MARCH 15.
On opening the Assize-court for the county of Cornwall on March 4., Mr. Stewart, the Custos of Trelawny, and Presiding Judge, said, in his charge to the jury, he wished to direct their attention in a peculiar manner to the infringement of slave-laws in the island, in consequence of charges having been brought forward in England of slave laws not being enforced in this country, and being in fact perfect dead letters. The charge was unfounded; but it became proper, in consequence, for the bench to call in a strong manner on the grand jury to be particularly vigilant and attentive to the discharge of this part of their duty. The bench at the same time adverted to another subject connected with the above. Many out of the country, and some in it, had thought proper to interfere with our system, and by their insidious practices and dangerous doctrines to call the peace of the island into question, and to promote disorder and confusion. The jury were therefore enjoined, in every such case, to investigate it thoroughly, and to bring the parties concerned before the country, and not to suffer the systems of the island, as established by the laws of the land, to be overset or endangered. It was their bounden duty to watch over and support the established laws, and to act against those who dared to infringe them; and that, otherwise, it was imperiously called for on the principle of self-preservation. Every country had its peculiar laws, on the due maintenance of which depended the public safety and welfare. I read all this with the most perfect unconsciousness; when, lo and behold! I have been assured, from a variety of quarters, that all this was levelled at myself! It is I (it seems) who am “calling the peace of the island in question;” who am “promoting disorder and confusion;” and who am “infringing the established laws!” I should never have guessed it! By “insidious practices” is meant (as I am told) my overindulgence to my negroes; and my endeavouring to obtain either redress or pardon for those belonging to other estates, who occasionally appeal to me for protection: while “dangerous doctrines” alludes to my being of opinion, that the evidence of negroes ought at least to be heard against white persons; the jury always making proportionable abatements of belief, from bearing in mind the bad habits of most negroes, their general want of probity and good faith in every respect, and their total ignorance of the nature of religious obligations. At the same time, these defects may be counterbalanced by the respectable character of the particular negro; by the strength of corroborating circumstances; and, finally, by the irresistible conviction which his evidence may leave upon the minds of the jury. They are not obliged to believe a negro witness, but I maintain that he ought to be heard, and then let the jury give their verdict according to their conscience. But this, in the opinion of the bench at Montego Bay, it seems, is “dangerous doctrine!” At least, the venom of my doctrines is circumscribed within very narrow limits; for as I have made a point of never stirring off my own estate, nobody could possibly be corrupted by them, except those who were at the trouble of walking into my house for the express purpose of being corrupted.
At all events, if I really am the person to whom Mr. Stewart alluded, I must consider his speech as the most flattering compliment that I ever received. If my presence in the island has made the bench of a whole country think it necessary to exact from the jury a more severe vigilance than usual in all causes relating to the protection of negroes, I cannot but own myself most richly rewarded for all my pains and expense in coming hither, for every risk of the voyage, and for every possible sacrifice of my pleasures. There is nothing earthly that is too much to give for the power of producing an effect so beneficial; and I would set off for Constantinople to-morrow, could I only be convinced that my arrival would make the Mufti redress the complaints of the lower orders of Turks with more scrupulous justice, and the Bashaws relax the fetters of their slaves as much as their safety would permit. But I cannot flatter myself with having done either the one or the other in Jamaica; and if Mr. Stewart really alluded to me in his charge, I am certainly greatly obliged to him; but he has paid me much too high a compliment;—God grant that I may live to deserve it!
MARCH 16.
Hercules, the poor paralytic runaway, has neither moved nor spoken since his being brought into the hospital. For the two last days he refused all sustenance; blisters, rubbing with mustard, &c. were tried without producing the least sensation; and in the course of last night he expired without a groan.
Another offender, by name Charles Fox, is also under the doctor’s hands, suffering under the effects of his own transgressions. Having been Pickle’s shipmate, he professed the strongest attachment to him, and was perpetually at his house; till Pickle’s wife made her husband aware that love for herself was the real object of his shipmate’s visits. Finding her story disbelieved, she hid Pickle behind the bed, when he had an opportunity of hearing the solicitations of his perfidious Pylades; and, rushing from his concealment, he gave Fox so complete a thrashing, that he was obliged to come to the hospital. Here is another proof that negroes, “our unfortunate fellow-creatures,” are not without some of the luxuries of civilised life; old men of sixty keeping mistresses, and young ones seducing their friends’ wives; why, what would the Reporter of the African Institution have?
It is only to be wished, that the negroes would content themselves with these fashionable peccadilloes; but, unluckily, there are some palates among them which require higher seasoned vices; and besides their occasional amusements of poisoning, stabbing, thieving, &c., a plan has just been discovered in the adjoining parish of St. Elizabeth’s, for giving themselves a grand fête by murdering all the whites in the island. The focus of this meditated insurrection was on Martin’s Penn, the property of Lord Balcarras, where the overseer is an old man of the mildest character, and the negroes had always been treated with peculiar indulgence. Above a thousand persons were engaged in the plot, three hundred of whom had been regularly sworn to assist in it with all the usual accompanying ceremonies of drinking human blood, eating earth from graves, &c. Luckily, the plot was discovered time enough to prevent any mischief; and yesterday the ringleaders were to be tried at Black River.
MARCH 17. (Sunday.)
The Cornwall Chronicle informs us, that, at the Montego Bay assizes, a man was tried on the Monday, for assaulting, while drunk, an officer who had served with great distinction, and calling him a coward; for which offence he was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment and fine of £100; and on the Tuesday the same man brought an action against another person for calling him a “drunken liar,” for which he was awarded £1000 for damages! A plain man would have supposed two such verdicts to be rather incompatible; but one lives to learn.
