He dwelt much on the trustiness and strong attachment of the negroes, where they are well treated.  There were no people in the world that he would trust his property or life with sooner than negroes, provided he had the previous management of them long enough to secure their confidence.  He stated the following fact in confirmation of this sentiment.  During the memorable insurrection of 1816, by which the neighboring parishes were dreadfully ravaged, he was suddenly called from home on military duty.  After he had proceeded some distance, he recollected that he had left five thousand dollars in an open desk at home.  He immediately told the fact to his slave who was with him, and sent him back to take care of it.  He knew nothing more of his money until the rebellion was quelled, and peace restored.  On returning home, the slave led him to a cocoa-nut tree near by the house, and dug up the money, which he had buried under its roots.  He found the whole sum secure.  The negro, he said, might have taken the money, and he would never have suspected him, but would have concluded that it had been, in common with other larger sums, seized upon by the insurgents.  Colonel A. said that it was impossible for him to mistrust the negroes as a body.  He spoke in terms of praise also of the conjugal attachment of the negroes.  His son, a merchant, stated a fact on this subject.  The wife of a negro man whom he knew, became afflicted with that loathsome disease, the leprosy.  The man continued to live with her, notwithstanding the disease was universally considered contagious and was peculiarly dreaded by the negroes.  The man on being asked why he lived with his wife under such circumstances, said, that he had lived with her when she was well, and he could not bear to forsake her when she was in distress.

Colonel A. made numerous inquiries respecting slavery in America.  He said there certainly be insurrections in the slaveholding states, unless slavery was abolished.  Nothing but abolition could put an end to insurrections.

Mr. Thomas, a neighboring planter, dined with us.  He had not carried a complaint to the special magistrate against his apprentices for six months.  He remarked particularly that emancipation had been a great blessing to the master; it brought freedom to him as well as to the slave.

A few days subsequent to our visit to Colonel A.’s, the Reverend Mr. Packer, of the Established Church, called at our lodgings, and introduced a planter from the parish of St. Thomas.  The planter is proprietor of an estate, and has eighty apprentices.  His apprentices conduct themselves very satisfactorily, and he had not carried a half dozen complaints to the special magistrate since 1831.  He said that cases of crime were very rare, as he had opportunity of knowing, being local magistrate.  There were almost no penal offences brought before him.  Many of the apprentices of St. Thomas parish were buying their freedom, and there were several cases of appraisement[A] every week.  The Monday previous, six cases came before him, in four of which the apprentices paid the money on the spot.