon the table.
Then I tried the expedient of boiling a fowl till it absolutely fell to
pieces; but even this violent process had not the power of rendering it
tender. The only effect produced by it was, that instead of being helped
to a wing of solid wood, I got a plateful of splinters. Perhaps, my
having totally lost my appetite (probably from my not being able to
take, in this climate, sufficient of my usual exercise) makes the meat
appear to me less palatable than it may to others; but I have observed,
that most people here prefer living upon soups, stews, and salted
provisions. For my own part, I have for the last few weeks eaten nothing
except black crabs, than which I never met with a more delicious article
for the table. I have also tried the _soldier_ soup, which is in great
estimation in this island; but although it greatly resembled the very
richest cray-fish soup, it seemed to be composed of cray-fish which had
been kept too long. The _soldiers_ themselves were perfectly fresh, for
they were brought to the kitchen quite alive and merry; but I was told
that this taste of staleness is their peculiar flavour, as well as their
peculiar scent even when alive, and is precisely the quality which forms
their recommendation. It was quite enough to fix my opinion of the soup:
I ate two spoonfuls, and never mean to venture on a third.
MARCH 12.
The most general of negro infirmities appears to be that of lameness.
It is chiefly occasioned by the _chiga_, a diminutive fly which works
itself into the feet to lay its eggs, and, if it be not carefully
extracted in time, the flesh around it corrupts, and a sore ensues not
easily to be cured. No vigilance can prevent the attacks of the chiga;
and not only soldiers, but the very cleanest persons of the highest
rank in society, are obliged to have their feet examined regularly. The
negroes are all provided with small knives for the purpose of extracting
them: but as no pain is felt till the sore is produced, their extreme
laziness frequently makes them neglect that precaution, till all kinds
of dirt getting into the wound, increases the difficulty of a cure; and
sometimes the consequence is lameness for life.
There is another disease which commits great ravages among them; for
although in this climate its quality is far from virulent, and it is
easy to be cured in its beginning, the negro will most carefully conceal
his having such a complaint, till it has made so great a progress
that its effects are perceived by others. Even then, they will never
acknowledge the way in which they have contracted it; but men and women,
whose noses almost shake while speaking to you, will still insist upon
it that their illness arises from catching cold, or from a strain in
lifting a weight, or, in short, from any cause except the true one. Yet
why they act thus it is difficult to imagine; for certainly it does not
arise from shame.
Indeed, it is one of their singular obstinacies, that, however ill they
may be, they scarcely ever will confess to the physician what is really
the matter with them on their first coming into the hospital, but will
rather assign some other cause for their being unwell than the true one;
and it is only by cross-questioning, that their superintendents are able
to understand the true nature of their case. Perhaps this duplicity is
occasioned by fear; for in any bodily pain it is not possible to be more
cowardly than the negro; and I have heard strong young men, while the
tears were running down their cheeks, scream and roar as if a limb was
amputating, although the doctoress was only applying a poultice to a
whitlow on the finger. I suppose, therefore, that dread of the pain of
some unknown mode of treatment makes them conceal their real disease,
and name some other, of which they know the cure to be unattended with
bodily suffering or long restraint. In the disease I allude to, such
a motive would operate with peculiar force, as one of their chief
aversions is the necessarily being long confined to one certainly not
fragrant room.
MARCH 13.
