F 1871 
 .C21 
 Copy 1 
 
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 WEST INDIES. 
 
 EXTRACTS 
 
 FH01\r THE JOURNAL OP 
 
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 JOHN CAN D LE R, 
 
 WHILST TRAVELLING 
 
 JAMAICA 
 
 PART L 
 
 CO LONDON : 
 HARVEY AND DARTON, 
 
 GRACECHURCH STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXL. 
 
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/-/g7, 
 • Czv 
 
 HARVEY AND DARTON, PRINTERS, 6RACECHURCH STREET. 
 
 
 ^f^ 
 
EXTRACTS, &c. 
 
 Agreeably to the minute of the Yearly Meeting of 1839, 
 encouraging the Meeting for Sufferings to send out to the 
 West Indies one or more friends, with a view of inquiring 
 into the present condition of the newly-emancipated Negroes, 
 and also of ascertaining in what way the funds at the So- 
 ciety's disposal might be most satisfactorily applied, the pro- 
 posal of our friend John Candler and his wife, of Chelms- 
 ford, to undertake this interesting and arduous service, was 
 accepted, and they sailed from Falmouth, on the 4th of 11th 
 month last, in the government packet-ship, Magnet, bound 
 for Barbadoes. The following extracts, from the accounts 
 transmitted of their proceedings^ are printed for the in- 
 formation of Friends. 
 
 Kingston, Jamaicay2Zd ofl2tk Month, 1839. 
 
 Having dispatched one letter from Cape Haytien to my sisters, 
 and prepared another, giving an account of our voyage, I now sit 
 down to communicate a few particulars that may perhaps be inter- 
 esting to thyself and our other friends of the Committee. On first 
 day, the 24th ult-, when about 400 miles from Barbadoes, we dis- 
 cerned a sail at sea, which the officers of our ship pronounced, 
 from its appearance, to be a slaver. The commander, on the first 
 day before, had called over the muster-roll, and read the prayers 
 and lessons of the Church of England : on this occasion he put off 
 the religious service, stating as a reason, that the strange vessel 
 was suspicious cmft, and must be narrowly watched. Tlie port- 
 holes were ordered to be opened, and the guns got ready, and 
 powder and loaded fire-arms were brought on deck from the 
 magazine. The Magnet, our vessel, is a man-of-war gun-brig, but 
 has no authority to pursue or detain slavers. During the pre- 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 paratioiis, myself and wife, and our young fiiend , retired 
 
 to our cabin to enter on a service, which I hope will be 
 ever dear to us, that of waiting on a God of peace : we felt 
 not the least alarm, and the circumstance was, perhaps, useful 
 to us, in bringing our Christian testimony against war to the 
 test of individual principle in our own minds, and as leading us 
 to look forward with hope and confidence to the time when all 
 fightings shall be at an end. Before we left the cabin we heard a 
 commotion on deck : the sailors were moving one of the great guns 
 near to the forecastle, and there was much excitement. The com- 
 mander had hoisted his pennant and flag, and the stranger making no 
 reply, he w^as preparing, according to the rules of war, first to fire 
 a-head of her, then to fire over her, and then to fire into her ; but 
 before the match was applied she hoisted Sardinian colours, and 
 we were compelled to move on. What she really was nobody 
 could tell, perhaps a slaver, perhaps not ; but the officers said the 
 colours were very likely meant to deceive us. The commander 
 said he once came up with a slaver in distress, whose captain the 
 night before had thrown fifty of his slaves overboard for want of 
 water, but he could neither take nor detain the vessel; he sent 
 them, however, a supply of water. 
 
 We arrived at Barbadoes on the 6th instant, having been thirty- 
 two days at sea, without once seeing land, and the same 
 night set sail again by the mail-boat for St. Thomas. We 
 had experienced some sea-sickness on board the Magnet and 
 much discomfort, and for a few days some miserable feel- 
 ings arising from squalls and head-winds that made the ship 
 pitch and roll, the timbers creak, and heavy things to roll and 
 tumble about on deck and the cabin-floors, so that we could not 
 stand to dress, and had several bruises. We had dreaded the 
 change to the mail-boat, which is a much smaller vessel, but found 
 it on the whole an improvement : the passengers were reduced in 
 number and the berths more commodious, and we could take all 
 our meals upon deck under an awning. Enjoyment might now be 
 almost said to begin : we were favoured with good health, lovely 
 weather, gentle breezes, a smooth sea, and sailed among beautiful 
 islands which it gladdened our eyes to see. 
 
 Our captain, contrary to his regulations, stopped at Mar- 
 tinique, and allowed us to land at St. Pierre. Nature has 
 done much for this lovely island, spreading over it the beau- 
 ties of tropical vegetation and a fertile soil, and man has 
 done much to deform it. Slaveiy lingers here, and the lot 
 of the servile population is still so hard that they are constantly 
 making effbi-ts to escape. Joseph Sturge tells us, that large num- 
 bers had escaped to the British islands when he was in the West 
 Indies. I mentioned this fact to one of our fellow-passengei*s, a 
 slave-owner at St. Thomas, who denied it, and said it was im- 
 possible; that the French government would never submit to liave 
 
its runaway slaves harboured in the neighbouring islands, and that 
 the English would not dare to detain them. I told him to make 
 inquiry on shore. We all took a different course in the town, and 
 went to different quarters. When we met again on board the 
 vessel, my aforesaid friend said to a Kingston merchant, a 
 thorough-paced planter's man, "Mr. Candler was right." Yes, 
 was the muttered reply. My wife and I went to a large hotel kept 
 by a Barbadian woman of colour. I asked her how things were going 
 on in Martinique ? How are they going on ? why slaves had got 
 to be of no value now ; she would gladly sell all she had for eighty 
 dollars a-piece : two of her slaves had lately run away to St. Lucia, 
 and there was no getting them back again : she wondered at one of 
 them, for she had never even slapped her in the face : it was infa- 
 mous, and the French government winked at it. I asked her how 
 the slaves got away ? In boats, she said, and on rafts, and many of 
 them were drowned : the coast-guard had often seen rafts upset 
 and the negroes perish, but now there was a man-of-war to sail 
 round the island and keep the shore. As a further confiraiation 
 that the system of escape continues, I will here copy an article of 
 session news, which I saw in the ^' Journal Officiel de Martinique, 
 27 Novembre, 1839." " Par arrets du contumace. Les nommes, 
 Joseph, esclave du Sieur Louis Marie, habitant aux Trois- Islets ; 
 Jonas, esclave du Sieur de Vassoigne ; Elisee, esclave du Sieur Fer- 
 dinand de Pelletier, accuses, 1°, d' avoir soustrait frauduleusement 
 une pirogue, a I'aide de laquelle Us ont fui dans une colonie etran- 
 gere ; 2^*, d' avoir, dans la nuit, penetre dans la maison du dit Louis 
 Marie, et d'y avoir enleve les divers agres et apparaux de la dite 
 pirogue, &c., ont ete condamnes a recevoir chacun 29 coups de 
 fouet, et a cinq annees de chain de police." So that when they 
 are caught, which we may hope they never will be, they are to 
 receive twenty-nine lashes each, and to work five years in a chain- 
 gang ! Another number of the same journal advertises six run- 
 away slaves, caught in the act of decampment. 
 
 I was told at St. Thomas' Town that fifty slaves had run away 
 from that island to Tortola : some of the slaves escape to Do- 
 minica, but more to St. Lucia ; and Captain Stuait, M^ho is now in 
 Jamaica, — but I have not seen him, — told the captain of our mail- 
 boat, that he had in his possession a piece of cork on which a slave 
 floated from Mariegalant to Dominica, about sixty miles, exposed 
 to sharks swimming around him, and that he was picked up, ex- 
 hausted and senseless, on the shore. 
 
 At Tortola I visited the national-school founded by the 
 bishop of Barbadoes. Boys, girls, and infants are all instructed 
 under one roof in a splendid room. A coloured master and mis- 
 tress, a female superintendent, and an under-teacher were all in 
 attendance; and groups of children, black, white, and browTi, 
 mostly jet black, but classed without distinction of colour, were 
 receiving instruction : the first class read remarkably well, and the 
 
 B 2 
 
children altogether exhibited a liveliness and intelligence quite 
 equal to what we see in England. The Wesleyans have three 
 other schools in the island, which contains about 6000 inhabitants. 
 Since the abolition of slavery about 600 of the labourers have emi- 
 grated to Trinidad, to get higher wages, as Tortola, though a lovely 
 island, is very poor, and the wages only about 5s. sterling per week. 
 St. Thomas' Town abounds in stores well furnished with merchan- 
 dize, and here the slavers come to purchase their horrid parapher- 
 nalia for a new voyage. The port is free to all nations, and only one 
 per cent, is demanded ad valorem on goods imported, as a duty to 
 the Danish government: its merchants are prosperous and wealthy. 
 The slaves of the Danish isles know that Governor Scholten is 
 gone to Copenhagen, and they say that when he retm'ns he will 
 bring out freedom : they will be much disappointed. One of the 
 Santa Cruz planters told me that the English had done their best 
 to injure them, and to abolish slavery, but they should have twenty 
 years of it yet ! A French merchant of St. Thomas told me that 
 he had recently bought land in Porto Rico, but no slaves, not be- 
 cause he was averse to slavery, but because he was sure, from the 
 present appearance of things, slavery must soon cease even in the 
 Spanish colonies. This, however, is not the opinion of the planters 
 generally in Porto Rico and Cuba, as they readily give 300 and 400 
 dollars each for newly-imported slaves. 
 
 At St. Thomas we changed om* quarters from the mail-boat 
 to a new steamer man-of-war of 240-horse power, cariying six 
 officers and seventy men, charged with the mails to Porto Rico, 
 Hayti, Cuba, and Jamaica. Such a vessel, I suppose, never 
 sailed in these seas before, and never before was such a voyage 
 performed so expeditiously. The distance is more than 800 
 miles, which we ran in four days and three hours, including 
 all stops and detentions. The capital of Porto Rico is a 
 large town and handsome, built at right angles, and beautifully 
 paved : the inhabitants and garrison about 35,000. In walking 
 through its streets in the evening I experienced the same stifling 
 sensation in the atmosphere which we had felt before in Barbadoes 
 and Tortola : it seemed as if exertion would kill me : I walked 
 slowly and languidly, and was almost afraid to walk at all. The 
 West Indies are now very sickly. In Barbadoes the troops are 
 encamped, for the sake of health : we left three army-surgeons 
 there who came out in the same packet. We had one case of yel- 
 low-fever on board the steamer, and two others of beginning sick- 
 ness. 
 
 Port-Royal has lost within the year two surgeons and twelve 
 assistant-surgeons, and a gi'cat many soldiei"s and sailors ; and 
 the town of Kingston, where we now are, is very unhealthy. 
 Samuel Oughton, one of the Baptist missionaries, tells me he has 
 buried thirty persons of his congregation (a very large one, amount- 
 ing to at least 4000,) besides many children w ithin the last six weeks. 
 
My dear wife and I are under no alarm ; we endeavour to put all 
 our trust in Him who can restrain the sun from smiting by day, and 
 the moon by night ; and though now and then a little cast down, 
 and almost ready to doubt whether we can be of any service here, 
 we have never lost sight of the impressions of duty which we felt 
 to leave home, and which still attend us in the work we have 
 entered upon. On landing at Cape Haytien we paid a visit to the 
 British consul, who kindly offered to introduce me to the authori- 
 ties, if it were my wish to stay or return to St. Domingo : he said 
 they were extremely jealous of the least interference with their insti- 
 tutions, but he was sure that no obstruction would be thrown in our 
 way if our work was one of benevolence. If favoured with health 
 to accomplish what we have in view in this island, it is my inten- 
 tion to proceed to Hayti before we return to England. 
 
 I was cautioned against opening my mouth in condemnation of" 
 slaveiy and the slave-trade in Cuba ; a. fellow-passenger, a Peruvian, 
 assured me that the Spaniard, when aroused to anger, was some- 
 times ferocious, and a hasty word might cost me my life. We spent 
 two hours in St. Jago, and on leaving it saw and heard things that 
 were heart-aching. As we left the beautifid harbour, a rakish- 
 looking schooner entered it under the guns of the fort : *' That ves- 
 sel," said an officer on board, " is rigged for a slaver, and has proba- 
 bly landed its cargo on the shore, and is going in to refit ;" and several 
 persons on board stated that another slaver was lying in the har- 
 bour, that landed 180 slaves six weeks ago. These things are talked 
 of unblushingly in Cuba, and seem as common as the sun at noon- 
 day. The people in this region talk and act precisely as if Chris- 
 tianity had no existence, and as if there were no God to judge in 
 the earth. They justify the slave-trade as our old slave-traders did 
 in England before the abolition of the traffic. One man told me 
 that many of the new slaves were so happy they would not return 
 to Africa on any account ; another had the impudence to say, that 
 they are sometimes so well treated on the middle-passage, that on 
 leaving the vessel they will cling to the captain as they would to 
 father and mother ! We have felt deeply and seriously for poor, 
 injured Africa. When will that dark continent be enlightened, 
 and the white man cease to be a man-stealer? when will "Ethiopia 
 stretch out her hands unto God?" 
 
 We reached Kingston on the 16th instant, and after two days 
 of tarriance at one of the hotels, where board and lodging are extra- 
 vagantly dear, we entered into hired apartments, and engaged a 
 servant. Three of the missionaries have called on us, and kindly 
 offered us assistance ; and we have already attended the examina- 
 tion of two schools, on the plan of the British and Foreign School 
 Society, about to break up for the " Christmas holiday," which is 
 here observed by some of the sober blacks with devotion, but by 
 great mmibers in dancing, music, and riots. The drums and dan- 
 cing have already begun, and servants begin to leave their employ- 
 
6 
 
 ment to join in^the round of merriment. I have begun my journal, 
 from winch I intend to send extracts to the Committee from time to 
 time. 
 