I remember to have read the case of a French nobleman, who was accused of impotence by his wife before the Parliament of Paris, and by a farmer’s daughter for seduction and getting her with child before the Parliament of Rouen; he thought himself perfectly sure of gaining either the one cause or the other: but, however, he was condemned in both. Certainly the poor Frenchman had no luck in matters of justice.
To make the matter better, in the present instance, the man was a clergyman; and his cause of quarrel against the officer was the latter’s refusal to give him a puncheon of rum to christen all his negroes in a lump.
MARCH 22.
Mr. Plummer came over from St. James’s to-day, and told me, that the “insidious practices and dangerous doctrines” in Mr. Stewart’s speech were intended for the Methodists, and that only the charge to the grand jury respecting “additional vigilance” was in allusion to myself; but he added that it was the report at Montego Bay, that, in consequence of my over-indulgence to my negroes, a song had been made at Cornwall, declaring that I was come over to set them all free, and that this was now circulating through the neighbouring parishes. If there be any such song (which I do not believe), I certainly never heard it. However, my agent here says, that he has reason to believe that my negroes really have spread the report that I intend to set them free in a few years; and this merely out of vanity, in order to give themselves and their master the greater credit upon other estates. As to the truth of an assertion, that is a point which never enters into negro consideration.
The two ringleaders of the proposed rebellion have been condemned at Black River, the one to be hanged, the other to transportation. The plot was discovered by the overseer of Lyndhurst Penn (a Frenchman from St. Domingo) observing an uncommon concourse of stranger negroes to a child’s funeral, on which occasion a hog was roasted by the father. He stole softly down to the feasting hut, and listened behind a hedge to the conversation of the supposed mourners; when he heard the whole conspiracy detailed. It appears that above two hundred and fifty had been sworn in regularly, all of them Africans; not a Creole was among them. But there was a black ascertained to have stolen over into the island from St. Domingo, and a brown Anabaptist missionary, both of whom had been very active in promoting the plot. They had elected a King of the Eboes, who had two Captains under him; and their intention was to effect a complete massacre of all the whites on the island; for which laudable design His Majesty thought Christmas the very fittest season in the year, but his Captains were more impatient, and were for striking the blow immediately. The next morning information was given against them: one of the Captains escaped to the woods; but the other, and the King of the Eboes, were seized and brought to justice. On their trial they were perfectly cool and unconcerned, and did not even profess to deny the facts with which they were charged.
Indeed, proofs were too strong to admit of denial; among others, a copy of the following song was found upon the King, which the overseer had heard him sing at the funeral feast, while the other negroes joined in the chorus:—
SONG OF THE KING OF THE EBOES.
Oh me good friend, Mr. Wilberforce, make we free!
God Almighty thank ye! God Almighty thank ye!
God Almighty, make we free!
Buckra in this country no make we free:
What Negro for to do? What Negro for to do?
Take force by force! Take force by force!
CHORUS.
To be sure! to be sure! to be sure!
The Eboe King said, that he certainly had made use of this song, and what harm was there in his doing so? He had sung no songs but such as his brown priest had assured him were approved of by John the Baptist. “And who, then, was John the Baptist?” He did not very well know; only he had been told by his brown priest, that John the Baptist was a friend to the negroes, and had got his head in a pan!
As to the Captain, he only said in his defence, that if the court would forgive him this once, he would not do so again, as he found the whites did not like their plans which, it seems, till that moment they had never suspected! They had all along imagined, no doubt, that the whites would find as much amusement in having their throats cut, as the blacks would find in cutting them. I remember hearing a sportsman, who was defending the humanity of hunting, maintain, that it being as much the nature of a hare to run away as of a dog to run after her, consequently the hare must receive as much pleasure from being coursed, as the dog from coursing.
MARCH 23.
Two negroes upon Amity estate quarrelled the other day about some trifle, when the one bit the other’s nose off completely. Soon after his accident, the overseer meeting the sufferer—“Why, Sambo,” he exclaimed, “where’s your nose?”
“I can’t tell, massa,” answered Sambo; “I looked every where about, but I could not find it.”
MARCH 24. (Sunday.)
Every Sunday since my return from Kingston I have read prayers to such of the negroes as chose to attend, preparatory to the intended visitations of the minister, Dr. Pope. About twenty or thirty of the most respectable among them generally attended, and behaved with great attention and propriety. I read the Litany, and made them repeat the responses. I explained the Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer to them, teaching them to say each sentence of the latter after me, as I read it slowly, in hopes of impressing it upon their memory. Then came “the good Samaritan,” or some such apologue; and, lastly, I related to them a portion of the life of Christ, and explained to them the object of his death and sufferings. The latter part of my service always seemed to interest them greatly; but, indeed, they behaved throughout with much attention. Unluckily, the head driver, who was one of the most zealous of my disciples, never could repeat the responses of the Litany without an appeal to myself, and always made a point of saying—“Good Lord, deliver us; yes, sir!” and made me a low bow: and one day when I was describing the wonderful precocity of Christ’s understanding, as evidenced by his interview with the doctors in the temple, while but a child, the head driver thought fit to interrupt me with—“Beg massa pardon, but want know one ting as puzzle me. Massa say ‘the child,’ and me want know, massa, one ting much; was Jesus Christ a boy or a girl?” Like my friend the Moravian, at Mesopotamia, I cannot boast of any increased audience; and if the negroes will not come to hear massa, I have little hope of their giving up their time to hear Dr. Pope, who inspires them with no interest, and can exert no authority. Indeed, I am afraid that I am indebted for the chief part of my present auditory to my quality of massa rather than that of priest; and when I ask any of them why they did not come to prayers on the preceding Sunday, their excuse is always coupled with an assurance, that they wished very much to come, “because they wish to do any thing to oblige massa.”