The Reporter of the African Institution asserts, in a late pamphlet,
that in the West Indies the breeding system is to this day discouraged,
and that the planters are still indifferent to the preservation of
their present stock of negroes, from their confidence of getting fresh
supplies from Africa. Certainly the negroes in Jamaica are by no
means of this Reporter’s opinion, but are thoroughly sensible of their
intrinsic value in the eyes of the proprietor. On my arrival, every
woman who had a child held it up to show to me, exclaiming,--“See massa,
see! here nice new neger me bring for work for massa;” and those who had
more than one did not fail to boast of the number, and make it a claim
to the greater merit with me. Last week, an old watchman was brought
home from the mountains almost dead with fever; he would neither move,
nor speak, nor notice any one, for several days. For two nights I sent
him soup from my own table; but he could not even taste it, and always
gave it to his daughter. On the third evening, there happened to be no
soup at dinner, and I sent other food instead; but old Cudjoe had been
accustomed to see the soup arrive, and the disappointment made him fancy
himself hungry, and that he could have eaten the soup if it had been
brought as usual: accordingly, when I visited him the next morning, he
bade the doctoress tell me that massa had send him no soup the night
before. This was the first notice that he had ever taken of me. I
promised that some soup should be ordered for him on purpose that
evening. Could he fancy any thing to eat _then?_--“Milk! milk!” So milk
was sent to him, and he drank two full calabashes of it. I then tried
him with an egg, which he also got down; and at night, by spoonfuls at
a time, he finished the whole bason of soup; but when I next came to see
him, and he wished to thank me, the words in which he thought he could
comprise most gratitude were bidding the doctoress tell me he would do
his best not to die yet; he promised to _fight hard_ for it. He is
now quite out of danger, and seems really to be grateful. When he was
sometimes too weak to speak, on my leaving the room he would drag his
hand to his mouth with difficulty, and kiss it three or four times
to bid me farewell; and once, when the doctoress mentioned his having
charged her to tell me that he owed his recovery to the good food that
I had sent him, he added, “And him kind words too, massa; kind words
do neger much good, much as good food.” In my visits to the old man, I
observed a young woman nursing him with an infant in her arms, which (as
they told me) was her own, by Cudjoe. I therefore supposed her to be his
wife: but I found that she belonged to a _brown_ man in the mountains;
and that Cudjoe hired her from her master, at the rate of thirty pounds
a year!
I hope this fact will convince the African _Reporter_, that it is
possible for some of this “oppressed race of human beings”--“of these
our most unfortunate fellow-creatures,”--to enjoy at least _some_ of the
luxuries of civilised society; and I doubt, whether even Mr. Wilberforce
himself, with all his benevolence, would not allow a negro to be quite
rich enough, who can afford to pay thirty pounds a year for the hire of
a kept mistress.
MARCH 14.
Poor Nato’s stock of goodness is quite exhausted; and the day before
yesterday he returned to the hospital with most piteous complaints of
pains and aches, whose existence he could persuade no person to credit.
His pulse was regular, his skin cool, his tongue red and moist, and the
doctor declared nothing whatever to be the matter with him. However,
on my arrival, he began to moan, and groan, and grunt, and all so
lamentably, that every soul in the hospital, sick or well, burst into a
fit of laughter. For my part, I told him that I really believed him to
be very bad; and that, as he met with no sympathy in the hospital, I
should remove him from such unfeeling companions. Accordingly I had
a comfortable bed made for him in a separate house. Here he was
plentifully supplied with provisions: but, in order that he might enjoy
perfect repose daring his illness, the doors were kept locked, and no
person allowed to disturb him with their conversation; while, by the
doctor’s orders, he was obliged to take frequent doses of Bitter-Wood
and Assafotida. Shame would not suffer him to get well all at once; so
yesterday he still complained of a pain in his chest, and begged to be
blooded. His request was granted; and the blood proved to be so pure
and well-coloured, that every one exclaimed, that for a man who had
such good blood to part with it so wantonly was a shame and a folly. The
fellow was at length convinced that his tricks would serve no object;
and this morning he begged me to suffer him to return to his duty,
and promised that I should have no more cause to complain of him. So
I consented to consider his cure as completed, and he set off for the
field perfectly satisfied with his release.
MARCH 15.
On opening the Assize-court for the county of Cornwall on March 4.,
Mr. Stewart, the Custos of Trelawny, and Presiding Judge, said, in his
charge to the jury, he wished to direct their attention in a peculiar
manner to the infringement of slave-laws in the island, in consequence
of charges having been brought forward in England of slave laws not
being enforced in this country, and being in fact perfect dead letters.