 12tk 7/ionthj 20. — In the morning attended the examination of 
 the children at the Independent chapel school, previous to its break- 
 ing up for the winter holiday. This school is conducted by a 
 coloured man, on the plan of the British and Foreign School So- 
 ciety, and at the expense of the London Missionary Society. The 
 number of scholars on the list exceeds one hundred, the average 
 attendance seventy ; but owing to the sickness that prevails, the 
 attendance on this occasion was smaller. Boys and girls are in- 
 structed together, and black, white, and brown take their seats 
 without distinction of coloui*. The school has been in opera- 
 tion only two years, and many of the older children are just 
 come to it fi*om other schools : they read and answered their 
 school questions in grammar and geography pretty well, and are 
 made to imderstand the meaning of words, but are far behind the 
 Borough-road children in general knowledge. The scriptural 
 examination was conducted by the children themselves : one child 
 being taken out of a class, others are allowed to ask him questions 
 relating to facts ; if he fail to answer, the child who puts the ques- 
 tion takes his place, and becomes subject to the same sort of exami- 
 nation. This plan, it is evident, excludes all instructions in doctrine, 
 and unless extended by the master or visitors, is very meagre and in- 
 efficient. Some of the black and brown girls came dressed in white 
 muslin, with bands of roses in their hair, and with ear-rings and neck- 
 laces. The children are expected to bring threepence, English 
 money, per week for their schooling, but owing to a cause which I 
 shall state presently, only about £24 per annum is received from 
 this source. In the afternoon we visited Samuel Oughton's school, 
 conducted like the former on the plan of the British and Foreign 
 School Society. The master who had long had the management 
 of it, left it about a year ago ; he received a salary of .£160 sterling 
 per annum, but thought he could do better by keeping an academy 
 of his own : the present master is not efficient, and a better one is 
 expected soon from England. The number on the list exceeds 
 300, including infants, who are taught separately, in a part of the 
 chapel adjoining. The average attendance of larger children is 
 140, but owing to the great sickness only 102 were present, almost 
 all of them jet black, and veiy modestly and plainly attired. We 
 examined all the classes, but cannot speak very favourably of their 
 progress in learning. The sum received in threepences does not 
 exceed £25 per annum. The infant-school mistress appears 
 well qualified for her interesting duties. The Baptist chapel, to 
 which this school is attached, will accommodate 2,500 persons, 
 
and is now in a course of enlargement, at the expense of the congre- 
 gation, to hold 4,000 persons. The congregation, consisting chiefly 
 of black people, pays the salary of the minister and all the expenses 
 attendant on public worship, and has raised this year a sum of £70 
 sterling towards sending out a missionary, ^vho is a coloured man, 
 educated in Jamaica, to a station on the coast of Africa. 
 
 12th month, 21. — Received a visit from , a stipendiary 
 
 magistrate, a man of colour, who came to Kingston, he said, 
 to find us out, and welcome us to Jamaica, his native island. He 
 lives in the plain, about two miles off, and kindly invited us to his 
 house, and promised to give us all the information in his power on 
 the state of things here. 
 
 12th month f 22. First day. — Maria and I sat down together at 
 ten o'clock for the solemn purpose of divine worship. A full per- 
 suasion attended my mind that we had done right in leaving home 
 and coming to the West Indies ; and my prayers were fervent that 
 we might find preservation, and be strengthened to perform our duty 
 in the divine fear, looking to the Lord always for help, and attend- 
 ing to the leadings and instructions of his Holy Spirit. At 
 
 dinner-time received a call from , solicitor and member 
 
 of the House of Assembly. I asked him if we could have access to 
 the county jail ; he said he was going there at half-past three o'clock, 
 and would conduct us. We found the prisoners seated in an 
 open court on the debtors' side, and a Wesleyan minister, a coloured 
 man, preaching to them on the duty of repentance. The number 
 of men prisoners is exactly 100, and of women 15 ; the tried and 
 untried are kept together, old and young, without the least classi- 
 fication. The rooms allotted to the men are small and without 
 ventilation, in each of which ten or more human beings are locked up 
 at night, in danger of sickness and almost of suffocation. The women 
 are better ofi^, having as much room altogether as the whole of the 
 men. The day-yards are narrow and close, and swarmed with 
 musquitoes. Some of the men are set to breaking stones, but the 
 women have no occupation, and employ much of their time in 
 quarrelling with each other. One young negress is sentenced to 
 imprisonment for life for stealing a jackass ! This prison needs a 
 thorough reformation. 
 
 Received a visit from Edward Wallbridge, the excellent super- 
 intendent of the Mico schools, which are a blessing to the whole 
 colony. 
 
 12^/i month, 24. and , special justices, called on us 
 
 and staid several hours, conversing with us on the state of 
 Jamaica, and assisting our inquiries. In the evening went 
 to the committee of the Kingston Anti-Slavery Society, which 
 was attended by W. W. Anderson, the chairman, one jet-black 
 man, a magistrate of the city, two coloured men, three mis- 
 sionaries, a large planter, the missionary superintendent, and 
 myself. A subscription was ordered to be raised for the society in 
 
8 
 
 London, and the chairman accepted the office of delegate to the 
 convention to be held there in the 6th month next. A resolution 
 was unanimously agreed to, " That as entire freedom now exists in 
 Jamaica, an immigration of free black and coloured labourers 
 and others, from the United States of America, would be attended 
 with advantage to all parties/' , missionary of the Lon- 
 don Society, kindly offered to take me to-morrow to a station 
 on the mountains, to which he was going to perform religious ser- 
 vice. With a feeling of fear lest I should give offence, but veiy 
 respectfully, I declined the invitation, stating my reasons for doing 
 so. He assented to my views, and then offered to take me over at 
 some future time on secular sei-vice, to inspect the settlement, and 
 to call on the proprietor who gave him the ground for building a 
 chapel and school-room. 
 
 12th month, 25. — Held our week-day meeting to comfort. Dined 
 at Samuel Oughton's with a party of Christian friends, and in the 
 evening witnessed the ceremony of a marriage between two black 
 people in his chapel. 
 
 12th month, 26. — Went over to Spanish Town, where we spent 
 
 the day, and were hospitably entertained at the house of ^ 
 
 and lodged there. Called on the custos of the parish, after- 
 wards on , and on , who is in office under the govern- 
 ment, a coloured man, of very enlightened and superior mind, 
 who gave me much information, and placed in my hands some 
 printed returns made to the House of Assembly, which are yery 
 useful to me. 
 
 12th month,2!7. — Returned to Kingston : stopped at the ferry-house, 
 and visited the numerous huts of a negro village, embowered in cocoa- 
 nut trees, by the road-side. These habitations are of very poc«* 
 construction, wattled and thatched with palmetto leaves, consisting 
 of two small rooms : the cost of erection probably about £15 ster- 
 ling each. It was holiday-week, and almost all the inmates were 
 at home : the prevailing fever was in many of the houses ; several 
 children and two adults were sick; and a poor woman, with elephan- 
 tiasis, was walking about, her foot of enormous dimensions, — a 
 shocking spectacle. All the houses we entered were furnished with 
 a bed, a table, and some crockeiy-ware ; and attached to the village, 
 raised by subscription among the poor people themselves, is a »mall 
 chapel, where one of their own number, a Baptist leader, addresses 
 them on religious subjects twice a week : on a first-day they walk 
 to Spanish Town, six miles, to attend public worship. The follow- 
 ing wages are paid on the neighbouring estates. For a day's 
 labour on the road or in the fields, from six to four o'clock, 20d. 
 currency, or Is. sterling : for a day's labour in river or ditch-work, 
 twice that sum, or 2s. per day. Boys and infirm old men for 
 tending cattle, a dollar per week. Rent for cottage and provision- 
 ground, 3s. sterhng per week. Thus a man and his wife, if both 
 of then^, work at common labour, may earn in five days 10s., which 
 
9 
 
 sum, deducting rent, leaves them 7s. a-week clear, with a whole day 
 for their own ground, which, though very poor, probably produces 
 yams and plantains almost enough for the subsistence of their 
 family ! We endeavoured to show them how well they were off: 
 they acknowledged it, said they were very thankful for freedom, and 
 hoped, with the blessing of God's providence, they should do well. 
 Most of the occupiers of these huts were married, but not all ; and 
 we spoke to them seriously on the duty of marriage, and on the 
 necessity of giving their children a good education. There is a 
 dignity in the carriage of the young negro men and women that is 
 quite striking to a stranger : no servility, no fawning, not a single 
 ti-ace of a late existing system of slavery. 
 
 12th month, 28. — Attended the petty sessions of the city of 
 Kingston. Some of the worst features of the negro are exhibited 
 in these couits, and the character of the common people, such of 
 them as are idle, ignorant, and vicious, may be studied here better 
 perhaps than anywhere else. Called on , the intelligent mas- 
 ter of Woolmere free-school, and obtained from him the educa- 
 tional statistics of Kingston, compiled carefully by himself, some 
 of which I hope soon to put to the test, by actual observation. 
 
 \2th month, 29. First-day. — Comforted in our sitting this morn- 
 ing with the renewed belief that we have done right in coming to 
 the West Indies, and that Jamaica is our proper field of la- 
 bour. In the afternoon went with our excellent friend , 
 
 in his carriage, to the city hospital. This asylum will hold sixty 
 persons, but contains at this time only thirty-six, three or four of 
 whom are idiots or deranged, and will probably never quit it till 
 they die. The convalescent patients, twenty-eight in number, were 
 
 collected, and read to them a portion of Luke's Gospel, 
 
 which he explained in a plain, practical manner, suited to their 
 apprehensions, and offered up a devotional prayer. We then 
 went the second time to the county jail. I thought it right to 
 offer to take the station, occasionally to read a portion of Scrip- 
 ture with the liberty of addressing the prisoners or not as I might 
 feel disposed by a sense of religious duty, and expect sometimes to 
 be so engaged. Distributed this day a variety of religious tracts, 
 chiefly of the Friends' Tract Society. Some persons came to 
 solicit tracts. Am glad to find that our distribution of these 
 Tracts has produced some effect. 
 
 \2th month, 30. — Employed in reading a back file of Jamaica 
 newspapers — drudgery work, but needful, — and in looking through 
 the Acts of Assembly passed in the present session. 
 
 \2th month, 31. — Rode to Half-way-tree, to attend the weekly 
 sessions. 
 
 1840. \st month, 1. — Called on , Wesleyan missionaiy, 
 
 and found at his house a brother missionary about to proceed 
 to Hayti to labour in that island ; for whom I have selected a 
 number of religious tracts in the French and Spanish languages. 
 
10 
 
 some peace tracts in French, a few English tracts from the 
 Friends' Tract Society, and four of the bound vohimes in 
 French. ■, a local magistrate of and a large coffee- 
 planter called on us, a pro-slavery and rather complaining 
 man. One of his colfee -estates last year left him minus <£300 
 currency. I asked him if all his estates taken together had occa- 
 sioned him loss. He could not say they had : the crop on the one 
 he had spoken of had failed. He did not approve the doings of the 
 abolitionists : he had suffered too much by them, but he believed 
 there was no peasantry in the world that would have passed so 
 peaceably and with so little trouble to the masters, from slavery to 
 freedom, as the negro population of the West Indies. There had 
 been much fault on both sides ; the masters had been iriitated at 
 the loss of power, and were often unreasonable, and the labourers 
 were determined only to work for wages that must ruin them. He 
 thought, however, things would yet work well, and invited us to pay 
 him a visit at his house and in the mountains. 
 
 1st monthy 3. — Visited the hospital, which is under the direction 
 of the corporation of Kingston, but supported out of the island 
 treasury. The number of patients 260, of whom 80 are lunatics. 
 The wards of the hospital clean and well ventilated, and the sick 
 w^omen apparently well attended to by the matron. The greater 
 part of the patients are men and boys, many of them seamen, who 
 lead a licentious life, and drink to excess, and who, by sleeping on 
 deck in the open air, imbibe the night-dews, and fall sick of fever. 
 Twenty-five persons have died in the men's fever-ward during the 
 last month, some of whom, we understand, were brought in at the 
 last extremity, and died, and were buried, without their names being 
 known. The wards are crowded with the sick, and more room is 
 much wanted. Many lunatics of the milder class are mixed with 
 the sick, for want of accommodation in what they call the asylum, 
 w]iich forms part of the establishment, but is separated from it by 
 the public road, and defended by a high wall. This asylum con- 
 tains fifty patients, and besides being a veiy unfit receptacle for 
 the insane, is dreadfully mismanaged. The buildings consist of 
 two suites of rooms, barricaded with iron gratings, having cold 
 stone-floors; several of the rooms without beds, or even a deal 
 board to lie down upon, and very offensive for want of ventilation. 
 Two men patients, said to be violent, were confined in solitary 
 apartments in the stocks, and two women, kept together in a room 
 by themselves, were entirely naked. My wife did not wish to visit 
 this wretched prison with me, and as I came on the keeper un- 
 awares, (there was only one keeper in attendance, and the rooms 
 bolted,) he had no time to close the gratings, so that nothing was 
 concealed. I have visited several mad-houses, but never saw or 
 formed a conception of one in which misery and neglect so cruelly 
 predominate. Several lunatics are often put into one ward, and 
 for want of inspection to restrain, and having notliing to do, and 
 
11 
 
 only a few feet of ground to pace upon, tliey quarrel and fight. 
 One man has been killed in the night by his companions, and 
 others dreadfully beaten. 
 
 1st monthj 4. — Sold a number of books for distribution. Joseph 
 Wheeler, the agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, took 
 tea with us, with whom we had much interesting conversation on 
 the state of Hayti. 
 
 1st month y 5. Firet-day. — Our usual meeting at home in the 
 
 morning. In the afternoon, accompanied by and , attended 
 
 the county jail. Having felt for some days past an impression 
 of duty to address the prisoners, I consented to have it stated by 
 the latter that a friend from England was present, and had some- 
 thing to say to them. It was my intention to have read a portion 
 
 of Scripture, but as this had been done previously by , who had 
 
 also made some useful remarks on what he read, I proceeded at once 
 to the matter which pressed on my mind, and was favoured, I trust, 
 with divine help, to relieve myself of the burden. I expressed the 
 sympathy we felt for them, shut up as they were within the walls of 
 a narrow prison, as real or supposed criminals, spoke of the indig- 
 nation of a just and righteous God against sin, and enforced the ne- 
 cessity of repentance and faith ; that without these there could be 
 no deliverance from the power of Satan and a sinful life, and no 
 hope of divine favour. I endeavoured to show them that the door 
 of divine mercy was open to the poor repenting sinner, that Christ 
 had died for all men, and that God was willing to bestow free par- 
 don on all who truly repented, and reverently sought forgiveness 
 in the Saviour's name, instancing the thief on the cross, as a proof 
 of divine love and mercy made wonderfully manifest even at the 
 eleventh hour. Some of the prisoners wept, and one of them 
 entreated me to visit them again, saying, they had no retirement 
 in the prison j and if they wished to cherish good thoughts, they 
 found it impossible to do so because of wicked people about them. 
 I left the prison with a thankftil heart and a peaceful mind. 
 
 1st month, 6. — Attended a committee of the Kingston Bible 
 Society : a great demand for good Bibles in Jamaica, at the full 
 cost price, among the newly-free people. 
 
