from Littleborough by sea, and fifty by land," replied the yachts

man.

"Oh, good gracious!" cried the lady, with much alarm, "what a fright my dear mamma will be in! to-night?" But is it not possible to get home

"Impossible," replied Charley, "or I should not have come here. Do not be frightened; compose yourself: you are quite safe and out of danger now; but a few hours ago, our position at sea was one of extreme peril; but, I thank God, we are all right once more. the greatest possible efforts to fetch the harbour; but when I saw I made those efforts were attended with great danger-so heavy was the sea, and so threatening the gale-we laid-to for two hours, and were at last obliged to abandon our hopes, and scud for this harbour, as the nearest on the coast. We will take here to an inn, where you shall be attended to; and I hope you you and your brother ashore make yourselves as comfortable as you can under these misfortunes. will Such an event as this I never anticipated at this season of the year. I am sorry it has occurred, although it was from circumstances over which I had no control."

"I am sure, Mr. Scupper, you have done all for the best; and I feel much indebted to you for your kind consideration. been a most desperate gale; for I several times thought the yacht It must have was breaking to pieces, and we were sinking. Did not you, Tom?"

"Oh law, yes!" replied Tom. "It serves you right, you little seagoing devil. You have had enough of it now, I'll be bound. At any rate, I have. Egad, I'm more dead than alive!"

"I am very sorry, Tom," said his sister; "but this is an unavoidable misfortune."

66

Ah, sorry, indeed! It's of no use being sorry about it now. Here we are, fifty miles from home; and a dark night coming on, Your mother will be in a sad fright, I'm afraid."

"Well, as to that, Tom," said the yachtsman, "I am in hopes she will have heard of our running for the harbour. There were two large vessels passed us as we were scudding; and I believe they were both bound for our harbour, and will be able to satisfy your friends as to our safety."

Charley having thus endeavoured to console the feelings of his guests, the yacht was brought to a safe anchorage; and her bruised and weather-beaten crew having furled the sails, hailed a boat, and conducted their gallant master and his friends ashore, proceeded to appease their appetites with beef, beer, and biscuit, having taken nothing throughout the gale.

SKETCHES OF LIFE AND CHARACTER IN THE WEST INDIES.

COMMUNICATED TO, AND EDITED BY, LORD WILLIAM LENNOX.

CHAPTER XIII.

My stay in Kingston was too short to enable me to visit the schools, but I find a correct account of them in the Anti-Slavery Examiner, published in 1838 in New York. Two deputies from the American Anti-slavery Society visited Jamaica in 1837, and give the following account of them :

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"We visited the Wolmer free school, the largest and oldest school in the island: the whole number of scholars is five hundred. It is under the charge of Mr. Reid, a venerable Scotchman of scholarship and piety. All colours are mingled in it promiscuously. We saw the infant school department examined by Mr. R.; there were nearly one hundred and fifty children of every hue; from the jettest black, to the fairest white; they were thoroughly intermingled, and the ready answers ran along the ranks from black to white, from white to brown, from brown to pale, with undistinguished vivacity and accuracy. We were afterwards conducted into the higher department, where lads and misses, from nine to fifteen, were instructed in the various branches of academic education. A class of lads, mostly coloured, were examined in arithmetic they wrought several sums in pounds, shillings, and pence currency, with wonderful celerity. Among other things which we witnessed in that school we shall not soon forget, having seen a curly-headed negro lad of twelve, examining a class of white young ladies in scientific history.

"Some written statements and statistical tables were furnished us by Mr. Reid, which we subjoin :

'Kingston, May 13, 1837.

'Dear Sir, I delayed answering your queries in hopes of being able to give you an accurate list of the number of schools in Kingston and pupils under tuition, but have not been able completely to accomplish my intention. I shall now answer your queries in the order you proposed them. 1st. I have been teaching thirtyeight years in Kingston. 2nd. I have been the master of Wolmer free school twenty-three years. 3rd. There are now four hundred and thirty coloured children in the school. 4th. Considerable opposition was made to their entrance the first year, but none afterwards. 5th. They are more regular in their attendance than the white children, and they learn better. 6th. They are more easily governed. 7th. There are fifty children of apprentices. 8th. The parents generally desire to have them educated. 9th. The children generally leave the school between twelve and fourteen. 10th. The boys generally become clerks in counting houses or attorneys' offices, some become planters, others mechanics; the girls seamstresses, mantuamakers, and a considerable portion tutoresses in Kingston and throughout Jamaica as situations offer. (Signed) 'D. REID.'

"The following table will show the average number of the respective classes, white and coloured, who have attended Wolmer's free school in each year, from 1814 to the present time :

"With regard to the comparative intellect of white and coloured children, Mr. Reid gives the following valuable statement:

1

"For the last thirty-eight years I have been employed in this city in the tuition of children of all classes and colours, and have no hesitation in saying that the children of colour are equal both in conduct and ability to the white. They have always carried off more than their proportion of prizes, and at one examination, out of seventy prizes awarded, sixty-four were obtained by children of colour.""

