e returned to them, whilst many others have
changed their locality either to join their relations, or to return to
their haunts of former days. So far as we can learn, nothing like
insubordination or combination exists. We are also happy to say, that on
some estates, the laborers have turned their attention to their
provision grounds. There is one point, however, which few seem to
comprehend, which is, that although free, they cannot work one day and
be idle the next, _ad libitum_."
Later accounts mention that some thousands more of laborers were wanted
to take off the crop, and that a committee of immigration had been
appointed to obtain them. [See Amos Townsend's letter on the last page.]
So it seems the free laborers are so good they want more of them. The
same is notoriously true of Demerara, and Berbice. Instead of a
colonization spirit to get rid of the free blacks, the quarrel among the
colonies is, which shall get the most. It is no wonder that the poor
negroes in Trinidad should betake themselves to squatting. The island is
thinly peopled and the administration or justice is horribly corrupt,
under the governorship and judgeship of Sir George Hill, the well known
defaulter as Vice Treasurer of Ireland, on whose appointment Mr.
O'Connell remarked that "delinquents might excuse themselves by
referring to the case of their judge."
GRENADA.
"GRENADA--The Gazette expresses its gratification at being able to
record, that the accounts which have been received from several parts of
the country, are of a satisfactory nature. On many of the properties the
peasantry have, during the week, evinced a disposition to resume their
several accustomed avocations, at the rates, and on the terms proposed
by the directors of the respective estates, to which they were formerly
belonging; and very little desire to change their residence has been
manifested. One of our correspondents writes, that 'already, by a
conciliatory method, and holding out the stimulus of extra pay, in
proportion to the quantity of work performed beyond that allowed to
them, he had, 'succeeded in obtaining, for three days, double the former
average of work, rendered by the labors during the days of slavery; and
this, too, by four o'clock, at which hour it seems, they are now wishful
of ceasing to work, and to enable them to do so, they work continuously
from the time they return from their breakfast.'"
"It is one decided opinion, the paper named says,
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