 1st month, 7. — Having found a capable intelligent negro, lately 
 a gang-slave, I engaged him, during his spare hours, as a colpor- 
 teur to sell some of the religious books confided to my care, agree- 
 ing to allow him 26 per cent, on the amount of sales. Spent the 
 morning in examining some of the book-stores in Kingston, and 
 making inquiiy as to public and school libraries. (On the state of 
 education, reading, and libraries in this city, I intend to send a 
 separate and distinct report when we have visited and examined all 
 the schools.) In the afternoon rode out with a friend to call on a 
 missionary and his wife, lately arrived from the Oberlin Institute, 
 and settled at the foot of the Port-Royal mountains. This day a 
 slaver, captured by the Cleopatra man-of-war, was brought into 
 
1-2 
 
 Kingston harbour, with 280 slaves on board; but owing to the 
 smallpox on board, was placed under strict quarantine. I would 
 gladly have gone immediately to inspect it, but found it quite im- 
 possible to gain permission, unless I would consent to remain on 
 board till the medical officer should pronounce the vessel clean. 
 
 l5^ month, 8. — One of the Baptist missionaries, having in- 
 vited the deacons of his chapel, twenty-six in number, all black 
 men, or nearly black, to dine with him, my wife and I went as 
 spectators to the feast. They came at six o'clock, after the toils 
 of the day were over, dressed like gentlemen, all wearing a good 
 cloth coat, and some of them with a cane. Their behaviour 
 would have done credit to a company of merchants and tradesmen 
 of the first class in England : they took but little wine, and with 
 much politeness of manner, and observed great decorum. It was 
 astonishing to us that men, many of whom had been slaves, could 
 so soon have been drilled, not only into the decencies of life, but 
 into an actual refinement of manners, that might put common Eng- 
 lish dinner-parties to the blush. After dinner, and during the 
 dessert, several of them delivered short addresses, and one of them, 
 who, in his boyhood, had been dragged from the coast of AfHca, 
 spoke touchingly : he said he felt now the value of the Gospel, and 
 thought much of his native land, and hoped that measures would 
 be taken to send the Gospel there. A hymn being then sung, and 
 a prayer offered, the company departed. My wife attended the 
 first committee of the Kingston Ladies' Bible Society to day. 
 
 \st month, 9. — This morning at seven o'clock went with 
 
 first to the county jail, where we looked into the prison- 
 yard : the prisoners having just left their night-cells, were dressing 
 in the piazza to be ready for work : an effluvia from these cells 
 reached the spot where we stood, and seemed to taint the whole 
 air. We then walked to the House of Correction, about a mile 
 further on : at a new church, which is in course of building, we 
 found a gang of prisoners heavily ironed, working as bricklayers' 
 labourers, under an overseer. A ring of iron was riveted above 
 the ancle on the right leg, to which was attached an iron bar, 
 projecting from the heel part, so that the prisoner, in walking, 
 had to lift it at eveiy step. The least weight of these irons was 
 7f lbs., and some weighed probably 10 lbs. The poor fellows com- 
 plained to us of their hard treatment, and with great reason. A 
 few weeks ago, one of the Kingston magistrates, a black man, 
 ordered these fetters to be taken off"; soon after which, a prisoner 
 having escaped, another magistrate, a coloured man, ordered 
 them to be put on again, as if there were no possible me- 
 dium between heavy and cruel fetters, and no restraint at all ! 
 The House of Correction is an exceedingly insecure prison, so 
 that the temptation to break out is constantly before the prisoners : 
 this fault applies to other Jamaica prisons ; but instead of remedy- 
 ing the defect, by giving them better walls, the legislature has re- 
 
13 
 
 cehtly passed an act (1 Victoria) making the offence of breaking 
 out, a felony, punishable the first time with three years' imprison- 
 ment, the second time with death, and five men are now in prison 
 convicted under the statute, two of them for the second offence. 
 The total number of prisoners is 85 men, 4 women. The men are 
 kept employed in breaking stones, the women in washing. The 
 prison-yard is spacious and clean, and in the middle of it stands a 
 building, erected for the cruel tread-mill, now no longer in use. 
 One of the sleeping-rooms, 28 feet by 11, is made sometimes to 
 hold 30 persons, and at the present time 24 persons lodge in it : 
 the turnkey told me he hardly knew how to open the door in the 
 morning ; the stench was insupportable. The present governor is 
 about to break up the tread-mills, and appropriate the buildings in 
 which they stand to some good and lawful use ; so that this prison, 
 with others, is likely soon to have better accommodations. The 
 diet of the prison appears to be good and sufficient ; and a chap- 
 lain reads prayers once in the week, sometimes adding a sermon. 
 Having felt a religious concern to visit the prisoners on some first- 
 day afternoon, I asked leave of one of the city aldermen, who 
 kindly agreed to my doing so next first-day at four o'clock. 
 
 Received a call from a man named , and had much conver- 
 sation with him as to the rate of wages in the district where he 
 works, and the means of the people to live, and lay by money : 
 his narrative was a candid and curious one, and deserves notice. 
 He received Is. English per day, at picking coffee ; his wife the 
 same, and one of his children 2s. 6d. per week, which latter 
 sum was enough to pay the rent of hut and provision-ground. 
 If he worked hard at picking coffee by the bushel, from four 
 in the morning to sun-down, he could earn Is. 6d. per day; 
 but his common wages were Is. per day, which, with those of his 
 wife and child, left him 10s. per week, clear of rent, and one day 
 to himself to cultivate his ground, which being small and scarcely 
 yielded them " bread-kind" enough for only half the year. He 
 had, however, always plenty of money to buy what more of provi- 
 sion he wanted for his family, seven in number, and to provide 
 clothing, and to lay by something. I asked him how much money 
 he had in hand ? he said, money was scant now ; he had only four 
 dollars. What I have here stated, as to wages, will apply 
 pretty generally to the whole island, that is, Is. sterling per day to 
 common labourers, both men and women ; in some places Is. 3d. ; 
 task-work, about Is. 6d. per day, but often it rises to half a dollar ; 
 children, 2s. 6d. per week ; boys and old men, a dollar a w^eek, and 
 labour of all sorts in great demand ; so that where the people are 
 industrious, and no oppressions are practised, they have ample op- 
 portunity of doing well : tlieh' provision-grounds are a great help 
 to them, and wages have a tendency to rise, being only kept down 
 by the combination of the masters. There is probably no peasantry 
 in Europe so well off, in regard to the supply of mere physical 
 
14 
 
 wants, as the labourers of Jamaica, or whose prospects of continu- 
 ing to do well are so good ; but their friends in England must stand 
 by them, and watch for them, or the tide will be turned back : op- 
 pressions will be renewed, and disorders ensue. Marriages are 
 happily beginning to be very common, and it is thought a disgrace 
 to live otherwise than in honourable married life; and young 
 people, many of them, are saving their earnings to buy furniture 
 for a cottage ; but nothing seems likely for a long time to come to 
 conquer their passion for extravagant dress. Attended the ses- 
 sions court, and heard a case of alleged assault, in which the 
 parties appear to have abused each other with the most oppro- 
 brious epithets : the sin of an uncurbed tongue is a veiy prevailing 
 one, and occasions much of the work which the magistrates have 
 to do. 
 
 Received a visit from , a magistrate, and one of the 
 
 members of the House of Assembly, who communicated to us 
 the following information as to legal provision for the poor and 
 destitute of Kingston. There is an hospital for the sick and ex- 
 tremely destitute, which I described in a former letter. The popu- 
 lation of the city is about 4o,000. The out-pensioners who receive 
 weekly aid from the city-purse vary from one to two hundred : 
 some receive from Is. 6d. to 2s. sterling per week; others, a less 
 numerous class, from 3s. to 4s., some as much as 8s., and one 
 family, once in good circumstances, 16s. per week. The sum of 
 ^1,800 sterling per annum is thus expended on the city poor. The 
 salary of the relieving officer is ,£40 per annum, and that of a me- 
 dical man to attend these poor at their own houses, .£180 per 
 annum. The pensioners, when sick, often prefer to be sent to the 
 hospital for the sake of better nursing and diet, but those who do 
 so are extremely poor. All applications for relief are made to the 
 town-coimcil, and referred to an out-pensioners' committee, which, 
 as now composed, acts on the mercenary principle, that the fewer 
 its meetings, the greater the saving. The hearing of applications 
 has been sometimes delayed for more than six months, and it has 
 often happened, that in the meanwhile the parties making appli- 
 cation have died, perhaps from starvation ; and, in these cases, no 
 coroner's inquests are held. The common-council have lately 
 voted £5,000 currency to build a theatre, and £1,000 for a Jews' 
 synagogue, but think the city too poor to increase the funds for 
 relief of the destitute ! On the subject of orphan children I shall 
 reserve all comment till I send you the statistics of education. 
 
 l5^ month, 12. Fii*st-day. — Morning meeting at home as usual. 
 In the afternoon visited the house of correction : three of the city 
 magistrates attended, wi^h many other persons. After reading a 
 portion of John's Gospel, I felt a concern to addi*ess the prisoners, 
 which I did, showing them, according to the apostle's doctrine, 
 that the powers that be are ordained of God, and that magistrates 
 hold not the sword of authority in vain ; expressing sympathy for 
 
15 
 
 them as criminals who had violated the laws, and directing them 
 to the gospel of Christ, received by faith, as the remedy and cure 
 of all our spiritual maladies. I entreated them also to bear their 
 privations and sufferings patiently, and to look humbly to the Al- 
 mighty for forgiveness, and the help of the Holy Spirit to do his 
 will. Having relieved my mind in exhortation, I requested a 
 short time of silence, and the opportunity closing with prayer, we 
 separated. One of the magistrates present requested me to visit 
 the prison as often as I could ; the superintendent offering cheer- 
 fully to collect them together at any time. My wife could not go 
 with me on this occasion, as the weather was sultry and the walk 
 long, and we have at present no carriage of any kind, but intend 
 soon to procure one. One of the prisoners was a Chelmsford man 
 — a soldier, put in confinement for drunkenness. I gave religious 
 tracts to the few who could read. 
 
 1st monthj 15. — Visited the lunatic-asylum a second time. One 
 man and one woman entirely naked, and many others nearly so. 
 There being but one keeper, night and day, for the whole asylum, 
 and he sometimes necessarily absent from the place, the poor 
 wretches are exposed to the vulgar gaze of such casual passers-by 
 as are induced, from their loud noises, to look in upon them. 
 Visited the western branch of the National City Schools, which 
 had lately gone to decay, and which they are now striving to 
 reorganise. Number on the list, 294. Largest attendance for a 
 long time past, 126. Present number in the school, 84. Looked 
 out a present of books for Woolmer free-school library, and the 
 library of the Mico normal school. Glad to find from my colporteur 
 that several copies of the gospel of John have been bought by 
 Jews, and that the Spanish tracts sell. There is a temperance 
 society here, and some firm and discreet tee-totallers : when my 
 temperance tracts arrive, they will be in great demand, and proba- 
 bly prove very useful. Temperance and tee-totalism are much the 
 subject of conversation. 
 
 \st month 18. — We rose early, and attended by , set 
 
 out in a four-wheeled carriage, and a pair of small Jamaica 
 horses, by moonlight. A servant foUow^ed on horseback, lead- 
 ing another horse with a side-saddle for Maria. The constel- 
 lation of the southern cross, which impressed the first discoverei-s 
 of America wdth so much awe, was shining brilliantly, and the air 
 was pleasantly cool. We passed over Stoney Hill, said to be 
 2000 feet high, about half-past seven o'clock, and then began 
 slightly to descend : the carriage seemed to be strong, but the roads 
 here are wretchedly rough, and often deep with gullies, and in 
 going through a brook the spring broke ; a sugar-plantation was 
 near at hand, and we ordered the driver to lead the horses to the 
 overseer's house : here we were well received, and left the carriage 
 to be repaired, and began the second part of our mountain-ascent 
 on horseback, leaving one of the servants to follow on foot. We 
 
10 
 
 stopt at tlic house of a medical man by the road-side to breakfast, 
 at about the spot where the road begins to be veiy narrow, and 
 where only horses, mules, and asses can travel : the precipices by the 
 sides of the narrow passes are often very steep, but the horses of the 
 country are trained to avoid danger, and an accident seldom hap- 
 pens. The region we passed through was very lovely, mountain- 
 ous all around us, and covered with fruit and forest-trees in full 
 leaf and summer beauty, among which were orange-trees, loaded 
 with ripe fruit, the bread-fruit in full bearing, the cocoa-nut, cab- 
 bage-palm, banana, cotton-tree and mangoe, with many large 
 groups of the beautiful bamboo, which is a very light and elegant 
 tree, waving high in the air, and bending like a plume of ostrich 
 feathers. At two o'clock p.m. we reached Scots-hall, one of the 
 Mico school-stations, and received a cordial Christian welcome 
 
 from , the master and mistress, with whom we have stayed 
 
 four days. The school-house stands on the side of a mountain, 
 and looks down on a Negi'o town in one of the valleys below, 
 where, in thirty-four cabins, about two hundred of the Ma- 
 roons reside. The Maroons, both in this and at other stations, were 
 always free, kept in the pay of the planters, employed to hunt up 
 the runaway Negroes, and governed by a superintendent, under 
 laws of their own : they were represented to us as having been, 
 till lately, a fierce, cruel tribe, and sincere haters of all who were 
 born slaves, with whom as such they would allow of no intermar- 
 riages. I had often thought of these people before we left England, 
 w ith the hope of visiting all their stations, and was glad of the op- 
 portunity of coming on this occasion to meet them here. They 
 are now becoming civilized, have built themselves a chapel and 
 send their children to school ; and the Baptist minister, who comes 
 over from a neighbouring mountain to preach to them, has per- 
 suaded many of them to leave ofi* rum and to become tee-totallers. 
 There is absolutely a tee-total society here in the heart of the 
 mountains, and some quarrelsome drunkards have become re- 
 formed ! The superintendent of the station, who seems to be a 
 religious man, spent the evening with us. ^ 
 
 1st monthy 19. First Day. — This morning, as we sat at break- 
 fast, a large bell attached to the premises began to toll, and quite 
 startled us with its sound, which may be heard distinctly among 
 the valleys five miles off". 
 
 There is often much rain in the mountains, when the plains below 
 are parched and dusty ; it proved so here ; the rain poured down 
 nearly all the day, but many of the sabbath-school children came 
 notwithstanding; and at twelve o'clock, the hour for religious teach- 
 ing, the congregation of children and adults was about eighty in 
 
 number ; it often amounts to two hundred. is a man of an 
 
 excellent spirit, peculiarly qualified for the arduous and important 
 tmst confided to him, and in addition to his ordinary duties as a 
 superintendent, devotes much time to giving religious instruction 
 
17 
 
 to tlie black people in the very way and manner most likely to be 
 useful to them. On this occasion he gave out a hymn, and after 
 engaging in prayer, read portions of Scripture, which he accom- 
 panied with an easy, familiar explanation, interspersing what he 
 said with remarks of a practical and devotional nature, calculated 
 to fix on the consciences of his hearers. He then inquired of me 
 whether it was rhj wish to speiik, which not feeling it to be my 
 duty to do at that time I declined. 
 
