that dear man Mr. Richard Nesbitt concluded the day with us, and promised to make us a visit at St. Kitt's, which he accordingly performed. The next morning we returned to St. Christopher's, and our absent brethren soon after arriving, we began our Conference on Wednesday the fifteenth of December. It continued for two days and part of a third, and was conducted and concluded in great peace.

SECTION III.

At Sea, near Cape Florida, Jan. 4, 1791.

ON the 18th of December I sailed for the island of St. Vincent, as I could hear of no vessel bound for Jamaica, in any island leeward. The time would not allow me to visit any of the Virgin-Islands. I was obliged to overlook even Tortola itself, though our testimony for the Lord Jesus has been more blessed for the time in that island than in any other. A remarkable circumstance which lately happened in this place deserves to be noticed. Mrs. Lilly, a Quaker-Lady, in whose house at Santa Cruz I preached about two years ago, came over to Tortola on a visit. At that time the Missionaries were under a warm persecution. And Mrs. Lilly, who is well known and respected in the island, went from house to house among the principal inhabitants of Roadtown, testifying against their conduct, and declaring her full persuasion that the Missionaries were men of God. "But are not you a Quaker, Mrs. Lilly," said several of them? "I am" said she, "both a Quaker and a Methodist ; and I tell you, you are injuring both yourselves and your community by your opposition to those holy men." Her testimony had a very good effect on many.

I spent my Christmas very comfortably and profitably to myself, and I trust to others in that ro

mantic

mantic island, St. Vincent's. On Monday the 27th, I went with Mr. Werrill on board the ship Jamaica bound for Montego-Bay, the third town in the island of Jamaica. Our company were Captain Sherry and his agreeable wife, (who is my countrywoman, from Wales) and three other agreeable ladies. The ship was lately built in Bristol, is very large, and has the best accommodations of any ship I ever sailed in. After a very agreeable passage we landed at Montego-Bay on the 5th of January.

This town probably contains about five thousand inhabitants and the trees and plantations are so interspersed, as to give it the most rural appearance of any town, I think, I ever saw. But we were without a friend or single acquaintance: and to those who are endued with the tenderest social feelings, this is no small trial: though I do know in the general, to the glory of the grace of God be it acknowledged, that the Lord is a sufficient consolation in every place. I had however a strong persuasion that there was work for us to do in this town: we therefore went to a lodging-house, where we were very kindly treated. A recommendatory letter which I brought with me from a friend in Cork, to a principal gentleman in the neighbourhood, procured for us an elegant dinner,,but no advice or help as to our main design. I walked about the streets, peeping and inquiring, but could hear of no place in which I could preach; and to preach out of doors is almost impracticable in this burning clime: besides, the negroes in general are not able to attend till the evening, when the heavy dews would render it in a high degree imprudent and dangerous to preach abroad. In this dilemma we should have set off as soon as possible for Kingston, if I could have got our boxes out of the ship, and sent off my heaviest things to Charleston before. me; but this we could not bring to bear for three or four days.

While we were dining on the followning day at an ordinary, I simply told the company of the bu

siness on which I was come, and complained of my hard lot in being prevented of the opportunity of preaching to the inhabitants of the town for want of a place. One of them observed that the large Assembly-room which was frequently used as a Play-house, and was formerly the Church where divine service was performed on Sundays, would be very commodious. Immediately after dinner we waited on the proprietor of the Assembly-room, whose name is Brown, a private gentleman, who has a large family and small property, but whom I shall ever remember with gratitude and esteem. He very generously gave me the use of the room, which has two small galleries, and will contain about five or six hundred people, gratis, and also lighted it at his own expense. The first evening I had most of the principal people of the town to hear me; who attended invariably during the four evenings I preached there: but hardly any of the coloured people attended that evening, the man whom I sent round the town calling only at the houses of the whites. But every evening afterwards the blacks attended, and their numbers increased beyond expectation. Each evening the congregation in general heard with deep attention. A few rakes only clapped their hands, and cried out,

