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Show 76 JAMAICA. made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory,~f the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see Jt together. . Third-month (March) 2d. Under the guidance of our fncnds J. and M. Candler, we drove several miles into the country, to breakfast at Papine, the estate of J. B. Wildmrm, late ~ember of parliament for Colchester. There we were enterta~ed by ·william Manning, a catechist of the church l\!hsswnmy So-c1. e ty, W h 0 1 JI'I\_·e- other ~.,~rr cnts of that institution in the• tsland•, IS very valuable and useful. The house is em bosomed m troptcal trees of rare beauty, one of them a mahogany-tree, covered Wlth 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 islrmd, arc somewhat different from any that we had before seen. For example, the pimento or Jamaica pepper tree, which produces the "allspice"- oflofty grey trunk, and dark pohshed fntgrant leaf; the lignum vitre, profusely adorned with blue blossoms; the date palm, much exceeding the cocoa-nut tree m the luxunance of tts branches, and many delicate kinds of acacia. As to the mango trees, they may be said to cover the country, and during the Jour summer months, afford abundance of delicious food to men, mules, horses, cows, and pigs. All ru1imals seem equally fond of this fruit. The birds of Jamaica are also more vanous and frequent than in the other islands which we visited. The turkey buzzard, so common in your southern states, abounds here, and is protected by law, from the gunner; being of great use in clearing the island of carrion, and all other sorts of unhealthy garbage. A sweet songster is heard in the country, called here the nightingale, which, at times, it much resembles .in its note. It is in fact a variety of the American mockmg bird, and is nearly of the same size and appearance. . We were disappointed, on visiting the sugar works of Papme, to find them stopped ; and we saw young men, doing nothmg, in some of the comfortable cottages which have been built on this property. 'l'he reason assigned was, that there was "a matter JAMAICA. 77 to settle." The said matter turned out to be the trial of a "myalist," or "black doctor," one of those persons who hold communion, as is imagined, with departed spirits, and practice medicine, under their direction, for the cure of the living-the diseases themselves, being ascribed to Obeah, or evil witchcraft. These superstitions, although not nearly so prevalent as formerly, still prevail in some places, and deprived as the negroes now are of regular medical attendance, some of them have recourse to these magical quack doctors, to the great danger of their lives. The whole day was now given up by the people to this strange concern ; but under a promise of their working for their master two of their usual spare days, in I ieu of it. The myalist, a yonng fellow of eighteen or twenty, dressed in the height of the fashion and jet black, was brought up before our friend Manning to be examined-several men, and u crowd of women, being in attendance. He openly confessed his necromancy, and as a proof of its success, shewed us two miserable women, one sick of fever, the other mutilated with leprosy, whom he pretended to have cured. 'l'he evidence was regarded by the people as resistless, and our plain declarations of disbelief in the royalist, were very unwelcome to them. They said it was "no good." We were sorry to observe the obstinacy of their delusion, but such things will be gradually corrected by Christian instruction. Under slavery, two hundred slaves were supported on Papine estate; now it is worked by forty free laborers. The saving of expense occasioned by this change cannot fail to be considerable. The young people are taught to read. The men and women are generally married, and faithful in the maintenance of the marriage tie. Bibles are sold to the negroes here, as iu other parts of the island, by the agents of the Bible Society, at the cost price. Many of the people make a sacrifice-far beyond the power of the peasantry of Great Britain- in order to obtain quarto Bibles with gilt edges ! From Papine, we went forward to the Hope sugar estate, be- 7* |