 A meeting was to be held in due course at the Maroon chapel at 
 five o'clock : to this place at that hour we bent our way, and met a 
 small company of about forty men and women, seemingly devout peo- 
 ple. After a hymn had been given out, a poor black man Imeeled 
 down and prayed, with much simplicity of word and manner, that all 
 our sins might be forgiven for Christ's sake, that the Holy Spirit might 
 rest on us, and the dry bones live, and that the Word, whether preached 
 or read, might sink into the hearts of all present, and prove a blessing. 
 I now believed it my place to address the congi'egation, which I 
 did. It was a time to me of enlargement of heart and gospel liberty, 
 and I was enabled to discharge my duty among them, and to sit down 
 under a grateful sense of divine mercy manifested towards us. After 
 a short silence I engaged in prayer, and the meeting separated. It 
 seemed to be my duty on this occasion to warn the people against 
 placing their dependence on a stated ministry and the observance of 
 religious forms, as though religion consisted in these things, and to 
 direct them to the spirit of Christ, which can alone enlighten and sanc- 
 tify the heart, and without which no man can truly call Jesus Lord, 
 or become a partaker of the heavenly calling. The sun had just 
 set as we left the chapel, and we returned home amidst the croak- 
 ing of frogs, the loud chirping of crickets, and the fireflies' light. 
 The fireflies were numerous and brilliant. Many of the children 
 that attend this school lodge on the premises, and bring their weekly 
 food with them, or have it sent, as their homes are perhaps eight 
 or ten miles off". Some of these came in to read the Scriptures to 
 us before we retired to rest, and one of them only six years old, a 
 jet-black boy about £J|^igh as the table, read remarkably well ; 
 but I must observe, ^P going along, that the country children 
 are not, generally speaking, so intelligent as those of Kingston, 
 where the parents have become sharpened by the collisions of ac- 
 tive life. 
 
 1st month, 20. Second day. — A very wet day; kept within- 
 doors, examined the school, and passed the time in reading and 
 writing. Number of children on the fist, 188 ; average attendance, 
 140. Weekly lodgers, who bring their food, which is cooked on the 
 premises, 34. 
 
 \st month f 21. — Walked to the Maroon town and paid a visit 
 to the superintendent. ^ 
 
 Ist month, 22. — Left our kind and hospitable friends at Scots- 
 hall. 
 
18 
 
 \st month, 25.— I must now continue my narrative. A few 
 miles from Scots-hall, we passed though a new defile among the 
 hills to Mount Charles, on a visit to a Baptist missionaiy, whose 
 house stands very high, and commands a wide and lovely mountain 
 prospect. One of the Oberlin students, now a missionary in 
 this neighbourhood, and a Mico schoolmaster met us at dinner. 
 The island of Jamaica is very unequally dividdd as to schools 
 and missions; some parts are well supplied with both, but 
 there are districts abounding in population where no instruction 
 is given; and I have heard of one parish in particular, from 
 which several black people were summoned to give evidence 
 in court, and three of the number knew nothing of Jesus Christ, 
 and appeared to have no idea of a God. Many people, fifty years 
 old and upwards, were stolen from Africa, which they remember 
 very well, and know their nation, and speak a few words of their 
 native language, calling themselves Mandingoes, Eboes, or Congo- 
 men, but know very little of the Christian religion ; and having 
 been so long barbarised by slavery, are very slow to learn : their 
 children also partake in some degree of the same dullness, from the 
 same unhappy cause. The generation lately born, and now springing 
 up, have more intelligence; and the whole race, under good instruction, 
 will soon rival European intellect, and I hope excel them in piety. 
 
 In this mountain-district there are several schools within a 
 short distance from each other, and several stations visited by the 
 missionaries ; and the thought of the advantages which the people 
 hereabout enjoy has many times made the tears to start in my eyes. 
 The missionaries and schoolmasters, especially the Mico school- 
 masters, are a blessing to the Negro population, who are in general 
 anxious to learn, and whose character and habits of mind are si- 
 lently undergoing a great change. Their mode of conveying reli- 
 gious instruction in the school-houses is peculiarly adapted to the 
 condition of the people, who are at present but as little children. 
 " Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to 
 undei-stand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and 
 drawn from the breasts. For precept musy|||||upon precept, precept 
 upon precept; line upon line, line uponfRe; here a little, and 
 there a little ;" and in this way, under a s^e of religious duty, in 
 a patient manner, are many disinterested, zealous men disposed to 
 labour. I should have mentioned that the poor black man who 
 prayed in the Maroon chapel has given decisive proof of his 
 change of heart, by having some years a^o mamed the mother of 
 his children, with whom he had lived unlawfully, who was once a 
 slave, and thus drawn down on himself the anger and indignation of 
 his brother Maroons, and by having also maintained a solid, consistent 
 character ever since. We are forced to be very careful in judging 
 of men and women by the professions they make. The Negroes con- 
 sider it reputable to seem religious, and many among them have acted 
 the part too well, so as to deceive those who watch them narrowh'. 
 
19 
 
 On leaving the mountains to return to Kingston, we found a great 
 difference in climate : at Scots-hall and Mount Charles the ther- 
 mometer at ten o'clock a.m. was only 66°; in the plain of 
 Kingston it stands at 80° and 82° : in the mountains we can wear 
 woollen clothing, and sleep under a counterpane without musquito- 
 curtains, which we count a great treat ; in Kingston we dress in 
 white linen or nankeen, and in moving about have an almost con- 
 stant sense of weariness. It would be delightful to live in the 
 mountains, except for the rains, which are very abundant, and often 
 prevent going out of doors for several days together. 
 
 On 7th day morning, a planter from the mountains in district, 
 
 about 25 miles from the place, was introduced to us by a friend, who 
 came to solicit us to pay him a visit, and try to reconcile his labour- 
 ers to work for him on his coffee-grounds : we have accepted liis 
 invitation, and intend to proceed there on fourth-day evening, on 
 horseback, lodging at the foot of the mountains by the way ; he 
 sends his servant to Kingston to conduct us and carry our clothing. 
 Our next contemplated journey is to the emigrant settlement at 
 Altamont, where the emigrants (Europeans) have nearly all died, 
 leaving widows and children in a starving state. 
 
 1st month, 27. — Yesterday afternoon (first-day), attended by two 
 of the magistrates, we paid a second visit to the prisoners, now 
 92 in number, in the house of correction. I read to them, as before, 
 a portion of the Gospel of John, and afterwards addressed them 
 at large on several points of Christian doctrine and duty, to the 
 reUef of my mind. 
 
 1st month, 29. — Set out this afternoon on horseback for a tour 
 among the mountains in St. George's district, at the request 
 
 of , a coffee-planter at , who wished me to try to reconcile 
 
 his labourers to work for him, as his coffee, to a great extent, was 
 rotting on the ground, for want of hands to gather it. 
 
 l5^ month J 31. — Left early this morning, attended by a guide, 
 over a steep mountain-pass, in many parts, for a short distance, as 
 steep as the roof of a house, and very rough and rugged, to Mount 
 Lebanon, the seat of -»-, a magistrate and extensive planter. His 
 dwelling is about 3-^W feet above the level of the sea. Clifton- 
 house, another plantation, rises before it to the height of 4228 
 feet ; and St. Catherine Peak still higher, about 5000 feet. The 
 Blue Mountains, generally topped with clouds, form a boundary 
 to the east, beyond the River Fallahs, which runs below, and 
 reach the extraordinary elevation of 1780 feet. Such a scene 
 for magnificence and beauty we had never before witnessed, and 
 were much delighted with it. The prospects around us were the 
 more delightful, as the hills were clothed with fine patches of 
 coffee in high cultivation, and with woods and vegetation to their 
 very summits. The air in these mountains is deliciously cool and 
 healthy, the thermometer ranging from 60° to 66° ; and at night, 
 with a strong breeze, is almost too cool. We were expected to 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 breakfast, and met the planters at the breakfast-table, who all gave 
 us a hearty welcome ; and when our meal was done, set out again, 
 
 attended by , who had come here to meet us. This estate 
 
 consists of 1100 acres, 230 of which are in coffee, and is 
 
 said to be the finest coffee-property in . We found it in 
 
 a state of confusion, master complaining of men, and men of their 
 master ; and strangers from other plantations at work upon it for 
 higher wages than are commonly given, in order to secure produce 
 which would otherwise fail. Having heard the statement of the 
 proprietor against his people, we went to their village, which is near 
 the great house and part of the property, and paid them a family visit. 
 They swarmed about us like bees. I told them we came from Eng- 
 land as friends of the black people, to see how things were going on in 
 Jamaica, and were sorry to hear they could not agree with their 
 master, and refused to work for him. How was it they acted so ? 
 Several voices together, the women vociferous : " Massa no good 
 at all. Can't agree with him. Charge every one of us rent that live 
 in the house. Come in and look. The rain comes through ; can't 
 sleep in our beds. Charge we rent for these places ; and if we don't 
 work five days in the week, charge us a dollar over, and send a con- 
 stable to call us to . We go to , (ten miles off, over the 
 
 mountains,) and when we get there, massa no there, or magistrate 
 sick, we must come again." And so on, with more complaints than 
 I can enumerate. The truth is this, , who seems a kind- 
 hearted man, is imbued with the strong prejudices that belong to 
 his class. He has a large estate, with a hundred and twenty people 
 upon it, fifty of them effective labourers ; quite sufficient, if they 
 could be prevailed on to put out their strength, to do all his 
 work and keep his plantations in fine order. The Negroes, now 
 they have got freedom, like to show that they have it, and cannot bear 
 to be told, that if they want a day to themselves they must ask 
 their master to let them have it. They wish to work and to in- 
 termit work as they please, and think they have a right to do so. 
 This we know is perplexing to the master ; but the Negroes, with 
 all their shrewdness, have much of the child^out them, and need to 
 be humoured. How does the master go to work to secure his object 
 of continuous labour? He allows his people provision-grounds, 
 and one day in the week to cultivate them and take the produce 
 to market; and charges every adult of a family Is., and every 
 young person capable of labour 6d. per week, as rent for hut 
 and provision-grounds combined. A common day's wages, be it 
 femembered, is on the same scale of Is. to an adult, 6d. to a 
 boy or girl ; so that he expects them all to give him one day in 
 the week as payment for rent. This system bears very unfairly on 
 large families, and is sometimes modified in practice ; but unfair 
 as it is, and exorbitant,' as the rent by this means sometimes 
 amounts to, in the case of father, mother, and three children, 
 3s. 6d. per week, or ^9. 2s. sterling per annum, for liut and 
 
21 
 
 ground, worth very little more in fee simple, it would be generally 
 submitted to, for necessity's sake, if it stood alone. But the master, 
 acting under the direction and by the example of numerous 
 brother planters, says, in addition, " You shall work for me five 
 consecutive days in every week, at the wages specified ; and if you 
 choose to leave my service on any one day, whoever does so, I 
 will charge him a dollar a week for rent, instead of a macaroni." 
 He makes his power, as a landlord, the means both of coercing wages 
 and compelling labour ; and this the Negro resents and kicks at 
 as unjust. The master summons him before the magistrate for 
 this dollar, as a simple debt, if he intermits his daily service for a 
 day or two, without leave ; and the local magistrates, who are 
 often the majority of the court, give judgment against the labourer 
 with costs ! Such is the state of things in the coffee-plantation 
 
 district of ; and it w as to heal a division arising from this 
 
 state of things, that a well-meaning planter solicited my inter- 
 ference. Instead of reasoning with his labourers and reproving 
 theniy as he had hoped I should do, it was my painful duty to re- 
 monstrate with him, and to tell him, in the presence of several 
 planters who met us at his house, that the whole system was un- 
 just, from the beginning to the end, and would certainly break 
 down under him ; that if persevered in, his people would leave the 
 property altogether ; that he would be dependent on the help of 
 labourers from other properties, at an advanced rate of wages, as he 
 was at that moment, and be himself the victim of heart-burnings 
 and contention. The individual in question was exceedingly 
 kind to us, very hospitable, and very attentive to our wishes and 
 wants. 
 
 About a mile off, on the other side of the river, which runs through 
 his property, is a station of the Church Missionary Society, with a 
 new chapel and school-house, and as J. F. Sessing, the pastor, a 
 German, had come to askus to spend the first day with him, we set out 
 early in the morning to do so. He and his excellent wife were first sent 
 to Sierra Leone, where, and in Monrovia, they had laboured some years, 
 and spoke with much affection of Haimah Kilham, whose memory 
 was dear to them, and whose Memoir they were then reading. They 
 received us with much Christian kindness, gave up the use of their 
 study when they w^ent to chapel, and treated us with the cordiality 
 of old friends. Communion with such people was quite refreshing 
 to us. In the evening we re-crossed the river, to meet the people of 
 the Negro village in their own little chapel, for almost every village 
 seems to have a chapel or preaching-house of its own, and found 
 a few of them, with their leader, singing texts of Scripture, such as 
 the leader's memory could furnish. They made a loud noise, any- 
 thing but harmonious, and seemed to have very little of devotional 
 feeling. They profess to be Baptists, in alliance or connexion 
 with a black Baptist teacher at Kingston, which city, twenty-five 
 miles ofi", they sometimes visit ; and after paying their money to 
 
22 
 
 wards the support of himself and the chapel, receive a ticket of 
 continued membershipj which they seem highly to value. They 
 are in a very dark state of mind, living, many of them, according 
 to their own confession, in a very immoral manner ; but this is no 
 hindrance to church-membership, if the leader choose to recom- 
 mend them as candidates for baptism. One of the texts which 
 they said or sung, and which struck my ear more forcibly than any 
 of the rest, was, " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; 
 but he that believeth not shall be damned." Soon after which a 
 black man kneeled down, pouring out words as fast as his lips 
 could utter them ; and in conclusion of the prayer the whole con- 
 gregation joined him in repeating the Apostles' Creed! I was 
 grieved to see the state of this poor people. When they rose 
 from their knees I requested them to take their seats, and be silent 
 for a short time, and then found it to be my duty, by earnest ex- 
 hortation, to endeavour to turn them away from placing de- 
 pendence on such services, as though this were all they had to do ; 
 and pointed out to them the way of salvation by a crucified Lord 
 and Redeemer, and the need of a new heart, sanctified and made 
 ready by the Holy Spirit, to keep all God's holy commandments. 
 I had to bear a strong and pointed testimony at that time, as my 
 wife and I had both done before in private, to the sinfiil courses in 
 which they were living. They received what we had to say in a 
 very proper manner, but they are in a very low state indeed. We 
 are told that the parish in which they live is the darkest in all Ja- 
 maica. 
 
 2nd month, 3. — Lefl; by a very wretched mountain-road, 
 
 on our way back to Kingston. On coming to a very narrow pass, 
 Maria's horse slipped, and fell over the side of the precipice. She 
 had the good sense and presence of mind to slide from the saddle and 
 seize hold of the bushes ; and hearing her say " I am safe," my 
 mind became instantly calm. Our host was on horseback, just be- 
 fore, with another person, who was going to guide us when he 
 should leave, and a man-servant on foot, so that we had abundant 
 help. The horse recovered himself, and we were soon able to 
 pursue our perilous journey, but had several times after to dis- 
 mount and lead our horses. We were conducted by our guide to 
 another Church Missionary station, which lay in our route, and 
 were again most kindly received. Dined with the missionary and 
 his wife, and reached home before dark, thankful that our hea- 
 venly Father had preserved us fi-om harm. 
 
 2nd month, 5. — ^Maria attended the Ladies' Bible Committee ; 
 subscriptions promise to be good. 
 
