140 WEST INDIAN SOCIETY. 



" Dear Catryn, Dare much fine house, and bera much ship here ; 

 bera much fine girl too, but me lub Catryn all time. Buddy Smit 

 say dat nigger Jock come see you : me too pale wid lub : hope your 

 heart like mine. You bery dear to George. Me work for one 

 dollar by day here; no cut dollar, him make five quart, I tink, in 

 de Road. Buddy Smit bring you dis; he say me lub you too much 

 Catryn. " 



This mild creature is as unassuming in her freedom as old Cudjoe 

 is refractory and pugnacious in bondage. Cudjoe when his talents 

 for the gong-gong and waits flourished, was a lacquey, and acquired 

 in that service a passion for strong drink and disparted raiment that 

 besets him still : he had an ague last month which almost drained 

 my purse for rum, and now is striving to appropriate a worn coat 

 of mine on the plea of church-going. The old varlet figured there 

 yesterday in a new shirt, whose white collar glittered on its dusky 

 ground like " the curse" under a midshipman's ear. But then Cud- 

 joe is wont to neglect his charge, and a threat of sending hin to the 

 cowkin on his owner's estate invariably stirs all the pride of soul 

 within him. " Him beast kick and bite buddy, like one debble, 

 and den you say masha me ! masha bad beast, massa. Ki ! you 

 tink him black driver flogga me, Eh." 



Our black imp is a sturdy indigenous shoot, that thrives, neglect 

 him as you may. Does any, in avoiding one of the frequent puddles 

 our streets abound with, happen to meet with a small bottle-bellied, 

 naked rogue asleep on its margin, and souse him into it .' The mother 

 wades knee-deep down the beach, plunges her muddy brat thrice 

 under water, and then leaves that general napkin, the sun, to its effect 

 in drying him. One of these, an imp from from Messrs. Hill's 

 prolific slave-yard, who has nearly acquired the height of a tipstaff, 

 never fails on my passing him to wake up into a piteous moaning 

 for black dogs : I should not heed his request so often but that one 

 of our bucks in petting this especial young rascal, has brought him to 

 swear most awfully on being refused. His enemies have laid a simi- 

 lar charge at Last man's door, although in presence nothing can ex- 

 ceed the fellow's mildness of speech. 



Eos. 