The charge was unfounded; but it became proper, in consequence, for the
bench to call in a strong manner on the grand jury to be particularly
vigilant and attentive to the discharge of this part of their duty. The
bench at the same time adverted to another subject connected with the
above. Many out of the country, and _some in it_, had thought proper
to interfere with our system, and by their insidious practices and
dangerous doctrines to call the peace of the island into question, and
to promote disorder and confusion. The jury were therefore enjoined, in
every such case, to investigate it thoroughly, and to bring the parties
concerned before the country, and not to suffer the systems of the
island, as established by the laws of the land, to be overset or
endangered. It was their bounden duty to watch over and support the
established laws, and to act against those who dared to infringe them;
and that, otherwise, it was imperiously called for on the principle
of self-preservation. Every country had its peculiar laws, on the due
maintenance of which depended the public safety and welfare. I read all
this with the most perfect unconsciousness; when, lo and behold! I have
been assured, from a variety of quarters, that all this was levelled at
myself! It is I (it seems) who am “calling the peace of the island
in question;” who am “promoting disorder and confusion;” and who am
“infringing the established laws!” I should never have guessed it! By
“insidious practices” is meant (as I am told) my overindulgence to my
negroes; and my endeavouring to obtain either redress or pardon for
those belonging to other estates, who occasionally appeal to me for
protection: while “dangerous doctrines” alludes to my being of opinion,
that the evidence of negroes ought at least to be _heard_ against white
persons; the jury always making proportionable abatements of belief,
from bearing in mind the bad habits of most negroes, their general want
of probity and good faith in every respect, and their total ignorance of
the nature of religious obligations. At the same time, these defects may
be counterbalanced by the respectable character of the particular negro;
by the strength of corroborating circumstances; and, finally, by the
irresistible conviction which his evidence may leave upon the minds
of the jury. They are not obliged to _believe_ a negro witness, but I
maintain that he ought to be _heard_, and then let the jury give their
verdict according to their conscience. But this, in the opinion of the
bench at Montego Bay, it seems, is “dangerous doctrine!” At least, the
venom of my doctrines is circumscribed within very narrow limits; for
as I have made a point of never stirring off my own estate, nobody could
possibly be corrupted by them, except those who were at the trouble of
walking into my house for the express purpose of being corrupted.
At all events, if I _really_ am the person to whom Mr. Stewart alluded,
I must consider his speech as the most flattering compliment that I ever
received. If my presence in the island has made the bench of a whole
country think it necessary to exact from the jury a more severe
vigilance than usual in all causes relating to the protection of
negroes, I cannot but own myself most richly rewarded for all my pains
and expense in coming hither, for every risk of the voyage, and for
every possible sacrifice of my pleasures. There is nothing earthly that
is too much to give for the power of producing an effect so beneficial;
and I would set off for Constantinople to-morrow, could I only be
convinced that my arrival would make the Mufti redress the complaints of
the lower orders of Turks with more scrupulous justice, and the Bashaws
relax the fetters of their slaves as much as their safety would permit.
But I cannot flatter myself with having done either the one or the other
in Jamaica; and if Mr. Stewart _really_ alluded to me in his charge, I
am certainly greatly obliged to him; but he has paid me much too high a
compliment;--God grant that I may live to deserve it!
MARCH 16.
Hercules, the poor paralytic runaway, has neither moved nor spoken since
his being brought into the hospital. For the two last days he refused
all sustenance; blisters, rubbing with mustard, &c. were tried without
producing the least sensation; and in the course of last night he
expired without a groan.