They also visited the Union school, which has been established for some years in Kingston. All the children connected with it, about one hundred and fifty, are, with two exceptions, black or coloured. The school is conducted generally on the Lancasterian system. They examined several of the boys in arithmetic. They put a variety of questions to them to be worked out on the slate, and the reasons of the process to be explained as they went on, all which they executed with great expertness. There was a jet-black boy whom they selected for a special trial. They commenced with the Simple Rules, and went through them one by one, together with the Compound Rules and Reduction, to Practice, propounding questions and examples in each of them, which were entirely new to him; and to all of them he gave prompt and correct replies. He was only thirteen years old; and they aver that they never saw a boy of that age in common schools that exhibited a fuller and clearer knowledge of the science of numbers. In general their opinion of the school was similar to that already expressed concerning the others. It is supported by the children, aided by six hundred dollars granted by

the Assembly. In connection with the subject there is one fact of much interest. However strong and exclusive was the prejudice of colour a few years since in the schools of Jamaica, in 1837 there were not more than two or three places of education, and those private ones, from which coloured children were excluded, and amongst the numerous schools in Kingston there is not one of this kind.

I insert a table of the number of schools alluded to in Mr. Reid's foregoing communication; it affords a view of the increase of schools and scholars since the abolition of slavery :

The island prisons were not so well regulated as they might have been, and in some of them great abuses existed. They were rather schools for the propagation of crime, than asylums in which criminals might require habits of industry and virtue. The prisoners were often employed in gangs on public works, and thus exposed to public view, which hardened them in crime, and constant exposure to public observation rendered them callous to public opinion. Many of the treadmills, too, were very defective, and I question whether it is a fitting punishment in a climate that affects different constitutions in so many different ways. It is very difficult to apportion the work to the physical powers of the individual, and I will quote the observations of the same gentlemen on that subject as explanatory of my view of the case:

"We visited the House of Correction for the parish of St. Andrew's. The superintendent received us with the iron-hearted courtesy of a Newgate turnkey. Our company was evidently unwelcome; but as the friend who accompanied us was a man in authority, he was constrained to admit us. The first sound that greeted us was a piercing outcry from the treadmill. On going to it, we saw a youth about eighteen hanging

in the air by a strap bound to his wrist, and dangling against the wheel in such a manner that every revolution of it scraped the body from the breast to the ankles. He had fallen off from weakness and fatigue, and was struggling and crying in the greatest distress; while the strap, which extended to a pole, above and stretched his arm high above his head, held him fast. The superintendent, in a harsh voice, ordered him to be lifted up, and his feet again placed on the wheel; but before he had taken five steps, he again fell off and was suspended as before. At the same instant a woman also fell off; and, without a sigh or the motion of a muscle, for she was too much extenuated for either, but with a shocking wildness of the eye, hung by her half-dislocated arms against the wheel. As the allotted time (fifteen minutes) had expired, the persons on the wheel were released and permitted to rest. The boy could hardly stand on the ground. He had a large ulcer on one of his legs, which was much swollen and inflamed, and his legs and body were greatly bruised and peeled by the revolving of the wheel. The gentleman who was with us reproved the superintendent severely for his conduct, and told him to remove the boy from the treadmill gang, and see that proper care was taken of him. The poor woman who fell off seemed completely exhausted: she tottered to the wall near by, and took up a little babe which we had not observed before. It appeared not to be above two or three months old, and the little thing stretched out its arms and welcomed its mother. On enquiry, we ascertained that this woman's offence was absence from the field an hour after the required time (six o'clock) in the morning. Besides the infant with her she had two or three other children; whether the care of them was any excuse for her, we leave all mothers to judge. There were two other women on the treadmill: one was sentenced there for stealing cane from her master's field; and the other, we believe, for running away.

"The superintendent next took us to the solitary cells: they were dirty, and badly ventilated, and unfit to keep beasts in. On opening the doors, such a stench rushed forth that we could not remain. There was a poor woman in one of them, who appeared, as the light of day and the fresh air burst in upon her, like a despairing maniac. We went through the other buildings, all of which were old and dirty; nay, worse, filthy in the extreme. The whole establishment was a disgrace to the island. The prisoners were poorly clad, and had the appearance of harsh usage. Our suspicions of ill treatment were strengthened by noticing a large whip in the treadmill, and sundry iron collars and handcuffs hanging about in the several rooms through which we passed. The number of inmates in this house, at our visit, was forty-eight, eighteen of whom were females. Twenty of these were at the treadmill and in solitary confinement; the remainder were working on the public road at a little distance, many of them in irons, iron collars about their necks, and chains passing between, connecting them together, two and two."

The above picture may be highly drawn, but it is not the less true that great abuses did exist in the island prisons: since then a strict investigation has taken place, their interior economy has been improved, and I believe that the treadmill has been abolished. Crime has not increased; and it is to be hoped that the religious education the negroes have received and are receiving, will ultimately tend to diminish the number of criminals, and render severe punishments less necessary.