in distress, my worthy benefactress (pointing to the mat, and telling me I might sleep there without apprehension) called to the female part of her family, who had stood gazing on me all the while in fixed astonishment, to resume their task of spinning cotton; in which they continued to employ themselves great part of the night. 4. "They lightened their labor by songs, one of which was composed extempore: for I was myself the subject of it. It was sung by one of the young women, the rest joining in a sort of chorus. The air was sweet and plaintive, and the words, literally translated, were these "The winds roared and the rain fell. The poor white man, faint and weary, came and sat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him milk, no wife, to grind his corn. Chorus. Let us pity the white man; no mother has he to bring him milk: no wife to grind his corn.”* Trifling as these events may *These simple and affecting sentiments, have been very beauti- fully versified. 1. The loud wind roar'd, the rain fell fast; CHORUS. The white man shall our pity share, 2. The storm is o'er, the tempest past, CHORUS. Go white man, go; but with thee bear appear to the reader, they were to me affecting in the highest degree. I was oppressed by such unexpected kindness ; and sleep fled from my eyes. In the morning, I presented to my compassionate landlady two of the four brass buttons which remained on my waistcoat; the only recompense it was in my power to make her. Emancipation in the West Indies. 1. THE following extracts from a letter written in the West Indies, may show the salutary effects of emancipation in the British Islands; its date is Sept. 20th, 1836. 2. "I am highly gratified to witness the course you are pursuing in regard to that overwhelming curse of our country, Slavery. In the providence of God, I have been placed in circumstances to know what slavery is, and has been, in the West Indies, and daily now to see and feel what emancipation is. I went to Trinidad in November, 1831: I had learned at home, of the persevering opposition which emancipation had met with in these islands, and I naturally supposed it would be necessary to be guarded in my remarks about it. I therefore kept very still, thinking that perhaps even a few words might occasion a tumult, as I had been taught to believe that the liberated negroes.only wanted an occasion to rise and murder all the whites. I very soon found that no alarm. was felt, people speaking as freely about emancipation as of any thing else. All the negroes appearing cheerful and harmless, and not seldom did I hear the remark, even from planters, that emanci, pation was a great blessing! 3. "The scales fell from my eyes! I found that all the predictions I had heard of massacres, insurrections, &c. &c., were no better than nursery tales. Indeed it was plain to be seen, that emancipation had been the very thing to take away at once and for ever, all danger of violence on the part of the colored people. 4. "I afterwards visited Grenada and St. Vincent. The same may be said of them as of Trinidad. I have resided on this Island (Barbadoes) with the exception of a visit at home last winter, constantly since Jan-uary, 1835. The town contains say 40,000 inhabitants, and the island 130,000, of whom not more than 20,000 are whites. On the first of August, 1834, the number of slaves liberated was something more than 80,000. 5. "What a place for the exhibition of that ferocity which we are told exists in the breast of the African! Now I venture to declare, that since the 1st of August, 1834, there has not been the slightest popular disturbance, or even the rumor of one, in any part of the island. And this is not because the blacks are overawed. They are themselves a part of the island militia, and I declare it as my firm conviction, that as a people, they are as orderly and as little inclined to violence, as any people on earth. 6. "The general sentiment in this island, I believe to be now as much in favor of emancipation, as three years ago it was opposed to it. It has done my heart good, to hear people of the highest standing here, and those who owned great numbers of slaves, freely admit that their opposition to emancipation was all wrong ;that it was one of the greatest blessings that ever came upon the country, and that nothing would induce them to return to slavery. When I read of the fears of the people in America, in regard to emancipation, of the prejudice against color, and the way in which they declare against abolition, as something that is going to open the flood-gates of war, disunion, &c. &c., my wonder is only second to that which I feel, when I reflect upon what was once my own feelings upon these subjects. If all the opposers of abolition in the United States, including slave-holders themselves, could spend six months in any part of the British West Indies, abolition societies night dissolve themselves at once, their occupation would be gone. * 7. "The alarm which was felt in the West Indies,. as to a general depreciation of property and stagnation of business, has proved quite groundless. The islands have rarely, if ever, been so prosperous as at present, and in this island, I think I may say safely, there have been more improvements in buildings, agriculture, &c., in the last two years than in any two preceding years. Decidedly have the greatest comfort and happiness increased, education and religious knowledge been promoted, and public morals been greatly improved. 8. "I fear I may weary you, but, sir, when I look at this country, and witness the blessed changes which have been brought about by emancipation; and when I contemplate my own country, straining every nerve to maintain a system so fraught with evil as slavery, my heart is full. Slavery in the West Indies, as every where else, has always trod in the way of the progress of Christianity. Hence the continually repeated complaints against the missionaries in all the islands. Slavery and Christianity were pitted against each other, the one imploring secrecy and darkness; the other demanding light. Mark now the difference.-In the island, numerous parish churches which have been in ruins, since the hurricane of 1831, are rising from their ruins. The Methodist missionaries are extending their stations, and multiplying their preachers and assistants in every direction. The Moravians have just finished a fine new chapel, in town, and in short, the solicitude among owners of estates to have their laborers brought under the influence of religion, is as evident as is the fact, that their safety and interest depend upon the moral character and religious improvement of those laborers. 9. "I might say much of the prodigious increase of schools. In this respect the change is just what we should expect it to be, great and truly gratifying to every benevolent mind. Infant schools are about to be introduced in all the islands; and I am now boarding at the house with a gentleman who arrived from England, two weeks since, fully prepared with funds, and every other requisite, to build up free infant schools in all the islands. 10. "I might go on to speak of marriages among the black and colored; of the observance of the sabbath; of improvement in their dress; greater domestic comforts, &c.; in regard to all which, the greatness of the change for the better is, in this country, quite evident and undisputed, however much the desolations which freedom has occasioned in the West Indies may be mourned over by our American patriots! * * * 11. "You are doubtless aware that the colony of Demerara is comparatively new, and that there is a great call for laborers to subdue and bring under culti vation, that great and fertile territory. (I may here remark that Demerara was on all hands said to be entirely ruined by emancipation;—but see how false the notion.) The same thing there is now taking place, as we in America have been always accustomed to see, viz. emiIn this way gration from the old colonies to the new. Demerara is to be supplied with an abundance of free laborers, and thereby immensely benefited, a supply which, but for emancipation, she could never have obtained in any way short of a revival of the African slave-trade. 12. "But that which I wish to have particularly remarked is this; the legislature of St. Kitts, and more recently of this island, have become alarmed at the number of emigrants that are leaving them, all of whom are black, and have passed various laws to restrain it, openly and avowedly with the purpose of keeping their laborers among themselves! The policy of these laws is condemned by many here, who contend that labor must be left to find its own market, and a discussion is now actually going on in the newspapers, one party insisting that there must be laws to check emigration, and the other contending that the object be more effectually accomplished by raising the wages, providing better houses for their laborers, &c.; the whole dispute being how they shall best be able to keep among them their liberated slaves! may * * * * * 13. "I spent last evening at an estate about four miles |