The West indies in 1837

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268

JAMAICA.

planter, who was also a magistrate, never suffered his people to leave the field till after dark, and that it was evident by the morning and evening shellblows, that he and others defrauded them of much of their time. 17th.—We took leave of our hospitable friends at Comfort, and proceeded to Mandeville, a little town, delightfully situated amidst the Manchester mountains. We visited the workhouse, but were told by the Super­ visor, that no visitor could be admitted without an or­ der from a magistrate. The only magistrate residing in the vicinity was absent from home. He told us that a short time before, "some sectarian parsons had come and talked to the prisoners unknown to him, and that five of the life convicts broke prison afterwards." On our making further inquiries, he added, that he did not mean to say they broke out in consequence of any thing the missionaries said to them, and that it was a convict driver or turnkey, who had escaped and car­ ried the other four prisoners along with him. On leaving Mandeville, we called on our way at the house of a young man who was sent out two years ago, as a schoolmaster and catechist, with the London Society's missionaries. He informed us, that the order which had excluded us from the prison, was made in conse­ quence of himself and two of the missionaries having gone to see an apprentice, a member of one of their churches, who had been recently flogged and sent to the workhouse, on a fictitious charge, brought forward in consequence of his giving notice to be valued, be­ cause his master wished to remove him from one estate to another, many miles distant from his home and family. They had shaken him by the hand, and given him some words of comfort, and the deputy supervisor was standing by, while they spoke to him.


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