Hordley. It is at the very furthest extremity of the island, and
never was there a journey like unto my journey. Something disagreeable
happened at every step; my accidents commenced before I had accomplished
ten miles from my own house; for in passing along a narrow shelf
of rock, which overhangs the sea near Bluefields, a pair of young
blood-horses in my carriage took fright at the roaring of the waves
which dashed violently against them, and twice nearly overturned me. On
the second occasion one of them actually fell down into the water, while
the off-wheel of the curricle flew up into the air, and thus it remained
suspended, balancing backwards and forwards, like Mahomet’s coffin.
Luckily, time was allowed the horse to recover his legs, down came the
wheel once more on terra firma, and on we went again. We slept at Cashew
(an estate near Lacovia), and the next morning at daylight proceeded to
climb the Bogr, a mountain so difficult, that every one had pronounced
the attempt to be hopeless with horses so young as mine; but those
horses were my only ones, and therefore I was obliged to make the trial.
The road is bordered by tremendous precipices for about twelve miles;
the path is so narrow, that a servant must always be sent on before to
make any carts which may be descending stop in recesses hollowed out for
this express purpose; and the cartmen are obliged to sound their shells
repeatedly, in order to give each other timely warning. The chief
danger, however, proceeds from the steepness of the road, which in
some places will not permit the waggons to stop, however well their
conductors may be inclined; then down they come drawn by twelve or
fourteen, or sometimes sixteen oxen, sweeping every thing before them,
and any carriage unlucky enough to find itself in their course must
infallibly be dashed over the precipice. To-day, it really appeared as
if all the estates in the island had agreed to send their produce by
this particular road; the shells formed a complete chorus, and sounded
incessantly during our whole passage of the mountain; and at one time
there was a very numerous accumulation of carts and oxen in consequence
of my carriage coming to a complete stop. As we were ascending,--“It
is very well,” said a gentleman who was travelling with me, (Mr. Hill)
“that we did not come by this road three months sooner. I remember about
that time travelling it on horseback, and an enormous tree had fallen
over the path, which made me say to myself as I passed under it, ‘Now,
how would a chaise with a canopy get along here? The tree hangs so low
that the carriage never could pass, and it would certainly have to go
all the way home again.’ Of course, the obstacle must now be removed;
but if I remember right, this must have been the very spot.... and as
I hope to live, yonder is the very tree still!”--And so it proved;
although three months had elapsed, the impediment had been suffered to
remain in unmolested possession of the road, and to pass my carriage
under it proved an absolute impossibility. After much discussion,
and many fruitless attempts, we at length succeeded in unscrewing the
wheels, lifting off the body, which we carried along, and then built
the curricle up again on the opposite side of the tree. However, by
one means or other (after leaving a knocked-up saddle-horse at a coffee
plantation, to the owner of which I was a perfect stranger, but who very
obligingly offered to take charge of the animal) we found ourselves at
the bottom of the mountain; but the fatal tree, and the delay occasioned
by taking unavoidable shelter from tremendous storms of rain, had lost
us so much time, that night surprised us when we were still eight miles
distant from our destined inn. The night was dark as night could be;
no moon, no stars, nor any light except the flashing of myriads of
fire-flies, which, flapping in the faces of the young horses, frightened
them, and made them rear. The road, too, was full of water-trenches,
precipices, and deep and dangerous holes. As to the ground, it was quite
invisible, and we had no means of proceeding with any chance of safety
except by making some of the servants lead the horses, while others
went before us to explore the way, while they cried out at every
moment,--“Take care; a little to the left, or you will slip into that
water-trench--a little to the right, or you will tumble over that
precipice.”--Into the bargain there was neither inn nor gentleman’s
house within reach; and thus we proceeded crawling along at a foot’s
pace for five eternal miles, when we at length stopped to beg a shelter
for the night at a small estate called Porous. By this time it was
midnight; all the family was gone to bed; the gates were all locked; and
before we could obtain admittance a full hour elapsed, during which I
sat in an open carriage, perspiration streaming down from my head to my
feet through vexation, impatience and fatigue, while the night-dew fell
heavy and the night-breeze blew keen; which (as I had frequently been
assured) was the very best recipe possible for getting a Jamaica fever.
