Mingled with the depressing anxieties already referred to, were emotions of pleasure and exultation, when we stepped upon the shores of an unfettered isle.  We trod a soil from which the last vestige of slavery had been swept away!  To us, accustomed as we were to infer the existence of slavery from the presence of a particular hue, the numbers of negroes passing to and fro, engaged in their several employments, denoted a land of oppression; but the erect forms, the active movements, and the sprightly countenances, bespoke that spirit of disinthrallment which had gone abroad through Antigua.

On the day of our arrival we had an interview with the Rev. James Cox, the superintendent of the Wesleyan mission in the island.  He assured us that we need apprehend no difficulty in procuring information, adding, “We are all free here now; every man can speak his sentiments unawed.  We have nothing to conceal in our present system; had you come here as the advocates of slavery you might have met with a very different reception.”

At the same time we met the Rev. N. Gilbert, a clergyman of the English Church, and proprietor of an estate.  Mr. G. expressed the hope that we might gather such facts during our stay in the island, as would tend effectually to remove the curse of slavery from the United States.  He said that the failure of the crops, from the extraordinary drought which was still prevailing, would, he feared, be charged by persons abroad to the new system.  “The enemies of freedom,” said he, “will not ascribe the failure to the proper cause.  It will be in vain that we solemnly declare, that for more than thirty years the island has not experienced such a drought.  Our enemies will persist in laying all to the charge of our free system; men will look only at the amount of sugar exported, which will be less than half the average.  They will run away with this fact, and triumph over it as the disastrous consequence of abolition.”

On the same day we were introduced to the Rev. Bennet Harvey, the principal of the Moravian mission, to a merchant, an agent for several estates, and to an intelligent manager.  Each of these gentlemen gave us the most cordial welcome, and expressed a warm sympathy in the objects of our visit.  On the following day we dined, by invitation, with the superintendent of the Wesleyan mission, in company with several missionaries. Freedom in Antigua was the engrossing and delightful topic.  They rejoiced in the change, not merely from sympathy with the disinthralled negroes, but because it had emancipated them from a disheartening surveillance, and opened new fields of usefulness.  They hailed the star of freedom “with exceeding great joy,” because it heralded the speedy dawning of the Sun of Righteousness.