The Yallack River was less dangerous; but even this too had been sufficiently swelled to make the crossing it no easy matter ; so that what with one obstacle and another, when I reached Kingston at six o'clock with my bones and my vehicle unbroken, I was almost as much surprised as satisfied. I dined with the curate of Kingston, the Rev. G. Hill, where I met the admiral upon this station, Sir Home Popham, and a large party.
MARCH 16.
I reached Spanish Town in time to dine with the chief justice (Mr. Jackson), and intended to remain there two or three days longer ; but the next morning my landlady just hinted that " she thought it right to let me know, that to be sure there was a gentleman unwell in the house ; but she supposed that I should not care about it : however, if I particularly disliked the neighbourhood of a sick person, she would procure me lodgings." I asked " what was the complaint?" "Oh ! he was a little sick, that was all." To which I only could answer, that " in that case I hoped he would get better," and thought no more about it. However, when I went to visit the governor, I found that this "little sickness" of my landlady's was neither more nor less than the yellow fewver, of which the gentleman in question was now dying, of which a lady had died only two days before, and of which another European, newly arrived, had fallen ill in this very same hotel only a fortnight before, and had died, after throwing himself out of an upper window in a fit of delirium. Under all these circumstances I thought it to the full as prudent not to prolong my stay; and accordingly, on Wednesday the 18th, I resumed my journey homewards, by the north side of the island, the road which I had travelled two years ago. I have nothing to add to my former account of it, except that there need not be better inns anywhere than the Wellington Hotel at Rio Bueno, and Judy James's at Montego Bay. Indeed, all the inns upon this road are excellent, with the solitary exception of the Blackheath Tavern, which I stopped at by mistake. At this most miserable of all inns that ever entrapped an unwary traveller, there was literally nothing to be procured for love or money : no corn for the horses; no wine without sending six miles for it ; no food but a miserable starved fowl, so tough that the very negroes could not eat it; and a couple of eggs, one of which was addled : there was but one pair of sheets in the whole house, and neither candles, nor oranges, nor pepper, nor vinegar, nor bread, nor even so much as sugar, white or brown. Yams there were, which prevented my servants from going to bed quite famished, and I contented myself with the far-fetched bottle of wine and the solitary egg, which I ate by the light of a lamp filled with stinking oil. The one pair of sheets I seized upon as my own share, and my servants made themselves as good beds as they could upon the floor with great-coats and travelling mantles.
MARCH 22.( Sunday.)
I was very glad to find myself once more quietly established at Cornwall, fully determined to leave it no more till I leave it on my return to England. The lady who had died so lately at Kingston had arrived not long before in a vessel, both the crew and passengers of which landed, to all appearance, in perfect health, after a favourable passage from England. Of course, they soon dispersed in different directions ; yet almost all of them were attacked nearly at the same period by the fever, which seemed to have a particular commission to search out the persons that had arrived by that particular ship.
MARCH 31.
I am more and more convinced every day, that the best and easiest mode of governing negroes is not by the detestable lash, but by confinement, solitary or otherwise ; they cannot bear it, and the memory of it seems to make a lasting impression upon their minds ; while the lash makes none but upon their skins, and lasts no longer than the mark. The order at my hospital is, that no negro should be denied admittance : even if no symptoms of illness appear, he is allowed one day to rest, and take physic, if he choose it. On the second morning, if the physician declare the man to be shamming, and the plea of illness is still alleged, the negro is locked up in a room with others similarly circumstanced, where care is taken to supply him with food, water, physic, &c., and no restraint is imposed except that not going out. Here he is suffered to remain unmolested as long as he pleases, and he is only allowed to leave the hospital upon his own declaration that he is well enough to go to work ; then the door is opened, and he walks away unreproached and unpunished, however evident his deception may have been. Before I adopted this regulation, the number of patients used to vary from thirty to forty-five, not more than a dozen of whom perhaps had anything the matter with them : the number at this moment is but fourteen, and all are sores, burns, or complaints, the reality of which speaks for itself. Some few persevering tricksters will still submit to be locked up for a day or two; but their patience never fails to be wearied out by the fourth morning, and I have not yet met with an instance of a patient who had once been locked up with a fictitious illness, returning to the hospital except with a real one. In general, they offer to take a day's rest and physic, promising to go out to work the next day, and on these occasions they have uniformly kept their word. Indeed, my hospital is now in such good order, that the physician told the trustee the other day that " mine gave him less trouble than any hospital in the parish." My boilers, too, who used to make sugar the colour of mahograny, are now making excellent sugar ; and certainly, if appearances may be trusted, and things will but last, I may flatter myself with the complete success of my system of management, as far as the time elapsed is sufficient to warrant an opinion. I only wish from my soul that I were but half as certain of the good treatment and good behaviour of the negroes at Hordley.
