128
THE BLACK COOK
with Madras handkerchiefs of the brightest dyes, or else wear large leghorn or silk hats, covered with flowers and ribands ; but since emancipation, bonnets are most generally worn, particularly among the young, although some still prefer the use of the hat. The gentlemen negroes present also a most dandified appearance. Surtouts or coats of different colour, with velvet collars, splendid waistcoats, white or coloured trousers, with very high-heeled boots, are most in vogue. It is customary with these beaux, when they order a pair of boots, to give particular injunctions to the cordwainer, to make them in such a manner that they may "stamp and creak well,"when they wear them. To these specified articles of dress, must be added broad-brimmed hats, silk umbrellas, (if they can get them, if not, cotton suffices ; but a negro never thinks himself well arrayed without this article,) and pocket handkerchiefs, one end making its appearance from the coat pocket. The persons who dress in this manner are generally coblers, tinkers, carpenters, bricklayers, and servants. It is almost impossible to know your own domestics, so great are their metamorphoses. In the ship which conveyed us hither, was a black man, who officiated as cook. Our first place of destination, after leaving England, was British America, where we arrived in the beginning of a very severe winter. Sincerely did I pity this poor man, for his scant and tattered clothing was no protection from the pitiless blast, and excessive cold of that hyperborean clime. Being a native of so warm a country as the West Indies, and having never before experienced the rigours of winter, it was with some difficulty he could bear up against this (to him) accumulation of ills. His custom was to remain in the steerage of the ship, and when any ot his messmates tried to arouse him, and invite him to visit the deck, his only answer was, " I brought all my fingers and toes from Antigua, and please God, I must try and carry them back again.'' After remaining in America for some time, (suffering hot aches, and I know not what beside,)