Another offender, by name Charles Fox, is also under the doctor’s hands,
suffering under the effects of his own transgressions. Having been
Pickle’s shipmate, he professed the strongest attachment to him, and was
perpetually at his house; till Pickle’s wife made her husband aware that
love for herself was the real object of his shipmate’s visits. Finding
her story disbelieved, she hid Pickle behind the bed, when he had an
opportunity of hearing the solicitations of his perfidious Pylades; and,
rushing from his concealment, he gave Fox so complete a thrashing,
that he was obliged to come to the hospital. Here is another proof that
negroes, “our unfortunate fellow-creatures,” are not without some of
the luxuries of civilised life; old men of sixty keeping mistresses, and
young ones seducing their friends’ wives; why, what would the Reporter
of the African Institution have?
It is only to be wished, that the negroes would content themselves with
these fashionable peccadilloes; but, unluckily, there are some palates
among them which require higher seasoned vices; and besides their
occasional amusements of poisoning, stabbing, thieving, &c., a plan has
just been discovered in the adjoining parish of St. Elizabeth’s, for
giving themselves a grand fête by murdering all the whites in the
island. The focus of this meditated insurrection was on Martin’s Penn,
the property of Lord Balcarras, where the overseer is an old man of the
mildest character, and the negroes had always been treated with peculiar
indulgence. Above a thousand persons were engaged in the plot, three
hundred of whom had been regularly sworn to assist in it with all the
usual accompanying ceremonies of drinking human blood, eating earth from
graves, &c. Luckily, the plot was discovered time enough to prevent any
mischief; and yesterday the ringleaders were to be tried at Black River.
MARCH 17. (Sunday.)
The Cornwall Chronicle informs us, that, at the Montego Bay assizes, a
man was tried on the Monday, for assaulting, while drunk, an officer who
had served with great distinction, and calling him a coward; for which
offence he was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment and fine of £100; and
on the Tuesday the same man brought an action against another person
for calling him a “drunken liar,” for which he was awarded £1000 for
damages! A plain man would have supposed two such verdicts to be rather
incompatible; but one lives to learn.
I remember to have read the case of a French nobleman, who was accused
of impotence by his wife before the Parliament of Paris, and by a
farmer’s daughter for seduction and getting her with child before the
Parliament of Rouen; he thought himself perfectly sure of gaining either
the one cause or the other: but, however, he was condemned in both.
Certainly the poor Frenchman had no luck in matters of justice.
To make the matter better, in the present instance, the man was a
clergyman; and his cause of quarrel against the officer was the latter’s
refusal to give him a puncheon of rum to christen all his negroes in a
lump.
MARCH 22.
Mr. Plummer came over from St. James’s to-day, and told me, that the
“insidious practices and dangerous doctrines” in Mr. Stewart’s speech
were intended for the Methodists, and that only the charge to the grand
jury respecting “additional vigilance” was in allusion to myself; but he
added that it was the report at Montego Bay, that, in consequence of
my over-indulgence to my negroes, a song had been made at Cornwall,
declaring that I was come over to set them all free, and that this was
now circulating through the neighbouring parishes. If there be any such
song (which I do not believe), I certainly never heard it. However, my
agent here says, that he has reason to believe that my negroes really
have spread the report that I intend to set _them_ free in a few years;
and this merely out of vanity, in order to give themselves and their
master the greater credit upon other estates. As to the truth of an
assertion, that is a point which never enters into negro consideration.
The two ringleaders of the proposed rebellion have been condemned at
Black River, the one to be hanged, the other to transportation. The plot
was discovered by the overseer of Lyndhurst Penn (a Frenchman from
St. Domingo) observing an uncommon concourse of stranger negroes to a
child’s funeral, on which occasion a hog was roasted by the father. He
stole softly down to the feasting hut, and listened behind a hedge
to the conversation of the supposed mourners; when he heard the whole
conspiracy detailed. It appears that above two hundred and fifty had
been sworn in regularly, all of them Africans; not a Creole was among
them. But there was a _black_ ascertained to have stolen over into the
island from St. Domingo, and a _brown_ Anabaptist missionary, both of
whom had been very active in promoting the plot. They had elected a King
of the Eboes, who had two Captains under him; and their intention was
to effect a complete massacre of all the whites on the island; for which
laudable design His Majesty thought Christmas the very fittest season
in the year, but his Captains were more impatient, and were for striking
the blow immediately. The next morning information was given against
them: one of the Captains escaped to the woods; but the other, and the
King of the Eboes, were seized and brought to justice. On their trial
they were perfectly cool and unconcerned, and did not even profess to
deny the facts with which they were charged.
