University of Virginia Library

JANUARY 21. (Sunday.)

The hospital has been crowded, since my arrival, with patients who have nothing the matter with them. On Wednesday there were about thirty invalid , of whom only four were cases at all serious ; the rest had " a lilly pain here, massa," or " a bad pain me no know where, massa," and evidently only came to the hospital in order to sit idle and chat away the time with their friends. Four of them the doctor ordered into the field peremptorily: the next day there came into the sick-house six others; upon this I resolved to try my own hand at curing them ; and I directed the head-driver to announce that the presents which I had brought from England should be distributed to-day, that the new-born children should be christened, and that the negroes might take possession of my house, and amuse themselves till twelve at night. The effect of my prescription was magical; two-thirds of the sick were hale and, hearty, at work in the field, on Saturday morning, and to-day not a soul remained in the hospital except the four serious cases.

The christening took place about four o'clock. Sully's infant, which had been destined to perform, part of this occasion, had died in the hospital; but this morning the father came to complain of his disappointment, and to beg leave to substitute a child by another wife, which, which had been born about two months before my arrival ; and as the father is a very serviceable fellow, and the mother, besides having brought up three children of her own, had the additional merit of having reared an infant whose own mother had died in child-bed, I broke through the rule of

only christening those myself who should be born since my coming to Jamaica, and granted his request. By good luck, the first child to be named was the offspring of Minerva-and Captain; so I told the parents that as it would be highly proper to call the boy after the greatest Captain that the world could produce, he should be named Wellington; and that I hoped that, he would grow up to serve me in Jamaica as well as the Duke of Wellington had served his massa, the King of England, in Europe. The Duke of Sully's child I wanted to call Navarre; but the father had brought over a free negro from Savannah la Mar to stand godfather, who was his fidus Achates, by name, John Davis; and I found that he had set his heart upon calling the boy John Lewis, after his friend and myself; so John Lewis he was.

There ought to have been a third child, born at seven months, whom the graundee had reared with great difficulty, and dismissed, quite strong, from the hospital; the mother had taken great care of it till the tenth day, when she was entitled to an allowance of clothes provisions, &c. ; but no sooner had she received her reward than, on that very night, she suffered the to remain so long without food, while she went herself to dance on a neighbouring estate, that it was brought in an exhausted state back to the hospital ; and, in spite of every care, it expired within four and twenty hours after its return.

The ceremony, was performed with perfect gravity and propriety by all parties ; I thought it as well to cut the reading part it very short; but I read a couple of prayers, marked the foreheads of the children with the sign of the cross, and, instead of the concluding prayer, I substituted a wish " that God would bless the children, and make them live to be as good servants to me, as I prayed him to make me a kind massa to them:" upon which all present very gravely made me their lowest bows and courtesies, and then gave me a loud huzza ; so unusual a mode of approbation at a christening that it had nearly overturned my seriousness ; and I made haste to serve out Madeira to the pa-rents and assistants, that they might drink the healths of the new Christians and of each other. The mothers and the graunde were then called up to the table, and the ladies who were in the family-way were arranged behind them.

Their title in Jamaica is rather coarse, but very expressive. I asked Cubina one day " Who was that woman with a basket on her head? " " Massa," he answered, "that one belly-woman going to sell provisions at the Bay." As she was going to sell provisions , I supposed that belly -woman was the name of her trade ; but it afterwards appeared that she was one of those females who had given in their names as being in an interesting situation, and who, in consequence, were discharged from al severe labour. I then gave the graundee and the mothers a dollar each, and told them that for the future they might claim the same sum, in addition to their usual allowance of clothes and provisions, for every infant which should be brought to the overseer alive and well on the fourteenth day ; and I also gave each mother a present of a scarlet girdle with a silver medal in the centre, telling her always to wear it on feasts and holidays, when it should entitle her to marks of peculiar respect and attention -such as being one of those first served, and receiving a larger portion than the rest ; that the first fault which she might commit should be forgiven on the production of this girdle ; and that when she should have any favour to ask, she should always put it round her waist, and be assured that, on seeing it, the overseer would allow the wearer to be entitled to particular indulgence. On every additional child, an additional medal is to be affixed to the belt, and precedence is to follow the greater number of medals. I expected that this notion of an order of honour would have been treated as completely fanciful and romantic ; but, to, my great surprise, my manager told me that " he never knew a dollar better bestowed than the one which formed the medal of the girdle, and that he thought the institution likely to have a very good effect."

Immediately after the christening the Eboe drums were produced, and, in defiance of Sunday, the negroes had the irreverence to be gay and happy, while the presents were being put in order for distribution. All the men got jackets, the women seven yards of stuff each for petticoats, &c., and the children as much printed cotton as would make a couple of frocks. The Creoles were delighted beyond measure when some of the African male negroes exclaimed, "Tank, massa," and made a low coutesy in the estimation of their gratitude. as they were all called

to receive their presents alphabetically in pairs, some of the combinations were very amusing. We had Punch and Plato, Priam and Pam, Hemp and Hercules, and Minerva and Moll, called together. By twelve they dispersed, and I went to bed, on these occasions, with a violent headache.