 27id month, 7. — Finished reading a manuscript Review of the 
 first Year of unrestricted Freedom, in connexion with the pre- 
 vious State of Society. This work was sent me by , at the 
 
 request of the author. When revised and published, as it is in- 
 tended to be, it will tend greatly to promote the cause of free- 
 
•23 
 
 dom. On the subject of marriage I extract the following pas- 
 sage : — " The total number of legal marriages celebrated in the 
 whole West Indies from 1808 to 1822, that is, in 14 years, was 
 3603, of which 3596 were celebrated in Jamaica, an average 
 in the whole island of 257 per annum. The average in one of 
 the 21 parishes, Manchester, for the last five-and-a-half years, to 
 June 30, 1839, has been 366. The population of Manchester is 
 about one-twentieth of that of the whole island, and as I have no 
 doubt marriage has increased in a like proportion elsewhere, this 
 would increase the yearly average from 257 to 7320, or about 
 thirty/old.'' This return of marriages is of those celebrated in 
 churches and chapels, or according to the rites of the EstabHshed 
 Church; but as marriages are celebrated also at the chapels 
 of the Dissenters, and the Church of England has next to no 
 hold on the confidence of the labouring population, we may fairly 
 double the number he gives. In this case we shall have 14,640 
 marriages per annum, out of a population of 420,000, or one in 29 
 of the whole number, a proportion which seems almost incredible, 
 as one in 137 is the proportion in England and Wales, as stated in 
 the last report of the registrar-general. Marriages are indeed very 
 frequent now, both of those who have long lived as reputed man 
 and wife, and of young people beginning life together ; and it begins 
 to be thought a shameful thing for people to live as they formerly 
 did. The black population are everywhere, under the instruction 
 of the missionaries, setting a good example to the whites, and the 
 latter are slowly profiting by the lesson. I know one, not very large 
 district, in which three planters have lately married brown women, 
 the mother of their children, alarmed in their consciences for having 
 so long lived in sin : one of them is a magistrate. But notwith- 
 standing these hopeful signs of improvement, there remains a great 
 deal to be done before society is purified. 
 
 2nd month, 10. — Left home in company with a planter, mer- 
 chant and magistrate, to visit his coffee-properties in the moun- 
 tains of St. George and St. Andrew. Arrived at Bardowie 
 (estimated height 2400 feet) to dinner. This residence com- 
 mands an extensive view of the Ligunea plain, the three cities 
 of Kingston, Port Royal, and Spanish Town, an extensive line of 
 sea-coast, and many mountains. I must omit speaking of coffee- 
 plantations, the mode of culture, weight of produce, and other 
 matters, till I can give a general sketch of the subject, but would 
 just observe in going along, that the labourers are very well satis- 
 fied to receive their wages monthly, without taking anything in ad- 
 vance. 
 
 2nd monfkj 11. — Conducted by my friend to a neighbour- 
 ing property, and stopped by the way to converse with a black 
 settler, who nine years ago, when a slave, bought seventeen acres 
 of land in the name of his daughter, who was free, for i:117 cur- 
 rency, or .£70 sterling. This land was part of an old ruinate coffee- 
 
24 
 
 plantation, which he has succeeded in part in restoring, and now 
 cultivates in coffee and ground provisions. The new small settlers 
 who purchase land are most of them contented with the same sort 
 of wretched huts they have been used to, and are not at all in ad- 
 vance of the common labourers ; but this man seemed highly re- 
 spectable every way ; told us he hoped soon to build himself a 
 good house, as he was doing well, and that he had sent his son to 
 the Normal school to be fitted for a schoolmaster. Called at 
 Woodford, a Church Missionary station under the care of a school- 
 master and catechist, where much good is doing. 
 
 2nd month, 12. — Continued our mountain-excursion : passed some 
 magnificent ferns, fifteen or twenty feet high. Saw the cinnamon and 
 pimento. Stopped at Mount Airy plantation, and then on to 
 Knowseley to a late dinner and to lodge. 
 
 2nd month, 13. — Continued our mountain-journey. Called at the 
 
 • , a large plantation belonging to • . This property, with 
 
 and adjoining, consists of 1460 acres, of which 250 
 
 acres are planted in coffee, and much of which had been hasten- 
 ing to ruin from his people having deserted him. This property 
 ought to produce on the average 100,000 lbs. of coffee : this year 
 it produces only 20,000 lbs. ! Last autumn a cargo of slaves came 
 in to Annatto Bay, twelve miles distant, as a prize to a man- 
 of-war. begged the protector of the captives to let him have 
 
 their services for one year, and he would feed them, clothe them, 
 lodge them, afford them medical care, and give them sixpence a 
 day for their labour ; the bai'gain was made, and the entire company, 
 
 77 men and 11 women, were brought to the on the 31st 
 
 of 10th month last. I asked his permission to see these people : 
 he willingly consented : one man was sick whom I saw, and some 
 others had sores, but with this exception, all who were then living 
 (seven of them had died) were in good health, and at work in the 
 fields. Our cavalcade -to view and converse with them consisted 
 of four planters and myself. Some women were washing, and 
 seemed very cheerful. We passed on and came to a steep hill, 
 where 45 of the men were hoeing and cleaning coffee : here we 
 dismounted and passed among them, and talked with them 
 as well as we could. They were suitably clothed in woollen 
 garments, with good felt hats, and were performing their work 
 diligently. They were all in the prime of life, very black, as all 
 the native Africans are, and of several different nations. A negro 
 has been found who can interpret for most of them, but there is 
 one man whose language nobody seems to know. They lodge in a 
 large house, divided into three apartments ; and this seems the worst 
 part of the arrangement, as the classification is very imperfect : I 
 
 complained of it, but assures me it shall be remedied, as 
 
 he is intending to prepare them a number of separate dwellings. 
 The condition of the people, on the whole, is better than I should 
 have expected j miserable enough, as compared witli being in their 
 
25 
 
 own land among their own people, but a paradise compared with 
 the captivity in Cuba, to which they were destined. Some women 
 
 captives were lately distributed at Montego Bay, and had 
 
 agreed with the protector of captured slaves in that quarter 
 to take 15 or 20 of them; but when they saw the ship that 
 was to convey them coastwise to his estate, no entreaty could in- 
 duce any one of them to go on board, and they were apprenticed 
 for a year elsewhere. I mentioned in a former letter that a prize 
 had been brought into Kingston with slaves on board ; this vessel 
 was sent round to Navy Island to perform quarantine : the cargo is 
 about to be disposed of among the planters, and my friend 
 has agreed to take 20 of them for one year, to feed, lodge, 
 and clothe them, provide medical care, and give them a dollar a 
 week each for their labour, hoping by kind treatment to attach them 
 permanently to his interests, and settle them on his estates. 
 
 The last plantation I visited on this journey was , but as 
 
 I intend to give at some future time a brief history of coffee- 
 planting, I shall enter into no further details now. As we rode 
 along, we saw a young man at his provision-grounds. " What 
 are you doing there to-day?" said . "Working my provi- 
 sions, massa," was the answer. " This is not your day, Thursday." 
 " We have done our day's work for the property," he replied. I 
 looked at my watch; it was twenty minutes past one o'clock. 
 These people often finish their macaroni day's work, which is 
 generally a computed task, by eleven o'clock in the forenoon ! 
 But more of this when I enter on the questions of labour, wages, 
 and provision-grounds, as affecting the condition of the labourers in 
 general : their advantages as a working peasantry, except when 
 thwarted by unreasonable proprietors and managers, are very great 
 indeed. 
 
 2nd month, 16. First-day. — Spent at home in retirement. 
 
 2nd month, 18. — Not being able at present to leave home for 
 a distant journey, and understanding that much distress continues to 
 exist at the emigrant settlement at Altamont, wrote to James 
 Pullett, the Maroon church catechist, inclosing a check for £18 
 currency, to relieve urgent necessity. 
 
 2nd month, 20. — Visited, with Maria, the Mico school, and 
 examined in detail the mode of tuition and state of the classes. The 
 British system cannot be carried out in all its efficiency, owing 
 to the want of suitable monitors, and because the boys do not stay 
 long enough in the school to learn more than the rudiments of 
 knowledge, being removed at an early age to trade and service. 
 Boys and girls instructed together under the same roof without the 
 least apparent disadvantage. Present, 136 in the large room, 104 
 in the infant schoolroom, the latter well instructed under an effi- 
 cient master and mistress, who are man and wife. Total of children 
 this day 240. Twenty-two boys and girls are employed in giv- 
 ing evening instruction to 30 persons, chiefly their parents and 
 
26 
 
 friends : four of them receive pay for what ,they teach, and two 
 have been offered pay and refuse to receive it. On asking a httle 
 boy, six years old, what he taught his parents, he said, he taught 
 them what God would have them do, and repeated hymns, ^ad 
 read to them. 
 
 2nd month, 22. — Attended the German and Portuguese syna- 
 gogues. 
 
 2nd month, 23. First-day. — In the morning private retirement 
 and worship ; in the afternoon attended the two prisons. At the 
 House of Correction there were assembled 120 prisoners, to whom 
 I read a portion of Holy Scripture, and whom I afterwards ad- 
 dressed at large on some important Christian doctrines and duties. 
 A few Christian friends at our house in the evening ; an opportu- 
 nity closed with prayer. Retired to rest, thankful for a calm and 
 well-spent day, with renewed resolutions to devote myself more 
 entirely to Him whose service is perfect freedom, bringing peace to 
 the sold. 
 
 2nd month, 24. — Visited the East Queen Street Baptist school, 
 and the Wesleyan school on the parade. In the former 213 
 children, including 55 infants. Receipts last week only 20s. 
 sterling. In this school are 12 children, who, out of school-hours, 
 instruct 14 adults, for which six of them receive sixpence per 
 week each. A new master, just come out fi*om England, with a 
 salary of £200 sterling per annum, is bringing the school into dis- 
 cipline : some of the boys read pretty well, but all are young. The 
 Wesleyan school had present 124 children, including 34 infants, 
 under a good master, and seemed to be doing well. Receipts 24s. 
 per week. Two of the children teach adults in the evening. 
 
 This school, together with all the other Wesleyan schools in 
 Jamaica, is supported by weekly receipts from the children, at 3d. 
 sterling, which are strictly enforced, by congregational collections 
 within the island, and by advances out of the missionary fund in 
 England. Less noise in this school than in the Mico and Baptist 
 schools. 
 
 2nd month, 25. — Visited Woolmer's free-school. Present 224, 
 chiefly of the higher grade in society, brown and white. Many 
 great boys and girls, from their ignorance, sent to begin instruction 
 in the infant-school. The system of teaching is more by masters 
 and less by monitors than in the other public schools, and the 
 children are very creditably taught. Heard two classes of boys 
 spell hard words, and a large class of girls read, which they per- 
 formed well : tried also some of the girls in arithmetic : — pretty well 
 — no great matters. Three boys out of this school teach altogether 
 about 100 adults at the Church of England Sunday-school, for 
 which they receive 24s. sterling per annum each : seven other 
 children teach seven adults. This free-school gives education to 
 about 300 children, including infants, and not to 500, as several 
 statements which I have seen would represent. There may be 
 
27 
 
 nearly 500 on the list, but the attendance always falls very far 
 short of the registered number. There is a salaried Spanish and 
 French master, a Jew, who teaches these languages to a few of the 
 older boys, intended for countinghouses. 
 
 2wd! month y 26. — Began an examination of the boys at the Cen- 
 tral National School, but whilst so employed were summoned away 
 by a messenger, who informed us that a brigantine, with our friend 
 J. J. Gurney and his companions, from New York, had just en- 
 tered Kingston harbour. We immediately drove down to the land- 
 ing wharf, and seeing the vessel about three miles off, I took a 
 canoe and went off to meet it. Glad I was to find all our friends 
 in good health, and right glad we were to meet each other : J. J. 
 Gurney and his friend Mahlon Day came on shore with me in the 
 boat, and A. J. Taylor, remained on board to see to the luggage and 
 get it all safely landed. Maria was waiting in the carriage, and 
 conveyed them to an hotel about three-quarters of a mile off, where we 
 had previously secured apartments for them. 
 
 2nd monthy^l. — Attended our friends in making calls in Kingston, 
 and in the evening invited a number of religious persons to meet 
 them at our house, to whom their certificates were read, and to 
 whom J. J. Gurney gave an animated and interesting account of his 
 visit to Santa Cruz, St. Thomas, Tortola, 8t. Kitts, Dominica, and 
 Antigua. 
 
 2nd mouthy 28. — In the morning, with our friends : in the 
 evening had a second company to meet them; — passed very agree- 
 ably in the same manner as the evening before : before we parted, a 
 religious opportunity concluded with thanksgiving and prayer. 
 
 2nd month, 29. — Introduced our friends to some of the magi- 
 strates, and made other calls with them ; in the afternoon visited 
 both the prisons, attended by several of the city authorities, in 
 which J. J. Gurney had good religious service, and closed the 
 
 day by taking tea at , and with religious retirement in his 
 
 family : a word of comfort and encouragement flowed to him and 
 his wife. 
 
 3rc? month, 1. First-day. — In the morning, at half-past ten, no 
 previous notice having been given, attended the East Queen Street 
 Baptist chapel, having made an arrangement with Samuel Oughton 
 to be allowed to hold the meeting after the manner of Friends. 
 After some preliminary service on his part, and the publication of 
 numerous banns of marriage, he informed the people the object of 
 our dear Friend's visit, and silence ensued. The congregation were 
 almost exchisively blacks, and amounted to about 2500 or 3000 in 
 number. Our beloved friend preached with power and with much 
 faithfulness. I came to the meeting depressed in spirits, but my 
 hardness of heart gave way under his ministry ; and whilst I ob- 
 served the glistening tears and uplifted eyes of many in the congre- 
 gation, and observed their solemn demeanour and devout attention, 
 I seemed to participate in the general feeling, and felt it good to be 
 
28 
 
 there. No pmyer was offered up by our friend, but a scriptural 
 valediction was given at the conclusion of the meeting, and great 
 love was shown us by the people. It is, I suppose, nearly a cen- 
 tury since a public meeting for worship after the manner of Friends 
 was before held in Jamaica. In the afternoon, a meeting convened 
 by advertisement was held in the Wesleyan chapel, Thames Street, 
 attended, it is thought, by 3000 persons of all classes, including 
 many merchants and magistrates of the city and neighbourhood. A 
 noble Christian testimony was borne by the preacher to the great 
 fundamental truths of religion, to the pre-existence, divinity, 
 humanity, sufferings, and death of Christ, and to that spiritual 
 baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire, without which the natural 
 heart of man can never become cleansed of its defilements or made 
 meet for glory to come. A solemn prayer concluded the meeting, 
 and the people pressed upon us earnestly to shake hands at parting. 
 Two magistrates came with our friends to our house to tea : when 
 they left us we had a short season of retirement together, and I felt 
 constrained to offer up thanks to our Heavenly Father, who had 
 been with us so graciously by his presence, and had given us such 
 a good day. 
 