MARCH 25.
The negroes certainly are perverse beings. They had been praying for a sight of their master year after year; they were in raptures at my arrival; I have suffered no one to be punished, and shown them every possible indulgence during my residence amongst them; and one and all they declare themselves perfectly happy and well treated. Yet, previous to my arrival, they made thirty-three hogsheads a week; in a fortnight after my landing, their product dwindled to twenty-three; daring this last week they have managed to make but thirteen. Still they are not ungrateful; they are only selfish: they love me very well, but they love themselves a great deal better; and, to do them justice, I verily believe that every negro on the estate is extremely anxious that all should do their full duty, except himself. My censure, although accompanied with the certainty of their not being punished, is by no means a matter of indifference. If I express myself to be displeased, the whole property is in an uproar; every body is finding fault with every body; nobody that does not represent the shame of neglecting my work, and the ingratitude of vexing me by their ill-conduct; and then each individual—having said so much, and said it so strongly, that he is convinced of its having its full effect in making the others do their duty—thinks himself quite safe and snug in skulking away from his own.
MARCH 26.
Young Hill was told at the Bay this morning, that I make a part of the Eboe King’s song! According to this report, “good King George and good Mr. Wilberforce” are stated to have “given me a paper” to set the negroes free (i. e. an order), but that the white people of Jamaica will not suffer me to show the paper, and I am now going home to say so, and “to resume my chair, which I have left during my absence to be filled by the Regent.”
Since I heard the report of a rebellious song issuing from Cornwall, I have listened more attentively to the negro chaunts; but they seem, as far as I can make out, to relate entirely to their own private situation, and to have nothing to do with the negro state in general. Their favourite, “We varry well off,” is still screamed about the estate by the children; but among the grown people its nose has been put out of joint by the following stanzas, which were explained to me this morning. For several days past they had been dinned into my ears so incessantly, that at length I became quite curious to know their import, which I learned from Phillis, who is the family minstrel. It will be evident from this specimen, that the Cornwall bards are greatly inferior to those of Black River, who have actually advanced so far as to make an attempt at rhyme and metre.
NEGRO SONG AT CORNWALL.
Hey-ho-day! me no care a dammee! (i. e. a damn,)
Me acquire a house, (i. e. I have a solid foundation to
build on,)
Since massa come see we—oh!
Hey-ho-day! neger now quite eerie, (i. e. hearty,)
For once me see massa—hey-ho-day!
When massa go, me no care a dammee,
For how them usy we—hey-ho-day!
An Alligator, crossing the morass at Bellisle, an estate but a few miles distant from Cornwall, fell into a water-trench, from which he struggled in vain to extricate himself, and was taken alive; so that, according to the vulgar expression, he may literally be said to “have put his foot in it.” Fontenelle says, that when Copernicus published his system, he foresaw the contradictions which he should have to undergo—“Et il se tira d’affaire très-habilement. Le jour qu’on lui présentoit le premier exemplaire, scavez-vous ce qu’il fit? Il mourut;” which was precisely the resource resorted to by the alligator. He died on the second morning of his captivity, and his proprietor, Mr. Storer, was obliging enough to order the skin to be stuffed, and to make me a present of him. Neptune was despatched to bring him (or rather her, for nineteen eggs were found within her) over to Cornwall; and at dinner to-day we were alarmed with a general hubbub. It proved to be occasioned by Neptune’s arrival (if Thames or Achelous had been despatched on this errand, it would have been more appropriate) with the alligator on his head. In a few minutes every thing on the estate that was alive, without feathers, and with only two legs, flocked into the room, and requested to take a bird’s-eye view of the monster; for as to coming near her, that they were much too cowardly to venture. It was in vain that I represented to them, that being dead it was utterly impossible that the animal could hurt them: they allowed the impossibility, but still kept at a respectful distance; and when at length I succeeded in persuading them to approach it, upon some one accidentally moving the alligator’s tail, they all, with one accord, set up a loud scream, and men, women, and children tumbled out of the room over one another, to the irreparable ruin of some of my glasses and decanters, and the extreme trepidation of the whole side-board.
The negro-husband, who stabbed his rival in a fit of jealousy, has been tried at Montego Bay, and acquitted. On the other hand, the King of the Eboes has been hung at Black Hiver, and died, declaring that he left enough of his countrymen to prosecute the design in hand, and revenge his death upon the whites. Such threats of a rescue were held out, that it was judged advisable to put the militia under arms, till the execution should have taken place; and also to remove the King’s Captain to the gaol at Savannah la Mar, till means can be found for transporting him from the island.
MARCH 27.
The Eboe Captain has effected his escape by burning down the prison door. It is supposed that he has fled towards the fastnesses in the interior of the mountains, where I am assured that many settlements of run-away slaves have been formed, and with which the inhabited part of the island has no communication. However, the chief of the Accompong Maroons, Captain Roe, is gone in pursuit of him, and has promised to bring him in, alive or dead. The latter is the only reasonable expectation, as the fugitive is represented as a complete desperado.
The negroes have at least given me one proof of their not being entirely selfish. When they heard that the boat was come to convey my baggage to the ship at Black River, they collected all their poultry, and brought it to my agent, desiring him to add it to my sea-stores. Of course I refused to let them be received, and they were evidently much disappointed, till I consented to accept the fowls and ducks, and then gave them back to them again, telling them to consider them as a present from my own hen-house, and to distinguish them by the name of “massa’s poultry.”
