382 



complain to their attorney (who happened to be at 

 my house) that the overseer obliged them to wean 

 their children too soon. Some of these children 

 were above twenty-two months old, and none 

 under eighteen ; but, in order to retain the leisure 

 and other indulgences annexed to the condition of 

 nursing-mothers, the female negroes, by their own 

 good-will, would never wean their offspring at all. 

 Of course their demands were rejected, and they 

 went home in high discontent; one of them, in- 

 deed, not scrupling to .declare aloud, and with a 

 peculiar emphasis and manner, that if the child 

 should be put into the weaning-house against her 

 will, the attorney would see it dead in less than a 

 week. 



February 4. 



The violent gale of wind which persecuted us 

 with so much pertinacity on our leaving the 

 English Channel is supposed to have been the tail 

 of a tremendous hurricane, which has utterly laid 

 waste Barbados and several other islands. No 

 less than sixteen of the ships which sailed at the 

 same time with us are reported to have perished 

 upon the passage ; so that I ought to consider it at 

 least as a negative piece of good luck to have 

 reached Jamaica myself, " no bones broke, though 

 sore peppered ; " but I am still trembling in uncer- 

 tainty for the fate of the vessel which is bringing out 

 all my Irish supplies, and the non-arrival of which 

 would be a misfortune to me of serious magnitude. 



