OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

235

spending their time and money at taverns or places of similar resort, are seldom to be found.

On returning from their daily labour the men almost uniformly employ themselves in cultivating their own grounds or in improving their own little freeholds, and the women in culinary and other domestic purposes until driven to their frugal repast and to repose by darkness and fatigue. As to the great bulk of the people, making allowance for the influence of climate, no peasantry in the world can display more cheerful and persevering industry. These facts have not only been confirmed by missionaries and disinterested men throughout the island, as well as by Messrs. Gurney, Candler, and other philanthropic and highly respectable travellers, but by the public journals of the colonists themselves,-journals which are considered the organs of the most respectable portions both of the commercial and agricultural communities.

The editor of the Jamaica Morning Journal, a high authority, so lately as the 17th of February of the present year, thus speaks :

"The colony remains in that quiescent condition which is so favourable to improvement, and it is gratifying to observe, as the result of this state of things, the impetus which has been given to the agricultural societies, and the formation of literary ones. We do not recollect ever to have seen such vigorous efforts put forth for the improvement of the people and of agriculture as have been within the last few months.

"Except as to the want of labourers, we have no complaints; and, whether regarded socially or politi

236

EVIDENCE OF SIR C. METCALFE

cally, the state of Jamaica at present is as favourable as could be desired by the most ardent lover of peace and quiet. The planters are looking forward to large crops, and are cheered by the hope that they will yet be enabled to recover themselves from the almost ruinous effects of the late drought."

The evidence of Sir Charles Metcalfe from various circumstances will be regarded as important and decisive. It is contained in a despatch to Lord Stanley, and read by the Secretary for the Colonies in the House of Commons on the 22nd of March, 1842. Six years after the passing of the Emancipation Act, and at the end of the second year of Sir Charles Metcalfe's government, he said, "The present condition of the peasantry in Jamaica is very striking. He did not suppose that any peasantry had so many comforts, or so much independence. Their behaviour was peaceable, and in some respects cheerful. They were found to attend divine service in good clothes, many of them riding on horses. They sent their children to school, and paid for their schooling, and not only attended the churches of their different communities, but subscribed for their respective churches. Their piety was remarkable; and he was happy to add, that in some respects they deserved what they had. They were generally well ordered and free from crime, had much improved in their habits, and were constant in their attendance on divine worship themselves, and in the attendance of their children, and were willing to pay the expenses."

The following graphic description of the prosperous condition of Jamaica, by J. J. Gurney, Esq., will not

AND OF MR. GURNEY.

237

only form an appropriate conclusion to the present chapter, but at the same time illustrate and confirm its statements" The imports of the island are rapidly increasing; trade improving; the towns thriving; new villages rising up in every direction; property much enhanced in value; well-managed estates productive and profitable; expenses of management diminished ; short methods of labour adopted; provisions cultivated on a larger scale than ever; and the people, wherever they are properly treated, industrious, contented, and gradually accumulating wealth. Above all, education is rapidly spreading; the morals of the community improving; crime is in many districts disappearing ; and Christianity asserting her sway with vastly augmented force over the mass of the population. Cease from all attempts to oppose the current of justice and mercy-remove every obstruction to the fair and full working of freedom-and the bud of Jamaica's prosperity, already fragrant and vigorous, will soon burst into a glorious flower."*

"Say what avail'd, till Freedom's heav'nly band

Deign'd to revisit this forsaken land,

That spicy forests here their burthens bear,
And the rich pine perfumes its native air,

* It is delightful to add that this state of things continues to the present time; a fact confirmed by the testimony of the present Governor, the Earl of Elgin, in a reply to an address presented to him when performing a tour of the Island, dated Lucea, April 8, 1843:— "I have observed with much gratification the perfect cordiality which subsists between all classes and denominations of Her Majesty's subjects in the island; and, large as were my expectations, they have been surpassed by the beauty and fertility of the country."

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POETICAL ADDRESS.

That, void and sapless in less favour'd fields,
Here the full reed divine ambrosia yields;
For long her fate the hapless island wept,
Whilst o'er her plains the Hydra slavery swept;
From shore to shore the growing ruin spread,
And Justice died, and Mercy, frighten'd, fled.
Till Freedom bade at length these horrors cease,
And call'd to joy, and brotherhood, and peace.
Oh, think, late lords of slaves, what numbers groan
In all the pangs from which you freed your own;
Think too, late bondsmen, and with pity melt,
How millions feel what you have felt!"

DIFFERENT TRIBES OF AFRICANS.

239

CHAPTER XIV.

MORAL STATE AND ASPECTS OF SOCIETY.

Different Tribes of Africans-Peculiar Characteristics of each-Immoral Tendency of their Amusements-Funerals-Superstitions-Characteristic Vices-Contrast presented by the present State of Things— Description of a Funeral as now conducted-Causes of the late partial Revival of Obeism and Myalism-Decrease of Crime.

SECTION I.-Imported, as the slaves originally were, from such an immense continent as that of Africa, the regions whence they were supplied extending 2000 miles from north to south, and 600 from east to west, inhabited by various nations, differing materially from each other in civilization, religion, manners, and customs, it may be inferred that their tempers and dispositions would also vary according to the circumstances of the tribe or nation to which they belonged. The most distinguished of the tribes brought into the colony were the Mandingoes, the Foulahs, and others, from the banks of the Senegal, the Gambia, and the Rio Grande; the Whidahs, or Papaws, the Eboes, the Congoes, the Angolas, the Coromantees, and the Mocoes, from Upper and Lower Guinea. The Mandingoes, the Whidahs, and the Congoes, are said, in general, to have been docile, civil, obliging, and peaceable, in their natural tempers and dispositions ; but effeminate both in body and mind, and but ill able to endure the sufferings and toils of slavery. The