The West indies in 1837

Page 41

ANTIGUA.

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stones in the court yard. We observed a little boy of eight years old, vi^ho was committed, as we after­ wards learned, for stealing a single cane, whilst passing through the fields on his way to town on an errand. For this he was sentenced to pay a fine of seven dol­ lars, and in default of payment, to imprisonment and hard labor. Not to speak of the impolicy of making a criminal of such a child as this, the fine imposed is equivalent to his earnings for about thi-ee months, and is about a hundred and twenty times more than the value of the property stolen. The situation of these buildings is very cool and airy, and the rooms are spacious and clean. The jirisoners are usually allowed nine-pence currency per diem for their support, which in consideration of the present scarcity has been in­ creased to ten-pence, which is laid out for them by the superintendent. A chapel has recently been fitted up in one of the upper rooms, in which service is perform­ ed by the Rector of St. John's, early in the morning of the Sabbath. We had a conversation in the evening with two of the Moravian missionaries ; to whose society nearlj'' half the laboring population of the island belongs. About nine-tenths of their people are negros. They are members by birthright, unless they forfeit their privileges by misconduct; but all are actually imder the superintendence and religious care of the mission­ aries. The chapels are not sufficiently numerous to hold all their members ; who are therefore compelled to attend, as it were, on alternate Sabbaths. Not more than two or three of their people are qualified to assist them in their schools. Infant schools, in their opinion, are much better calculated than any other in­ stitutions to raise the character of the next generation; D


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