At half past eight o’clock, we resumed our seats in Mr. C.’s phaeton, and by the nearest route across the country, returned to Lear’s.  Mr. C. entertained us by the way with eulogies upon the industry and faithfulness of his apprentices.  It was, he said, one of the greatest pleasures he experienced, to visit the different estates under his charge, and witness the respect and affection which the apprentices entertained towards him.  Their joyful welcome, their kind attentions during his stay with them, and their hearty ‘good-bye, massa,’ when he left, delighted him.

VISIT TO COLONEL ASHBY’S.

We were kindly invited to spend a day at the mansion of Colonel Ashby, an aged and experienced planter, who is the proprietor of the estate on which he resides.  Colonel A.’s estate is situated in the parish of Christ Church, and is almost on the extreme point of a promontory, which forms the southernmost part of the island.  An early and pleasant drive of nine miles from Bridgetown, along the southeastern coast of the island, brought us to his residence.  Colonel A. is a native of Barbadoes, has been a practical planter since 1795, and for a long time a colonial magistrate, and commander of the parish troops.  His present estate contains three hundred and fifty acres, and has upon it two hundred and thirty apprentices, with a large number of free children.  His average crop is eighty large hogsheads.  Colonel A. remarked to us, that he had witnessed many cruelties and enormities under “the reign of terror.”  He said, that the abolition of slavery had been an incalculable blessing, but added, that he had not always entertained the same views respecting emancipation.  Before it took place, he was a violent opposer of any measure tending to abolition.  He regarded the English abolitionists, and the anti-slavery members in parliament, with unmingled hatred.  He had often cursed Wilberforce most bitterly, and thought that no doom either in this life, or in the life to come, was too bad for him.  “But,” he exclaimed, “how mistaken I was about that man—­I am convinced of it now—­O he was a good man—­a noble philanthropist!—­if there is a chair in heaven, Wilberforce is in it!” Colonel A. is somewhat sceptical, which will account for his hypothetical manner of speaking about heaven.

He said that he found no trouble in managing his apprentices.  As local or colonial magistrate, in which capacity he still continued to act he had no cases of serious crime to adjudicate, and very few cases of petty misdemeanor.  Colonel A. stated emphatically, that the negroes were not disposed to leave their employment, unless the master was intolerably passionate and hard with them; as for himself, he did not fear losing a single laborer after 1840.