Demarara, February.
Although it is commonly remarked that gratitude is not a prominent
virtue among the slaves, I may mention to you an additional fact, in
proof that they are not destitute of this amiable quality. On the
morning of January 13th, a well-looking robust negro unexpectedly
presented himself at my door, tendering his services, and begging that
he might be allowed to work for me. Upon my going out to speak with him,
his countenance gladdened with joy, and looking animated and cheerful,
he said he would “_do ebery ting to ’blige Massa, wait upon Massa, clean
Massa’s horse, and do all de work Massa tell him_.”
Not immediately recollecting his features, I asked who he was, whence he
came, and how it happened that he addressed himself to me? when he
replied, “_Ah Massa, if you no remember Prince, Prince no forget dat
Massa tell ’em soldiers for break one great iron collar off Prince’s
neck, and gave him for gnyaam when Massa at Mahaica!_” This brought him
to my recollection, and I recognised an unhappy slave, whom, in one of
my walks at Mahaica, I had met wandering in a cotton-field, bearing a
heavy iron collar upon his neck, with three long spikes projecting from
it, terminating in sharp points, at the distance of nearly a foot and a
half from his person; and with his body flogged into deep ulcers, from
his loins to his hams. In this state, and almost starving with hunger,
he appealed to my feelings. _Humanity_ pleaded in his behalf, and
without a very scrupulous inquiry into the whys and wherefores of the
punishment, its dictates were obeyed. The poor man followed me to the
fort: the soldiers grew indignant on seeing his naked sores; and the
impulse of their feelings not being opposed, his neck was quickly freed
from its load, and the massive yoke and its spikes were as speedily
converted into pot-hooks for the benefit of the mess. Thus made happy,
the thankful slave had now found his way to my home at La Bourgade, in
order to make his further acknowledgments, and to tender me his
services. Shall it be said that Africans know not the divine sentiment
of gratitude?
I before mentioned the great difficulty we meet with in obtaining
labouring mechanics, and you will be surprised to know the very high
price at which they are paid in these colonies. Inconvenience sometimes
arises from the scarcity of workmen, and those whom we have among us,
being sensible that their number is small, and that others cannot be
procured, demand most exorbitant wages, and commit their extortions
without any sort of reserve. Only a few days ago the labouring
carpenters threw down their tools, and refused to work, because a board,
appointed to regulate the price of wages, refused to allow them _four
dollars_ per day, instead of three, at which extravagant rate they have
been paid for some time past.
The weather, upon this coast, is now pleasant, and the roads are
delightfully good. We are advancing gradually into the dry season.
Occasional showers still refresh the fields, but our deep and muddy
roads are become quite smooth and dry, and are at this time, perhaps, as
fine for travelling as any that can be found upon the face of the globe.
The kindly breeze is steady and powerful, and the thermometer, at noon,
seldom exceeds 82; a temperature that we are able to support, without
feeling those heavy sensations of languor and weariness, which are so
extremely oppressive in the sultry days of an English summer.
Another very great comfort, not peculiar to this season, but which we
commonly experience in this climate, is the total freedom from that
lassitude and yawning, so common in England, at the hour of rising in
the morning, and which is not only troublesome and unpleasant, but
frequently causes us to steal another hour from the already too
shortened day. Here, it is but one thing to awake, and to get up. The
instant our eyes are open, the slumbers of the night are completely
gone, and we have no feelings of heaviness or drowsy languor to oppose
our rising; but in wakeful emotion we at once quit the pillow, and are
ready to engage in the active pursuits of the day.
The decline of the wet season, although pregnant with manifold
advantages, has brought us acquainted with a new trouble, in the
scarcity of water. In consequence of the increased number of persons
requiring to be supplied, the tanks, or cisterns built for preserving
the offerings from the clouds, are found very inadequate to the
consumption. These being emptied very soon after the heavy rains had
ceased, we have now, for our supply, to depend upon the unwilling toil
of a party of negroes, who are employed to go many leagues in boats, in
order to fill the casks from the river at a distance beyond the
influence of the tides. Owing to the several interruptions necessarily
arising from this mode of procuring it, our supply of fresh water is
not, at all times, so regular as might be wished, and there have been
moments when we could have almost lamented the absence of heavy rains.
Not only on account of sickness, but from the necessity we are under of
using a considerable proportion of salted provisions, an ample supply of
fluid is rendered indispensable at the hospital. Fresh animal food is
again become a great dainty among us; the sick, therefore, and their
attendants are often compelled to satisfy themselves with a diet of salt
meat, and the vegetables of the country.
Letters have lately reached us from Barbadoes, in which is mentioned a
striking example of the fatal influence of climate upon newly arrived
Europeans. One of the regiments, which left that island upon the
expedition to St. Lucie, in the month of April last, is already
returned, a mere skeleton, consisting of only a small body of invalids;
and the proportion which fell in battle is said to be very trifling,
compared with the greater destruction caused by a foe, whose ravages are
far more direful than those of the sword.