On such I counted both for myself and my white servant, when I at
length laid myself down in a bed at Porous; but to my equal surprise and
satisfaction we both rose the next morning without feeling the slightest
inconvenience from our risks of the preceding day, and in the evening of
Friday, the 5th, I reached Miss Cole’s hotel at the Spanish Town. One of
my young horses, however, was so completely knocked up by the fatigue of
crossing the mountain, that I could get no further than Kingston (only
fourteen miles) this next day. In consequence of the delay, I
was enabled to visit the Kingston theatre; the exterior is rather
picturesque; within it has no particular recommendations; the scenery
and dresses were shabby, the actors wretched, and the stage ill lighted;
the performance was for the benefit of the chief actress, who had but
little reason to be satisfied with the number of her audience; and I
may reckon it among my other misfortunes on this ill-starred expedition,
that it was my destiny to sit out the tragedy of “Adelgitha,” whom the
author meant only to be killed in the last act, but whom the actors
murdered in all five. The heroine was the only one who spoke tolerably,
but she was old enough and fat enough for the Widow Cheshire; Guiscard
did not know ten words of his part; the tyrant was really comical
enough; and Lothair was played by a young Jamaica Jew about fifteen
years of age, and who is dignified here with the name of “the Creole
Roscius.” His voice was just breaking, which made him “pipe and whistle
in the sound,” his action was awkward, and altogether he was but a sorry
specimen of theatrical talent: however, his _forte_ is said to lie
in broad farce, which perhaps may account for his being no better in
tragedy. On Sunday, the 8th, I resumed my journey, but my horses were so
completely knocked up, that I was obliged to hire an additional pair to
convey me to Miss Hetley’s inn on the other side of the Yallacks River,
which is nineteen miles from Kingston. This river, as well as that of
Morant (which I passed about ten miles further) both in breadth and
strength sets all bridges at defiance, and in the rainy season it is
sometimes impassable for several weeks. On this occasion there was but
little water in either, and I arrived without difficulty at Port Morant,
where I found horses sent by my trustee to convey me to Hordley. The
road led up to the mountains, and was one of the steepest, roughest,
and most fatiguing that I ever travelled, in spite of its picturesque
beauties. At length I reached my estate, jaded and wearied to death;
here I expected to find a perfect paradise, and I found a perfect hell.
Report had assured me, that Hordley was the best managed estate in the
island, and as far as the soil was concerned, report appeared to have
said true; but my trustee had also assured me, that my negroes were
the most contented and best disposed, and here there was a lamentable
incorrectness in the account. I found them in a perfect uproar;
complaints of all kinds stunned me from all quarters: all the blacks
accused all the whites, and all the whites accused all the blacks, and
as far as I could make out, both parties were extremely in the right.
There was no attachment to the soil to be found _here_; the negroes
declared, one and all, that if I went away and left them to groan under
the same system of oppression without appeal or hope of redress, they
would follow my carriage and establish themselves at Cornwall. I had
soon discovered enough to be certain, that although they told me plenty
of falsehoods, many of their complaints were but too well founded; and
yet how to protect them for the future or satisfy them for the present
was no easy matter to decide. Trusting to these fallacious reports of
the Arcadian state of happiness upon Hordley, I supposed, that I should
have nothing to do there but grant a few indulgences, and establish
the regulations already adopted with success on Cornwall; distribute
a little money, and allow a couple of play-days for dancing; and under
this persuasion I had made it quite impossible for me to remain above a
week at Hordley, which I conceived to be fully sufficient for the above
purpose. As to grievances to be redressed, I was totally unprepared for
any such necessity; yet now they poured in upon me incessantly, each
more serious than the former; and before twenty-four hours were elapsed
I had been assured, that in order to produce any sort of tranquillity
upon the estate, I must begin by displacing the trustee, the physician,
the four white book-keepers, and the four black governors, all of whom
I was modestly required to remove and provide better substitutes in the
space of five days and a morning. What with the general clamour,
the assertions and denials, the tears and the passion, the odious
falsehoods, and the still more odious truths, and (worst of all to me)
my own vexation and disappointment at finding things so different from
my expectations, at first nearly turned my brain; and I felt strongly
tempted to set off as fast as I could, and leave all these black devils
and white ones to tear one another to pieces, an amusement in which they
appeared to be perfectly ready to indulge themselves. It was, however,
considerable relief to me to find, upon examination, that no act of
personal ill-treatment was alleged against the trustee himself, who
was allowed to be sufficiently humane in his own nature, and was
only complained of for allowing the negroes to be maltreated by the
book-keepers, and other inferior agents, with absolute impunity.
