176
JAMAICA.
said, tliat tlie whole gang were idle, worthless, and vagabond; that they were bought out of the work house, (as convict slaves,) for " an old song." He charged the witnesses with misrepi-esenting facts, and forgetting what would have made in his favor. The people warmly denied his imputation, and their conduct appeared to us to be marked by intelligence, consistency, and regard for truth. The above cases occupied so much time, that many other complaints of assault and ill-treatment, of a similar character, were deferred to another occasion. The negros on this property were, many of them, almost in a state of nudity. One boy, whom we asked, said he had been sent to the treadmill at Half-way Tree, for seven days, about three weeks ago ; and that his clothes had been flogged to pieces there. His chest was sore from rub bing against the mill, and he is still scarcely able to walk from the effects of an injury in the knee, inflicted by the revolving wheel, when he lost the step. He declared that both men and women were flogged on the treadmill ; the former with a cat, but the women with a strap. We fear, that the proceedings detailed above, are an example of the condition of the apprentices on many of the smaller properties. It is impossible for us to express the feelings of disgust which these scenes conveyed to our minds. During a short visit, which we paid in the evening to S. B O U R N E , a man came from Constitution-hill, another coffee estate, to complain, that his master had shot one of his fowls, which had a brood of chickens. He brought some of them dead in his basket. This is a species of perse cution, against which the apprentice has no protection. 4th.—Yesterday and to-day, we have had striking proofs, from our own observation, of the industry of