OCR Text |
Show 124 JAMAICA· independent tenants. By this wise and liberal arrangement, the Marquess will I trust succeed, first, in 00. taining a good rental, and, secondly, in sec_uring a constant home supply of labor, amply suffic1ent for the cultivation of his estate. W c saw the people on this property diligently employed in holing-a work for which ploughing is now pretty generally substituted in Jamaica. "How are you all getting along:" said my companion, to a tall bright-looking black man, busily eng<tgcd with his hoc. "Right well, massa, right well," he replied. "I am from America," said my friend, " where there are many slaves: what shall I say to them from you? shall I tell them that freedom is working well here?" "Yes, massa," said he, "much well under freedom-thank God for it." "Much well" they were indeed doing, fur they were earning a dollar for every hundred cane holes-a ~real effort certainly, but one which many of them accom· plishcd by four o'clock in the afternoon. "How is this?" asked the same friend, as he felt the lumps or welts on the shoulder of another man. "0, massa," cried the negro, " I was flogged when a slave-no more whip now-all free." We left " Kelly's" for an hour or two, on a visit to Henry Taylor, the Baptist missionary at Old Harbor, who has under his care a large congregation and excellent school. We observed two large merchantmen in the harbor, and a third ap· proaching it at a distance-no evidence that this part of the country has failed to he productive. On our return to Kelly's, the laborers were asst•mbled, at our requeRt, under the shade of an old silk cotton tree, and listened with eager interest, to the practical ad· JAM1\ICA. 125 vice.s which we wished to communica tc. · I t was our dcs1re to enc.o urage them to 'a li~c o 1· 11 0nesty, m· - dustry, and pJCty. And truly they are willing to be taught. One estate• only, in that district , 11,ac s s.a.l( 1 to b e under any difficulty, for want of sufficient labor- Bushy .P ark, a property of gre·' tt e·x tent am·] t•e rt1· 1·1 ty, ,o n whrch m. any hundred black ])eople 'ar e 1o catcc1 . fhey arc sa1d to bclonobo to an Africca n tr·1b e w h.1 ch. h as been found, since they were transferred to the colonics, less easy to control than the generality of their brethren. We visited this cstac tn, . 1·n th c a f.t ernoon and a la:gc number of them were convened, .at ou; request, Ill front of the Gregt House-as li I I· • c ne a oo '"- m.g l race as we any where saw. . Thev. were add re. ssecI , Wit 1 much freedom and plainness, on the duties which devolved upon them as free hired laborers,-and most of them received the exhortation with cordiality. W c h:td strong reason to believe, that the difficulties on thJs property had arisen from the want of kind and judicious management, on the part of some former ~verseers. The attorney of the property has since inormed us, that the obstructions have been removed and, .to use his own expression, that the people "ar~ mcrnly at work." The evening was now advanced and, under the guidance of our kind friend Custo~ Hamsay, we returned to Spanisl1town. ' I. can ln' rdly re f:r am· f rom m· scrt.m g an anecdote wh1eh he t ld ·11 · . . 0 us, 1 ustrat1ve of the mind and man-In. e rs of th 1s pe 0 P1 e . A tame plover which he kept in liS garden, before the date of freedom, fri<>htened at the report of . b '1 gun, was seen burying her long beak, |