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Show 96 JAMAICA. in numbers and respectability, since the date of full freedom. They pour in from the country partly on foot, and partly on mules, or horses, of their own. They now entirely support the mission, and are en. Jarging their chapel at the expense of £1,000 sterling. Their subscriptions to this and other collateral ob· jects are at once voluntary and very liberal. "I have brought my mite for the chapel," said a black woman once a slave, to S. Oughton, a t!ay or two before our meeting; "l am sorry it is no more;" she then put into his hand two pieces of gold, amounting to five dollars. Tbis description which would apply, with equal force, to several other scenes witnessed by us in Jamaica, may be sufficient to show the utter fallacy of the notion that the cause of religion has declined in that island, since the breaking of the bonds of the slave. The exact contrary is preeminently the truth. We always endeavored, during our residence in Jamaica, to hold the balance even between the Bap· tists and the Methodists, the chapels of both deno· nations being freely offered to us. In the afternoon, a meeting was held in pursuauce of public advertise· ment, in the Wesley Chapel-a house of similar vast size. The congregation was very large and promis· cuous, consisting of persons of all ranks, parties, and colors. Much had the colony been perplexed and agitated by the strife of parties. No wonder there· fore that we felt it to be our duty to preach peace and charity, and to uphold the efficiency of evaugeli· cal and vital relig-ion, as the radical remedy for all abuses. "Every valley shaU he exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the JAMAICA . 97 crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." Third month (March) 2ud. Under the guidance of om· friends J. and M. Candler, we drove several miles into the country, to breakfitst at l)apiue, the estate of J. B. Wildman, late member of parliament for Colchester. There we were entertained by Wm. ~Ianning, a. catechist of the Church Missionary SoCiety, who, hke other agents of that institution in the island, is exerting a highly beneficial influence over the peasantry. The bouse is em bosomed in tropical trees of rare beauty, one of them a mahogany-tree, covereu with small dark leaves, and spreading its branches like one of our vast oaks. Large red lilies were growing wild among the grass and shrubs. The productions of nature in this island are somewhat dift'erent from any that we had before seen. Fo~ example, the pimento or Jamaica pepper tree, wh1ch produces the "allspice"-of lofty grey trunk, and dark polished fragrant leaf; the lignum vit.:e, profusely adorned with small blue blossoms; the date palm, much exceeding the cocoa-nut tree in the luxuriance of its branches, and many delicate kinds of 'ac acm· . A s to t h e mango trees, they may be said to cover the country; and, during the four summer months, afford abundance of delicious food to meu mules, horses, cows, and pigs. All animals secU: equally fond of this fruit. The birds of Jamaica are a. lso more· van.o us nn d f'r cquent, than m. the other Islands wh 1· c· h we V·I S.ite(1. l'l1 e turkey buzzard, so common i n your soutI 1 crn states, abounds here, and II |