 3rd month, 2. — Took our friends J. J. Gurney and his com- 
 panions to Papine sugar-estate, seven miles from Kingston, the pro- 
 perty of J. B. Wildman, formerly M.P. for Colchester. We break- 
 fasted with William Manning, a church catechist, who resides at the 
 " Great House," and after examining the works rode over to Hope 
 estate, the property of the Duke of Buckingham, which has been, 
 till lately, dreadfully neglected and mismanaged, but is now let on 
 lease with the Middleton coffee-plantation for £2000 per annum. 
 After this we rode to Newtown, a newly-formed settlement of 
 about seventy small freeholds, purchased by labourers and cid- 
 tivated as provision-grounds. The Papine property consists of 
 1700 acres, only 200 of which are in sugar-cultivation, and the 
 produce of which this year, owing to a late misunderstanding 
 between managers and men, is not likely to exceed fifty hogsheads, 
 though it ought to make one hundred and fifty. Large herds of 
 cattle are kept, and there is ample pasturage for numerous flocks of 
 sheep. In walking over this fine estate, we were astonished to see 
 nobody at work ; the people were moving about, restless and un- 
 eas}', like bees that are going to swarm. We asked the reason : — 
 one was ill, another wished to rest, another would work on Saturday 
 instead, and a fourth said, " There was a matter to settle." At last 
 we discovered that a " Myal doctor " had come on the property, 
 who pretended that he could chase away evil spirits and cure all 
 diseases. Our host summoned him and his deluded listeners 
 to meet us at the " Great House," and talk the matter over. The 
 doctor, a black young man of about twenty, very fashionably 
 attired, came in with the easy manners of a perfect gentleman, 
 and taking his seat, called for a glass of water, which was 
 
 i 
 
29 
 
 brought him with haste and reverence by one of the company 
 At first, he only professed to cure diseases by the administration 
 of simple medicines, suited to the disease complained of; but, 
 on being pressed further, told us that he was qualified to 
 hold discourse with good spirits of the dead, who intimated to 
 him all the secret and hidden evils of the human body, such as no 
 human eye could penetrate, and that by this means he could effect 
 cures which no white man could perform. We asked the people 
 w^hether they believed this ; they said, with one voice, " We do 
 believe it," and seemed astonished at our incredulity. J. J. Gurney 
 spoke to them on the folly of such superstition; and some of them, in 
 return, before we went away, hoped that God would open our eyes 
 and make us see clearer. W. Manning told us, that he had of\en 
 heard of the superstition, but had never met with an individual who 
 would confess that he possessed such supernatural power. Super- 
 stition does still prevail, and I fear to a great extent : many of the 
 Negroes believe in Obeah^ or witchcraft, and believe that a Myal- 
 man has power to neutralize its effects. I was in the court at 
 Kingston during the assizes, when three men were arraigned for 
 murder. A Myal-man had come on the property where they 
 worked, and as they were professors and followed the gospel, they 
 resolved to try his pretensions ; and finding them, in their estimation, 
 good for nothing, bound him hand and foot, and laid him by the 
 side of a neighbouring pond, where the next morning he was found 
 drowned : there was nothing, however, to bring home the charge 
 of murder, and they were all acquitted. 
 
 ^rd month, 3.— Sent forward two mountain-horses and a mule to 
 the Falls tavern, and proceeded there in our chaise to breakfast. 
 After breakfast, mounted our steeds, and with two men-servants to 
 carry our luggage, made w^ay slowdy up the Port Royal mountains 
 to Halberstadt plantation. This was the first coffee-estate which 
 J. J. Gurney had visited in the West Indies, and with other lands 
 adjoining it makes a property of 2012 acres. About 130 acres 
 only are in coffee and 15 acres in sugar-cane, the remainder 
 is grass, wood-land, provision-ground, and ruinate, but alto- 
 gether a very fine estate. The people were all at Avork, active, 
 contented, and cheerful, and make great savings. In the even- 
 ing rode to Bloxburgh plantation, higher up in the mountains, 
 commanding a beautiful prospect of sea and land. Here we saw 
 the highest cultivated grounds in Jamaica : Flamsted House, 3800 
 feet high, Abbey-Green House, 4233 feet high ; and the Cold-ridge 
 peak of the Blue Mountains, twenty-five miles distant, 8000 feet 
 high. The latter mountains are generally covered with clouds, but 
 never know a fall of snow. Lodged at Halberstadt : here I was 
 taken ill in the night, and shook like an aspen-leaf: could not keep 
 a limb quiet, but was better the next morning. 
 
 3rc? month, 4. — Rode to Lucky Valley, the residence of its pro- 
 prietor, lately fi'om England, and to Lower Lucky Valley, on 
 
30 
 
 which also the owner lives. Both these estates appear to be 
 doing well ; no complaints from masters or men : then onward to 
 the grand waterfall on the Falls river, and thence to Kingston. 
 
 3rd month, 6- — Oui' dear friend J. J. Giirney feeling it to be his 
 duty to visit different parts of the island, with a view to rehgious ser- 
 vice, we agreed to accompany him. We reached Spanish Town to 
 dinner, and in the evening attended the Anti-slaveiy Convention for 
 Jamaica, at Philippo's chapel, convened for the purpose of appointing 
 island delegates to the conventions at New York and London. The 
 chair was taken by T. J. Bernard, a member of the council, and ex- 
 tensive planter : a large number of ministei*s of diflPerent denominations, 
 managers and overseers of estates, and about two thousand of the pea- 
 santiy attended. It was one of the most interesting assemblies I 
 ever witnessed, and the business was admirably conducted. I could 
 but observe the good sense and shrewdness of the people, which 
 enabled them to seize on every sentence uttered by the speakers 
 which had relation to their own interests, and was rejoiced at the 
 warmth with which they welcomed it. " That 's right, massa," " All 
 qiute right," " All true ;" with sometimes an exclamation of an op- 
 posite cast, as " Shame ! shame ! " Now and then there was a 
 clapping of hands from the men, and a bowing of heads of the 
 women ; and some urchins of boys, who had found their way into 
 the chapel behind the platfonn, caught the joy they could not com- 
 prehend, and added their voices to that of the crowd. 
 
 3rd month, 7 and 8. — Confined at the hotel by a repetition of the 
 complaint which attacked me in the Port Royal Mountains, and 
 called in the aid of Doctor Palmer. 
 
 Srd7no7ith,d. First-day. — Felt myself much better. A veiylai"ge 
 public meeting appointed by J. J. Guraey was held this morning in 
 Pliihppo's chapel, attended by about 2000 persons, and a crowded 
 one in the evening at the Wesleyan chapel : at the latter I felt it 
 my duty to enlarge on the question proposed by Joab to Amasa, 
 "Art thou in health, my brother ?" The service on the morning 
 rested exclusively with our beloved brother, and in the evening 
 chiefly so : this also proved a good day. 
 
 3rd month, 10. — Left Spanish ToAvn, passing through the lovely 
 Bog-walk in St. Thomas of the Yale, which greatly resembles 
 Matlock, to Jericho, a station of the Baptist mission, where we were 
 kindly received. The by-road branching fi'om the main-road to Jeri- 
 cho proved awfully steep and rugged, and placed the carriages in great 
 jeopardy : it was a rainy evening, but we had nevertheless a good 
 meeting with about 300 persons, in the schoolroom, also used as a 
 chapel. The Negroes of this colony are pre-eminently a church-go- 
 ing people, and frequently ride and walk ten, fifteen, and even 
 twenty miles to attend on pubHc worship : many of the labourers 
 keep horses and mules, which feed on the mountain-sides, and which 
 on these occasions they make use of: the women sometimes ride, 
 but not often; but come a long way, generally well dressed in white 
 
31 
 
 robes or chintz, with turban-handkerchiefs on their heads, and fanci- 
 ful-looking straw hats, and often carry silk parasols and umbrellas. 
 A country chapel congregation in Jamaica is one of the most cheer- 
 ful sights imaginable : the people look happy, are polite to one 
 another, and have as fine and independent a bearing towards their 
 superiors in rank and station as ought to be found in any part of 
 the world. I feel bound to acknowledge with gratitude that " He 
 who is strength in weakness, riches in poverty, and a present helper 
 in the needful time," was with us in the congregation this evening, 
 enabling us to discharge a debt of love. 
 
 3rJ month, 11. — Left Jericho at half-past seven a.m., but were 
 detained a long time not far from the house, owing to the restive- 
 ness of two of the horses, that refused to go through the rocky 
 mountain-stream that ran at the bottom of the hill : passed over 
 Mount Diabolo, which was so rugged and in some places so steep 
 that, although we had the help of six horses, it took us eleven hours 
 of hard travelling to perforai thirty-three miles. We had often to 
 get out of the carriages and walk, but the toil was amply rewarded 
 by the noble prospects around us. The parish of St. Thomas in the 
 Vale, full of grass-lands and sugar-estates, was a fine sight from 
 the sides of the mountain ; and when we had reached the summit 
 and began to descend, the scene was exceedingly picturesque and 
 beautiful. The parish of St. Ann, into which we now passed, is 
 continued hill and dale in every direction, luxuriantly green, and 
 well covered with fruit and forest-trees : the different properties 
 look like so many English parks ; the large fields are well fenced 
 in wdth neat stone walls, and extensive herds of cattle are seen 
 grazing : the Negro habitations are of a superior order, and every- 
 thing looks like wealth and prosperity. After resting an hour 
 and a half at the Moneaque tavern, we proceeded onward towards 
 St. Ann's Bay. A meeting had been appointed at this place, 
 to be held at half-past six o'clock : we made every effort to reach 
 the chapel in time, but could not; the road though down-hill 
 all the way was so terribly rough as to make it unsafe to travel 
 otherwise than very slow, and the horses were weary and unable 
 to speed us. My carriage and horses being the best of the two, 
 we sent J. J. Gurney forward, attended by my wife, with orders to 
 the servant to do his best ; but all in vain as to saving the time, for 
 just as they entered the town, a crowd of people was pouring from 
 the chapel, who had been there an hour and a half, and had given 
 up the preacher. J. J. Gurney stept out of the carriage, told 
 them who he was, and requested them to return, which they did 
 cheerfully ; and when the rest of us came, in an hour after, we found 
 him addressing an attentive audience ; and so far from expressing 
 disappointment at having been so long detained, they came round 
 us when the meeting broke up, and showed by their kind expres- 
 sions and glad countenances how thankful they were for the oppor- 
 tunity. The computed number was about 800. Two of our company 
 
32 
 
 lodged at a tavern, the rest of us at the house of T. F. Abbatt, 
 the Baptist missionaiy : he has long distinguished himself as the 
 friend and protector of the black people, who consequently place 
 great confidence in him, coming to him for advice and counsel on 
 every emergency. 
 
 We have learned many particulars respecting the well-working 
 of freedom in this part of the island: there are exceptions to it, but 
 these exceptions may be said to class under slavery rather than 
 freedom, inasmuch as they arise out of the misconduct of managers 
 tainted with old principles, and resolved if possible to maintain des- 
 potism. 
 
 Mannuee Bay estate. The labourers here have been unfairly 
 treated, and are gone off to work on other properties. The owner 
 complains that his estate is ruined, but refuses to sell it, although 
 he has been offered a large sum for it ! — Drax Hall. The proprietor 
 says that he has cleared £5,000 currency by the last year's crop : 
 one cane-]iiece cleared him £750.= — Saville estate. The owner has 
 changed his course of treatment to the labourers, and having made 
 a fair agreement with them, everything now goes on well, and he 
 wants a large number of additional hands to bring fresh land 
 into cultivation. — Drax Hall. I should have added that 200 hogs- 
 heads of sugar were made on this property last year, and that 300 
 hogsheads are exj^ected in the year to come. The plough is in use 
 here and on other estates : ploughmen's wages half-a-dollar a day. 
 
 Almost all the labourers have provision-grounds of about an acre ; 
 and these grounds, if the produce be all sold, will clear to each of 
 these £20 per annum, currency, in this quarter. In the coffee-moun- 
 tains, and on some sugar-properties, the provision-grounds clear 
 more than double this sum. The labourers work generally four days 
 in the week for their master: wages here Is. 6d. sterling a day; 
 rent of house and ground 2s. 6d. per week to the head of the family, 
 and Is. per week extra for every member of his family who helps him 
 to cultivate ):rovisions, but in the latter case he may have as much 
 land as he chooses to work. . 
 
 Price of Land. — Marsh-land between St. Ann's town and the 
 sea, which might have been bought a few years ago for £100, 
 is now worth more than £500, the latter sum having been re- 
 fused for it : trade has much improved since freedom, and land 
 is greatly wanted for stores and dwelhng-houses. T. F. Abbatt 
 is willing to give £1800 sterling for 400 acres of land not fit for 
 sugar, within a mile and a half of the Bay, but cannot at present ob- 
 tain it. The labourers are very earnest to get land of their own, and 
 place money in his hands for that purpose. William and Mary Waters 
 were both slaves ; William follows tlie trade of a blacksmith at the 
 Bay, his wife keeps a small store : they have saved since freedom 
 ^100 currency, and placed £37 of it in T. F. Abbatt's hands : they 
 have given £10 to the building of the chapel, and contribute £\Q 
 per annum to church-poor ! 
 
33 
 
 The parish-church at St. Ann's Bay is said to be well attended : 
 theWesleyan chapel holds 600 persons, and. the Baptist chapel 
 2000. The people (almost all blacks) have contributed .£4000 
 currency towards building the latter since the year 1835, besides 
 making liberal contributions for the service of the chapel, and 
 giving something to the Missionary Society. The chapel is now 
 nearly paid for, and in two or three years it is hoped the schools 
 will support themselves. One black man from Brown's Town 
 and one from Falmouth are appointed delegates to the London 
 Anti-slavery Convention, and gone out at the charge of the re- 
 spective Baptist congregations in those places. 
 
