264
JAMAICA.
wards heard a class of intelligent little girls read and answer questions. The master, a colored man, was formerly the teacher of the Holland estate school. He told us it had been discontinued because the attorney was " dissatisfied with the work of the parents, and thought they did not behave as they should, considering their privileges." It is not without reason that the negros suspect that their proprietors and overseers in proposals made apparently for their benefit, have some ulterior object in view. We subsequently called at \ Wilton, the residence of H Y L T O N , an estimable i clergyman of the establishment. We visited a little ; Mico School, held on the premises, where thirty or i forty children were collected. It had only recently \ been formed, but the scholars were in good order, and Î appeared to have already made some progress. We | arrived at Comfort late in the evening. \ 16th.—This morning we visited the schools, which ; are held in wattled structures of the simplest and cheap est kind. The girl's school, which was taught by a colored young woman, was in excellent discipline, i We heard the principal class read, and the whole school ' answer scripture questions. Some of the scholars were \ particularly clever and intelligent. The boys' school was in a like satisfactory condition. Before Christmas \ the children were required to make a weekly payment ; of five-pence, which has since been discontinued, and \ the attendance has in consequence increased from forty \ to one hundred and sixty. We afterwards saw the j boys at breakfast. The children at this school bring | their yams and other roots to be cooked for them at the \ institution. When ready, their meal is laid on a cloth | in the middle of the floor. One of the elder boys por- > tions it out with a knife, the children bringing their tins!