exhibition and fond caresses of legitimate children, would also repress any indelicate sallies or obscene allusions from the mouths of her husband's guests; whilst the gross expressions, repeated oaths, and other lamentable effects, which must result from the now frequent Bacchanalian orgies, would be abolished, and people would only have to speak of them as a part of the history of the past, and would wonder that colonial blindness could so long have suffered such a state of things to exist; a state of things, more worthy of a colony of Pagan Rome, with her hundred brazen gods, than of Christian Britain, the devout worshipper of the triune God of truth and mercy.

This would also be productive of another good effect, as it would produce another cast or rank in colonial society; for as overseers are hardly looked upon as gentlemen, (except one here and there, who may be a small proprietor,) however respectable his friends in the mother country may be, if inclined, and allowed to marry, he would find some difficulty, in the present state of things, to procure for himself a wife; for so great is the pride of the Creole white women, (who are all ladies of course), that even a small proprietor's or petty shopkeeper's daughter would look with disdain upon an overseer, and wonder at his presumption in as

piring to the honour of her hand, in marriage. If marriage were encouraged among them, however, there would, in time, be no difficulty; as the daughter of an overseer would not object, I imagine, to a husband in the same situation of life as her father; and thus a humbler class of white females would grow up and increase, who, though they might not be so high and fond of dress, (I am sure they would not be so proud and conceited,) as the present race, would yet be more useful, as they would be good housewifes, and diffuse comfort, decency and morality, where there is so great a want of these very desirable virtues.

This unchristian way of living, this almost total absence of the sacred rite of marriage amongst the whites, has been productive of that numerous and intermediate race between whites and blacks, commonly called people of colour; they are of various shades and denominations, for, accordingly as they approach nearer to the whites, so do they gain a lighter shade, and a different name. The nearest to a Negro is a Sambo, the next a Mulatto, next a Quadroon, next a Mustee, and next a Mustiphino; after which the shade is lost, for the children of a Mustiphino, by a white man, are accounted white by law, and have higher privileges than the others.

The greater part of these are free, as most white men of property live with free women, whose children are born free; and the generality of overseers, if they have taken a Slave for a mistress, are anxious to emancipate her and their children, and even some of the tradesmen employed on plantations do it when they are able; the book-keepers and many of the tradesmen are too poor or too careless, and consequently there are many Mulatto male and female Slaves, and some Quadroons and Mustees: so that there are numerous instances of the descendants of white men, being in a state of 、 Slavery, in our own Christian colonies.

The greater part of these live also in a state of fornication; many are condemned to do so by their poverty and a total want of employment, for the poor females are brought up to no business, with very few exceptions, nor is there any demand for their services as servants. Except then their parents have left them sufficient to live upon, (which is but seldom the case,) they must prostitute their persons or starve; for such is the contempt with which the men of colour are treated, (even by the lowest of the white men,) and such is the poverty of many of them, that most of the brown women prefer being kept by a white man to being the wife of a man of her own colour and rank, though it can

scarcely be said, that they have any rank at all. Such were the disadvantages that the brown men laboured under, that till within these last few years, marriage was seldom solemnized between two people of colour; but of late, and particularly in Kingston, and two or three other parishes, where the doctrines of Christianity have been most propagated, a considerable number have been married, and live in an exemplary and respectable manner. Many more would follow these praiseworthy examples, were it not for the white man's gold and fine promises, connected with the idea in the female mind of having a fairer offspring; for such is the disgrace and disadvantage attached to colour, that the greater part of the females take a great pride in seeing their children progressively advancing to the privileged colour and cast.

One would imagine that the people of colour, being most of them immediately descended from white fathers, and brought up in the same house with them, would be treated with more consideration; but such is the pride and jealousy of the colonists against any having the least tinge in them, that however worthy, wealthy, or well educated they may be, the males are deprived of most privileges, and shut out from all trusts and offices; and the females, however fair and chaste they may be, (for many of them are as

I

fair and chaste as the white women, and particularly as to the latter, those who have been educated in Britain), they are not allowed to marry the lowest white man; at least if a white man were to marry one of them, he would be scouted and persecuted as a thief and a vagabond, and shunned as though he were a monster, or would infect them with the plague. *

A great part of the people of colour, in the towns, are constant attendants at places of worship, and many of them, both men and women, possess respectable property in houses and Slaves; for a considerable part of the houses in Kingston belong to coloured females. In different parts of the country also, many of the men, and some women, have small coffee mountains, and some few have them of a large extent. Of late years a few privileges have been granted them, such as their being permitted to give evidence in courts of justice, and to hold property to any extent; but no brown man is allowed to serve on juries, to be an overseer or book-keeper, to fill even the low office of constable or beadle, or (whatever property he may have) to vote for a member of Assembly; but although he cannot save deficiency on any white man's plantation (viz. though he cannot on any estate or plantation, fill any low office of a white man, * Note 17. See Appendix.