276 TlMEHRI. 
sugar every morning for breakfast, and at noon the 
same quantity of hasty pudding thickened with salt fish, 
and these allowances were continued between two or 
three months. The lists on these occasions were called 
over by myself or one of my sons every day, and our 
English servant, Ann, measured it out, otherwise great 
partiality would have been shewn to particular favourites, 
and the same person might have come a dozen times, a 
deceit which they all repeatedly attempted to practise, 
by washing out their tins and calabashes and coming 
under a feigned name, though when discovered they 
were sure to receive a good rap with my stick as a pun- 
ishment. Notwithstanding all the daily care and atten- 
tion to their wants I repeatedly heard them exclaim, 
grumbling as I passed them in the fields, " Massa, me 
no like hasty pudding and salt fish, me want dumplings 
and me want salt pork/'' some wanting one thing and 
some another. '■' Oh certainly," I said, in a tone of 
bitter irony, " and, perhaps, you would have no objection 
to roast beet, and plum pudding, and mutton chops, and 
beef steaks" ? " Yes Massa, yes Massa, me want dat 
too." At the very time we were daily administering to 
their wants and comforts, they were committing depre- 
dations upon our canes, for at this early season when 
they were scarcely ripe, they would seize upon a cane 
from six to eight feet in length, snap it in two, to taste 
the middle joint, and if not exaclly to their liking they 
threw it away and broke several more until they met 
with one more suited to their taste, thus wantonly 
wasting three or four times as many as they eat. We 
observed the scattered fragments, and kept a vigilant 
look-out, but they still frequently eluded us in the 