MARCH 28.
I have been positively assured, that an attempt was made to persuade the grand jury at Montego Bay, to present me for over-indulgence to my own negroes! It is a great pity that so reasonable an attempt should not have succeeded.—The rebel captain who broke out of prison, has been found concealed in the hut of a notorious Obeah-man, and has been lodged a second time in the gaol of Savannah la Mar.
MARCH 29.
About two months ago, a runaway cooper, belonging to Shrewsbury estate, by name Edward, applied to me to intercede for his not being punished on his return home. As soon as he got the paper requested, he gave up all idea of returning to the estate, and instead of it went about the country stealing every thing upon which he could lay his hands; and whenever his proceedings were enquired into by the magistrates, he stated himself to be on the road to his trustee, and produced my letter as a proof of it. At length some one had the curiosity to open the letter, and found that it had been written two months before.
MARCH 30.
This was the day appointed for the first “Royal play-day,” when I bade farewell to my negroes. I expected to be besieged with petitions and complaints, as they must either make them on this occasion or not at all. I was, therefore, most agreeably surprised to find, that although they had opportunities of addressing me from nine in the morning till twelve at night, the only favours asked me were by a poor old man, who wanted an iron cooking pot, and by Adam, who begged me to order a little daughter of his to be instructed in needle-work: and as to complaints, not a murmur of such a thing was heard; they all expressed themselves to be quite satisfied, and seemed to think that they could never say enough to mark their gratitude for my kindness, and their anxiety for my getting safe to England. We began our festival by the head driver’s drinking the health of H. R. H. the Duchess of York, whom the negroes cheered with such a shout as might have “rent hell’s concave.”
Then we had a christening of such persons as had been absent on the former occasion, one of whom was Adam, the reputed Obeah-man. In the number was a new-born child, whom we called Shakspeare, and whom Afra, the Eboe mother, had very earnestly begged me to make a Christian, as well as a daughter of hers, about four or five years old; at the same time that she declined being christened herself! In the same manner Cubina’s wife, although her father and husband were both baptised on the former occasion, objected to going through the ceremony herself; and the reason which she gave was, that “she did not like being christened while she was with child, as she did not know what change it might not produce upon herself and the infant.”
After the christening there was a general distribution of salt-fish by the trustee; and I also gave every man and woman half a dollar each, and every child a maccarony (fifteen pence) as a parting present, to show them that I parted with them in good-humour. While the money was distributing, young Hill arrived, and finding the house completely crowded, he enquired what was the matter. “Oh, massa,” said an old woman, “it is only my son, who is giving the negroes all something.”
I also read to them a new code of laws, which I had ordered to be put in force at Cornwall, for the better security of the negroes. The principal were, that “a new hospital for the lying-in women, and for those who might be seriously ill, should be built, and made as comfortable as possible; while the present one should be reserved for those whom the physicians might declare to be very slightly indisposed, or not ill at all; the doors being kept constantly locked, and the sexes placed in separate chambers, to prevent its being made a place of amusement by the lazy and lying, as is the case at present.”—“A book register of punishments to be kept, in which the name, offence, and nature and quantity of punishment inflicted must be carefully put down; and also a note of the same given to the negro, in order that if he should think himself unjustly, or too severely punished, he may show his note to my other attorney on his next visit, or to myself on my return to Jamaica, and thus get redress if he has been wronged.”—“No negro is to be struck, or punished in any way, without the trustee’s express orders: the black driver so offending to be immediately degraded, and sent to work in the field; and the white person, for such a breach of my orders, to be discharged upon the spot.”—“No negro is to be punished till twenty-four hours shall have elapsed between his committing the fault and suffering for it, in order that nothing should be done in the heat of passion, but that the trustee should have time to consider the matter coolly. But to prevent a guilty person from avoiding punishment by running away, he is to pass those twenty-four hours in such confinement as the trustee may think most fitting.”—“Any white person, who can be proved to have had an improper connection with a woman known publicly to be living as the wife of one of my negroes, is to be discharged immediately upon complaint being made.” I also gave the head driver a complete list of the allowances of clothing, food, &c. to which the negroes were entitled, in order that they might apply to it if they should have any doubts as to their having received their full proportion; and my new rules seemed to add greatly to the satisfaction of the negroes, who were profuse in their expressions of gratitude.
The festival concluded with a grander ball than usual, as I sent for music from Savanna la Mar to play country dances to them; and at twelve o’clock at night they left me apparently much pleased, only I heard some of them saying to each other, “When shall we have such a day of pleasure again, since massa goes to-morrow?”
MARCH 31. (Sunday.)
With their usual levity, the negroes were laughing and talking as gaily as ever till the very moment of my departure; but when they saw my curricle actually at the door to convey me away, then their faces grew very long indeed. In particular, the women called me by every endearing name they could think of. “My son! my love! my husband! my father!”
“You no my massa, you my tata!” said one old woman (upon which another wishing to go a step beyond her, added, “Iss, massa, iss! It was you”);—————and when I came down the steps to depart, they crowded about me, kissing my feet, and clasping my knees, so that it was with difficulty that I could get into the carriage. And this was done with such marks of truth and feeling, that I cannot believe the whole to be mere acting and mummery.
I dined with Mr. Allwood at Shaftstone, his pen near Blue-fields, and at half past seven found myself once more on board the Sir Godfrey Webster.