APRIL 5. (Sunday.)
Clearing their grounds by fire is a very expeditious proceeding, consequently in much practice among the negroes; but in this tindery country it is extremely dangerous, and is forbidden by the law. As I returned home to-day from church, I observed a large smoke at no great distance, and Cubina told me, he supposed that the negroes of the neighbouring estate of Amity were clearing their grounds. " Then they are doing a very wrong thing," said I; " I hope they will fire nothing else but their grounds, for with so strong a breeze a great deal of mischief might be done." However, in half an hour it proved that the smoke in question arose from my own negro-grounds, that the fire had spread itself, and I could see from my window the flames and smoke pouring themselves upwards in large volumes, while the crackling of the dry bushes and brush-wood was something perfectly terrific. The alarm was instantly given, and whites and blacks all hurried to the scene of action. Luckily, the breeze set the contrary way from the plantations ; a morass interposed itself between the blazing ground and one of my best cane-pieces : the flames were suffered to burn till they reached the brink of the water, and then the negroes managed to extinguish them without much difficulty. Thus we escaped without injury, but I own I was heartily frightened.
APRIL 9
I had mentioned to Mr. Shand my having found a woman at Hordley, who had been crippled for life, in consequence of her having been kicked in the womb by one of the book-keepers. He writes to me on this subject :--"I trust that conduct so savage occurs rarely in any country. I can only say, that in my long experience nothing of the kind has ever fallen under my observation." Now although I have passed six months in Jamaica, I have already found on one of my estates a woman who had been kicked in the womb by a white book-keeper, by which she was crippled, and on another of my estates another woman who had been similarly kicked by another white bookkeeper, by which he had crippled the child : and thus, as my two estates are at the two extremities of the island, I am entitled to say that " white book-keepers kick black women in the belly from one end of Jamaica to the other ."
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 quit
e 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!
APRIL 23.
In my medical capacity I sometimes perform cures so unexpected, that I stand lke Katterfelto, " with my hair standing on end at my wonders." Last night, Alexander, the second governor, who has been seriously ill for some days, sent me word, that he was suffering cruelly from a pain in his head, and could get no sleep. I knew not how to relieve him ; but having frequently observed a violent passion for perfumes in the house of negroes, for want of something else I gave the doctoress some oil of lavender, and told her to rub tow or three drops upon his nostrils. This morning, he told me that " to be sure what I had sent him was a grand medicine indeed," for it had no sooner touched his nose than he felt something cold run up to his forehead, over his head, and all the way down his neck to the backbone ; instantly, the headache left him, he fell fast asleep, nor had the pain returned in the morning. But I am afraid, that even this wonderful oil would fail of curing a complaint upon which I have just been consulted. A poor old creature, named Quasheba, made her appearance at my breakfast-table, and told me, " that she was almost eighty, had been rather weakly for some time past, and somehow she did not feel by any means right." " Had she seen the doctor ? Did she want physic ? " " No, she had taken too much physic already, and the doctor would do her no good ; she did not want to see the doctor." " But what then was her complaint ? " " Oh! she had no particular complaint; only she was old and weakly, and did not find herself by any means so well as she used to be, and so she came just to tell massa, and see what he could do to make her quite right again, that was all." In short, she only wanted me to make her young again!
