388 



" whether any body was bad in the hospital ?" He 

 returned and told me, " No, massa; nobody bad 

 there 5 for Alick is better, and Nelson is dead." 

 Nelson was one of my best labourers, and had 

 come into the hospital for a glandular swelling. 

 Early this morning he was seized with a violent 

 fit of coughing, burst a large artery, and was im- 

 mediately suffocated in his blood ! This is the 

 sixth death in the course of the first three months 

 of the year, and we have not as yet a single birth 

 for a set-off. Say what one will to the negroes, 

 and treat them as well as one can, obstinate devils, 

 they will die ! 



April 9. 



I had mentioned to Mr. Shand my having found 

 a woman at Hordley, who had been crippled for 

 life, in consequence of her having been kicked in 

 the womb by one of the book-keepers. He writes 

 to me on this subject : — " I trust that conduct so 

 savage occurs rarely in any country. I can only 

 say, that in my long experience nothing of the 

 kind has ever fallen under my observation." Mr. S. 

 then ought to consider me as having been in high 

 luck. I have not passed six months in Jamaica, 

 and I have already found on one of my estates a 

 woman who had been kicked in the womb by a 

 white book-keeper, by which she was crippled her- 

 self, and on another of my estates another woman 

 who had been kicked in the womb by another white 



