9.  He affirms that the negroes have no disposition to be revengeful.  He has never seen any thing like revenge.

10.  His people are as far removed from insolence as from vindictiveness.  They have been uniformly civil.

11.  His apprentices have more interest in the affairs of the estate, and he puts more confidence in them than he ever did before.

12.  He declares that the working of the apprenticeship, as also that of entire freedom, depends entirely on the planters.  If they act with common humanity and reason, there is no fear but that the apprentices will be peaceable.

Mr. Thomas is attorney for fifteen estates, on which there are upwards of two thousand five hundred apprentices.  We were informed that he had been distinguished as a severe disciplinarian under the old reign, or in plain terms, had been a cruel man and a hard driver; but he was one of those who, since emancipation, have turned about and conformed their mode of treatment to the new system.  In reply to our inquiry how the present system was working, he said, “infinitely better (such was his language) than slavery.  I succeed better on all the estates under my charge than I did formerly.  I have far less difficulty with the people.  I have no reason to complain of their conduct.  However, I think they will do still better after 1840.”

We made some inquiries of Dr. Bell concerning the results of abolition in Demerara.  He gave a decidedly flattering account of the working of the apprenticeship system.  No fears are entertained that Demerara will be ruined after 1840.  On the contrary it will be greatly benefited by emancipation.  It is now suffering from a want of laborers, and after 1840 there will be an increased emigration to that colony from the older and less productive colonies.  The planters of Demerara are making arrangements for cultivating sugar on a larger scale than ever before.  Estates are selling at very high prices.  Every thing indicates the fullest confidence on the part of the planters that the prosperity of the colony will not only be permanent, but progressive.

After breakfast we proceeded to the Society’s estate.  We were glad to see this estate, as its history is peculiar.  In 1726 it was bequeathed by General Coddington to a society in England, called “The Society for the promotion of Christian Knowledge.”  The proceeds of the estate were to be applied to the support of an institution in Barbadoes, for educating missionaries of the established order.  Some of the provisions of the will were that the estate should always have three hundred slaves upon it; that it should support a school for the education of the negro children who were to be taught a portion of every day until they were twelve years old, when they were to go into the field; and that there should be a chapel built upon it.  The negroes belonging to the estate have for upwards of a hundred years been under this kind of instruction.  They have