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that the negroes of that parish had taken it into 

 their heads that The Regent and Wilberforce had 

 actually determined upon setting them all at liberty 

 at once on the first day of the present year, but 

 that the interference of the island had defeated 

 the plan. Their discontent was most carefully 

 and artfully fomented by some brown Methodists, 

 who held secret and nightly meetings on the dif- 

 ferent estates, and did their best to mislead and 

 bewilder these poor creatures with their fantastic 

 and absurd preaching. These fellows harp upon 

 sin, and the devil, and hell-fire incessantly, and 

 describe the Almighty and the Saviour as beings 

 so terrible, that many of their proselytes cannot 

 hear the name of Christ without shuddering. One 

 poor negro, on one of my own estates, told the 

 overseer that he knew himself to be so great a 

 sinner that nothing could save him from the devil's 

 clutches, even for a few hours, except singing 

 hymns ; and he kept singing so incessantly day 

 and night, that at length terror and want of sleep 

 turned his brain, and the wretch died raving mad. 



February 12. 



A Sir Charles Price, who had an estate in this 

 island infested by rats, imported, with much trou- 

 ble, a very large and strong species for the purpose 

 of extirpating the others. The new-comers an- 

 swered his purpose to a miracle ; they attacked the 

 native rats with such spirit, that in a short time 



