December 26th.
In tracing the date of this letter, I am reminded of the freezing season
under which you are shivering in England; while the thermometer is here,
at noon, about 83; and, from using only moderate exercise, I am so
bestreamed with perspiration as to make it necessary to change my
clothes four or five times in the course of the day: even at this
moment, from only the slight exertion of writing, the drops fall so
rapidly from the backs of my hands, as to spoil my paper, and render my
letter almost illegible.
On the subject of Christmas, I should tell you that it is not less a
period of festivity, here, than in England. The planters make parties,
and the merry feasting of the season goes round, unchilled with its
frosty coldness. It is likewise a holyday to the slaves, who usually
receive some indulgence of food, and some present of clothing to augment
the happiness of the festival. We have seen new hats distributed among
the men of a whole gang, and a bit of coarse canvass for a petticoat
given to each of the women; and never were children more delighted with
toys, than these poor beings were on the joyous occasion of receiving
these humble, but to them splendid offerings. Some fresh meat was also
served out to them as a high feast for dinner, and in the evening, their
loved African dance crowned the holyday. Parties of them go from the
different plantations to spend the mirthful hours with their more
particular friends or acquaintances of the neighbouring estates, and it
is a happy meeting of relatives, lovers, and fellow-passengers, who made
the voyage together from their native land. The whole country exhibits
one moving scene of dancing gaiety. Cheerful crowds are met in every
quarter, dressed out in all the gaudy trappings they can collect, with
their hair cut, and fashioned into multitudes of whimsical shapes,
representing various figures of helmets, wigs, crowns and the like; and
decorated with a profusion of beads, bits of riband, and other tinsel
ornaments.
I must not neglect to tell you that Christmas is here the high season
for oranges. They are now ripe, and in their greatest perfection. You
will be surprised to hear what quantities I am in the daily habit of
consuming. From six to twelve, pulled fresh from the tree, make my usual
allowance before breakfast, and commonly I take as many in the evening,
besides eating great numbers in the course of the day. Indeed fruit and
vegetables form almost the whole of my diet, and I now suffer no
distress on account of our scanty supply of animal provisions. As was
predicted to me, I am become so fond of plantains as scarcely to require
any other food, and I am persuaded that if they could be had in all
climates, they would be found, without exception, the most valuable
production of the earth. Roasted, they serve as bread; fried, they are
as meat and as fruit; boiled, they are a substitute for potatoes, and
beat into a paste, they form excellent pudding.
A very distressing case has been related to us within these few days,
exposing the sad hardships, and the shameful abuse of power to which the
people of colour are sometimes subjected. A young man, a mulatto, under
the agitation of extreme distress, presented himself before the officers
at Mahaica, complaining of the cruel severities which he had experienced
from a Dutchman, holding an office of high trust in the colony of
Essequibo. Having been called upon business to Barbadoes, he had left a
sister at home, to whom he was affectionately attached; and during his
absence, this arbitrary magistrate took an opportunity of seducing her.
From the poor man not letting the subject pass so tacitly as the
Dutchman might have wished, on his return, a feigned cause of complaint
was preferred against him, and he was thrown into prison, where he has
been lying ever since, under the sufferings dictated by this man of
command. He at length effected his escape, and is now in concealment.
His application to the principal officer at Mahaica, was to implore him
to interest the commandant of the colonies in his behalf; remarking that
if he should not succeed in obtaining some powerful intercession, his
life must inevitably be sacrificed; for whenever he should be
discovered, a prison would again be his lot, and he would be exposed to
cruelties, or left to languish under privations that would soon destroy
him.
On my way lately from Stabroek to Mahaica I slept at the house of a
gentleman who detailed a very striking case of intermittent fever, under
which he had laboured for three quarters of a year, and which, during
the whole of that time, had regularly returned at the periods of the
spring-tides. He commonly felt unwell on the third day previous to the
full, and the new moon; and the fever was at the worst on the day of the
change, after which it decreased, and on the second or third day of the
decline of the spring-tides he was again well, and felt himself secure
for the next fortnight. If he had any particular business to transact,
or any important engagement to plan, he regularly consulted the almanack
in order so to arrange that they might not interfere with his periods of
sickness. He remarked that he could at any time interrupt the return of
the fever, by taking a large quantity of Peruvian bark, but added, that
he had such an utter aversion to medicine, that rather than have
recourse to it, he should have supported the disease still longer, if it
had not begun to prey upon his constitution, by rendering him feeble
during the periods of intermission.
You know how much promotion in the army is said to alleviate the grief
arising from the loss of a comrade; but you would be surprised to find
how lightly men on service can treat the dangers which surround them,
and how little they regard sickness until it reaches themselves,
notwithstanding many of them would tremble more to go into an hospital
than to face the enemy’s cannon. It commonly happens, that a few days
after the funeral, the clothes and baggage of a deceased officer are
disposed of by auction, when, frequently, the jokes and witticisms,
which pass among the purchasers, betray the slight impression made by
the loss that occasioned the sale. For instance, on a pair of boots
being held up for a bidding, one officer said to another. “You had
better buy these boots, they will just suit you.”—“No,” replied the
other, looking down to his comrade’s legs, “it is your turn next, and
yours will fit me better: I shall have them in a few days.” So it
happened, and true enough, the boots then on the legs of his friend,
soon, alas! too soon, were his!
You will believe that after such a conversation, he could have no
satisfaction in wearing them: nor was such the object of his making the
purchase. He was actuated by a more amiable motive: the boots are
carefully preserved in memory of his comrade, and of one of their latest
meetings.