Being an excellent planter, he confined his attention entirely to the
cultivation of the soil, and when the negroes came to complain of some
act of cruelty or oppression committed by the book-keepers or the black
governors, he refused to listen to them, and left their complaints
unenquired into, and consequently unredressed. The result was, that the
negroes were worse off, than if he had been a cruel man himself; for
his cruelty would have given them only one tyrant, whereas his indolence
left them at the mercy of eight. Still they said, that they would be
well contented to have him continue their trustee, provided that I would
appoint some protector, to whom they might appeal in cases of injustice
and ill-usage. The trustee declaring himself well satisfied that some
such appointment should take place, a neighbouring gentleman (whose
humanity to his own negroes had established him in high favour
with mine) was selected for this purpose. I next ordered one of the
book-keepers (of the atrocious brutality of whose conduct the trustee
himself upon examination allowed that there could be no doubt) to quit
the estate in two hours under pain of prosecution; away went the man,
and when I arose the next morning, another book-keeper had taken himself
off of his own accord, and that in so much haste that he left all
his clothes behind him. My next step was to displace the chief black
governor, a man deservedly odious to the negroes, and whom a gross and
insolent lie told to myself enabled me to punish without seeming to
displace him in compliance with their complaints against him; and these
sources of discontent being removed, I read to them my regulations for
allowing them new holidays, additional allowances of salt-fish, rum,
and sugar, with a variety of other indulgences and measures taken
for protection, &c. All which, assisted by a couple of dances and
distribution of money on the day of my departure had so good an effect
upon their tempers, that I left them in as good humour apparently, as
I found them in bad. But to leave them was no such easy matter; the
weather had been bad from the moment of my commencing my journey, but
from the moment of my reaching Hordley, it became abominable. The rain
poured down in cataracts incessantly; the old crazy house stands on the
top of a hill, and the north wind howled round it night and day, shaking
it from top to bottom, and threatening to become a hurricane. The
storm was provided with a very suitable accompaniment of thunder
and lightning; and to complete the business, down came the mountain
torrents, and swelled Plantain Garden River to such a degree, that
it broke down the dam-head, stopped the mill, and all work was at a
stand-still for two days and nights. But the worst of all was that this
same river lay between me and Kingston; bridge there was none, and it
soon became utterly impassable. Thus it continued for four days; on the
fifth (the day which I had appointed for my departure, and on which I
gave the negroes a parting holiday) the water appeared to be somewhat
abated at a ford about four miles distant; for as to crossing at my
own, that was quite out of the question for a week at least. A negro was
despatched on horseback to ascertain the height of the water; his report
was very unfavourable. However, as at worst I could but return, and had
no better means of employing my time, I resolved to make the experiment.
