persons. After their emancipation they became much more attentive to their religious duties, and were eager to acquire education. The general wages they obtained for agricultural labour when emancipated were from ten to twelve dollars a month and their provisions (p. 229, 230).

A number of slaves who have escaped from slavery in the United States into Upper Canada have formed settlements there. They had introduced the culture of tobacco to a considerable extent, and had begun to export it: it had never been thought of before. They purchased their land of the Canada Company. They have been very industrious, and their moral conduct exemplary. They are generally either Methodists or Baptists, and their children are carefully educated. At their settlement of Wilberforce they have taken very effectual means to ensure sobriety: they have unanimously agreed to exclude ardent spirits. He visited these settlements as a Missionary, and did not find any distress among them, or any tendency to disorder (p. 231— 233).

XI. The Rev. THOMAS MORGAN, a Wesleyan Missionary, resided in the West Indies seventeen years. He had been at Nevis, St. Kitt's, St. Vincent, Antigua, and Jamaica. In the smaller islands he was frequently on the estates, and had a good opportunity of judging of the state of slavery. The Negro certainly possesses the ordinary powers of acquiring information in common with his fellow-creatures, and only requires they should be developed. He understands and profits as much as the people of this country by religious instruction, the beneficial effect of which on those who receive it is very manifest. At the same time it is impossible, under the present system of slavery, to carry religion to any considerable extent, on account of the inability of the slaves to attend religious worship. But the disadvantages they labour under in that respect are less in the smaller islands than in Jamaica. There was no reason to complain of opposition or discouragement in either St. Kitt's, Antigua, or Nevis. In St. Vincent there was at one time great opposition, but there was afterwards a better feeling. In Jamaica there were not the same facilities. In Antigua, for instance, we may have preached on forty estates; in Jamaica we preached only on one or two. In the Leeward Islands, viz. Antigua, St. Kitt's, and Nevis, the slaves receive a small allowance from the master, consisting of Indian corn, corn meal, horse beans, and herrings. The allowance is not sufficient to maintain them. They are forced to supply the deficiency by working on Sundays; for no time in the week is allowed them by law. He had heard Mr. Rawlins, the Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Kitt's, declare that it was impossible for the slave to subsist on what he received from his master, unless he worked on the Sunday. In St. Vincent 26 week-days are allowed the slaves for cultivating their grounds, as in Jamaica. He regarded the Negroes as a very industrious race, when they worked for themselves; and he had no doubt they would work cheerfully for fair wages in growing sugar or in any other way. The emancipated slaves maintain themselves very comfortably by labouring in various

ways for their own benefit. He never knew them to work on sugar plantations. He had never heard of such a thing being proposed to any of them. Their conduct is usually quiet and orderly (p. 234236).

Mr. Morgan apprehended no danger whatever from emancipation. He believed the slaves when free would follow their occupations, if fairly paid for their labour. He apprehended great danger, however, from continuing the state of slavery as it exists in Jamaica. The desire for freedom is very strong among all classes of the slaves, religious and irreligious, only that the religious are unwilling to take violent steps to obtain it. They are very peaceably inclined. The emancipation, in his opinion, when it takes place, should be total, and not partial (p. 236, 237).

The free black and coloured people of Jamaica are rapidly improving in morality and knowledge, and many are acquiring wealth.

Mr. Morgan repeated over and over again his conviction that there was no danger in granting emancipation, under proper regulations of police, but the greatest danger in withholding it.

XII. The Rev. WILLIAM KNIBE, a Baptist missionary. He had been seven years in Jamaica, and quitted it in April, 1832. He was in that island during the late insurrection, and at Montego Bay, near the spot where it first broke out. He was well acquainted with the slaves in that quarter; many of them were Baptists; some of these took part in the rebellion, but none who were previously known to him by person. Of the congregation under his immediate charge three were tried at Falmouth and punished, but not capitally. He did not know whether they were guilty or not.-About Christmas, 1831, the slaves appeared to be generally dissatisfied. The reasons they gave for it were that a part of the time allowed them by law was taken from them; and that they were severely flogged, and, when flogged, were taunted by the overseers with their being to be free at Christmas. They came to ask him if that was true; and he told them that it was not true. They complained also of being debarred of their religious privileges, and flogged for attending the house of God. The fact that such taunting language, about their expected freedom, was used by the overseers, was reported to him not only by slaves, but by a free man and a white book-keeper, who heard it used on Flamstead estate. It was a common topic with the planters that the Negroes were looking for their freedom at Christmas. After the rebellion many of the Negroes told Mr. K. that the parochial meetings had led them to believe it. He had heard nothing of it before from the slaves, except the enquiry to which he has alluded as to the truth of the rumour, and to which he had given a negative. He had heard, it is true, white persons using that language, but he did not believe it; he had not the slightest expectation of any rising; he thought it was idle talk, and that persons who so talked did not really mean what they said.-Meetings had been held in every parish with the exception of Kingston, at which all who chose might attend; and resolutions were passed to the effect of renouncing their allegiance to the British crown. He had himself attended that

