To convey to the reader some idea of the manner in which the great crisis passed, we give the substance of several accounts which were related to us in different parts of the island, by those who witnessed them.

The Wesleyans kept “watch-night” in all their chapels on the night of the 31st July.  One of the Wesleyan missionaries gave us an account of the watch meeting at the chapel in St. John’s.  The spacious house was filled with the candidates for liberty.  All was animation and eagerness.  A mighty chorus of voices swelled the song of expectation and joy, and as they united in prayer, the voice of the leader was drowned in the universal acclamations of thanksgiving and praise, and blessing, and honor, and glory, to God, who had come down for their deliverance.  In such exercises the evening was spent until the hour of twelve approached.  The missionary then proposed that when the clock on the cathedral should begin to strike, the whole congregation should fall upon their knees and receive the boon of freedom in silence.  Accordingly, as the loud bell tolled its first note, the immense assembly fell prostrate on their knees.  All was silence, save the quivering half-stifled breath of the struggling spirit.  The slow notes of the clock fell upon the multitude; peal on peal, peal on peal, rolled over the prostrate throng, in tones of angels’ voices, thrilling among the desolate chords and weary heart strings.  Scarce had the clock sounded its last note, when the lightning flashed vividly around, and a loud peal of thunder roared along the sky—­God’s pillar of fire, and trump of jubilee!  A moment of profoundest silence passed—­then came the burst—­they broke forth in prayer; they shouted, they sung, “Glory,” “alleluia;” they clapped their hands, leaped up, fell down, clasped each other in their free arms, cried, laughed, and went to and fro, tossing upward their unfettered hands; but high above the whole there was a mighty sound which ever and anon swelled up; it was the utterings in broken negro dialect of gratitude to God.

After this gush of excitement had spent itself; and the congregation became calm, the religious exercises were resumed, and the remainder of the night was occupied in singing and prayer, in reading the Bible, and in addresses from the missionaries explaining the nature of the freedom just received, and exhorting the freed people to be industrious, steady, obedient to the laws, and to show themselves in all things worthy of the high boon which God had conferred upon them.

The first of August came on Friday, and a release was proclaimed from all work until the next Monday.  The day was chiefly spent by the great mass of the negroes in the churches and chapels.  Thither they flocked “as clouds, and as doves to their windows.”  The clergy and missionaries throughout the island were actively engaged, seizing the opportunity in order to enlighten the people on all the duties and responsibilities of their new relation, and above