I principally want for them
are Watts' Psalms and Hymns, and Bibles. The two first they cannot be
supplied with in any other way than by a collection, as they are not
among the books your society give away. I am the rather importunate for
a good number of these, as I cannot but observe that the negroes above
all the human species that I have ever known, have an ear for music, and
a kind of ecstatic delight in psalmody; and there are no books they
learn so soon, or take so much pleasure in, as those used in that
heavenly part of divine worship. Some gentlemen in London were pleased
to make me a private present of these books for their use; and from the
reception they met with, and their eagerness for more, I can easily
foresee how acceptable and useful a larger number would be among them.
Indeed, nothing would be a greater inducement to their industry to learn
to read, than the hope of such a present, which they would consider both
as a help and a reward to their diligence." Having obtained a further
supply of books from London for the negroes, Mr. Davies, in a letter to
the same gentleman, gives the following account of the manner in which
they were received by them. "For some time after the books arrived, the
poor slaves, whenever they could get an hour's leisure from their
masters, would hurry away to my house, to receive the charity with all
the genuine indications of passionate gratitude, which unpolished nature
could give, and which affectation and grimace would mimic in vain. The
books were all very acceptable, but none more so than the Psalms and
Hymns, which enable them to gratify their peculiar taste for Psalmody.
Sundry of them lodged in my kitchen all night, and sometimes when I have
awaked about two or three o'clock in the morning, a torrent of sacred
harmony poured into my chamber, and carried my mind away to heaven. In
this seraphic exercise, some of them spend almost the whole night. I
wish, sir, you and their other benefactors could hear any of these
sacred concerts. I am persuaded it would surprise and please you more
than an oratorio or St. Cecilia's day." Mr. Davies afterwards adds, that
two Sabbaths before, he had the pleasure of seeing forty of them around
the table of the Lord, all of whom made a credible profession of
Christianity, and several of them with unusual evidence of sincerity;
and that he believed there were more than a thousand negroes who
attended upon his ministry at the different place