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ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS ON WEST INDIA 

 SOCIETY, &c., No. II. 



I AM again on a sugar estate, where our manager is one of those 

 erratic brethren whose early adventures would much amuse you. 

 He has led rather a stirring life lately. 



First came the hurricane, when himself, his wife, and her sister, 

 two children and a slave-domestic were driven to seek refuge in an 

 oven ! — But it was their forlorn hope, and the devastation visible all 

 around next morning made them esteem the inconvenience of their 

 quarters trifling enough. Lately he has sustained a siege from the 

 estate negroes, arising out of that peace maker among us — the law. 

 What is termed " forcible entry " had been made on the plantation ; 

 and the gangs took such umbrage at my host's resisting this change 

 of masters for them, that they began battering his house with all 

 sorts of missiles. These poor souls are quickly warped to the inter- 

 ests of whoever will practise on them, and can as readily retract 

 their favor. The estate is now restored, and our manager reinstated 

 with them ; the law costs on both sides of this notable affair having 

 been taxed on the property. 



The crop season closes soon, and this estate is busy preparing its 

 last shipments. My sketch of a sugar mill, and the animated scene 

 it affords when at work, has been sent you. Indeed whatever toil 

 the cultivation of cane patches imposes on our slaves, these wear no 

 melancholy guise now. The very kine, the slow teams of a climate 

 disposing all under its influence to languor, participate in the life of 

 the occasion. The poor, solemn jades whisk their tails about in a 

 manner that certainly expresses complacency, if nothing more. 

 •Then Abdallah, who stalks along by them booted in green ooze 

 from the pen, flourishes his long goad over their heads with unwont- 

 ed exultation : I quite grieve that so merry a fellow should appear 

 in the piteously ragged plight he exhibits. Few of the habiliments 

 here, however, would improve on close scrutiny; although this 

 point a negro will reck little of, while the tropic sun blazes over him 

 as he does. But the sly wench who passed just now — her glance 

 half averted, like that Galatea might retire with, — why has not she 

 looked to the breaches in Abdallah's raiment ? Still negro cloath- 

 ing should always be light. Those employed at the sugar house 

 have a scorching task, that of removing the scum constantly rising 

 in the coppers ; at the rum still they have cooler, though, I believe, 

 far less healthy occupation ; indeed the sleek skin of a sugar boiler 

 is notable here. They thrive far better than the swine one notices 



