343 



and the toast of " Health to the new hospital, and 

 shame to the old lazy house ! " was drunk by the 

 trustee, the doctoresses, the governors, &c, and 

 received by the whole congregation of negroes 

 with loud cheering ; after which, every man re- 

 ceived a blue jacket lined with flannel, every 

 woman a flaming red stuff petticoat, and every 

 child a frock of white cotton. They then fell to 

 dancing and singing, and drinking rum and sugar, 

 which they kept up till a much later hour than 

 would be at all approved of by the bench of 

 bishops ; for it is now Sunday morning, and they 

 are still dancing and singing louder than ever. 



February 15. (Sunday.) 



To-day divine service was performed at Savanna 

 la Mar for the first time these Ave weeks. The 

 rector has been indisposed lately with the lumbago: 

 he has no curate ; and thus during five whole 

 weeks there was a total cessation of public worship. 

 I had told several of my female acquaintance that 

 it was long since they had been to church ; that I 

 was afraid of their forgetting <c all about and about 

 it," and that if there should be no service for a 

 week longer I should think it my duty to come 

 and hear them say their Catechism myself. Luck- 

 ily the rector recovered, and saved me the trouble 

 of hearing them ; but the long privation of public 

 prayer did not seem to have created any very great 

 demand for the article, as I have seldom witnessed 



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