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Show 92 JAl\1AICA. Here then was one property which would occ:.Sion a bad repot·t of Jamaica-another which would as surely give rise to a good t·eport. As it regards the properties themselves, both reports are true-and they are the respective results of two opposite modes of management. At Dawkin's Caymanas, we had the pleasure of witnessing an interesting spectacle; for the laborers on the property, \vith their wives, sons and daughters, were on that day, met at a picnic dinner. The table, of vast length, was spread under a wattled building erected for the purpose, and at the convenient hour of six in the evening, (after the day's work was finished,) was loaded with all sorts of good fare-soup, fish, fowls, pigs, and joints of meat in abundance. About one hundred and fifty men and women, of the African race, attired with the greatest neatness, were assembled, in much harmony and order, to partake of the feast; but no drink was provided, stronger than water. It was a sober, substantial, repast-the festival of peace and freedom. This dinner was to have taken place on New Year's day; but it so happened, that a Baptist Meeting House in another part of the island, had been destroyed by fire ; and at the suggestion of their minister, these honest people agreed to waive their dinner, and to subscribe their money, instead, to the rebuilding of the Meeting House. For this purpose, they raised a noble sum (I believe considerably upwards of £100 sterling;) and now, in the third month of the year, finding that matters were working well with them, they thought it well to indulge themselves with their social dinner. By an unanimous vote, they commissioned me to present a message of their affectionate regards, to Thomas Clarkson, and Thomas Fowell Buxton, the two men, to whom of all others, perhaps, they were the most indebted for their present enjoyment. In the course of this delightful ride, I observed several beautiful birds, entirely new to me-the woodpecker of Jamaica, finely varied with red, black and green; the bright green toady, of the size of a small wren, with scarlet throat ; a larger bird like a robin, green and purple ; and the smallest of the "fowls JAMAICA. 93 of the air"-if fowl it may be called-the bee humming-bird, just about the SIZe of a bumble bee, ru1d much resembling it, in manner and appearance. Our friend Richard Hill is ru1 ornithologist tmd artist, and has made an admirable set of drawings of the birds of this island, which I trust, in dLlC season, Will be presented to the public. The following day was the First of the week, tmd brouo-ht with it, at Spanish town, a repetition of the scenes which had0 so much interested us, the preceding week, at Kingston-a vast meet1~1g of negro laborers, at the Baptist Meeting House in the monung, and at the Methodist Chapel in the evening, a promiscuous assembly of all classes and colors-both meetings held, of course, after the manner of the Society of Friends. The principles upheld to view on these occasions, were not. of a sectarian nature; but were calculated, we trust, to cement all sound christians, in " the unity of the spirit, and in the bond of peace." In reference to the meeting held in the morning, one of our company observes, "I watched the people as they sat before us, shoulder to shoulder-! witnessed the tears starting to their eyes, and saw their significant tokens of response! heard "yes massa" faintly and involtmtarily escaping the lips of some of them. In short, here was before me a people, ?nly a few years ago, nnder the grinding, iron hand of bondage, ~gnorant, degraded, and desponding-now free, feeling, and mtelhgent." I am, &c., &c. |