 3/'c? month, 12. — We all met at the mission-house this morning 
 to breakfast, and afterwards J.J. Gurney and myself rode out to call 
 on the Wesleyan Ministers. We then returned to the Bay, entered 
 our carriages, and set out by the sea-side for Brown's Town, 
 travelling six miles by the side of luxuriant cane-fields, till we 
 came to Runaway Bay, nine miles from St. Ann's. Here began 
 our mountain-ascent ; and here, therefore, as there was no tavern, 
 we took out the horses to give them grass and water, and some 
 of us took a bath in the fine, clear sea. On taking what we 
 presumed to be the right road, for a long way rather steep and 
 rugged, we passed numerous groves of pimento-trees, whose leaves 
 scented the air, and had extensive views of pasture-land, covered 
 with tall Guinea-grass, fenced in wnth stone walls j and saw several 
 mansions delightfully situated on rising ground. We walked much 
 to relieve the horses, and loitered, supposing we were going the 
 right way, and should soon be at Brown's Town, where we had 
 fixed to have a meeting, as in other places, at half-past six o'clock. 
 When we came to the top of the mountain we found a breadth of 
 table-land and a fine sugar-estate ; and seeing a swarm of people just 
 come from the works, stopped to inquire the way, that we might 
 be quite sure : it was now five o'clock, and the place we were going 
 to, they said, was nine miles off" by the nearest route, which lay over 
 a mountain not far distant, and that our safest plan would be to re- 
 turn the way we came, and take the beaten road, which it seems we 
 had missed of Here we were grievously perplexed, not knowing 
 what to do ; but finding among the people two labourers on horse- 
 back, and several others on foot, who were going to the meeting, and 
 who expected to reach it by seven o'clock, it was agreed that J. J. 
 Gurney and myself should borrow the horses and take one of the 
 company for a guide, and that the remainder should walk by the 
 carriages, and help them over the mountain-pass ; happily it was 
 moonlight, and the arrangement proved a right one . We mounted the 
 horses, and had a swift-footed guide, an excellent young man, who went 
 with us out of gospel love, and spoke to us of good things in such a 
 good spirit as to make our hearts quite glad. We should have en- 
 joyed the ride thoroughly, had it not been for the friends and the 
 equipage we left behind us; but the path Ave traversed was so totally 
 
34 
 
 unsuited to four-wheeled carriages, so steep, narrow, and rough, that 
 we feared they would reach us at a late hour. The men, hoM ever, 
 had said they would not leave mistress till they saw her safe at 
 the mission-house ; and so we went on, trusting that all would prove 
 for the best. As we got nearer to Brown's Town we overtook 
 numerous groups of contented-looking men and women, well dressed, 
 all bending their course, like ourselves, to the meeting. We managed 
 to reach it before seven o'clock ; and after taking some refreshment, 
 for we had not eaten since breakfast-time, we immediately entered 
 the chapel, where we found an assembly of about 1400 persons, to 
 whom exhortation and encouragement flowed freely. Before the 
 meeting broke up, we had the great satisfaction to see the rest of our 
 party enter; and when we all left the chapel the people pressed 
 upon us to shake hands, and to repeat their " God bless you, massa; 
 God bless you, mistress," and all the other kind benedictions they could 
 think of. We now retired to the house of John Clarke, adjoining the 
 chapel, and soon afterwards to rest. This is a day we shall not soon 
 forget: we felt in it both the leadings and support of a gracious Pro- 
 vidence, and were mercifully assisted by Divine grace to preach the 
 Gospel to many sincere inquirers, who, we have reason to believe, 
 are pressing heavenward, and some of whom are " athirst for God." 
 3rd month, 13. — After breakfast, had a family sitting with John 
 Clarke and his excellent wife and family : previous to the opportu- 
 nity thus embraced, our kind and pious host had given out one of 
 Addison's well-known hymns, which was very touching to us: 
 
 " In foreign climes and realms remote, 
 Supported by Thy care, 
 Through burning climes we passed unhurt, 
 And breathed in tainted air ;" 
 
 and we felt grateful, I trust, to Him who had thus far preserved us 
 from danger by sea and land, and continued to us all the blessing 
 of health. Our dear friend J. J. Guniey addressed the heads of this 
 family, with whom we all felt much unity of spirit, in a manner that 
 must have been consoling to them ; and the servants were not forgotten 
 in the tide of love which flowed. We parted good friends, under 
 the happy feeling that there is " one fold and one shepherd." I 
 left with these good people .£10 currency towards a fund for clothing 
 the aged and destitute. 
 
 The countiy about Brown's Town is exceedingly picturesque; 
 hill and dale, covered with luxuriant pasture and fine forest-trees; 
 and the town itself is a veiy pleasing object. In this neighbourhood 
 was the scene of James Williams' sufferings, and here stands 
 the dungeon in which so many horrid deeds have been done. How 
 changed the complexion of the times ! the people are now substan- 
 tially free and comparatively contented and happy. Let not our 
 friends in England suppose that we meet with cases of personal 
 cruelty : if they happen at all they must be very rare, for we never 
 
.35 
 
 hear of them. There are many little acts of oppression practised 
 contrary to the law, and often under the sanction of local magi- 
 strates, which keep up a spirit of irritation, but which we hope are 
 gi'adually getting fewer and may soon die away. It is now the in- 
 terest of the master, in a special manner, to be kind, if he would but 
 see it, as under freedom, far different from apprenticeship and 
 slavery, vexation is a game that both parties can play at: if the 
 master practise oppression the labourer can desert him, and with- 
 out servants to cultivate his grounds he becomes a poor man. About 
 two miles frorx Brown's Town we called at the house of the Wesleyan 
 missionary, who had spent the previous evening with us, and who 
 said that even a short visit from strangers coming in Christian love 
 was a cheering circumstance in such a land as Jamaica : he and his 
 wife received us gladly. Whilst we were looking out at the win- 
 dows on the fine park in which the house stands, we saw five couple 
 of black people, all dressed in white, come riding up at a good pace 
 through the pimento-trees : two couple were coming to be married, 
 the others as friends and attendants : they entered the house, and 
 J. J. Gurney addressed them kindly. When they came up to the 
 door I went down the step to help the ladies to alight ; but they hardly 
 knew what to make of the attention, and were so aAvkward that 1 
 found myself out of place and retired. Going forward on our journey 
 we passed through Stewart's Town, now getting to be a large place. 
 The new country towns of Jamaica are very different to those of 
 England ; each house standing by itself and embracing often a large 
 space of ground, so that a few principal dwelhngs, with outhouses 
 and servants' rooms belonging, together with the chapel, and perhaps 
 a tavern or two, will cover a great deal of land. There are not 
 many such towns in a course of building for " the better people," 
 but many new free villages are rising for the labouring class, -with 
 houses of a somewhat better description than Negro huts, serving 
 to prove the advancement of civilization and comfort, where such 
 advancement was particularly needed. 
 
 We arrived at Falmouth to dinner, and in the absence of William 
 Knibb and his wife were cordially received in his house by his 
 brother missionary Ward, and a female friend of theirs, who acted as 
 housekeeper. The meeting in the evening was held under unfavour- 
 able circumstances, and only about 1000 persons attended, to whom 
 our friend J.J. Gurney was engaged in extending largely the word of 
 exhortation, more particularly as regards the observance of the moral 
 law. I think it was at this time, or at some other, that our beloved 
 friend, in concluding the meeting, informed the congregation that he 
 did not feel it his religious duty to offer up vocal prayer ; and speak- 
 ing of the solemn nature of the engagement, expressed his desire 
 that ministers of religion miglit be concerned to wait at all times for 
 a Divine attraction and call to the performance of it. 
 
 3rc? month, 14. — Called on the different missionaries and ministers 
 in Falmouth, and at the house of the resident magistrate, who was 
 
from home, and visited both the gaols. Falmouth is the capital for 
 Trelawny, a parish of perhaps 30,000 or 32,000 inhabitants ; and we 
 found in the House of Correction one English sailor, imprisoned for 
 an assault ; and in the County Gaol, two black men for theft : no 
 other criminal in either ! In the days of slavery there have been 
 80 prisoners at a time in one of these prisons only, many of 
 whom were worked on the tread-wheel and in the penal-gang. 
 Debtors committed since 1st month, 1st, 1840, jfor rentj 16; insol- 
 vency, 5 ; debt on simple contract, 4 : total, 25. The rent-cases 
 are the fruit of the Petty-debt Act, which is already worked as an 
 engine of oppression — a screw to compel labour. Seven couples 
 came this morning to the Suffield schoolroom to be married by the 
 Baptist minister ; each couple paid a fee, I think, of two dollars 
 each. We had a pleasant ride to Montego Bay by the sea-side, 
 and passed through a mangrove-swamp. Oysters attach themselves 
 to the stem of the mangrove : they are used as a delicacy for the 
 table, and are very good eating. Montego Bay is the second town 
 for importance in Jamaica, is large, well built, cleanly, and beauti- 
 fully situated at the foot of some high hills : the square is handsome, 
 and there is a noble marketplace : it has an episcopal church, several 
 chapels, two gaols, and a good racecourse. 
 
 Srdmonthj 15. First-day. — Had a noble meeting in the morning, 
 at the Baptist chapel, of about 2400 persons, who were exceedingly 
 sedate and attentive : they sat during the time of silence with great 
 decorum, and whilst we addressed them, seemed to be much in- 
 terested in the solemn subjects unfolded. In the evening took tea 
 at the Wesleyan mission-house, and had a meeting in the Me- 
 thodist chapel; filled to overflowing. The Baptist chapels in this 
 land are attended almost exclusively by black people, the Methodist 
 chapels by black and brown, the parish-churches chiefly by white, 
 and in some places by an addition of all the other classes. 
 
 During the afternoon, J. J. Gurney, attended by the two resident 
 magistrates, visited both the prisons, and found them veiy bad : it was 
 very sultry, and I could not bear the fatigue of going with them. On 
 passingfrom Falmouth to Montego Bay we stopped to obtain refresh- 
 ment at sugar-estate, the propeily of , who resides in Eng- 
 land. The map of the estate shows cane-land, 266 acres ; grass, 200 ; 
 woodland, waste, and provision-gi'ound, 333 acres : total, 799. There 
 are now only about 100 acres in sugar-cane, from which they are 
 making three hogsheads of sugar per week : there is no want of la- 
 bourers, and the overseer told us they could readily make seven hogs- 
 heads, but the would not suffer them to do so. 
 
 3rd month f 16. — Left the Baptist mission-house, where we had 
 been hospitably entertained, and proceeded to Mount Carey, another 
 residence of the indefatigable Thomas Burchell, which is about equi- 
 distant from his three other missionary stations. Here we were glad of 
 rest, and agreed to stay two days, finding ample room for ourselves 
 (five in number) and three servants ! handsome entertainment at a 
 
37 
 
 hospitable board, and provender for our six horses. There was some- 
 thing patriarchal in the whole establishment. In the evening, set out 
 a cavalcade, nine in number, on horses and mules, to visit the Childer- 
 man estate, belonging to — Bernard of Bristol, who has the good 
 sense to employ a prudent overseer. Plenty of labourers on the pro- 
 perty, and no complaint on either side : 72 acres in cane, and 60 hogs- 
 heads of sugar this crop. There are many new stone cottages on the 
 estate, which cost, in materials and labour, ;£72 sterling each : 
 the common thatched hut of the Negroes in the south of the island 
 may be built for a third of that sum. 
 
 3rd month J 17. — Thomas Burchell, Joseph John Gurney, and 
 
 myself rode to the estates, where the so-called rebellion broke 
 
 out in 1832, and where, owing to the extreme imprudence of 
 a late attorney and a present overseer, there is still much discontent 
 among the people, so that but little work is done. The property 
 consists of 6950 acres, of which 850 acres are fit for cane, but 
 only a small part of that quantity is actually under cultivation. 
 
 The old works were burnt down in the rebellion, and 
 
 still lay in ruins, and the land belonging is now mostly used as a 
 penn for feeding cattle, of which we saw some fine herds. There 
 are 700 people on the two estates, which at one time, under 
 forced cultivation, yielded annually 700 hogsheads of sugar : this 
 
 year the crop will not yield more than 70 hogsheads. The 
 
 estate, belonging to , an absentee, adjoins the : the 
 
 overseers of the two estates are cousins of the name of , 
 
 and this is how they are going on. Some of the provision- 
 grounds of the last-mentioned property happen to be within the 
 
 boundary, and just before we came the overseer had 
 
 sent men to dig up the provisions, under pretence of a trespass, and 
 
 bring them to his own house ; and the overseer had turned in 
 
 cattle to destroy some provision-grounds within the right boun- 
 dary, because, as he said, the people had taken ground that was 
 intended for cane ! Between the two cousins and the two properties 
 the poor labourers were harassed and perplexed, and a cry was 
 raised against them, that they were idle and discontented and refused 
 
 to work. Wages and rent are settled fairly, according to 's 
 
 express orders, viz. for a common day's work Is. 6d. English, and 
 the rent for house and ground 2s. per week, demandable for one per- 
 son only : but the labourers complain that the overseer cheats them 
 when they come to settle ; and so it is, that as soon as one bickering 
 is allayed another springs up, and there is no contentment or peace 
 on the property. The only things wanted here are capital to work 
 the estate and a wise overseer to manage it : with these advantages, 
 from 70 hhds. of sugar annually, the crops would soon yield 700, 
 as in days past. When will the great absentee proprietors become 
 wise men? 
 
 Examined the children at Mount Carey school — 202 present 
 — the very best school we have yet met with in Jamaica. Much 
 
38 
 
 care had evidently been bestowed on religious instruction, and great 
 order and quietness prevailed : we were highly gratified by what 
 we saw and heard, and as applied to these and other similar insti- 
 tutions conducted in the same spirit, I could readily apply the 
 lines of Montgomery, substituting only Jamaica for England : 
 
 " Thy schools the human mind shall raise, 
 Guide erring youth in wisdom's ways. 
 And leave, when we are turn'd to dust, 
 A generation of the just." 
 
 In the evening a meeting for worship was held in the schoolroom 
 at Mount Carey, as a chapel is not yet built : it was a rainy even- 
 ing, but the room was filled. AVhen the meeting was over, " the 
 
 friends" of were requested to stay, and about 150 remained 
 
 behind, to whom J. J. Gurney addressed a few kind words to 
 encourage them to cherish a spirit of conciliation towards their 
 employers, of forbearance also at all times, and forgiveness for 
 injuries received. Whilst he was speaking, it was quite easy to see 
 that his address, as supposed by the people to convey censure, was 
 very unpalatable. When he sat do^vn two or three rose at once, and 
 one intelligent young Negro undertook their defence : " he wished 
 the gentlemen to understand the fault was not theirs : they were 
 willing to work and would work, but they had such an overseer 
 that they could not agree with him ;" and either at this time, or 
 before the meeting, the same individual told us that the labourers had 
 sent a letter to the proprietor, in which they told him if he would 
 come out and look for himself, and should then say they were in the 
 wrong, they would give him six months' labour for nothing. We 
 gave them to understand that we imputed no blame to them, and that 
 what had been spoken was only to caution them, as professoi's of the 
 Gospel, to return good for evil, and to try, if possible y to live at 
 peace : this soothed them, and we parted good friends. 
 
 Before we left Mount Carey, I placed in the hands of Thomas 
 Burchell ^20 currency, to assist in the erection of a hospital, 
 which his people are building at Montego Bay, and £5 for relief 
 of the aged and destitute, out of the fi.md entrusted to my care, not 
 doubting that such a gift would meet the views of the Committee, my 
 friend J. J. Gurney also entirely approving it. Attended by a guide 
 through a part of the country but little travelled, we came this day to 
 the house of George Marey, of Kepp estate, St. Elizabeth, who re- 
 ceived us all with tlie greatest kindness. This gentleman was once a 
 large sugar-planter in Westmoreland, and is now retired from busi- 
 ness, living alone in the mansion, and devoting his time to the gra- 
 tuitous and personal instruction of about 80 children in his own 
 house, some of them orphans, whom he wholly maintains, and to the 
 religious teaching of adults on a First-day. A meeting for worship 
 was held in the evening, attended by about 70 of his neighbours ; and 
 a large gathering came the next morning to a family reading of the 
 Scriptures, in both of which our friend J. J. Gurney had good service. 
 
