10 NEGKOES IN UPPER COUNTEY. [CHAP. XX. 



have more intercourse with the whites. Many of 

 them were very inquisitive to know my opinion 

 as to the manner in which marine shells, sharks 

 teeth, sea-urchins, and corals could have been buried 

 in the earth so far from the sea and at such 

 a height. The deluge had occurred to them as a 

 cause, but they were not satisfied with it, observing 

 that they procured these remains not merely near 

 the surface, but from the bottom of deep wells, and 

 that others were in flint stones. In some places, 

 when I left the railway and hired a gig to visit 

 plantations far from the main road, the proprietor 

 would tell me he was unable to answer my questions, 

 his well having been sunk ten or twelve years ago. 

 In that period the property had changed hands two or 

 three times, the former owners having settled farther 

 south or south-west ; but the estate had remained 

 under the management of the same head negro, to 

 whom I was accordingly referred. This personage, 

 conscious of his importance, would begin by enlarging, 

 with much self-complacency, on the ignorance of his 

 master, who had been too short a time in those parts 

 to understand anything I wished to know. When 

 at length he condescended to come to the point, he 

 could usually give me a clear account of the layers 

 of sand, clay, and limestone they had passed 

 through, and of fishes teeth they had found, some 

 of which had occasionally been preserved. In pro 

 portion as these coloured people fill places of trust, 

 they are involuntarily treated more as equals by 

 the whites. The prejudices which keep the races 

 asunder would rapidly diminish, were they not studi- 



