University of Virginia Library

JANUARY 6.

This was the day given to my negroes as a festival on my arrival. A couple of heifers were slaughtered for them : they were allowed as much rum and sugar, and noise, and dancing as they chose; and as to the two latter, certainly they profited by the permission. About two o'clock they began to assemble round the house, all dressed in their holiday clothes, which, both

for men and women, were chiefly white; only that the women', were decked out with a profusion of be-ads and corals, and gold ornaments of all descriptions; and that while the blacks wore jackets, the mulattoes generally wore cloth coats; and inasmuch as they were all plainly clean instead of being shabbily fashion able, and affected to be nothing except that which they really were, they looked twenty times more like gentlemen than nine tenths of the bankers' clerks who swagger up and down Bond Street. It is a custom as to the mulatto children, that the males born on an estate should never be employed as field negroes, but as tradesmen ; the females are brought up as domestics about the house. I had particularly invited " Mr. John-Canoe " (which I found to be the polite manner in which the negroes spoke of him), and there arrived a couple of very gay and gaudy ones. I inquired whether one of them was " John-Crayfish ;" but I was told that John-Crayfish was John-Canoe's rival and enemy, and might belong to the factions of " the Blues and the Reds;" but on Cornwall they were all friends, and therefore there were only the father and the son-Mr. John-Canoe, senior, and Mr. John-Canoe, junior.

The person who gave me this information was a young mulatto carpenter, called Nicholas, whom I had noticed in the crowd, on my first arrival, for his clean appearance and intelligent countenance; and he now begged me to notice the smaller of the two John-Canoe machines. " To be sure," be said, " it was not so large nor so showy as the other, but then it was much better proportioned (his own word), and altogether much prettier;" and lie said so much in praise of it, that I asked him whether lie knew the maker? and then out came the motive: " 0h, yes ! it was made by John Fuller, who lived in the next house to him, and worked in the same shop, and indeed they were just like brothers." So I desired to see his fidus Achates, and he brought me as smart and intelligent a little fellow as eye ever beheld, who came grinning from ear to par to tell me that lie had made every bit of the canoe with his own hands, and had set to work upon it the moment that he knew of massa's coming to Jamaica. And indeed it was as fine as paint, pasteboard, gilt paper, and looking-glass could make it ! Unluckily, the breeze being very strong blew off a fine glittering umbrella, surmounted

with a plume of John-Crow feathers, which crowned the top; and a little wag of a negro boy whipped it up, clapped it upon his head, and performed the part of an impromptu Mr. John-Canoe with so much fun and grotesqueness, that he fairly beat the original performers out of the pit, and carried off all the applause of the spectators; and a couple of my dollars. The John-Canoes are fitted out at the expense of the rich negroes, who afterwards 00 69 money collected from the spectators during their performance, allotting one share to the representator himself and it is usual for the master of the estate to give them a couple of guineas apiece.

This Nicholas, whom I mentioned, is a very interesting person, both from his good looks and gentle manners, and from his story. He is the son of a white man, who on his death-bed charged his nephew and heir to purchase the freedom of this natural child. The nephew had promised to do so; I had consented; nothing was necessary but to find the substitute (which is no easy matter) ; when about six months ago the nephew broke his neck, and the property went to a distant relation. application on behalf of poor Nicholas has been made to the heir, and I heartily hope that he will enable me to release him . I felt strongly tempted to set him at liberty at once; but if I were to begin in that way, there would be no stopping; and it would be doing a kindness to an individual at the expense of all negroes-others would expect the same; and then I must either contrive to cultivate my estate with fewer hands, or must cease to cultivate it altogether-and, from inability to maintain them, send my negroes to seek bread for themselves— which, as two-thirds of them have been born upon the estate, and many of them are lame, dropsical, and of great age, would, of all misfortunes that could happen to them, be the most cruel. even when Nicholas was speaking to me about his liberty, he said, "It is not that I wish to go away, sir; it is only for the name and honour of being free: but I would always stay here and be your servant; and I had rather be an under-workman on Cornwall, than a head carpenter anywhere else." Possibly this Was all palaver(in which the negroes are great dealers), but at least he seemed to be sincere ; and I was heartily grieved that I could not allow myself to say more to him than that I sincerely

wished him to get his liberty, and would receive the very lowest exchange for him that common prudence would authorize. And even for those few kind words, the poor fellow seemed to think it impossible to find means strong enough to express his gratitude.

