APRIL 28.
The wounded mate is so much recovered as to come upon deck
for a few hours to-day, and may now be considered as completely-out of danger; although Dr. Ashman is positive (from his difficulty of
breathing at first, and the
subsequent pain in his chest)
that his lungs must actually have been wounded, however slightly.
We are now nearly abreast of Scilly.
It seems to be an indispensable requisite for a Nancy-story,
that it should contain a witch or a duppy, or in short, some
marvellous personage or other. it is a kind of " piece a machines ."
But the creole slavess are
very fond of another species
of tale, which they call " Neger-tricks," and which bear the
same relation to a Nancy-story which a farce does to a tragedy.
The following is a specimen :-
A Neger-trick.—"A man who
had two wives divided his
provision-grounds into two parts, and proposed that each of the
women should cultivate one half. They were ready to do their
proper share, but insisted that the husband should at least take
his third of the work. However, when they were to set out, the
man was taken so ill that he found it impossible to move ; he
quite roared with pain, and complained bitterly of a large lump
which bad formed itself on his cheek during the night. The
wives did what they could to relieve him, but in vain: they
boiled a negro-pot for him, but he was too ill to swallow a morsel ; and at
length they were
obliged to leave him, and go to
take care of the provision-grounds. As soon as they were gone
the husband became perfectly well, emptied the contents of the
pot with great appetite, and enjoyed himself in ease and indolence till
evening, when he saw his
wives returning, and immediately he became worse than ever. One of the
women was
quite shocked to see the size to which the lump had increased
during her absence : she begged to examine it ; but although
she barely touched it with the tip of her finger as gingerly as
possible, it was so tender that the fellow screamed with agony.
Unluckily, the other woman's manners were by no means so delicate; and
seizing him forcibly by
the head to examine it, she
undesignedly happened to hit him a great knock on the jaw, and
lo and behold! out flew a large lime which he had crammed
into it. Upon which both his wives fell upon him like two
furies ; beat him out of the house; and whenever afterwards he
begged them to go to the provision-grounds, they told him that
he had got no lime in his mouth
then , and obliged him from that
time forwards to do the whole work himself."
A negro was brought to England, and the first point shown
him being the chalky cliffs of Dover, " O ki! he said; " me
know now what makes the buckras all so white!
