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Show 50 ANTIGUA. vised to sell off part of her property, in small lots. The ex-periment answered her warmest C>.1'ec t<.> u·ons • The labore• rs in the neio-hborhood, bought up all the little freeholds with extreme e~erness, made their payments faithfully, and lost no time in settling on the spots which they had purchased. They soon framed their houses, and brought their gardens into useful cultivation with yams, bananas, plantams, pmeapples, and other fruits and vegetables,_ including plots of sugar cane. In this way Augusta and L1berta sprang up as_ 1f by magic. I visited several of the cottages, in company With the Rector of the parish, and was surprised by the excellence of the buildings, as well as by the neat furnitur~, and cleanly little articles of daily use, which we found \VJthm. lt was a scene of contentment and happiness; and I may certainly add, of industry; for these little freeholders occupied only their leisure hours, in working on their own grounds. They were also earning wages as laborers on the neighboring estates, or working at English Harbor, as mechanics. . . During our rides and drives about Ant1gna, we sometimes observed specimens, lying on the road, of those remarkable petrifactions for which the island is celebrated. They are either of woods found in the trap formation, or of ma.drepo\·es, mostly discovered in the marl. The woods thus fossilized, are of various kinds, generally those which still grow on the island, perfectly stone, and often filled up with beautiful specimens of jasper and agate. These petrifactions admit of the finest polish; and, when polished, are of singnlar beauty. On our retnrn to St. John's, towards the close of the week, the vicar conveyed me to some of the infant schools which he had founded in the country : the order and success of these institutions was gratifying. In one of them, I was introduced to an aged black woman, who was in the habit of attending the school as an amateur. She could not read herself, but had contrived to obtain a perfect knowledge of the fifty-third chap· ter of Isaiah, descriptive of our Saviour's vicarious sufferings. She repeated this chapter to me with entire accuracy, and with ANTIGUA. 51 a nicety of emphasis, which plainly proved how well she understood, and how strongly she felt, its meaning. In the course of our excursion we called at the Cedar Valley estate, which we found in high order and prosperity. The manager, James Bell, made an excellent report of it.-" lt is Less trouble," said he, "to conduct the whole concern now, than it was to manage the hospital alone, before emancipation." Afterwards we visited a small hospital, under the vicar's care, for male and female lepers: The dry leprosy which gradually eats up the extrenutJes of the body, and often the features of the face, is a complaint to which the black people, in the West Indies are very liable-:-nor is it confined to them. The compl ai~t is srud to be mcurable. In this hospital, its unhappy victims were well provided for, and under religious care. They seemed ve1y much at their ease ; and cordially accepted a few sentences of exhortation and sympathy. In the evening our fnend I-Iolbertson's negro flock assembled in a large schoolroom, and displayed much devout attention, during a meeting for worship, held by us on the occasion. 'rhe next mon1ing a fi'iend of ours, a 111erchunt in the town, conveyed me to the estate of a large resident planter and member of the council, who received me at his house with the great- 6St politeness. The manager, a respectable elderly Methodist, drove me about the cane-fields in a country cart, and seemed to take no small pleasure in pointing out the luxurirult crops of sugar cane, at once so vigorous, and so clean. He declared that the ~rops of Antigua had never been taken off more easily: than durmg each successive year, since the date of freedom. Tlus gentleman's estates had heen largely peopled with slaves and in consequence oppressed by mortgages. Now he work~ them with less than one-third of the number and at a vastl d" .. h ' y lmuus ed expense. "The whole expense of condttctino- and working the estate at present," said the manager, " is Lcs~ !hart that of the mere feeding of the >i.laves." Best of all, the moilgages on tl1e property are mostly paid off; and our friend once half a slave himself, is emerging into comfort, case, and Ji~erty. |