University of Virginia Library

APRIL 22.

Naturalists and physicians, philosophers and philanthropists, may argue and decide as they please ; but certainly, as far as mere observations admits of my judging, there does seem to be a very great difference between the brain of a black person and a white one. I should think that Voltaire would call a negro's reason " une raison tres-particuliere." Somehow or the other, they never can manage to do anything quite as it should be done. If they correct themselves in one respect to-day they are sure of making a blunder in some other manner to-morrow. Cubina is now twenty-five, and has all his life been employed about the stable ; he goes out with my carriage twice every day ; yet he has never been able to succeed in putting on the harness properly. Before we have proceeded a hundred yards we are certain of being obliged to stop, and put something or other to rights : and I once laboured for more than half an hour to make him understand that the Christmas-holidays came at Christmas ; when asked the question, he alwys hesitated, and answered, at hap-hazard " July " or " October." Yet, Cubina is far superior in intellect to most if the negroes who have fallen under my observation. The girl too, whose business it is to open the house each morning, has in vain been desired to unclose all the jalousies : she never fails to leave three or four closed, and when she is scolded for doing so, she takes care to open those three the next morning, and leaves shut the opposite side.

Indeed, the attempt to make them correct a fault is quite fruitless : they can never do the same thing a second time in the same manner ; and the cook if having succeeded in dressing a dish well is desired to dress just such another, she is certain of doing something which makes it quite different. On day I desired that there might be always a piece of salt meat at dinner, in oorder that I might be certain of always having enough to send to the sick in the hospital. In consequence of this there was nothing at dinnr but salt meat. I complained that there was not a single fresh dish, and the next day, there was nothing but fresh. Sometimes there is scarcely anything served up, and

the cook seems to have forgotten the dinner altogether : she is told of it ; and the next day she slaughters without mercy pigs, sheep, fowls, ducks, turkeys, and everything that she can lay her murderous hands upon, till the table absolutely groans under the load of her labours.

For above a month Cubina and I had perpetual quarrels about the cats being shut into the gallery at nights, where they threw down plates, glasses, and crockery of all kinds, and made such a clatter that to get a wink of sleep was quite out of the question. Cubina, before he went to rest, hunted under all the beds and sofas, and laid about him with a long whip for half an hour together ; but in half an hour after his departure the cats were at work again. He was then told that although he had turned them out, he must certainly have left some window open : he promised to pay particular attention to this point, but that night the uproar was worse than ever ; yet he protested that he had carefully turned out all the cats, locked all the doors, and shut all the windows. He was told, that if he had really turned out all the cats, the cats must have got in again, and therefore that he must have left some one window open at least. "No," he said, " he had not left one ; but a pane in one of the windows had been broken two months before, and it was there that the cats got in whenever they pleased." Yet he had continued to turn the cats out of the door with the greatest care, although he was perfectly conscious that they could always walk in again at the window in five minutes after.

But the most curious of Cubina's modes of proceeding is when it is necessary for him to attack the pigeon-bouse. He steals up the ladder as slily and as softly as foot can fall; he opens the door, and steals in his head with the utmost caution ; on which, to his never-failing surprise and disappointment, all the pigeons make their escape through the open holes ; he has now no resource but entering the dove-cot, and remaining there with unwearied patience for the accidental return of the birds, which nine times out of ten does not take place till late for dinner, and Cubina returns empty-handed. Having observed this proceeding constantly during a fortnight, I took pity upon his embarrassment, and ordered two wooden sliders to be fitted to the holes. Cubina was delighted with this exquisite invention,

and failed not the next morning to close all the holes on the right with one of the sliders ; he then stepped boldly into the dove-cot, when to his utter confusion the pigeons flew away through the holes on the left. Here then he discovered where the fault lay, so he lost no time in closing the remaining aperture with the second slider, and the pigeons were thus prevented from returning at all. Cubina waited long with exemplary patience, but without success, so he abandoned the new invention in despair, made no farther use of the sliders, and continues to steal up the ladder as he did before.

A few days ago, Nicholas, a mulatto carpenter, was ordered to make a box for the conveyance of four jars of sweetmeats, of which he took previous measure ; yet in the first instance he made a box so small that it would scarcely hold a single jar, and than another so large that it would have held twenty ; and when at length he produced one of a proper size, he brought it nailed up for travelling (although it was completely empty), and nailed up so effectually too, that on being directed to open it that the jars might be packed, he, split the cover to pieces in the attempt to take it off. Yet, among all my negroes, few are equal to Nicholas and Cubina in adroitness and intelligence. Judge then what must the remaining three hundred be!