To fill up my list of Jamaica delicacies, I must not forget to mention, that I did my best to procure a Cane-piece Cat roasted in the true African fashion. The Creole negroes, however, greatly disapproved of my venturing upon this dish, which they positively denied having tasted themselves; and when, at length, the Cat was procured, last Saturday, instead of plainly boiling it with negro-pepper and salt, they made into a high seasoned stew, which rendered it impossible to judge of its real flavour. However, I tasted it, as did also several other people, and we were unanimous in opinion, that it might have been mistaken for a very good game-soup, and that, when properly dressed, a Cane-piece Cat must be excellent food.
One of the best vegetable productions of the island is esteemed to be the Avogada pear, sometimes called “the vegetable marrow.” It was not the proper season for them, and with great difficulty I procured a couple, which were said to be by no means in a state of perfection. Such as they were, I could find no great merit in them; they were to be eaten cold with pepper and salt, and seemed to be an insipid kind of melon, with no other resemblance to marrow than their softness.
APRIL 1. (Monday.)
At eight this morning we weighed anchor on our return to England.
YARRA.
Poor Yarra comes to bid farewell,
But Yarra’s lips can never say it!
Her swimming eyes—her bosom’s swell—
The debt she owes you, these must pay it.
She ne’er can speak, though tears can start,
Her grief, that fate so soon removes you;
But One there is, who reads the heart,
And well He knows how Yarra loves you!
See, massa, see this sable boy!
When chill disease had nipp’d his flower,
You came and spoke the word of joy,
And poured the juice of healing power.
To visit far Jamaica’s shore
Had no kind angel deign’d to move you,
These laughing eyes had laugh’d no more,
Nor Yarra lived to thank and love you,
Then grieve not, massa, that to view
Our isle you left your British pleasures:
One tear, which falls in grateful dew,
Is worth the best of Britain’s treasures.
And sure, the thought will bring relief,
What e’er your fate, wherever rove you,
Your wealth’s not given by pain and grief,
But hands that know, and hearts that love you.
May He, who bade you cross the wave,
Through care for Afric’s sons and daughters;
When round your bark the billows rave,
In safety guide you through the waters!
By all you love with smiles be met;
Through life each good man’s tongue approve you:
And though far distant, don’t forget,
While Yarra lives, she’ll live to love you!
APRIL 3.
The trade-winds which facilitate the passage to Jamaica, effectually prevent the return of vessels by the same road. The common passage is through the Gulf of Florida, but there is another between Cuba and St. Domingo, which is at least 1000 miles nearer. The first, however, affords almost a certainty of reaching Europe in a given time; while you may keep tacking in the attempt to make the windward passage (as it is called) for months together. Last night the wind was so favourable for this attempt, that the captain determined upon risking it. Accordingly he altered his course; and had not done so for more than a few hours, when the wind changed, and became as direct for the Gulf, as till then it had been contrary. The consequence was, that the Gulf passage was fixed once for all, and we are now steering towards it with all our might and main. Besides the distance saved, there was another reason for preferring the windward passage, if it could have been effected. The Gulf of Florida has for some time past been infested by a pirate called Captain Mitchell, who, by all accounts, seems to be of the very worst description. It is not long ago, since, in company with another vessel of his own stamp, he landed on the small settlement of St. Andrews, plundered it completely, and on his departure carried off the governor, whom he kept on board for more than fourteen days, and then hung him at the yard-arm out of mere wanton devilry; and indeed he is said to show no more mercy to any of his prisoners than he did to the poor governor. His companion has been captured and brought into Kingston, and the conquering vessel is gone in search of Captain Mitchell. If it does not fall in with him, and we do, I fear that we shall stand but a bad chance; for he has one hundred men on board according to report, while we have not above thirty. However, the captain has harangued them, represented the necessity of their fighting if attacked, as Captain Mitchell is known to spare no one, high or low, and has engaged to give every man five guineas apiece, if a gun should be fired. The sailors promise bravery; whether their promises will prove to be pie-crust, we must leave to be decided by time and Captain Mitchell. In the mean while, every sail that appears on the horizon is concluded to be this terrible pirate, and every thing is immediately put in readiness for action.
This day we passed the Caymana islands; but owing to our having always either a contrary wind, or no wind at all, it was not till the 12th that Cuba was visible, nor till the 14th that we reached Cape Florida.
APRIL 15.
At noon this day we found ourselves once more sailing on the Atlantic, and bade farewell to the Gulf of Florida without having heard any news of the dreaded Commodore Mitchell. The narrow and dangerous part of this Gulf is about two hundred miles in length, and fifty in breadth, bordered on one side by the coast of Florida, and on the other, first by Cuba, and then by the Bahama Islands, of which the Manilla reef forms the extremity, and which reef also terminates the Gulf. But on both sides of these two hundred miles, at the distance of about four or five miles from the main land, there extends a reef which renders the navigation extremely dangerous. The reef is broken at intervals by large inlets; and the sudden and violent squalls of wind to which the Gulf is subject, so frequently drive vessels into these perilous openings, that it is worth the while of many of the poorer inhabitants of Florida to establish their habitations within the reef, and devote themselves and their small vessels entirely to the occupation of assisting vessels in distress. They are known by the general name of “wreckers,” and are allowed a certain salvage upon such ships as they may rescue. As a proof of the violence of the gales which are occasionally experienced in this Gulf, our captain, about nine years ago, saw the wind suddenly take a vessel (which had unwisely suffered her canvass to stand, while the rest of the ships under convoy had taken theirs down,) and turn her completely over, the sails in the water and the keel uppermost. It happened about four o’clock in the afternoon: the captain and the passengers were at dinner in the cabin; but as she went over very leisurely, they and the crew had time allowed them to escape out of the windows and port-holes, and sustain themselves upon the rigging, till boats from the ships near them could arrive to take them off. As she filled, she gradually sunk, and in a quarter of an hour she had disappeared totally.
