386 



suicide : so that it was a proceeding which was 

 seldom ventured upon without urgent necessity. 

 It was now too late to take it, at all events ; the 

 man confessed, indeed, that he had quitted his 

 work, and gone down to the negro-village on the 

 day of the robbery, which rendered his guilt highly 

 probable, but he could be brought to confess no 

 more ; and as to his saying that he thought he 

 could find the money by Sunday, he explained 

 that into an intention of " going to consult a brown 

 woman at the bay, who was a fortune-teller, and 

 who when any thing was stolen, could always 

 point out the thief by cutting the cards." This 

 was all that we could extract from him, and we 

 w T ere obliged to dismiss him. However, the fright 

 of his examination was not without good conse- 

 quences : one of the stolen purses had belonged 

 to a sister of Jug-Betty's, not long deceased ; and 

 on her return home, this purse (with its contents 

 untouched) was found lying on the sister's grave 

 in her garden. Perhaps, the thief had taken it 

 without knowing the owner ; and on finding that 

 it had belonged to a dead person, he had surren- 

 dered it through apprehension of being haunted 

 by her duppy. 



April 5. (Sunday.) 



Clearing their grounds by fire is a very expedi- 

 tious proceeding, consequently in much practice 

 among the negroes 5 but in this tindery country 



