JAMAICA.
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(lence. They have also dislributed the "gift book" to about sixty of the apprentices whom they have them selves taught to read. This magnificent present of the Bible Society still continues to be exceedingly useful in inciting children and even adults to learn to read. In one of the adult classes was an old African woman, who read intelligibly in the Testament, having been taught from her letters. The congregation at this station was composed of about two hundred persons, assembled in a small temporary shed, for this purpose, used till a chapel which is erecting shall be finished. They were very attentive to the sermon and exposition of the scripture. A squalid old man came this afternoon to the mis sionary's house, and begged that we would give him a letter to his master, that he might return to the estate, having been in the bush {a runaway) five weeks. During slavery it was a custom for repentant runaways to get an intercessory letter from some friend of their masters, or even from a stranger, to save them from punishment. It was a point of honor and of policy to attend to such requests, as the planters, in a country of mountain fastnesses like this, were glad to get their laborers back on any terms. The account this negro gave was as follows :—He belongs to a neighbouring coffee planter, whose apprentices had to work at a dis tance of seven or eight miles from their homes. They were expected to be at the place of work early on Monday morning, though they had to carry a week's provisions on their heads besides their hoes. They were threatened with punishment for being late, on which they went to the Special Magistrate, CHAMBERL A i N E , who gavg them a letter to their master and told them that he must allow them sufficient time to go and