APRIL 17.
THE FLYING FISH.
Bright ocean-bird, alike who sharing
Both elements, could sport the air in,
Or swim the sea, your winged fins wearing
The rainbow’s hues,
Your fate this day full long shall bear in
Her mind the muse,
In vain for you had nature blended
Two regions, and your powers extended;
Now high you rose, now low descended;
But folly marred
Those gifts, the bounteous dame intended
To prove your guard.
A flying fish, could bounds include her?
She winged the deep, if birds pursued her;
She swam the sky, if dolphins viewed her;
But now what wish
Tempts you to watch yon bright deluder,
Unthinking fish?
Alas!—a fly above you viewing,
Gay tints his gilded wings imbuing,
You mount; and ah! too far pursuing
At fancy’s call,
Heedless you strike the sails, where ruin
Awaits your fall.
Your fins, too dry, no longer play you,
And soon those fins no more upstay you;
You drop; and now on deck survey you
Jack, Tom, and Bill,
Who up may take, and down may lay you,
As suits their will.
Oh! list my tale, fair maids of Britain!
This subject fain I’d try my wit on,
And show the rock you’re apt to split on:
Then cry not—“Pish!”—
You’re all (I’m glad the thought I hit on)
Just flying fish!
Beauty, does nature’s hand bestow it?
It swells your pride, and plain you show it;
Though wealthy cit, and airy poet
Your charms pursue,
Church—physic—law—you he fair, you know it,
You’ll none, not you!= .
Age looks too dry, and youth too blooming:
The scholar’s face there’s too much gloom in;
This man’s too dull, that too presuming;
His mouth’s too wide!—
For mending, Lord! you think there’s room in
The best, when tried.
In each you find some fault to snarl at,
And wilful seek the sun by starlight;
Till some gay glittering rogue in scarlet,
Who lures the eye,
Dazzles poor miss, and then the varlet
Pretends to fly.
His flight has piqued, his glitter caught her;
And soon her mammy’s darling daughter,
Whose eyes have made such mighty slaughter,
Charm’d by a fop,
Is fairly hit ’twixt wind and water,
And, miss! you drop!
Then certain fate of fallen lasses,
When short-lived bliss more frail than glass is,
To eyes of all degrees and classes
Exposed you stand,
And soon your beauty circling passes
From hand to hand.
In vain your flattering charms display you;
From home and parents far away, you
See former friends with scorn survey you;
While fools and brutes
May take you up, or down may lay you,
As humour suits.
Oh! mark, dear girls, the moral story
Of one, who breathes but to adore ye!
Let no rash action mar your glory;
But when you wish
To catch some coxcomb, place before ye
The flying fish.
APRIL 20.
Two or three years ago, our captain, while his vessel was lying in Black River Bay, for the purpose of loading, was informed by his sailors, that their beef and other provisions frequently disappeared in a very unaccountable manner. However, by setting a strict watch during the night, he soon managed to clear up the mystery: and a negro, who had made his escape from the workhouse, and concealed himself on board among the bags of cotton, was found to be the thief. He was sent back to the workhouse, of which the chain was still about his neck. But another negro had better luck in a similar attempt on board of a different vessel. He contrived to secrete himself in the lower part of it, where the sugar hogsheads are stored, unknown to any one. As soon as the cargo was completed, the planks above it were caulked down, and raised no more till their ship reached Liverpool; when, to the universal astonishment, upon opening the hold, out walked Mungo, in a wretched condition to be sure, but still at least alive, and a freeman in Great Britain. During his painful voyage, he had subsisted entirely upon sugar, of which he had consumed nearly an hogshead; how he managed for water I could not learn, nor can imagine.
APRIL 23.
The old steward, this morning, told one of the sailors, who complained of being ill, that he would get well as soon as he should reach England, and could have plenty of vegetables; “for,” he said, “the man had only got a stomachick complaint; nothing but just scurvy!”
APRIL 24.
Sea Terms.—The sheets, a term for various ropes; the halyards, ropes which extend the topsails; the painter, the rope which fastens the boat to the vessel; the eight points of the compass, south, south and by east, south-south east, south east and by east, south-east, east south and by east, east south east, east and by south east. The knowledge of these points is termed “knowing how to box the compass.”
APRIL 27.
Many years ago, a new species of grass was imported into Jamaica, by Mr. Vassal, (to whom an estate near my own then belonged), as he said “for the purpose of feeding his pigs and his bookkeepers.” Its seeds being soon scattered about by the birds, it has taken possession of the cane-pieces, whence to eradicate it is an utter impossibility, the roots being as strong as those of ginger, and insinuating themselves under ground to a great extent; so that the only means of preventing it from entirely choking up the canes, is plucking it out with the hand, which is obliged to be done frequently, and has increased the labour of the plantation at least one third. This nuisance, which is called “Vassal’s grass,” from its original introducer, has now completely over-run the parish of Westmoreland, has begun to show itself in the neighbouring parishes, and probably in time will get a footing throughout the island. St. Thomas’s in the East has been inoculated with another self-inflicted plague, under the name of “the rifle-ant,” which was imported for the purpose of eating up the ants of the country; and so to be sure they did, but into the bargain they eat up every thing else which came in their way, a practice in which they persist to this hour; so that it may be doubted whether in Jamaica most execrations are bestowed in the course of the day upon Vassal’s grass, the rifle-ants, Sir Charles Price’s rats, or the Reporter of the African Society; only that the maledictions uttered against the three first are necessarily local, while the Reporter of the African Society comes in for curses from all quarters.
APRIL 30. (Tuesday.)