:

at Falmouth, and the question of emancipation was there publicly discussed. The meeting consisted of proprietors, attorneys, overseers, and others, The speakers were Mr. Macdonald, the custos of Trelawney, Mr. Frater, a member of the assembly, Mr. Lamonas, and Mr. Dyer. Mr. Frater was the chief speaker; he and the others were very violent they talked of resistance, if England continued to interfere with their property in slaves. There were black persons present, and they may have been slaves. He knew that slaves had attended at some of the meetings, and immediately conveyed the intelligence obtained there to their fellows. The insurrection arose partly from these meetings, partly from a knowledge of what was passing in England, and a belief that the king of England had resolved on freeing them; and partly from an idea that the planters, to frustrate this design, were going to transfer the island to America. The hatred of American rule is very strong among the blacks and browns in Jamaica. He had heard some of them declare they would spill their last drop of blood before a Yankee should get a footing there. Their detestation of America is quite notorious. The reason of it is the contempt with which the blacks and browns are treated in the United States. The slaves also dreaded a transfer to America as rendering their freedom quite hopeless. They expected too to be aided by the king. This was stated to Mr. Knibb by a man under sentence of death, whom he was requested by the custos Mr. Miller, with the concurrence of the chief justice, to confer with. He had no idea of this till after the insurrection. He knew indeed they were anxious for freedom; but, on the only occasion on which the subject had been mentioned to him, by any slave, as a thing looked for, he decidedly discouraged any such idea.

The occurrences which took place during the insurrection, and afterwards, plainly showed how intense was their passion for freedom. A man belonging to Round Hill estate went up to a party of soldiers and said, "I will never work more as a slave; give me freedom and I will work; you may shoot me." They shot him at once. The fact is stated in the Cornwall Chronicle.-One said if he had twenty lives he would risk them all for freedom.-As far as he could learn it was not their intention at first to destroy property or to injure the whites; but to insist on having wages at the rate of 2s. 6d. currency, or 20d. a day, the present rate of wages. But when the insurrection broke out they got drunk and fired the properties.-They certainly had inferred from the violent language at the parochial meetings, and the threat of giving up the island to America, that the king had made them free.Many of the Baptist slaves were active in saving their masters' property. On Green park estate, in Trelawney, where there were many Baptists, they mounted guard every night, and defeated an attempt to fire the trash-house. They seized three of the insurgents and brought them to Falmouth, and were rewarded by the Assembly with £40. These men had come to him to say that the other slaves had blamed them for having arrested their fellows; but Mr. Knibb commended them, and begged them to continue their exertions; and, in point of fact, they defended the property to the last (p. 245, 246).

In the Baptist Societies there is a distinction between members who have been consistent characters, and have been admitted to full communion as being under the influence of Christian principle, and mere enquirers, who are on trial, as it were, and only admitted as members if their conduct and attendance are regular for a certain period, perhaps for two or three years, and also till they have attained some knowledge of Scriptural truth. They are in fact in a probationary state, and are often not admitted into membership at all (p. 146).

