368 



At the negro yards It Is common for the 

 flaves to plant fruits and vegetables, and to 

 raife ftock. Some of them keep a pig, fome 

 a goat, fome Guinea fowls, ducks, chickens, 

 pigeons, or the like ; and at one of the huts 

 of Spendlove, we faw a pig, a goat, a young 

 kid, fome pigeons, and fome chickens, all 

 the property of an individual flave. — This is 

 mere indulgence, but it gratifies and amufes 

 the negroes, and becomes, in various ways, 

 highly ufeful. The little garden, and their 

 ftock, not only afford them occupation and 

 amufement for their leifure moments, but 

 create a degree of intereft in the fpot, and ex- 

 cite feelings of attachment toward the mafter, 

 who both grants and proteds the indulgence. 

 The negro-yard, viewed from a fhort diftance, 

 forms an objedt of highly interefting and 

 pi£l:urefque fcenery ; — it comprizes all the 

 little huts, intermixed with, and more or lefs 

 concealed by the variety of flirubs and fruit 

 trees, which kindly lend their fliade ; likewife 

 the many fmall patches of garden ground 

 around them, and the different fpecies of 

 ftock, fome appearing in pens, fome tied by 

 the leg, or the neck, and fome running at 

 large ^ and if it be evening, you have alfo the 



