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Show . ' '""' ··' ~, 116 JAMAICA· . 1 1 1 been already sold to the em an. lots fifty of IV J11e 1 lUI • . ' . d 1 .,d proved a tnncl y refuge for Clpated negroes, an 1< I 1 1 been driven by hard usage from many laborers w 10 1al · . . . 1 Some of them had bllllt good cot. thc11·1ormer 1omes. . I an· huts: and others agam were tao-es; ot Jers, tempore .. r ... • " · 1 . wd for bnilding. I hen· gardens prcparmg t 1e g1 01 • • . wrre cI e are1I , OJ. m· process of clcarmg. ; a.n d, m many I d b ·ou.,.ht into fine cult1vatwn. Not a casC's, a rea y I o . . hoe, I b e I.1 eve, 11<.1 d ever been dnven m• to that land b.e . r "-r . a ,,1']h"e had risen up, w1th every pronuse 10re. l VUW,' c b . of comfort and prosperity, and the land was hkely to profI n ee a v·c1 st ·c1 bundance of nutrit• ious f•o od. The people settled there were all marncd pall'S, mostly with families, and the men employed the bulk of their time in working for wages on the neighboring I estates. The chapel and the school were immediately at hand, and the religions character of the people stood high. Never did I witness a seene of ~realer industry, or one more marked by conten:ment f~r the present, and hope for the future. How mst~nct1ve to remember that two years ago_ this peacefulv1llage had no existence ! After partaking of w:edful..refreshment, in the neat but commodious coi1\ltry house with which J. M. Phillippo was here p\ovidcd, we retprned towards Spanishtown, by a ye~wilder path, over stones, and through brakes an< I b n·al• ,rs, unt1'1 we came to Clarkson.- town, another village cf." t I1 e same 11 e scn·p t'1 0 n' butm rather a more for.ward ~late of cultivation. Here we were refreshed, by the h~spitable people, with draughts of lemonade. We found them industriously engage~ in cultivating their ow\i freeholds. Many of theln .JA!\IAICA. 117 had long been laborers on a neighboring estate, from which they had at last been forced away, by ill tre1itment. Their cocoa-nut trees had been felled-their huts demolished. What could they do but seek a new home? They crowded round us, and expressed the most entire willingness again to work on the property, if tlwy were but treated with fairness and kindness. They w~re well known to my ti·iend Phillippo, being many of them members of his church ; and a better conditioned, or better mannered peasantry, could not easily be found. On our return home, we visited two neighboring estates, of about equal size (I believe) and equal fertility; both among the finest properties, for natural and local advantages, which 1 anv where saw in Jamaica. One was in difficulty-.the other prosperous. The first was the estate already alluded to which had been deprived of so many hands, by vai~ 'attempts to compel the labor of freemen. There, if I am not mistaken, 1 saw, as we> passed by, the clear marks of that violence, by which the people had been expelled. The second, called "Dawkin's Caymanas,'\ was under the enlightened at~rneyship of Judge Bcr~ nard, who with his lady, and tile respectable overseer, met us on the spot. On this property, the laborers were mdcpcndent tenants. Their rent was settled according to the money value of the tenements whic~ they occupied, and they were allowed to take their labor to the best market they could find. As a matter of course, they took it to the home market; and excellently were they working on the property of their old master. The attorney, the overseer, and the Ia- |