About forty of the youngest and strongest negroes left their dancing and
drinking, and ran on foot to see me safe over the water. The few hours
which had elapsed since my messenger’s examination, had operated very
favourably towards the reduction of the water, although it was still
very high. But a servant going before to ascertain the least dangerous
passage, and the negroes rushing all into the river to break the force
of the stream, and support the carriage on both sides, we were enabled
to struggle to the opposite bank, and were landed in safety with loud
cheering from my sable attendants, who then left me, many with tears
running down their cheeks, and all with thanks for the protection which
I had shown them, and earnest entreaties that I would come to visit them
another time. Whether my visit will have been productive of essential
service to them must remain a doubt; the trustee at least promised
me most solemnly that my regulations for their happiness and security
should be obeyed, and that the slave-laws (of which I had detected
beyond a doubt some very flagrant violations) should be carried into
effect for the future with the most scrupulous exactness. If he breaks
his promise, and I discover it, I have pledged myself most solemnly
to remove him, however great may be his merits as a planter; if he
contrives to keep me in ignorance of his proceedings (which, however,
from the precautions which I have now taken, I trust, will be no easy
matter), and the state of the negroes should continue after my departure
to be what it was before my arrival, then I can only console myself with
thinking, that the guilt is his, not mine; and that it is on _his_ head
that the curse of the sufferers and the vengeance of heaven will fall,
not on my own. I have been told that this estate of mine is one of the
most beautiful in the island. It may be so for anything that I can tell
of the matter. The badness of the weather and the disquietude of my
mind during the whole of my short stay, made every thing look gloomy and
hideous; and when I once found myself again beyond my own limits, I
felt my spirits lighter by a hundred weight. Of all the points which had
displeased me at Hordley, none had made me more angry for the time, than
the lie told me by the chief governor, which occasioned my displacing
him. This fellow, who for the credit of our family (no doubt) had got
himself christened by the name of John Lewis, had the impudence to walk
into my parlour just as I was preparing to go to bed, and inform me,
that he could not get the business of the estate done. Why not? He could
get nobody to come to the night-work at the mill, which he supposed was
the consequence of my indulging the negroes so much. Indeed! and where
were the people who ought to come to their night-work? in the negro
village? No; they were in the hospital, and refused to come out to work.
Upon which I blazed up like a barrel of gunpowder, and volleying out
in a breath all the curses that I ever heard in my life, I asked him,
whether any person really had been insolent enough to select a whole
night party from the sick people in the hospital, not one of whom ought
to stir out of it till well? There stood the fellow, trembling and
stammering, and unable to get out an answer, while I stamped up and down
the piazza, storming and swearing, banging all the doors till the house
seemed ready to tumble about our ears, and doing my best to out-herod
Herod, till at last I ordered the man to begone that instant, and get
the work done properly. He did not wait to be told twice, and was off in
a twinkling. In a quarter of an hour I sent for him again, and enquired
whether he had succeeded in getting the proper people to work at the
mill? Upon which he had the assurance to answer, that all the people
were there, and that it was not of their not being at the mill that he
had meant to complain. Of what was it then? “Of their not being in the
field.” When? “Yesterday. He could not get the negroes to come to work,
and so there had been none done all day.” And who refused to come? “All
the people.” But who? “All.” But who, who, who?--their names,
their names, their names? “He could not remember them all.” Name
one--well?--speak then, speak! “There was Beck.” And who else? “There
was Sally, who used to be called Whan-ica.” And who else? “There was....
there was Beck.” But who else? “Beck... and Sally”... But who else? who
else? “Little Edward had gone out of the hospital, and had not come to
work.” Well! Beck and Sally, and little Edward; who else? “Beck, and
little Edward, and Sally.”
But who else: I say, who else? “He could not remember any body else.”
Then to be sure I was in such an imperial passion, as would have done
honour to “her majesty the queen Dolallolla.”
Why, you most impudent of all impudent fellows that ever told a lie,
have you really presumed to disturb me at this time of night, prevent
my going to bed, tell me that you can’t get the business done, and that
none of the people would come to work, and make such a disturbance, and
all because two old women and a little boy missed coming into the field
yesterday! Down dropped the fellow in a moment upon his marrow bones:
“Oh, me good massa,” cried he (and out came the truth, which I knew well
enough before he told me), “me no come of my own head; me _ordered_ to
come; but me never tell massa lie more, so me pray him forgib me!”
