r was known, could neither read nor write,
and made a sad jumble of the King's English when she spoke; yet, by mere
natural quickness and rule-of-thumb, she could calculate to a Joe how
much a Shipmaster's Washing-Bill came to. And when she had settled that
according to her Scale of Charges, which were of the most Exorbitant
Kind, she would Grin and say, "He dam ship, good consignee;" or, "He dam
ship, dam rich owner; stick him on 'nother dam fi' poun' English, my
chile;" and for some curious reason or another, 'twas seldom that a
shipmaster cared to quarrel with Maum Buckey's Washing-Bills. She, being
so unlettered, had been compelled to engage all manner of Whites who
could write and read--now Transports, now Free--to keep her accounts,
and draw her necessary writings; but it was hard to tell which were the
greatest Rogues, the Convicts whose term was out, or the Free Gentlemen
who had come out without a pair of iron garters to their hose. In those
days all our plantations, and Jamaica most notably, were full of the
very Scum and Riffraff of our English towns. 'Twas as though you had let
Fleet Ditch, dead dogs and all, loose on a West-India Island. That
Ragged Regiment which Falstaff in the Play would not march through
Coventry with were at free quarters in Jamaica, leave alone the regular
garrison of King's Troops, of which the private men were mostly
pickpockets, poachers, and runaway serving-men, who had enlisted to save
themselves from a merry-go-round at Rope Fair; and the officers the
worst and most abandoned Gentlemen that ever wore his Majesty's
cockade, and gave themselves airs because they had three-quarters of a
yard of black ribbon crinked up in their hats. Captain This, who had
been kicked out of a Charing-Cross coffee-house for pocketing a
Punch-ladle while the drawer was not looking; Lieutenant That, who had
been caned on the Mall for cheating at cards; and Ensign T'other, who
had been my lord's valet, and married his Madam for enough cash to buy a
pair of colours withal--Military gentlemen of this feather used to serve
in the West Indies in those days, and swagger about Kingston as proud as
peacocks, when every one of them had done that at home they should be
cashiered for. Maum Buckey would not have to do with these
light-come-light-go gallants. "Me wash for Gem'n Ship-Cap'n, Gem'n
Marchants, Gem'n Keep-store," she would observe; "me not wash for dam
Soger-officer."

Her Sugar Plantation was in charge