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JAMAICA.
There was also near it a series of substantial, stone, penal cells, which we hope are now chiefly valued as building materials. The great house was untenanted. Its entrance, as well as that on Paradise Pen, was graced by a small cannon. We walked through a part of the negro village. The houses were of an inferior description, but there were some pleasing evidences of the industry of the people in their gardens and plain tain walks. The Custos, though himself a large at-' torney, candidly attributes the greatest evils to the prevailing absenteeism, and to the influence of the merchants. He appears fully aware of the importance of keeping the era of complete freedom in view in his dealings with the apprentices, and has encouraged those on his own estate by the expectation of being set free a year before the time fixed by law. He expressed a wish to see estate schools generally established. Speaking of the increased value of property, he men tioned an estate purchased eighteen months ago, for five thousand pounds, for which twelve thousand pounds have recently been offered ; and that he had bought seventeen slaves in 1833 for nine pounds currency each, for every one of whom he had received at least twenty pounds sterling compensation. 11th.—We again visited the workhouse to see the treadmill in operation. Four men were first put upon it, whose wrists were as usual strapped to the handrail. The construction of this mill is so slight, and its cylinder of so small a diameter, that when the prisoners all stepped at once, their weight instantly increased its speed, so as to throw them all off. They were compelled to throw themselves into a sidelong posture, and take two or three steps at a time, in the most awkward and painful manner. The wheel then moved by jerks.