University of Virginia Library

FEBRUARY 9.

A stage of eighteen miles brought us to the town of Falmouth, which I understand to be in size the second of the island.

We proceeded, for twenty-two miles, to Montego Bay, where I once more found myself under the protecting roof of Miss Judy James.

On our return from dinner at Mr. Dewer's we discovered a ball of brown ladies and gentlemen opposite them. No whites nor blacks were permitted to attend this assembly ; but, as out landlady had two nieces there, under her auspices we were allowed to be spectators. The females chiefly consisted of the natural daughters of attorneys and overseers, and the young men were mostly clerks and book-keepers. I saw nothing at all to be compared, either for form or feature, to many of the humbler

people of colour, much less to the beautiful Spaniard at Blue-fields. Long, or Bryan Edwards, asserts that mulattoes never breed except with a black or white; but at this ball two girls were pointed out to me, the daughters of mulatto parents; and I have been assured that the assertion was a mistake, arising from such a connexion being very rarely formed; the females generally prefer ring to live with white men, and the brown men having thus no other resource than black women. As to the above girls, the fact is certain ; and the different shades of colour are distinguished by too plain a line to allow any suspicion of infidelity on the part of their parents.