or food for the pigs, and similar easy tasks. The men
drivers are employed in looking after the first two gangs, and are
allowed to carry whips to hold over them in terror, even if not often
used. The gang of children is confided to the charge of an old woman,
who carries a long switch; and with her it is no mere emblem of
authority, for she employs it pretty frequently on the backs of the
urchins. You have seen Mammy Quasheba, and I dare say she appears to
you to be a very amiable old dame, for she takes care only to tickle her
little charges when you or Mrs Twigg are in sight."

"But do the drivers often make use of those dreadful whips?" asked
Ellen.

"On our estate they certainly do not; but on others, seldom or never
visited by the proprietors, the only notion they have of maintaining
order is the lash," answered Archie. "The unfortunate black is
unmercifully flogged for the slightest offence, or for apparent
idleness. You ask how many hours they work. Generally before daybreak
they are aroused by the head driver, who comes into the village blowing
a horn, and if they fail to turn out immediately, they become intimately
acquainted with his whip. They work for three hours, and are then
allowed half an hour for breakfast, during which they manage to stow way
an enormous quantity of vegetable food. They then labour on till noon,
when they have two whole hours, either to take their dinner, to sleep,
or to work in their own provision grounds and attend to their pigs and
poultry. From two till dark they resume their labours, when they
generally knock off and return home, except in crop-time, when it is
important to get the canes cut and carried as rapidly as possible, and
the boiling-house requires a number of hands. However, they become fat
and sleek during that period, as they may suck as much of the cane as
they like, and do not look upon the task as especially laborious. As a
number of artisans are required on the estate, such as carpenters,
blacksmiths, masons, and coopers, the more intelligent lads are selected
and sent as apprentices to learn those trades; though they get pretty
hardly treated at times, they afterwards possess considerable advantages
over the untrained blacks, and often contrive to save enough money to
buy their freedom. Altogether, I don't think the negroes of Jamaica can
be said to be much worse off than the peasantry in many parts of the old
country; they may in some respects be e