328
JAMAICA.
praised his apprentices, he considered it a proof that he did not manage them himself, for in his own opinion, they could never be changed nor improved " so long as they were black." He said that his negros, whom Dr. PALMER had instigated to rebellion, were now building new houses for themselves, which was a proof they did not mean to leave the estate after 1840, though ; he intimated they might then intend to take forcible possession. Such was their inconsistency, that when he advertised Recess a short time since for sale, his apprentices came to him in a body, and said, they did not want to belong to any one else. He advertised it as " in a high state of cultivation, notwithstanding j circumstances," an expression which had been laid hold j of, to disprove the charges he brought against the ad- ; ministration of Dr. PALMER ; but this high state of \ cultivation was secured, he observed, by the sacrifice of \ a part of last year's crop. We requested to see the ; negro houses and hospital, to which he assented. Seve- j ral of the former which we entered, consisted of three j small apartments, which were rude, ill-constructed, j and dirty ; the floors of bare earth, the walls were un- ; plastered, and the whole had an air of extreme dis-j comfort. He said they were proofs of the idleness* of the people. In another cottage, we noticed and praised the healthy appearance of the free children. The proprietor said it was nothing like what it would have been in slavery; in 1 8 3 4 he returned twenty- j four children under six years of age, out of one hun- j dred and twenty slaves, and that there luere feiver ] free children on the property now. In another cottage ; was a man lying on a mat on the floor, evidently very j ill from fever, with his arm bound up. His master i asked him why he did not go to the hospital, he replied, \