"encore,

encore," the first and second evenings after I had concluded; but were from that time prevented by the interference of two or three gentlemen. On the Sunday morning we went to Church: but a little rain falling, the congregation consisted only of half a dozen or thereabouts at the exact time of beginning, on which the Minister walked out if he had condescended to have waited ten minutes longer, we should have been I believe, about twen ty. The Sunday before also there had been no service. In some of the parishes of this island there is no Church, nor any divine service performed, except the burial of the dead, and christenings, and weddings in private houses, though the livings are very lucrative. But I will write no more on this

subject,

subject, lest I should grow indignant. The Church in this town is small, but peculiarly elegant. It has been newly built at the expense of about twelve thousand pounds sterling.

In the evening I had about five hundred hearers. After as faithful a sermon as I was able to give them on the necessity of the new-birth, I informed them that Mr. Hammet, I believed, would soon visit them, whom I strongly recommended; nor did they seem displeased. Two or three poor blacks embraced an opportunity of squeezing my hand, and dropt some words which convinced me they had been much affected with what they had heard.

Having now settled all matters in respect to my boxes; and opened, I trust, a little door for the gospel at Montego-Bay, I set off with Mr. Werrill for Kingston on the 10th of January. Finding that we could not hire horses for this journey under 187. sterling or thereabouts, I purchased two poor, weak horses to carry us and our saddle-bags. It is so extraordinary, so perfectly new in this country for any one to ride with saddle-bags, that we were stared at, while we jogged along on our poor little creatures, as two phenomena in nature. O how sweet it is to drink of the cup of Christ! The distance from Montego Bay to Kingston is one hundred and twenty-six miles, which is a very long journey in that burning climate, especially as the roads were very deep in the plains, through the vast quantity of rain which had lately fallen; and we had two mountains to cross.

In the course of the first day we met two negroes, one of whom was crying for the loss of his hat, which a sailor had stolen from him a little before. I proposed to Mr. Werrill to return and overtake the sailor, which we accordingly did. He had a companion with him: and both of them were very strong, and might soon have conquered us and our pitiful horses; but Providence restrained them, though I spoke many keen things to the thief. At last a gentleman came up in his carriage, to whom

I applied for help; but he drove away unconcerned, I then was obliged to keep the sailors at bay, till two gentlemen came up on horseback, with whose assistance I recovered the hat to the great joy of the poor sufferer and his black companion: but they wist not how much I had their spiritual interests at heart. We lay the first night in a little town called Martha-Bray. A company adjoining the room in which we sat, were uncommonly rude. One of them sung as obscene and blasphemous a song as language, perhaps, could afford. I imagine it was full as bad as the Essay on Woman. O what a wicked country is this!

The next day we rode through the parish of St. Anne, which exhibits a delightful prospect. Though not so picturesque as some of the prospects in St. Vincent's, it was incomparably more noble. The high mountains on the right, the placid ocean on the left, and the fine plain betwixt them, crowded with rich, green plantations of sugar-canes, yielded a grandeur of appearance superior to any thing I had before seen in this Archipelago. The plain is more like the vale of Glamorgan, in Wales, than any other place I can recollect.

At the tavern where we dined, we met with a poor negro-woman who was brought here from South Carolina, and evidently possessed the fear of God. She seemed to seek for opportunities to wait upon us, and drank in every word-concerning religion with the utmost greediness.

We began to ascend the mountains on the 12th, upon the top of one of them we found an abundance of orange-trees, of the species which we call Seville. They looked exceedingly beautiful, and their bene. ficent Creator seemed to say to us in the trees, "Come, ye weary travellers, and quench your thirst."

About four in the afternoon, we arrived at the foot of a great mountain called by no other name than Mount-Diable, of which we had received from various persons most dreadful accounts. The land

lord