But his obeying any person on my own estate in preference to me, and
suffering himself to be converted into an instrument of my annoyance,
was not to be easily overlooked; so I turned him out of the house with a
flea in his ear as big as a camel; and the next morning degraded him to
the rank of a common field negro. The trustee pleaded hard for his being
permitted to return to the waggons, from whence he had been taken, and
where he would be useful. But I was obdurate. Then came his wife to beg
for him, and then his mother, and then his cousin, and then his cousin’s
cousin: still I was firm; till on the day of my departure, the new chief
governor came to me in the name of the whole estate, and bested me to
allow John Lewis to return to the command of the waggons, “for that all
the negroes said, that it would be _too sad a thing_ for them to see a
man who had held the highest place among them, degraded quite to be a
common field negro.” There was something in this appeal which argued so
good a feeling, that I did not think it right to resist any longer; so I
hinted that if the trustee should ask it again as a favour to himself,
I might perhaps relent; and the proper application being thus made,
John Lewis was allowed to quit the field, but with a positive injunction
against his ever being employed again in any office of authority over
the negroes. I found baptism in high vogue upon Hordley, but I am sorry
to say, that I could not discover much effect produced upon their minds
by having been made Christians, except in one particular: whenever one
of them told me a monstrous lie (and they told me whole dozens), he
never failed to conclude his story by saying--“And now, massa, you know,
I’ve been christened; and if you do not believe what I say, I’m ready to
buss the booh to the truth of it.” The whole advantages to be derived
by negroes from becoming Christians, seemed to consist with them in two
points; being a superior species of magic itself, it preserved them from
black Obeah; and by enabling them to take an oath upon the ‘Bible to the
truth of any lie which it might suit them to tell, they believed that
it would give them the power of humbugging the white people with perfect
ease and convenience. They had observed the importance attached by
the whites to such an attestation, and the conviction which it always
appeared to carry with it; as to the crime or penalty of perjury, of
that they were totally ignorant, or at least indifferent; therefore
they were perfectly ready to “buss the book,” which they considered as
a piece of buckra superstition, mighty useful to the negroes, and valued
taking their oath upon the Bible to a lie, no more than Mrs. Mincing
did the oath which she took in the Blue Garret “upon an odd volume of
Messalina’s Poems.” Although I set out from Hordley at two o’clock, it
was past seven before I reached an estate called “The Retreat,” which
was only twelve miles off, so abominable was the road. Here I stopped
for the night, which I passed at supper with the musquitoes,--“not where
I ate, but where I was eaten.” Morant River had been swelled by the late
heavy rains to a tremendous height, and its numerous quicksands render
the passage in such a state extremely dangerous, However, a negro having
been sent early to explore it, and having returned with a favourable
report, we proceeded to encounter it. A Hordley negro, well acquainted
with these perilous rivers, had accompanied me for the express purpose
of pointing out the most practicable fords; but for some time his
efforts to find a safe one were unavailing, his horse at the end of a
minute or two plunging into a quicksand or some deep hole, among the
waters thrown up from which he totally disappeared for a moment, and
then was seen to struggle out again with such an effort and leap, as
were quite beyond the capability of any carriage’s attempting. However,
at the end of half an hour he was fortunate to find a place, where he
could cross (up to his horse’s belly in the water, to be sure), but at
least without tumbling into holes and quicksands; and here we set out,
conscious that our whole chance of reaching the opposite shore consisted
in keeping precisely the path which he had gone already, and determined
to stick as close as possible to his horse’s tail. But no sooner were
we fairly in the water, than my young horses found themselves unable to
resist the strength and rapidity of the torrent, which was rolling
down huge stones as big as rocks from the mountain; and to my utter
consternation, I perceived the curricle carried down the stream, and
the distance from my guide (who, by swimming his horse, had reached the
destined landing-place in safety) growing wider and wider with every
moment. We were now driving at all hazards; every moment I expected
to see a horse or a wheel sink down into some deep hole, the chaise
overturned, and ourselves either swallowed up in a quicksand, or dashed
to pieces against the stones, which were rolling around us. I never
remember to have felt myself so completely convinced of approaching
destruction, and I roared out with all my might and main:--“We are
carried away! all is over!” although, to be sure, I might as well
have held my tongue, seeing that all my roaring could not do the least
possible good. However, my horses, although too weak to resist the
current, were fortunately strong enough to keep their legs; while they
drifted down the stream, they struggled along in an oblique direction,
which gradually (though but slowly) brought us nearer to the opposite
shore; and after several minutes passed in most painful anxiety, a
desperate plunge out of the water enabled them to _jump_ the carriage
upon terra firma on the same side with my guide, although at a
considerable distance from the spot where he had landed. The Yallack’s
River was less dangerous; but even this too had been sufficiently
swelled to make the crossing it no easy matter; so that what with one
obstacle and another, when I reached Kingston at six o’clock with
my bones and my vehicle unbroken, I was almost as much surprised as
satisfied. I dined with the curate of Kingston (Rev. G. Hill), where I
met the admiral upon this station, Sir Home Popham, and a large party.
