

§***§ 



**&i 



•■30 



LAW-SUIT. 



confirm the words of the overseer. The negro 

 who had acted improperly, had been provoked 

 so to do by the behaviour of some of the free 

 persons towards him ; but the affair would not 

 have occurred, if the overseer had done his 

 duty, or if any man of weight and importance 

 had been present. 



About this time I agreed to take a cottage 

 with a small piece of land attached to it, in the 

 neighbourhood of Conception. It was situated 

 upon a shelf of the hill, immediately below the 

 town, and opposite to the village of Camboa. 

 The break in the hill had only space sufficient to 

 admit of the cottage in breadth, so that on either 

 side it must be reached by an ascent or descent. 

 The view from it differed little from that which 

 was to be obtained from the town-hall ; save 

 that now to the left, the town and the church 

 were to be seen half concealed among the 

 banana plants and trees. All the lands in this 

 neighbourhood were subdivided among persons 

 of several casts. That which immediately joined 

 mine on two sides belonged to the vicar, and on 

 the third side it was inclosed by the channel, 

 whilst on the fourth, a numerous family of free 

 negroes possessed a small spot covered with 

 coco-trees. These latter people had been much 

 impoverished by the obstinacy of the chief of 

 the family, now deceased, in maintaining a law- 

 suit for many years, about the boundaries of his 