39 
 
 Our kind host was so panic-struck during the apprenticeship, with the 
 fear that freedom would ruin the planter, that he sold an estate for 
 ^1500- which he told us would now fetch j£l 0,000 ! He gave us 
 all his blessing at parting, and we left him, grateful for his kind and 
 polite attention to us. 
 
 Passed on to Lacovia, the town of St. Elizabeth, consisting 
 of a parish chapel-of-ease, two poor taverns, a post-office, and 
 another house or two, and immediately gave notice of a meeting for 
 seven o'clock at the tavern, which was attended by about a hundred 
 people, including the curate, a resident magistrate, and two or three 
 planters. Feeling a concern to speak, I addressed the meeting, and 
 no offence was taken ; after which our friend J.J. Gurney rose, and 
 whilst he was impressing on his hearers the duties of the moral law, 
 and among other things telling them that all we do should be done as 
 in the sight of God, that a fair day's work should be given for a day's 
 wages, and that men should be upright at all times, the magistrate in- 
 tertered,and said that '^ he ought not to speak on the subject ofwages, 
 as this was delicate ground." J. J. G. replied, " I request to be 
 allowed to go on : I am noAv speaking as a minister of the Gospel." 
 Soon after the same individual again interrupted him. The ground, 
 however, was presently so well cleared from all possible objections, 
 that he said, " I am perfectly satisfied ;" and when the meeting broke 
 up, advised the people to remember what they had heard and to 
 profit by it. 
 
 3rd month, 18. — A day long to be remembered by us for the 
 danger and fatigue that attended us, and for the gracious hand that 
 carried us through our difficulties. Leaving Lacovia early, we went 
 to Barton estate, to the house of Samuel Rickett, to breakfast, 
 who had kindly promised to help us on our way to Fairfield, a Mo- 
 ravian station in the mountains. To effect this purpose he sent 
 four yoke of oxen to the foot of theBogue-hill, and himself attended 
 us with horses and a guide. On going along the plain we called 
 at Elam, an estate belonging to the Harmans of London and two 
 resident proprietors of the name of Foster, where we received 
 kind entertainment, and were persuaded to abandon Fairfield as an 
 impracticable point, and to go on to Wear Penn to lodge, receiving 
 a letter of introduction to John Davey, the owner, and a guide on 
 mule-backto conduct us. I should say a few words concerning Barton 
 and Elam before we proceed. The former is a sugar-estate, be- 
 longing to the Dickersons of Somerset, and S. Rickett is their 
 attorney; an enlightened, humane man, who knows more of human 
 nature than the generality of his brotlier planters, and manages the 
 property well. The charges on this estate during the last year of 
 apprenticeship, exclusive of attorney's commission, amounted to 
 £2021. 12s. lid. currency; since apprenticeship, for one year of 
 13 months, they amount only to j£1816. 13s. 4d., leaving a balance 
 in favour of free labour of .£214. 19s. 7d. The produce of the year 
 of freedom was less than the previous year by 20 hhds. of sugar, owing 
 to a cane-piece of 12 hhds. of sugar liaviug been destroyed by the 
 
40 
 
 irruption of cattle; but to remedy in part this deficiency 100 
 tons of logwood were cut and exported. The balance in money 
 would still be in favour of freedom. The Elam estate consists 
 of 10,000 acres, having on it 1200 people, and no criminal charge 
 has been preferred against any of them since freedom was enacted. 
 The proprietors make no complaint against the labourers ; but rent 
 and labour are made to bear on each other, and the latter are not 
 quite satisfied. Rent 3s. per week, with an extra per caput charge 
 for children : wages Is. 6d. per day. This large property is en- 
 tailed, but the proprietors hope soon to be able to sell land to 
 the labourers, and to build some new substantial cottages. 
 Called at their village and talked with the people, who are 
 Moravians: two of the sisters, poor black women, gave us two 
 shaddocks, out of love to the Gospel and respect for our mission : 
 one of them was deformed in person, but of a mild, pleasing coun- 
 tenance. 
 
 On arriving at the foot of Bogue-hill, we found the oxen and drivers 
 ready : our horses were taken out and the steers put to, and the 
 march began. The road was fearfully rugged, and in some places 
 steep and precipitous. The drivers urged on the oxen by loud 
 shrill sounds that made the mountains echo, and the poor beasts, 
 which seemed " unaccustomed to the yoke," rolled Ac carriages about 
 from one side of it to the other, often in imminent risk of an over- 
 throw. Some of us rode the guides' horses and some walked ; 
 and during the three hours that it took us to ascend this terrible 
 hill, we were overtaken by a cavalcade of gentlemen, and two 
 ladies, who expressed their astonishment at seeing Maria walk ; 
 and said, if she would get into one of the carriages, two of the gen- 
 tlemen should walk by her side to see that all was safe, and the 
 others who were walking should use their horses : the offer we 
 accepted, and safely reached the top of the first hill. Here we 
 dismissed the steers, and hoped that our troubles were ended, but 
 it proved otherwise. Our new friends took us to , the pro- 
 perty of , to rest. This man had a melancholy tale to tell; 
 
 nothing went well with him : his labourers had deserted him, his 
 spirits were depressed, and he could not tell what to do. We 
 found afterwards that he was one of the first, under the new system 
 of freedom, to coerce and compel the people, and to make them in 
 fact slaves again, which they resented, and left him : he now looks 
 in vain for servants to help him, and his property is going to 
 decay. We could only pity him and give him good counsel, which 
 J. J. Gurney administered kindly. One of the gentlemen who 
 
 helped us up the hill was ,of and , another disappointed 
 
 man : he also had applied the rent-screw to his people to compel 
 labour — had sown the wind and was reaping the whirlwind. If 
 these men will be infatuated we cannot help it, and must leave them 
 to take their own course. Continued traveUing at a slow i-ate over 
 a rocky road, till the horses came to an ungain place, where they 
 made a dead halt and would go no further. We left the drivers to 
 
41 
 
 do the best they could, and walked on, distressed and weary, to 
 Wear Penn, which we reached before sunset, and where we found 
 a comfortable asylum. The owner was from home, but the servants 
 prepared us a dinner and lodgings, and we retired to rest early : 
 the horses came up sooner than we expected, and found plenty of 
 good provender, so that all was right, and we were very thankful. 
 
 3rd month, 21. — ^John Davey, the owner of Wear Penn, who was 
 at the house of his brother Dr. Davey, the Gustos, eight miles off, 
 came over this morning, bringing his brother with him. Dr. Stewart, 
 an enlightened man, a clergyman of the parish, to whom I addressed 
 a note, also joined the party, and we lost no time in discoursing of 
 Jamaica. John Davey has twenty-two estates under his management, 
 and the labourers are working well on all of them : he keeps rent and 
 the wages of labour quite distinct; pays wages wdth great regularity, 
 and treats his people fairly, kindly, and wisely. Dr. Davey does the 
 same, and everything prospers in their hands ! Now for a few facts 
 in connexion with this neighbourhood. The people at work on Wear 
 Penn seem very happy : one young man told me that he and his 
 wife, by working six days in the week, could earn eighteen shillings, 
 English money. There are plenty of labourers, and work done by 
 the piece is done at a much less cost than under slavery. I saw a 
 stone wall, five feet high and four broad at the foundation, lately 
 built at five and a half dollars (22s.) the chain, which formerly, by 
 the hire of a jobbing-gang of slaves, would have cost £6. 6s. The 
 labourers are contented, under good masters, to stay on the pro- 
 perty, but when oppression is practised their desire to buy land is 
 so strong that they often buy it without a good title, and sometimes 
 give five times its value rather than lose it. Oxford estate is in 
 
 Chancery; , Gustos of St. Elizabeth, receiver. When freedom 
 
 came the Gustos agreed to pay certain wages, and to allow the la- 
 bourers to live without rent. Last year they planted a piece of 
 cane, and on coming for their wages the overseer told them the 
 work should go for their rent : they remonstrated in vain ; his orders, 
 he said, were peremptory. " Well, Busha," they replied, " you get 
 your rent now and better keep it :" they have never done a stroke of 
 work among the canes since, and the field now goes by the name of 
 " The Rent-PieceJ" John Davey has received in one year, and paid to 
 the credit of his employer, .£1600 currency in rent alone, and says 
 that the properties under his care yield now a larger return than 
 under slavery, at less cost ! 
 
 3rd month, 21. — The road to Mandeville lay through a beau- 
 tiful country — the hills covered with primitive forest, and afford- 
 ing at particular points some fine prospects, but the often steep 
 ascents, rugged as before, made it weary travelling for the poor 
 horses, and we got out and walked for miles together. Reaching 
 the town before sunset we found an excellent tavern and superior 
 accommodation, 
 
42 
 
 3rcl month, 2*2. First-day. — A large meeting for public worship in 
 the chapel belonging to the London Missionary Society ; 1000 
 persons present withinside, and 300 Sabbath-school children 
 without. In the evening we had a second meeting in the chapel, 
 I trust to good purpose. Many of the labourers came to the 
 morning meeting on horseback, and one woman, a hundred year* 
 old, walked with her staft' nine miles to attend it. 
 
 3rd month, 23. — Reached Porus, a large free settlement of la- 
 bourers, to breakfast. Called at the London Missionary school- 
 house, and examined the children as to their knowledge of Holy 
 Scripture; found it good and were much pleased. Average at- 
 tendance, 100. Then onward to Four Paths, Clarendon, where we 
 were kindly welcomed by W. G. Barrett, of the London Mission, 
 and his brother-in-law James Reid, of the Baptist Mission, at whose 
 house we took up our quarters. Had a meeting in the evening with 
 about 400 people : when we left they pressed forward as usual to shake 
 hands; and one old man said to me, with much simplicity, " Pray 
 remember me to all Christian friends." Examined the children at 
 the school — 116 in number: great care had been taken to impart 
 religious instruction. These schools are a blessing to the island. 
 
 A case of grievous oppression having occurred here, in which a 
 poor young man, a deacon of the church, is the object of a vindic- 
 tive prosecution, I agreed, with J.J. Gurney's hearty approval, to 
 leave fifty dollars for his defence : the latter added twenty more from 
 his own purse. The road from Porus to Clarendon runs through a 
 wild savanna, covered by a sort of scrub fir, six feet high, which 
 shuts out the sugar-estates from view, and gives the country a most 
 
 desolate appearance. — Denhy estate, the property of . Three 
 
 Aveeks ago the people went to for wages, who said the work was 
 
 not well done, and refused to give them more than half their due : they 
 immediately struck work, and summoned him to the petty sessions. 
 Justice in this case prevailed, and the attorney turned him out of 
 his stewardship : they have now resumed work, showing how trac- 
 table they are when justice is done them. Some of the sugar- 
 estates in the Clarendon Mountains must soon be abandoned for 
 sugar, and turned to some other purpose, owing to the state of the 
 roads, which forbids the transport of heavy commodities, and to the 
 distance of these properties from a shipping-port. It is said they 
 have been carried on as sugar-plantations much too long already. 
 — Seven Plantations. All goes on well : this property used to make 
 six hogsheads of sugar per week ; it now makes eleven. 
 
 3rd month, 24. — Reached Old Harbour Bay, and after a few 
 hours' notice had a meeting of 600 persons, in H. C. Taylor's Bap- 
 tist Chapel, which, with the exception of the concluding meetings at 
 Kingston, was the last appointed meeting in this island. Our dear 
 friend, on reviewing his services on this journey of 300 miles, 
 acknowledged with gratitude that the good hand of his Heavenly 
 
43 
 
 Father had been with him in the work — had led him out and 
 brought him safely back, and that he felt peace, b elieving that 
 Jamaica had been an appointed field of labour for him. 
 
 3rd monthy 29. First-day. — A pubHc meeting this morning at 
 Joshua Tinson's chapel, Kingston, and in the afternoon at the Wes- 
 leyan chapel, in both of which our beloved friend had large service. 
 In the morning meeting he was led to make particular mention of the 
 wrongs of Africa, and its heathen darkness, and to express an 
 earnest hope that the time would soon come in which some of those 
 who now enjoyed in Jamaica the liberty of freedom from outward 
 bonds and the blessing of gospel light, would be led, as gospel 
 ministers, to visit its shores : he also prayed fervently that the Lord 
 would hasten it in his time. Our maid-servant, who was present 
 at the meeting, said afterwards to Maria, " The minister did not take 
 the book, mistress, and go to chapter and verse, but spoke as the 
 Spirit of God led him. I quite understood it, mistress; and when he 
 spoke about Africa it was so affecting! [here the tears ran down her 
 face]. May God bless him and keep him." At seven o'clock we 
 repaired to the chapel of the London Missionary Society, to meet 
 the Jews of Kingston, to whom a private invitation had been ex- 
 tended to meet us for Divine worship. There might, perhaps, be a 
 hundred Jews and Jewesses present, but I think not so many. We 
 were both engaged in bearing testimony to the great truths of the 
 Christian religion, to an attentive, but scarcely a patient, congrega- 
 tion, as some of them, at particular parts of the subject, evidently 
 flinched, but they heard us to the end. As we left the meeting, 
 one elderly man wished to have the opportunity to reply, but many 
 came up to pronounce their benediction, which by one of the com- 
 pany was expressed in Hebrew. A young Jewess gave us her 
 hand with a smile and a blessing, in a manner which I shall not 
 soon forget ; — her very heart seemed to have been touched. I have 
 distributed many copies of William Penn's Address to the Jews since 
 we came to Kingston. The ministerial labours of our dear friend 
 in this land being now concluded, himself and his beloved com- 
 panion Mahlon Day, with Samuel Parsons, jun., A. S. Taylor, and 
 Samuel Dickenson, came home with Maria and me to our apart- 
 ments; and we sat down a short time in silence together, with our 
 hearts I trust turned to the Lord in a feeling of gratitude for mer- 
 cies vouchsafed, and for help thus far so graciously afforded. 
 
 3rd jnonthy 30. — The ship Whitmore, chartered at Santa Cruz, 
 with passengers to Savannah, in Georgia, had been waiting several 
 days in Kingston harbour for J.J. Gurney and his three friends, who 
 this morning went on board. Her first destination is the Havannah, 
 in Cuba : all the passengers received passports to land there, except 
 J. J. G., to whom the Spanish Consul positively refused to grant a 
 passport or letter of any kind. This man, being known to some of us, 
 an apphcation had been made to Sir Charles Metcalfe for a letter of 
 
44 
 
 introduction to the Governor of Cuba, which was readily furnished; 
 and the Mayor of Kingston sent, imrequested, a passport of liis 
 own. When the Consul heard of the latter, he said, " You had 
 better not make use of it, it will only be the worse for you." We 
 may expect, therefore, to hear of cuiious proceedings in the land 
 of slavery, and have only to hope that freedom may gain by them, 
 whatever they be. 
 
 Hairej- and Darton, IVinters, Gracechnrch Street. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 015 819 994 4