At Kingston I was obliged to send back a horse, which had been lent me
in aid of my own; another had been dropped at “the Retreat a third could
get no farther than the mountains; and my companion’s three horses had
found themselves unable even to reach Spanish Town, and I had thus been
obliged to leave them and theirs behind upon the road. On the morning of
our departure from Cornwall, when my Italian servant saw the quantity
of horses, mules, servants, and carriages collected for the journey,
he clapped his hands together in exultation, and exclaimed,--“They will
certainly take us for the king of England!” But now when after leaving
one horse in one place and another horse in another, on the morning
of Monday the 16th, he beheld my whole caravan reduced to one pair of
chaise horses and a couple of miserable mules, he cast a rueful look
upon my diminished cavalry and sighed to himself,--“I verily believe, we
shall return home on foot after all!” I reached Spanish Town in time to
dine with the chief justice (Mr. Jackson), and intended to remain two
or three days longer; but the fatality, which had persecuted me from the
very commencement of this abominable journey, was not exhausted yet. On
Tuesday morning, my landlady just hinted, that “she thought it right
to let me know, that to be sure there _was_ a gentleman unwell in the
house; but she supposed, that I should not care about it: however, if
I particularly disliked the neighbourhood of a sick person, she would
procure me lodgings.” I asked, “What was the complaint?”
“Oh! he was a little sick, that was all.” To which I only could answer,
that, “in that case I hoped he would get better,” and thought no more
about it. However, when I went to visit the governor, I found, that this
“little sickness” of my landlady’s was neither more nor less than the
yellow fever; of which the gentleman in question was now dying, of which
a lady had died only two days before, and of which another European,
newly arrived, had fallen ill in this very same hotel only a fortnight
before, and had died, after throwing himself out of an upper window in a
fit of delirium. Under all these circumstances, I thought it to the full
as prudent not to prolong my residence in Spanish Town; and accordingly,
on Wednesday the 18th, I resumed my journey homewards. I travelled the
north side of the island, which was the road used by me on my return two
years ago. I have nothing to add to my former account of it, except that
there need not be better inns anywhere than the Wellington hotel at
Rio Bueno, and Judy James’s at Montego Bay, which latter is now, in my
opinion, by far the prettiest town in Jamaica. Indeed, all the inns upon
this road are excellent, with the solitary exception of the Black-heath
Tavern, which I stopped at by a mistake instead of that of Montague. At
this most miserable of all inns that ever entrapped an unwary traveller,
there was literally nothing to be procured for love or money: no corn
for the horses; no wine without sending six miles for a bottle; no food
but a miserable starved fowl, so tough that the very negroes could not
eat it; and a couple of eggs, one of which was addled: there was but one
pair of sheets in the whole house, and neither candles, nor oranges,
nor pepper, nor vinegar, nor bread, nor even so much as sugar, white or
brown. Yams there were, which prevented my servants from going to bed
quite empty, and I contented myself with the far-fetched bottle of wine
and the solitary egg, which I eat by the light of a lamp filled with
stinking oil. The one pair of sheets I seized upon to my own share, and
my servants made themselves as good beds as they could upon the floor
with great coats and travelling mantles. It was on Wednesday night, that
after the fatigue of crossing Mount Diablo, “myself I unfatigued” in
this delectable retreat, which seemed to have been established upon
principles diametrically opposite to those of Shenstone’s. On Thursday I
slept at Rio Bueno, on Friday at Montego Bay, passed Saturday at Anchovy
estate (Mr. Plummer’s), and was very glad, on Sunday the 22d, to find
myself once more quietly established at Cornwall, fully determined to
leave it no more, till I leave it on my return to England. The lady, who
had died so lately at Kingston, had arrived not long before in a vessel,
both the crew and passengers of which landed (to all appearance) in
perfect health after a favourable passage from England. Of course, they
soon dispersed in different directions; yet almost all of them were
attacked nearly at the same period by the fever, which seemed to have a
particular commission to search out such persons as had arrived by that
particular ship, at however remote a distance they might be from each
other.