Indeed, proofs were too strong to admit of denial; among others, a copy
of the following song was found upon the King, which the overseer had
heard him sing at the funeral feast, while the other negroes joined in
the chorus:--
SONG OF THE KING OF THE EBOES.
Oh me good friend, Mr. Wilberforce, make we free!
God Almighty thank ye! God Almighty thank ye!
God Almighty, make we free!
Buckra in this country no make we free:
What Negro for to do? What Negro for to do?
Take force by force! Take force by force!
CHORUS.
To be sure! to be sure! to be sure!
The Eboe King said, that he certainly had made use of this song, and
what harm was there in his doing so? He had sung no songs but such as
his brown priest had assured him were approved of by John the Baptist.
“And who, then, was John the Baptist?” He did not very well know; only
he had been told by his brown priest, that John the Baptist was a friend
to the negroes, and had got his head in a pan!
As to the Captain, he only said in his defence, that if the court would
forgive him this once, he would not do so again, as he found the whites
did not like their plans which, it seems, till that moment they had
never suspected! They had all along imagined, no doubt, that the whites
would find as much amusement in having their throats cut, as the blacks
would find in cutting them. I remember hearing a sportsman, who was
defending the humanity of hunting, maintain, that it being as much the
nature of a hare to run away as of a dog to run after her, consequently
the hare must receive as much pleasure from being coursed, as the dog
from coursing.
MARCH 23.
Two negroes upon Amity estate quarrelled the other day about some
trifle, when the one bit the other’s nose off completely. Soon after his
accident, the overseer meeting the sufferer--“Why, Sambo,” he exclaimed,
“where’s your nose?”
“I can’t tell, massa,” answered Sambo; “I looked every where about, but
I could not find it.”
MARCH 24. (Sunday.)
Every Sunday since my return from Kingston I have read prayers to
such of the negroes as chose to attend, preparatory to the intended
visitations of the minister, Dr. Pope. About twenty or thirty of the
most respectable among them generally attended, and behaved with great
attention and propriety. I read the Litany, and made them repeat the
responses. I explained the Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer to them,
teaching them to say each sentence of the latter after me, as I read it
slowly, in hopes of impressing it upon their memory. Then came “the
good Samaritan,” or some such apologue; and, lastly, I related to them
a portion of the life of Christ, and explained to them the object of
his death and sufferings. The latter part of my service always seemed
to interest them greatly; but, indeed, they behaved throughout with much
attention. Unluckily, the head driver, who was one of the most zealous
of my disciples, never could repeat the responses of the Litany without
an appeal to myself, and always made a point of saying--“Good Lord,
deliver us; yes, sir!” and made me a low bow: and one day when I
was describing the wonderful precocity of Christ’s understanding, as
evidenced by his interview with the doctors in the temple, while but
a child, the head driver thought fit to interrupt me with--“Beg massa
pardon, but want know one ting as puzzle me. Massa say ‘the child,’ and
me want know, massa, one ting much; was Jesus Christ a boy or a girl?”
Like my friend the Moravian, at Mesopotamia, I cannot boast of any
increased audience; and if the negroes will not come to hear massa, I
have little hope of their giving up their time to hear Dr. Pope, who
inspires them with no interest, and can exert no authority. Indeed, I am
afraid that I am indebted for the chief part of my present auditory to
my quality of massa rather than that of priest; and when I ask any of
them why they did not come to prayers on the preceding Sunday, their
excuse is always coupled with an assurance, that they wished very much
to come, “because they wish to do _any thing_ to oblige massa.”
MARCH 25.