JAMAICA.
207
She was a small weakly creature. Her legs were most severely bruised and lacerated. We subsequently learned from some negros from the same estate, that the late Special Magistrate had permitted her to sit down (discontinue labor) on account of her age, and that when he was removed, she was sent to mind sheep. One of them died, and she ran away two months, through fear of punishment. This was her offence. Several other women also shewed us the severe injuries which they had sustained on the tread mill. Two of them had infants in arms, of two or three months old, and had been sent, as the driver expressed it, " for not being able to please their over seer." One old man was a pitiable object, both his body and limbs being swelled by dropsy, to a great size. He had been apprehended as a runaway. The strong men in the gang were employed in digging materials for the road out of a deep gully, which the women and weakly men brought up by a steep path in baskets on their heads ; and this poor negro being too weak to carry a basket, was chained to two others, with whom he was compelled to climb up and down the difficult ascent. In the evening we had the oppor tunity of conversing with negros from seven different estates in this neighbourhood. Several of them were very intelligent; all were members of a Christian church, and appeared respectable, well-disposed people. As a proof that they did not complain, as a matter of course, those from one property, Carlton Pen, ex pressed themselves satisfied, and said, they had all the indulgences that were customary under the old sys tem. Their statements are referred to the Appendix.* * See Appendix F, Sec. iv.