and? All things
considered, it is indeed wonderful to find her such as she now is. But as
she has herself piously expressed it, "that God whom then she knew not
mercifully preserved her for better things."]

[Footnote 22: Since the preceding pages were printed off, I have been
favoured with a communication from the Rev. J. Curtin, to whom among other
acquaintances of Mr. Wood's in this country, the entire proof sheets of
this pamphlet had been sent for inspection. Mr. Curtin corrects some
omissions and inaccuracies in Mary Prince's narrative (see page 17,) by
stating, 1. That she was baptized, not in August, but on the 6th of April,
1817; 2. That sometime before her baptism, on her being admitted a
catechumen, preparatory to that holy ordinance, she brought a note from
her owner, Mr. Wood, recommending her for religious instruction, &c.; 3.
That it was his usual practice, when any adult slaves came on _week days_
to school, to require their owners' permission for their attendance; but
that on _Sundays_ the chapel was open indiscriminately to all.--Mary,
after a personal interview with Mr. Curtin, and after hearing his letter
read by me, still maintains that Mr. Wood's note recommended her for
baptism merely, and that she never received any religious instruction
whatever from Mr. and Mrs. Wood, or from any one else at that period
beyond what she has stated in her narrative. In regard to her
non-admission to the Sunday school without permission from her owners, she
admits that she may possibly have mistaken the clergyman's meaning on that
point, but says that such was certainly her impression at the time, and
the actual cause of her non-attendance.

Mr. Curtin finds in his books some reference to Mary's connection with a
Captain ----, (the individual, I believe, alluded to by Mr. Phillips at
page 32); but he states that when she attended his chapel she was always
decently and becomingly dressed, and appeared to him to be in a situation
of trust in her mistress's family.

Mr. Curtin offers no comment on any other part of Mary's statement; but he
speaks in very favourable, though general terms of the respectability of
Mr. Wood, whom he had known for many years in Antigua; and of Mrs. Wood,
though she was not personally known to him, he says, that he had "heard
her spoken of by those of her acquaintance, as a lady of very mild and
amiable manners."

Another friend of Mr. and Mrs. Wood, a lady who had been their guest both