We met in Bath with the proprietor of a coffee estate situated a few miles in the country.  He gave a very favorable account of the people on his estate; stating that they were as peaceable and industrious as he could desire, that he had their confidence, and fully expected to retain it after entire emancipation.  He anticipated no trouble whatever, and he felt assured, too, that if the planters would conduct in a proper manner, emancipation would be a blessing to the whole colony.

We called on the Wesleyan missionary, whom we found the decided friend and advocate of freedom.  He scrupled not to declare his sentiments respecting the special magistrate, whom he declared to be a cruel and dishonest man.  He seemed to take delight in flogging the apprentices.  He had got a whipping machine made and erected in front of the Episcopal church in the village of Bath.  It was a frame of a triangular shape, the base of which rested firmly on the ground, and having a perpendicular beam from the base to the apex or angle.  To this beam the apprentice’s body was lashed, with his face towards the machine, and his arms extended at right angles, and tied by the wrists.  The missionary had witnessed the floggings at this machine repeatedly, as it stood but a few steps from his house.  Before we reached Bath, the machine had been removed from its conspicuous place and concealed in the bushes, that the governor might not see it when he visited the village.

As this missionary had been for several years laboring in the island, and had enjoyed the best opportunities to become extensively acquainted with the negroes, we solicited from him a written answer to a number of inquiries.  We make some extracts from his communication.

1.  Have the facilities for missionary effort greatly increased since the abolition of slavery?

The opportunities of the apprentices to attend the means of grace are greater than during absolute slavery.  They have now one day and a half every week to work for their support, leaving the Sabbath free to worship God.

2.  Do you anticipate that these facilities will increase still more after entire freedom?

Yes.  The people will then have six days of their own to labor for their bread, and will be at liberty to go to the house of God every Sabbath.  Under the present system, the magistrate often takes away the Saturday, as a punishment, and then they must either work on the Sabbath or starve.

3.  Are the negroes likely to revenge by violence the wrongs which they have suffered, after they obtain their freedom?

I never heard the idea suggested, nor should I have thought of it had you not made the inquiry.

We called on Mr. Rogers, the teacher of a Mico charity infant school in Bath.  Mr. R., his wife and daughter, are all engaged in this work.  They have a day school, and evening school three evenings in the week, and Sabbath school twice each Sabbath.  The evening schools are for the benefit of the adult apprentices, who manifest the greatest eagerness to learn to read.  After working all day, they will come several miles to school, and stay cheerfully till nine o’clock.