Nor is this the only instance in which Nicholas has been unlucky. It seems that he was the first lover of the beautiful Psyche, whom I bad noticed on my arrival. This evening, after the performance of the John-Canoes, I desired to see some of the girls dance; and by general acclamation Psyche was brought forward to exhibit, she being avowedly the best dancer on the estate ; and certainly nothing could be more light, graceful, my, and spirited, than her performance. She perfectly answered the description of Sallust's Sempronia, who was said -" Saltare elegantius, quam necesse est probae, et cui cariora semper omnia, quam decus et pudicitia fuit." When her dance was over, I called her to me, and gave her a handful of silver. " Ah, Psyche," said Nicholas, who was standing at my elbow, 41 Massa no give you all that if massa know you so bad girl! she run away from me, massa 1 " Psyche gave him a kind of pouting look, half kind, and half reproachful, and turned away. And then he told me that Psyche had been his wife (one of his wives he should have said); that he had had a child by her, and , then she had left him for one of my " white people " (as they call the book-keepers), because he had a good salary, and could afford to give her more presents than a slave could. " Was there not another reason for your quarrelling? " said my agent. " Was there not a shade of colour too much ? "-" Oh, massa!" answered Nicholas, " the child is not my own, that is certain , it is a black man's child. But still I will always take care of the child. because it have no friends, and me wish make it good neger for massa-and she take good care of it too," he added, throwing his arm round the waist of a sickly-looking woman rather in years; " she my wife, too, massa, long ago ; old now and sick, but always good to me, so I still live with her, and will never leave her, never massa ; she Polly's mother, sir." Polly is a pretty, delicate looking girl, nursing a young child; she belongs to the mansion-house, and seems to think it as necessary a part of her duty to nurse me as the child. To be sure she has not as vet insisted

upon suckling me; but if I open a jalousie in the evening, Polly walks in and shuts it without saying a word. " Oh, don't shut the window, Polly."-" Night-air not good for massa;" and she shuts the casement without mercy. I am drinking orangeade, or some such liquid; Polly walks up to the table, and seizes it " Leave that jug, Polly; I am dying with thirst."-" More hurt massa;" and away go Polly and the orangeade. So that I begin to fancy myself Sancho in Barataria, and that Polly is the senor Doctor Pedro in petticoats.

The difference of colour, which had offended Nicholas so much in Psyche's child, is a fault which no mulatto will pardon; nor can the separation of castes in India be more rigidly observed, than that of complexional shades among the Creoles. My black page, Cubina, is married: I told him that I hoped he had married a pretty woman ; why had he not married Mary Wiggins ? he seemed quite shocked at the very idea. " Oh, massa, me black, Mary Wiggins sambo; that not allowed."

The dances performed to-night seldom admitted more than three persons at a time : to me they appeared to be movements entirely dictated by the caprice of the moment ; but I am told that there is a regular figure, and that the, least mistake, or a single false step, is immediately noticed by the rest. I could indeed sometimes fancy that one story represented an old duenna guarding a girl from a lover; and another, the pursuit of a young woman by two suiters, the one young and the other old ; but this might be only fancy. However, I am told that they have dances which not only represent courtship and marriage, brought to bed. Their music consisted of nothing but Gambys (Eboe drums), Shaky-shekies, and Kitty-katties: the latter is nothing but any flat piece of board beat upon with two sticks, and the former is a bladder with a parcel of pebbles in it. But the principal part of the music to which they dance is vocal; one girl generally singing two lines by herself, and being answered by a chorus. To make out either the rhyme of the air, or meaning of the words, was out of the question. But one very long song was about the Duke of Wellington, every stanza being chorused with,

I too had a great deal to do in the business, for every third word was " massa."

The singing began about six o'clock, and lasted, without a moment's pause, till two in the morning; and such a noise never did I hear till then. The whole of the floor which was not taken up by the dancers was, through every part of the house except the bed-rooms, occupied by men, women, and children, fast asleep. But although they were allowed rum and sugar by whole pailfuls, and were most of them merry in consequence, there was not one of them drunk; except, indeed, one person, and that was an old woman, who sang, and shouted, and tossed herself about in an elbow chair, till she tumbled it over, and rolled about the room in a manner which shocked the delicacy of even the least prudish part of the company. At twelve my agent wanted to dismiss them; but I would not suffer them to be interrupted on the first holiday that I had given them ; so they continued to dance and shout till two, when human nature could bear no more, and they left me to my bed, and a violent headache.