JANUARY 29.
There is a popular negro song, the burden of which is-
"Take him to the Gulley! Take him to the Gulley!
But bringee back the frock and board."
Oh! massa, massa! me no deadee yet!
"Take him to the Gulley! Take biui to the Gulley!"
"Carry him along !"
This alludes to a transaction which took place some thirty
years ago, on an estate in this neighbourhood, called Spring
Garden; the owner of which (I think the name was Bedward)
is quoted as the cruellest proprietor that ever disgraced Jamaica.
It was his constant practice, whenever a sick negro was pro-nounced incurable, to order the poor wretch to be carried to a
solitary vale upon his estate, called the Gulley, where he was
thrown down and abandoned to his fate—which fate was generally to be
half-devoured by the
John-crows before death had
put an end to his sufferings. By this proceeding the avaricious
owner avoided the expense of maintaining the slave during his
last illness ; and, in order that he might be as little a loser as
possible, be always enjoined the negro bearers of the dying man
to strip him naked before leaving the Gulley, and not to forget
to bring back his frock and the board on which he had been
carried down. One poor creature, while in the act of being
removed, screamed out most piteously "that he was not dead
yet;" and implored not to be left to perish in the Gulley in a
manner so horrible. His cries had no effect upon his master,
but operated so forcibly on the less marble hearts of his fellowslaves, that
in the night some of
them removed him back to the
negro-village privately, and nursed him there with so much care
that he recovered, and left the estate unquestioned and undiscovered.
Unluckily, one day the
master was passing through
Kingston, when, on turning the corner of a street suddenly, he
found himself face to face with the negro whom he had supposed
long ago to have been picked to the bones in the Gulley. He
immediately seized him, claimed him as his slave, and ordered
his attendants to convey him to his house ; but the fellow's cries
attracted a crowd round them before he could be dragged away :
be related his melancholy story, and the singular manner in
which he had recovered his life and liberty; and the public indignation was
so forcibly excited by
the shocking tale, that Mr.
Bedward was glad to save himself from being torn to pieces by
a precipitate retreat from Kingston, and never ventured to advance his
claim to the negro a
second time.
