THE MONKEY FAMILY. 



39 



nose depressed; his lips protuberant, — and his 

 ears as small as those of a genuine coal-black son 

 of Africa. He stood apparently about five feet 

 nine inches in height, with a finely expanded chest, 

 and with a back as straight as an arrow. But, 

 he was deficient in the calves of his legs, which 

 latter were rather inclined to be, what we would 

 term bandy ; whilst you could not help remarking 

 the protrusion of his heels, so noted in the negro. 

 Both his father and his mother were healthy jet 

 black negroes ; so that Bochra Jem could not, 

 by any chance be a mulatto, or of any of those 

 casts which are removed from the breed of half 

 black and half white, constituting a true mulatto. 

 I should say, that he was twenty years old or there- 

 abouts : — but I did not ask his age. Probably, 

 he was the only white negro ever seen in Demerara. 



On taking leave of him, I put a dollar into 

 his hand, for the trouble I had caused him. His 

 dark eye brightened up, whilst he smiled content- 

 edly through a set of white teeth ; and as I went 

 out of the room, he said " God bless you, massa." 



A few years after this, on my return from 

 England, to the wilds of Guiana, I stopped for 

 a couple of days in Stabroek, and went to the 

 house where Jem resided. But, death had claimed 

 him. He had died, they told me, " somewhat 

 suddenly, about nine months ago." 