A whole calendar month has elapsed since our quitting Jamaica, during which the wind has been favourable for something less than four-and-twenty hours; either it has blown precisely from the point on which we wanted to sail, or has been so faint, that we scarcely made one knot an hour. However, on Tuesday last, finding ourselves in the latitude of the “still-vexed Bermoothes,” by way of variety, a sudden squall carried away both our lower stunsails in the morning; and at nine in the evening there came on a gale of wind truly tremendous. The ship pitched and rolled every minute, as if she had been on the point of overturning; the hencoops floated about the deck, and many of the poultry were found drowned in them the next morning. Just as the last dead-light was putting up, the sea embraced the opportunity of the window being open, to whip itself through, and half filled the after-cabin with water; and in half an hour more a mountain of waves broke over the vessel, and pouring itself through the sky-light, paid the same compliment to the fore-cabin, with which it had already honoured the after one. About four in the morning the storm abated, and then we relapsed into our good old jog-trot pace of a knot an hour. Our passengers consist of a Mrs. Walker with her two children, and a sick surgeon of the name of Ashman.
MAY 5. (Sunday.)
We continue to proceed at such a tortoise-pace, that it has been thought advisable to put the crew upon an allowance of water.
MAY 7.
A negro song.—“Me take my cutacoo, (i. e. a basket made of matting,) and follow him to Lucea, and all for love of my bonny man-O—My bonny man come home, come home! Doctor no do you good. When neger fall into neger hands, buckra doctor no do him good more. Come home, my gold ring, come home!” This is the song of a wife, whose husband had been Obeahed by another woman, in consequence of his rejecting her advances. A negro riddle: “Pretty Miss Nancy was going to market, and she tore her fine yellow gown, and there was not a taylor in all the town who could mend it again.” This is a ripe plantain with a broken skin. The negroes are also very fond of what they call Nancy stories, part of which is related, and part sung. The heroine of one of them is an old woman named Mamma Luna, who having left a pot boiling in her hut, found it robbed on her return. Her suspicions were divided between two children whom she found at play near her door, and some negroes who had passed that way to market. The children denied the theft positively. It was necessary for the negroes, in order to reach their own estate, to wade through a river at that time almost dry; and on their return, Mammy Luna (who it should seem, was not without some skill in witchcraft,) warned them to take care in venturing across the stream, for that the water would infallibly rise and carry away the person who had stolen the contents of her pot; but if the thief would but confess the offence, she engaged that no harm should happen, as she only wanted to exculpate the innocent, and not to punish the guilty. One and all denied the charge, and several crossed the river without fear or danger; but upon the approach of a belly-woman to the bank, she was observed to hesitate. “My neger, my neger,” said Mammy Luna, “why you stop? me tink, you savee well, who thief me?” This accusation spirited up the woman, who instantly marched into the river, singing as she went ( and the woman’s part is always chanted frequently in chorus, which the negroes call, “taking up the sing”).
“If da me eat Mammy Luna’s pease-O,
Drowny me water, drowny, drowny!”
“My neger, my neger,” cried the old woman, “me sure now you the thief! me see the water wet you feet. Come back, my neger, come back.” Still on went the woman, and still continued her song of
“If da me eat Mammy Luna’s pease, &c.”
“My neger, my neger,” repeated Mammy Luna, “me no want punish you; my pot smell good, and you belly-woman. Come back, my neger, come back; me see now water above your knee!” But the woman was obstinate; she continued to sing and to advance, till she reached the middle of the river’s bed, when down came a tremendous flood, swept her away, and she never was heard of more; while Mammy Luna warned the other negroes never to take the property of another; always to tell the truth; and, at least, if they should be betrayed into telling a lie, not to persist in it, otherwise they must expect to perish like their companion. Observe, that a moral is always an indispensable part of a Nancy story. Another is as follows:—“Two sisters had always lived together on the best terms; but, on the death of one of them, the other treated very harshly a little niece, who had been left to her care, and made her a common drudge to herself and her daughter. One day the child having broken a water-jug, was turned out of the house, and ordered not to return till she could bring back as good a one. As she was going along, weeping, she came to a large cotton-tree, under which was sitting an old woman without a head. I suppose this unexpected sight made her gaze rather too earnestly, for the old woman immediately enquired—‘Well, my piccaniny, what you see?’ ‘Oh, mammy,’ answered the girl, ‘me no see nothing.’ ‘Good child!’ said again the old woman; ‘and good will come to you.’ Not far distant was a cocoa-tree; and here was another old woman, without any more head than the former one. The same question was asked her, and she failed not to give the same answer which had already met with so good a reception. Still she travelled forwards, and began to feel faint through want of food, when, under a mahogany tree, she not only saw a third old woman, but one who, to her great satisfaction, had got a head between her shoulders. She stopped, and made her best courtesy—‘How day, grannie!’ ‘How day, my piccaniny; what matter, you no look well?’ ‘Grannie, me lilly hungry.’ ‘My piccaniny, you see that hut, there’s rice in the pot, take it, and yam-yam me; but if you see one black puss, mind you give him him share.’ The child hastened to profit by the permission; the ‘one black puss’ failed not to make its appearance, and was served first to its portion of rice, after which it departed; and the child had but just finished her meal, when the mistress of the hut entered, and told her that she might help herself to three eggs out of the fowl-house, but that she must not take any of the talking ones: perhaps, too, she might find the black puss there, also; but if she did, she was to take no notice of her. Unluckily all the eggs seemed to be as fond of talking as if they had been so many old maids; and the moment that the child entered the fowl-house, there was a cry of ‘Take me! Take me!’ from all quarters. However she was punctual in her obedience; and although the conversable eggs were remarkably fine and large, she searched about till at length she had collected three little dirty-looking eggs, that had not a word to say for themselves. The old woman now dismissed her guest, bidding her to return home without fear; but not to forget to break one of the eggs under each of the three trees near which she had seen an old woman that morning. The first egg produced a water-jug exactly similar to that which she had broken; out of the second came a whole large sugar estate; and out of the third a splendid equipage, in which she returned to her aunt, delivered up the jug, related that an old woman in a red docker (i. e. petticoat) had made her a great lady, and then departed in triumph to her sugar estate. Stung by envy, the aunt lost no time in sending her own daughter to search for the same good fortune which had befallen her cousin. She found the cotton-tree and the headless old woman, and had the same question addressed to her; but instead of returning the same answer—‘What me see,’ said she; ‘me see one old woman without him head!’ Now this reply was doubly offensive; it was rude, because it reminded the old lady of what might certainly be considered as a personal defect; and it was dangerous, as, if such a circumstance were to come to the ears of the buckras, it might bring her into trouble, women being seldom known to walk and talk without their heads, indeed, if ever, except by the assistance of Obeah. ‘Bad child!’ cried the old woman; ‘bad child! and bad will come to you!’ Matters were no better managed near the cocoa-tree; and even when she reached the mahogany, although she saw that the old woman had not only got her head on, but had a red docker besides, she could not prevail on herself to say more than a short ‘How day?’ without calling her ‘grannie.’ [Among negroes it is almost tantamount to an affront to address by the name, without affixing some term of relationship, such as ‘grannie,’ or ‘uncle,’ or ‘cousin.‘] My Cornwall boy, George, told me one day, that ‘Uncle Sully wanted to speak to massa.’ ‘Why, is Sully your uncle, George?’ ‘No, massa; me only call him so for honour.’ However, she received the permission to eat rice at the cottage, coupled with the injunction of giving a share to the black puss; an injunction, however, which she totally disregarded, although she scrupled not to assure her hostess that she had suffered puss to eat till she could eat no more. The old lady in the red petticoat seemed to swallow the lie very glibly, and despatched the girl to the fowl-house for three eggs, as she had before done her cousin; but having been cautioned against taking the talking eggs, she conceived that these must needs be the most valuable; and, therefore, made a point of selecting those three which seemed to be the greatest gossips of the whole poultry yard. Then, lest their chattering should betray her disobedience, she thought it best not to return into the hut, and, accordingly, set forward on her return home; but she had not yet reached the mahogany tree, when curiosity induced her to break one of the eggs. To her infinite disappointment it proved to be empty; and she soon found cause to wish that the second had been empty too; for, on her dashing it against the ground, out came an enormous yellow snake, which flew at her with dreadful hissings. Away ran the girl; a fallen bamboo lay in her path; she stumbled over it, and fell. In her fall the third egg was broken; and the old woman without the head immediately popping out of it, told her, that if she had treated her as civilly, and had adhered as closely to the truth as her cousin had done, she would have obtained the same good fortune; but that as she had shown her nothing but rudeness, and told her nothing but lies, she must be contented to carry nothing home but the empty egg-shells. The old woman then jumped upon the yellow snake, galloped away with incredible speed, and never showed her red docker in that part of the island any more.”
APRIL 8.
At breakfast the captain was explaining to me the dangerous consequences of breaking the wheel-rope: two hours afterwards the wheel-rope broke, and round swung the vessel. However, as the accident fortunately took place in the day time, and when the sea was perfectly calm, it was speedily remedied: but this was “talking of the devil and his imps” with a vengeance.
APRIL 10.
During the early part of my outward-bound voyage I was extremely afflicted with sea-sickness; and between eight o’clock on a Monday morning, and twelve on the following Thursday, I actually brought up almost a thousand lines, with rhymes at the end of them. Having nothing better to do at present, I may as well copy them into this book. Composed with such speed, and under such circumstances, I take it for granted that the verses cannot be very good; but let them be ever so bad, I defy any one to be more sick while reading them than the author himself was while writing them. This strange story was found by me in an old Italian book, called “II Palagio degli Incanti,” in which it was related as a fact, and stated to be taken from the “Annals of Portugal,” an historical work. I will not vouch for the truth of it myself; and, at all events, I earnestly request that no person who may read these verses will ask me “who the hero really was?” If he does, I shall only return the same answer which the lady gave her husband when, being on the point of shipwreck, he requested her to tell him whether she had really ever wronged his bed? “My dear,” said she, “sink or swim, that secret shall go to the grave with me.”
THE ISLE OF DEVILS.
A METRICAL TALE.
“Should I report this now, would they believe me?
If I should say, I saw such islanders,
Who, though they were of monstrous shape, yet, note,
Their manners were more gentle-kind, than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many; nay, almost any!”—
Tempest, Act 3.
I.
Speed, Halcyon, speed, and here construct thy nest:
Brood on these waves, and charm the winds to rest!
No wave should dare to rage, no wind to roar,
Till lands yon blooming maid on Lisbon’s shore.
That maid, as Venus fair and chaste is she,
When first to dazzled sky and glorying sea
The bursting conch Love’s new-born queen exposed,
The fairest pearl that ever shell inclosed.
While love’s fantastic hand had joyed to braid
Her locks with weeds and shells like some sea-maid,
High seated at the stern was Irza seen,
And seemed to rule the tide, as ocean’s queen.
Smooth sailed the bark; the sun shone clear and bright
The glittering billows danced along in light;
While Irza, free from fear, from sorrow free,
Bright as the sun, and buoyant as the sea,
Bade o’er the lute her flying fingers move,
And sang a Spanish lay of Moorish love.