FEBRUARY 8. (Sunday.)
My estate is greatly palgued by a negress named Catalina ;
she is either mad or has long pretended to be so : never works,
and always steals. About a week befor emy arrival she was
found in the trash-house, which ahe had pitched upon as the very
fittest place possible for her kitchen ; and there she was sitting,
very quietly and comfortably, boiling her pot over an immense
fire, and surrounded on all sides by dry canes, inlfammable as
tinder. This vagary was of too dangerous a nature to allow of
her being linger left in liberty, and she was put into the hospital. But her
husband was by no
means pleased with her detentin, as he never failed to appropriate to
himself a share of
her plunder, and when discovered the blame of the robbery was
laid upon his wife's insanity. So, while the general joy at my
first arrival drew the hospital attendants from their post, he took
the opportunity to carry off his wife and conceal her. The consequence
was , that this morning
complaints poured upon me of
gardens robbed by Catalina, who had carried off as much as she
could, dug up and destroyed the rest, and had shown as little
conscience in providing herself with poultry as in helping herself
to vegetables. I immediately despatched on of the negro-govenors with a
party in pursuit of her,
who succeeded in lodging
her once more in the hospital, where she must remain till I can
get her sent to the asylum at Kingston, the only hospital for
lunatics in the whole island.
