4-30 JAMAICA, 



the vulgar herd 15 much more affefted by thofe things which ftrike 

 the eye, than what are dire6led to the heart. Negroes are the 

 apteft fubjeds in the univerfe to be kept in iubordination and dif- 

 ciphne by the awful ceremonies, the indulgencies, injunftions, 

 mummery, and legerdemain, of the Romifh church and its mi- 

 iiirters. Hence it is, that, in the French fettlements, we find 

 •them as much, if not more, reftrained by the fnperftitions of that 

 communion, than by the rigour of edifts and codes. I have feeu 

 many of them provided with ftore of crolles, relicks, and coii- 

 fecrated annulets ; to which they paid the moft fmcere veneration, 

 though wholly uninformed of any thing more than the efficacy 

 of thefe baubles, the neceflity of adoring the Blefled Virgin and a 

 few chofen faints, the power of their prieft to abfolve fins, and the 

 damnable ftate of all heretics. They had alfo acquired a Pater 

 NoJJer, a few Ave Maria s, and the right method of croiling them- 

 ielves, and counting their beads, morning and evening. 



I doubt not but that, in the French churches belonging to their 

 iflands, they have images of black faints, like the Portuguefe at Ma- 

 deira, for the particular devotion of thefe poor wretches. Thefe 

 arts our eflablifhed church difdains and abhors, it being founded 

 ^n the principles of reafon, and therefore adapted only to rational 

 niinds ; which, by their own natural ftrength, are capable to judge 

 of its rectitude, and embrace it on account of its purity and re- 

 finement from that very grofsnefs which pleafes, while it enflaves, 

 other minds, that are clouded with ignorance. Next to the Romiih 

 forms, perhaps thofe fyftems, which are fet off" with abundance 

 of enthufiaftic rant and gefticulation, would operate moft power- 

 fully on the Negroes; fuch as Quakerifm, Methodifm, and the 

 Moravian rites. The Romifli pra6lices we find at leaft beneficial 

 in the French iflands, co-operating with ftate-policy, and contri- 

 buting ftrongly to maintain their flaves in peaceable fubjedion. lu 

 our colonies, w« are in want of fo potent a co-adjutor to our mu- 

 nicipal laws; and, from this caufe, one (hould think, are more li- 

 able to be difturbed by iufurredions, than the French iflands ; to 

 which end alfo another local difference would feem much to con- 

 duce. The Negroes in the foreign colonies are habituated to the 

 iight of a defpotic frame of government, which controuls their 



raafters 