Various instances have occurred of rewards for good conduct bestowed on Baptists by the Assembly.-Charles Campbell, a slave belonging to Weston Favell, took charge of the estate, and preserved it from injury, and carried on the labours of it as at other times; all the Baptists on the estate uniting to preserve order. He obtained his freedom from his master for what he had done. He was a deacon of the Baptist church.-A man of the name of Barrett, belonging to Oxford estate, also a deacon, acted in the same way, and has since had his freedom given to him.-A slave named George Prince, another deacon, had the entire charge of the estate committed to him with written instructions from the overseer, and he kept every thing in the best order the whole time of the overseer's absence. The same occurred on Carlton estate. The Baptists were numerous OR all these properties.-Six Baptists were hung belonging to Mr. Burchell's congregation; none belonging to Mr. K.'s. Some were shot at random. In Mr. Cantlow's congregation out of forty-eight leaders two were executed. One of them, of the name of Francis Escrow, had his freedom for his good conduct; but he lost his wife, who was shot by the random firing of the militia. He was required by the overseer to put a rebel to death, but he refused. On this the overseer seized a cutlass and with it literally hewed the alleged rebel to death in Escrow's presence. One of Mr. Burchell's deacons, named William Rickets, obtained his freedom for his conduct. Mr. Knibb had not heard of one deacon having been executed, and only of one or two leaders (p. 247, 248).

Mr. Knibb himself, and two other missionaries, Whitchorne and Abbott, were forced, by a militia colonel, to perform military duty, notwithstanding their remonstrances. They were after that arrested, and on the 2nd of January, 1832, sent as prisoners to head-quarters in an open boat, guarded by soldiers, and when they landed were paraded as prisoners through the open streets; and, after being sent backwards and forwards from the civil to the military power, were confined in the Court-house, guarded by four soldiers, and assailed with reproach and insult, til at midnight they were permitted to go on bail, but without being told of what they were accused, to a private house in Montego bay, which house they were not allowed to quit. During the interval, however, Mr. Knibb was ordered down to the court-house to answer a charge of having been preaching contrary to an interdict of the militia colonel, Lawson. He pleaded that he had only been performing family worship in the house where he resided. A little time after he had been sent back, some gentlemen, among whom was Mr. Manderson, a magistrate, and Mr. Roby, the collector of the customs, and Mr. Lewin, came to inform him that fifty persons

were coming with clubs to murder him and the other two missionaries. This was on the 7th of February, martial law having ceased on the 5th. The Baptist chapel was demolished on the 7th at noon by a mob of white men, though the commander in chief, Sir W. Cotton, was in the town with some troops, and there were king's ships in the bay. On hearing this, and that the same mob was coming to attack him, Mr. Knibb escaped with his wife and child and the other two missionaries, to Mr. Manderson's, and thence on board one of the king's ships. They were led to this step by the alarm they felt, partly from the representations of their friends, and partly from the threats and scurrilous language of the newspapers, the Courant and the Cornwall Courier, which said they should be tarred and feathered wherever they could be met with. "On the 14th of February Mr. Knibb obtained his release both from his bail and from confinement, by the following discharge:

Montego Bay, February 14th, 1832. "Having examined the evidence of Samuel Stennett, Alexander Erskine, Adam, and Paris, against W. Knibb, Baptist missionary, and finding nothing therein to support a criminal prosecution, I declare the said W. Knibb discharged with his sureties from their recogniRICHARD BARRETT, Custos.

zances."

(Signed)

Being released from his confinement, under this order, without the slightest charge having as yet been preferred against him, though loaded during his confinement with injury and outrage, he returned to Falmouth on the 15th of February, where he found his chapel had been destroyed on the same day on which the demolition of that at Montego bay had taken place. His congregation there he found had been suffering great anxiety on his account, and they appeared delighted with his return. Persons came from thirty estates, containing perhaps 10,000 slaves, to enquire after him. They complained. much that they who had defended their masters' property should suffer for the sins of others, and that their chapel should be destroyed, and no place left them to meet in, though not a single estate in which he had members had been burnt. This occurrence produced a very strong sensation among them. They enquired whether the chapel would be rebuilt, and they be permitted again to attend the worship of God. Mr. Knibb consoled them with the hope of having the chapel rebuilt by help from England, and of again enjoying their religious privileges. The chapel had been their own work, built at their own expense. Instead of being allowed to preach to

them then, he did not even dare to leave the house, being threatened with murder by a party assembled for that purpose, consisting not of blacks but of whites. There was no protection of law; mob government ruled. The custos, Mr. Miller, and Mr. Gordon, a magistrate, to whom he applied for protection, said that in the then state of feeling it was impossible, and advised his departure. A party of white men, disguised in women's clothes, came to his house at night, and threw stones while he was in bed: one stone fell on the bed. There were some coloured gentlemen, who had heard of the intended attack, and came for Mr. Knibb's defence, and when the assailants heard