216
ANGUILLA.
place in 1818, when the marshal was ordered to do his duty, and made this attachment accordingly." The laws having awaked, they were troubled with such an immense number of writs again, that the poor creatures had no time to eat or to drink; whereupon after a few months' wakefulness, they became dormant again, and so have continued for the last six years. In 1822 indeed, the board of council formally declared, " that it was useless to erect themselves into a court of judicature for want of a jail." j nullo contentam carcere Romam !
One small Methodist chapel is the only place of religious worship in Anguilla. The minister is a colored man, with a stipend, as I was informed, of 200l. per annum from the Society in England, and is consequently the richest man in the island. He has two hundred and fifty admitted members, and his congregation rarely exceeds four hundred souls. There remain, therefore, about two thousand six hundred human beings without, or only with the name of Christians. This gentleman has been eleven years in his situation, and in all that time has never dreamed of establishing a school for the young. The serenity of the neighbourhood was disturbed in the evening when I was there, by the worse than Popish mummery of class meetings: the young women and children were screaming out by rote some hymns