tell, and he made an earnest defence, accompanied with impassioned gesticulation; but his dialect was of such outlandish description, that we could not understand him.  Mr. B. told us that the main ground of his defence was that Peter’s direction was altogether unreasonable.  Peter was then called upon to sustain his complaint; he spoke with equal earnestness and equal unintelligibility.  Mr. B. then gave his decision, with great kindness of manner, which quite pacified both parties.

[Footnote A:  The process of cutting canes is this:—­The leafy part, at top is first cut off down as low as the saccharine matter A few of the lowest joints of the part thus cut off, are then stripped of the leaves, and cut off for plants, for the next crop.  The stalk is then cut off close to the ground—­and it is that which furnishes the juice for sugar.  It is from three to twelve feet long, and from one to two inches in diameter, according to the quality of the soil, the seasonableness of the weather, &c.  The cutters are followed by gatherers, who bind up the plants and stalks, as the cutters cast them behind them, in different bundles.  The carts follow in the train, and take up the bundles—­carrying the stalks to the mill to be ground, and the plants in another direction.]

As we rode on, Mr. B. informed us that George was himself the foreman of a small weeding gang, and felt it derogatory to his dignity to be ordered by Peter.

We observed on all the estates which we visited, that the planters, when they wish to influence their people, are in the habit of appealing to them as freemen, and that now better things are expected of them.  This appeal to their self-respect seldom fails of carrying the point.

It is evident from the foregoing testimony, that if the negroes do not work well on any estate, it is generally speaking the fault of the manager.  We were informed of many instances in which arbitrary men were discharged from the management of estates, and the result has been the restoration of order and industry among the people.

On this point we quote the testimony of James Scotland, Sen., Esq., an intelligent and aged merchant of St. John’s: 

“In this colony, the evils and troubles attending emancipation have resulted almost entirely from the perseverance of the planters in their old habits of domination.  The planters very frequently, indeed, in the early stage of freedom, used their power as employers to the annoyance and injury of their laborers.  For the slightest misconduct, and sometimes without any reason whatever, the poor negroes were dragged before the magistrates, (planters or their friends,) and mulcted in their wages, fined otherwise, and committed to jail or the house of correction.  And yet those harassed people remained patient, orderly and submissive. Their treatment now is much improved.  The planters have happily discovered, that as long as they kept the cultivators of their lands in agitations and sufferings, their own interests were sacrificed.”