SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 103 



She was a stout strong woman, and turned out much better 

 than the other two. 



On the Reynestein there are an unusual number of Creole 

 children, which may be accounted for from the attention and 

 care which are paid them in their infancy. I have seen eight 

 or ten round their master's chair at breakfast or dinner, having 

 their platters filled : there are generally some pets of the 

 kind on every estate ; but this proprietor was particularly 

 fond of the children, and used to enjoy their antic nakedness. 

 Their sports agreeably recall the basso-relievos of antiquity. 

 Children born in these regions are less helpless than in Europe: 

 they display stronger symptoms of innate intelligence, and 

 learn much earlier to take care of themselves. The nakedness, 

 in which they are so long left, contributes no doubt to their 

 acquiring a freer use of the limbs, and an earlier communica- 

 tion of idea by gesture. 



A negro, in the enjoyment of social happiness, having his 

 wife and children, a garden, his goats, pigs, and feathered 

 stock to attend to, feels a degree of interest in the estate, which 

 would scarcely be expected from an emigrated African. By be- 

 ing transported to a new soil, and a more civilized country, these 

 people become more humanized, more enlightened ; their minds 

 undergo a new formation, and they are enabled to distinguish 



