IDLENESS.
75
the best way you can. So, again, upon estates, a party of negroes will undertake to plant or hole a piece of canes for so much : if they find it will pay them very well, they keep on ; but if, on the contrary, they think they have not made so good a bargain as they imagined, they shoulder their hoes, and away they start. This habit of not speaking the truth is so proverbial, that it gives rise to the vulgar adage —“ a negro lies like a horse trotting." I have heard of a white emigrant from Anguilla saying, " that he would never again believe a negro, until he saw hair growing within the palm of his hand," so notorious is this propensity. Idleness is another fault in many negroes : everything that is done by them is done lazily. If working upon an estate, as long as the master's eye is upon them, they get on pretty well ; but as soon as he retires, down go their hoes. I should think this, in great measure, must be attributed to their having been so long used to working under a driver; for although they are free in body, they are far from free in mind. I am sure they ought not to do this ; for, badly as ^ they used to be treated some ninety or a hundred years ago, since they have been free, and, indeed, for many years before, only that they bore the name of slaves, they have had nothing to complain of. I am, and ever have been, a stanch advocate of anti-slavery doctrines; and, consequently, this assertion coming from me may be considered of some weight. .x It is said, that immediately after their emancipation, the wages of the negroes were rather low ; but that, I am sure, cannot be said now. The common rate of wages is a shilling sterling per day ; but then they often work “ task-work," as they call it, and in that case frequently get from three to four shillings. Indeed, their earnings depend entirely upon their own exertions ; for the estates upon which they work will always find employment for them. Besides this actual sum, it must be remembered, that they enjoy various privileges, which our English labourers can never hope for. The negroes have their houses found them, a spot of ground to plant provisions in, a doctor and mediE 2