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acted their part so well, that they almost made me 

 act mine to perfection, and fall to blubbering. I 

 told them, that I certainly should go to Kingston 

 on Thursday ; but if I had good accounts of them 

 during my absence, I should return in a few days; — 

 if, on the contrary, the idle negroes continued to 

 refuse to work without compulsion, then, in justice 

 to the good ones (who last week were obliged 

 to do more than their share), those punishments, 

 which I had stopped, must be resumed ; — but that, 

 as Cornwall would be unsupportable to me, if I 

 could not live there without hearing the crack of 

 the abominable cart-whip all day long, I would 

 not return to it, but ship myself off for England, 

 and never visit them or Jamaica any more. And 

 then I talked very sternly and positively about 

 " punishments " and " making bad negroes do 

 their work properly," and every third word was 

 the cart-whip, till I almost fancied myself the 

 princess in the " Fairy Tale," who never opened 

 her mouth, but out came two toads and three 

 couple of serpents. However, to sweeten my ora- 

 tion a little at the end, I told them, that, " having 

 enquired closely into the characters of the present 

 book-keepers, I had found no charge against any 

 of them except one, who was accused of having 

 occasionally struck a negro, of using bad language 

 to them, and of being a hasty passionate man, 

 though in other respects very serviceable to the 

 estate. But although these faults were but trifling, 



