JAMAICA.
213
The minister returned about ten o'cloclv, and an hour afterwards, the morning worship commenced. Though this is comparatively a new station, there were, at least, one thousand persons crowded into the chapel, and many could not obtain admittance. They listened attentively to an earnest and faithful discourse on re generation, a subject which was so treated as to wean their minds from a dépendance on the outward form of baptism, of which iifty-two of them had been that morning partalicrs. After the service, a marriage was celebrated with most appropriate simplicity, the form employed being a judicious selection of passages from the Old and New Testament. In the early part of the afternoon, the sacrament was administered; after which the people, many of whom came from estates at a con siderable distance, generally dispersed to their homes. In the evening there was another service attended by about three hundred persons, chiefly from the town and its immediate vicinity. During the day and in the evening, we availed our selves of the opportunity of conversing with many of the members, who were apprentices on neighbouring properties. Their statements are referred to the Ap pendix.* It is impossible to do justice to them by any general summary ; we will, therefore, observe that they include aggravated forms of every abuse, which we have yet heard complained of, and reiterated op pressions and cruelties of masters, overseers, and the Special Magistrate. 26th.—We left Brown's Town early this morning, and drove over to the Retreat Pen to breakfast. We afterwards saw the estate school, which is attended by * See Appendix F , Sec. iv.