MARCH 29. (Sunday.)
This morning (without either fault or accident) a young, strong, healthy
woman miscarried of an eight months’ child; and this is the third
time that she has met with a similar misfortune. No other symptom of
child-bearing has been given in the course of this year, nor are there
above eight women upon the breeding list out of more than one hundred
and fifty females. Yet they are all well clothed and well fed, contented
in mind, even by their own account, over-worked at no time, and when
upon the breeding list are exempted from labour of every kind. In
spite of all this, and their being treated with all possible care
and indulgence, rewarded for bringing children, and therefore anxious
themselves to have them, how they manage it so ill I know not, but
somehow or other certainly the children do not come.
MARCH 31.
During the whole three weeks of my absence, only two negroes have been
complained of for committing fault. The first was a domestic quarrel
between two Africans; Hazard stole Frank’s calabash of sugar, which
Frank had previously stolen out of my boiling-house. So Frank broke
Hazard’s head, which in my opinion settled the matter so properly,
that I declined spoiling it by any interference of my own. The other
complaint was more serious. Toby, being ordered to load the cart
with canes, answered “I wo’nt”--and Toby was as good as his word;
in consequence of which the mill stopped for want of canes, and the
boilinghouse stopped for want of liquor. I found on my return that for
this offence Toby had received six lashes, which Toby did not mind three
straws. But as his fault amounted to an act of downright rebellion, I
thought that it ought not by any means to be passed over so lightly, and
that Toby ought to be _made_ to mind. I took no notice for some days;
but the Easter holidays had been deferred till my return, and only began
here on Friday last. On that day, as soon as the head governor had blown
the shell, and dismissed the negroes till Monday morning, he requested
the pleasure of Mr. Toby’s company to the hospital, where he locked him
up in a room by himself. All Saturday and Sunday the estate rang with
laughing, dancing, singing, and huzzaing. Salt-fish was given away in
the morning; the children played at ninepins for jackets and petticoats
in the evening; rum and sugar was denied to no one. The gumbys
thundered; the kitty-katties clattered; all was noise and festivity; and
all this while, “_qualis morens Philomela_,” sat solitary Toby gazing
at his four white walls! Toby had not minded the lashes; but the loss of
his amusement, and the disgrace of his exclusion from the fête operated
on his mind so forcibly, that when on the Monday morning his door was
unlocked, and the chief governor called him to his work, not a word
would he deign to utter; let who would speak, there he sat motionless,
silent, and sulky. However, upon my going down to him myself, his
voice thought proper to return, and he began at once to complain of his
seclusion and justify his conduct. But he no sooner opened his lips than
the whole hospital opened theirs to censure his folly, asking him how
he could presume to justify himself when he knew that he had done wrong?
