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that I shall protect them against all punishment, 

 and have made regularly ten hogsheads of sugar a 

 week less than they did before my coming upon 

 the estate. This is the more provoking, as, by 

 delaying the conclusion of the crop, the latter part 

 of it may be driven into the rainy season, and 

 then the labour is infinitely more severe both for 

 the slaves and the cattle, and more detrimental to 

 their health. 



The minister of Savannah la Mar has shown 

 me a plan for the religious instruction of the 

 negroes, which was sent to him by the ecclesi- 

 astical commissaries at Kingston. It consisted 

 but of two points : against the first (which recom- 

 mended the slaves being ordered to go to church 

 on a Sunday) I positively declared myself. Sun- 

 day is now the absolute property of the negroes 

 for their relaxation, as Saturday is for the cul- 

 tivation of their grounds ; and I will not suffer a 

 single hour of it to be taken from them for any 

 purpose whatever. If my slaves choose to go to 

 church on Sundays, so much the better ; but not 

 one of them shall be ordered to do one earthly 

 thing on Sundays, but that which he chooses him- 

 self. The second article recommended occasional 

 pastoral visits of the minister to the different 

 estates; and in this respect I promised to give 

 him every facility — although I greatly doubt any 

 good effect being produced by a few short visits, 

 at considerable intervals, on the minds of ignorant 