APRIL 30.
A free mulatto of the name of Rolph had frequently been mentioned to me by different magistrates, as remarkable for the numerous complaints brought against him for cruel treatment of his negroes. He was the son of a white ploughman, who at his death left him six or seven slaves, with whom he resides in the heart of the mountains, where the remoteness of the situation secures him from observation or control. His slaves, indeed, every now and then contrive to escape, and come down to Savannah la Mar to lodge their complaints ; but the magistrates, hitherto, had never been able to get a legal hold upon him. However, a few days ago, he entered the house of a Mrs. Edgins, when she was from home, and behaving in an outrageous manner to her slaves he was desired by the head-man to go away. Highly incensed, be answered, " that if the fellow dared to speak another word, it should be the last that he should ever utter." The negro dared to make a rejoinder; upon which Rolph aimed a blow at him with a stick, which missed his intended victim, but struck another slave who was interposing to prevent a scuffle and killed him, upon the spot. The murder was committed in the presence of several negroes ; but negroes are not allowed to give evidence, and as no free person was present, there are not only doubts whether the murderer will be punished, but whether he can even be put upon his trial.
MAY 1.
This morning I signed the manumission of Nicholas Cameron, the best of my mulatto carpenters. He had been so often on the very point of getting h
is liberty, and still the cup was dashed from his lips. that I had promised to set him free, whenever he could precure an able negro as his substitute ; although being a good workman, a single negro was by no means an adequate price in exchange. On my arrival this year I found that he had agreed to pay 150 l . for a female negro, and the woman was approved of by my trustee. But on inquiry it appeared that she had a child, from which she was unwilling to part ; and her owner refused to sell her child, except at a most unreasonable price. Here there was insurmountable objection, and Nicholas was told, to his great mortification, the he must look out for another substitute. The woman, on her part, was determined to belong to Cornwall estate and no other : so she told her owner, that if he attempted to sell her elsewhere she would make away with herself, and on his ordering her to prepare for a removal to a neighbouring proprietor's, she disappeared, and concealed herself so well, that for some time she was believed to have put her threats of suicide into execution. the idea of losing his 150 l . frightened her master so completely that he declared himself ready to let me have the child at a fair price, as well as the mother, if she should ever be found ; and her friends having conveyed this assurance to her, she thought proper to emerge from her hiding-place, and the bargain was arranged finally. The titles, however, were not yet made out, and as the time of my departure for Hordley was arrived, these were odered to be got ready against my return, when the negroes were to be delivered over to me, and Nicholas was to be set free. In the meanwhile the child was sent by her mistress ( a free mulatto ) to hide some stolen ducks upon a distant property, and on her return blabbed out the rrand : in consequence the mistress was committed to prison for the theft ; and no sooner was she released, than she revenged herself upon the poor girl by giving her thirty lashes with the cattle-whip, inflicted with all the severity of vindictive malice. This treatment of a child of such tender years reduced her to such a state, as made the magistrates think it right to send her for protection to the work- house, until the conduct of the mistress should have been inquired into. In the meanwhile, as the result of the inquiry might be the setting the girl at liberty, the joint title for her and her mother could not be made out, and thus poor Nicholas's manumission was again at a stand-still. the magistrates at length decided, that although the chastisement had been severe yet (according to the medical report) it was not such as to authorise the sending the mistress to be tried at the assizes. She was accordingly dismissed from farther investigation, and the girl was once more considered as belonging to me, as soon as the title could be made out. But the fatality which had so often prevented Nicholas from obtaining his freedom, was not weary yet. On the very morning when he was to sign the title a person whose signature was indispensable, was thrown out of his chaise, the wheel of which passed over his head, and ho rendered incapable of transacting business for several weeks. Yesterday the titles were at length brought to me complete, and this morning put Nicholas in possession of the object, in the pursuit of which he has experienced such repeated disappointments.
Journal of a Residence among the Negroes in the West Indies Page 21
