J UMB Y-DA NCES. 1 45 



1 took up a light cutlass, which I always carried about with 

 me, and stood on the defensive. 



" I had, however, no occasion to use the weapon ; for, in 

 running towards me, Martin's foot slipjoed in some molasses 

 which had been spilt on the ground, and he fell heavily to 

 the floor, striking; his head a<2ainst the corner of one of the 

 larsje wooden suf^ar-coolers. 



" Tlie blow stunned him for the time, and before he re- 

 covered I had left the boiling-house. 



"The next day, to my surprise, I found him excessively 

 civil, and almost obsequious : but I noticed that he had taken 

 a violent dislike to our head overseer, whom I shall call Jean 

 Marie, and whom he seemed to suspect as the person who 

 had betrayed him to me when stealing the sugar. 



"Things went on pretty quietly for some weeks, till the 

 crop was nearly over. 



" One afternoon Jean Marie told me there was to be a 

 Jumby-dance amongst the Africans on the estate that 

 very night. Now Jumby-dances were even the a becoming 

 less frequent, and I was extremely anxious to see one ; and 

 after a good deal of difficulty, I succeeded in persuading 

 Jean ]\rarie to accompany me to the hut wherein it was 

 to be held. 



" It was a miserable kind of an ajoupa near the river-side ; 

 and we had some difficulty in making our way to it through 



VOL. II. L 



