The West indies in 1837

Page 189

JAMAICA

173

of Assembly. He afterwards shewed us the works and hospital on his estate. The latter is a large, con­ venient building, and in a favorable situation ; there were only three patients in it. We saw also a few of the negro houses, which were comfortable, consisting of two and sometimes three apartments. The best of them belonged to the hospital nurse and midwife, a very intelligent old woman, with whom we conversed for a short time. She told us that the number of deaths of infants was not greater than before 1 8 3 4 . There are about one hundred and forty negros on this estate, and twenty-six free children. The overseer observed that a greater insult could not be offered to a mother, than by asking her free child to work. He related an instance where he had made such a proposition, with­ out success ; it was evident even from his own account, that he had acted in a harsh manner, and did not offer money wages as an inducement. We passed twice to­ day through the Hope estate belonging to the Duke of BUCKINGHAM, where we saw three white immigrants ploughing in the same field, in which a gang of negros were at work with the hoe. About fifty Europeans have been brought out to this estate, under an agree­ ment which entails an enormous annual expense on its proprietor. No preparation was in the first instance made for their reception, and the hardships they en­ dured, and their own intemperate habits, carried many of them off. Those who remain, are more comfortably circumstanced, and a few of them work steadily, but in this climate one negro is worth two or three Euro­ peans. 2nd.—We attended a Court held by two Special Magistrates, BOURNE and HAMILTON, on a large coffee plantation in St. Andrews, called Dublin Castle, the Q 3


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