and advising him to humble himself and beg my pardon; and their clamours
were so loud and so general (Mrs. Sappho, his wife, being one of the
loudest, who not only “gave it him on both sides of his ears,” but
enforced her arguments by a knock on the pate now and then), that they
fairly drove the evil spirit out of him; he confessed his fault with
great penitence, engaged solemnly never to commit such another, and set
off to his work full of gratitude for my granting him forgiveness. I
am more and more convinced every day, that the best and easiest mode of
governing negroes (and governed by some mode or other they must be) is
not by the detestable lash, but by confinement, solitary or otherwise;
they cannot bear it, and the memory of it seems to make a lasting
impression upon their minds; while the lash makes none but upon their
skins, and lasts no longer than the mark. The order at my hospital
is, that no negro should be denied admittance; even if no symptoms of
illness appear, he is allowed one day to rest, and take physic, if he
choose it. On the second morning, if the physician declares the man to
be shamming, and the plea of illness is still alleged against going
to work, then the negro is locked up in a room with others similarly
circumstanced, where care is taken to supply him with food, water,
physic, &c., and no restraint is imposed except that of not going out.
Here he is suffered to remain unmolested as long as he pleases, and he
is only allowed to leave the hospital upon his own declaration that he
is well enough to go to work; when the door is opened, and he walks
away unreproached and unpunished, however evident his deception may have
been. Before I adopted this regulation, the number of patients used to
vary from thirty to forty-five, not more than a dozen of whom perhaps
had anything the matter with them: the number at this moment is but
fourteen, and all are sores, burns, or complaints the reality of which
speaks for itself. Some few persevering tricksters will still submit
to be locked up for a day or two; but their patience never fails to
be wearied out by the fourth morning, and I have not yet met with an
instance of a patient who had once been locked up with a fictitious
illness, returning to the hospital except with a real one. In general,
they offer to take a day’s rest and physic, promising to go out to work
the next day, and on these occasions they have uniformly kept their
word. Indeed, my hospital is now in such good order, that the physician
told the trustee the other day that “mine gave him less trouble than any
hospital in the parish.”
My boilers, too, who used to make sugar the colour of mahogany, are
now making excellent; and certainly, if appearances may be trusted, and
things will but last, I may flatter myself with the complete success
of my system of management, as far as the time elapsed is sufficient
to warrant an opinion. I only wish from my soul that I were but half
as certain of the good treatment and good behaviour of the negroes at
Hordley.
APRIL 1. (Wednesday.)
Jug-Betty having had two leathern purses full of silver coin stolen out
of her trunk, her cousin Punch told her to have patience till Sunday,
and he thought that by that time he should be able to find it for her.
Upon which she very naturally suspected her cousin Punch of having
stolen the money himself, and brought him to day to make her charge
against him. However, he stuck firmly to a denial, and as several days
had been suffered to elapse since the theft, there could be no doubt of
his having concealed the money, and therefore no utility in searching
his person or his house. I found great fault with the persons in
authority for not having taken such a measure without a moment’s delay;
but the trustee informed me that it frequently produced very serious
consequences, many instances having occurred of the disgrace of their
house being searched having offended negroes so much to the heart, as to
occasion their committing suicide: so that it was a proceeding which was
seldom ventured upon without urgent necessity. It was now too late to
take it, at all events; the man confessed, indeed, that he had quitted
his work, and gone down to the negro-village on the day of the robbery,
which rendered his guilt highly probable, but he could be brought to
confess no more; and as to his saying that he thought he could find
the money by Sunday, he explained _that_ into an intention of “going to
consult a brown woman at the bay, who was a fortune-teller, and who when
any thing was stolen, could always point out the thief by _cutting
the cards_.” This was all that we could extract from him, and we were
obliged to dismiss him. However, the fright of his examination was not
without good consequences: one of the stolen purses had belonged to a
sister of Jug-Betty’s, not long deceased; and on her return home, _this_
purse (with its contents untouched) was found lying on the sister’s
grave in her garden. Perhaps, the thief had taken it without knowing
the owner; and on finding that it had belonged to a dead person, he had
surrendered it through apprehension of being haunted by her _duppy_.
APRIL 5. (Sunday.)