374 



resist any longer; so I hinted that if the trustee 

 should ask it again as a favour to himself, I might 

 perhaps relent ; and the proper application being 

 thus made, John Lewis was allowed to quit the 

 field, but with a positive injunction against his 

 ever being employed again in any office of autho- 

 rity over the negroes. I found baptism in high 

 vogue upon Hordley, but I am sorry to say, that 

 I could not discover much effect produced upon 

 their minds by having been made Christians, except 

 in one particular : whenever one of them told me a 

 monstrous lie (and they told me whole dozens), he 

 never failed to conclude his story by saying — 

 " And now, massa, you know, I've been chris- 

 tened ; and if you do not believe what I say, I'm 

 ready to buss the book to the truth of it." The 

 whole advantages to be derived by negroes from 

 becoming Christians, seemed to consist with them 

 in two points ; being a superior species of magic 

 itself, it preserved them from black Obeah ; and 

 by enabling them to take an oath upon the Bible 

 to the truth of any lie which it might suit them 

 to tell, they believed that it would give them the 

 power of humbugging the white people with per- 

 fect ease and convenience. They had observed the 

 importance attached by the whites to such an attest- 

 ation, and the conviction which it always appeared 

 to carry with it ; as to the crime or penalty of per- 

 jury, of that they were totally ignorant, or at least 

 indifferent ; therefore they were perfectly ready to 



