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women ; and having been displaced by my former 

 trustee from being principal governor, in revenge 

 he put poison into his water jar. Luckily he was 

 observed by one of the house servants, who im- 

 peached him, and prevented the intended mischief. 

 For this offence he ought to have been given up to 

 justice ; but being brother of the trustee's mistress 

 she found means to get him off, after undergoing a 

 long confinement in the stocks. I found him, on 

 my arrival, living in a state of utter excommunica- 

 tion ; I tried what reasoning with him could effect, 

 reconciled him to his companions, treated him with 

 marked kindness, and he promised solemnly to 

 behave well during my absence. However, instead 

 of attributing my lenity to a wish to reform him, 

 his pride and confidence in his own talents and 

 powers of deception made him attribute the in- 

 dulgence shown him to his having obtained an 

 influence over my mind. This he determined to 

 employ to his own purposes upon my return ; so 

 he set about forming a conspiracy against Sully, 

 the present chief governor, and boasted on various 

 estates in the neighbourhood that on my arrival 

 he would take care to get Sully broke, and himself 

 substituted in his place. In the mean while he 

 quarrelled and fought to the right and to the left ; 

 and on my arrival I found the whole estate in an 

 uproar about Adam. No less than three charges of 

 assault, with intent to kill, were preferred against 

 him. In a fit of jealousy he had endeavoured to 



