On our way home we saw, as we did on various other occasions, many of the apprentices with hoes, baskets, &c., going to their provision grounds.  We had some conversation with them as we rode along.  They said they had been in the fields picking coffee since half past five o’clock.  They were now going, as they always did after “horn-blow” in the afternoon, (four o’clock,) to their grounds, where they should stay till dark.  Some of their grounds were four, others six miles from home.  They all liked the apprenticeship better than slavery.  They were not flogged so much now, and had more time to themselves.  But they should like freedom much better, and should be glad when it came.

We met a brown young woman driving an ass laden with a great variety of articles.  She said she had been to Kingston (fifteen miles off) with a load of provisions, and had purchased some things to sell to the apprentices.  We asked her what she did with her money.  “Give it to my husband,” said she.  “Do you keep none for yourself?” She smiled and replied:  “What for him for me.”

After we had passed, Mr. B. informed us that she had been an apprentice, but purchased her freedom a few months previous, and was now engaged as a kind of country merchant.  She purchases provisions of the negroes, and carries them to Kingston, where she exchanges them for pins, needles, thread, dry goods, and such articles as the apprentices need, which she again exchanges for provisions and money.

Mr. Bourne informed us that real estate is much higher than before emancipation.  He mentioned one “pen” which was purchased for eighteen hundred dollars a few years since.  The owner had received nine hundred dollars as ‘compensation’ for freedom.  It has lately been leased for seven years by the owner, for nine hundred dollars per year.

A gentleman who owns a plantation in Mr. B.’s district, sold parcels of land to the negroes before emancipation at five shillings per acre.  He now obtains twenty-seven shillings per acre.

The house in which Mr. B. resides was rented in 1833 for one hundred and fifty dollars.  Mr. B. engaged it on his arrival for three years, at two hundred and forty dollars per year.  His landlord informed him a few days since, that on the expiration of his present lease, he should raise the rent to three hundred and thirty dollars.

Mr. B. is acquainted with a gentleman of wealth, who has been endeavoring for the last twelve months to purchase an estate in this island.  He has offered high prices, but has as yet been unable to obtain one.  Landholders have so much confidence in the value and security of real estate, that they do not wish to part with it.