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certainly, as far as I can as yet judge, if I were 

 now standing on the banks of Virgil's Lethe, with a 

 goblet of the waters of oblivion in my hand, and 

 asked whether I chose to enter life anew as an 

 English labourer or a Jamaica negro, I should have 

 no hesitation in preferring the latter. For myself, 

 it appears to me almost worth surrendering the lux- 

 uries and pleasures of Great Britain, for the single 

 pleasure of being surrounded with beings who are 

 always laughing and singing, and who seem to per- 

 form their work with so much nonchalance , taking 

 up their baskets as if it were perfectly optional whe- 

 ther they took them up or left them there ; saun- 

 tering along with their hands dangling ; stopping 

 to chat with every one they meet ; or if they meet 

 no one, standing still to look round, and examine 

 whether there is nothing to be seen that can 

 amuse them, so that I can hardly persuade myself 

 that it is really work that they are about. The 

 negro might well say, on his arrival in England 

 - — " Massa, in England every thing work ! " for 

 here nobody appears to work at all. 



I am told that there is one part of their business 

 very laborious, the digging holes for receiving the 

 cane-plants, and which I have not as yet seen ; but 

 this does not occupy above a month (I believe) at 

 the utmost, at two periods of the year ; and on 

 my estate this service is chiefly performed by extra 

 negroes, hired for the purpose ; which, although 

 equally hard on the hired negroes (called a jobbing 



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