hose going to, and those returning from
town, occasionally halt for a time for the purpose of resting, and to
tell and hear news concerning the state of the market. And why should
not these travelling merchants have an exchange as well as the
stationary ones of Bridgetown?

On reaching the station-house, which is about six miles from town, we
learned that Saturday was not one of the court days. We accordingly
drove to Captain Hamilton's residence. _He stated that during the week
he had only six cases of complaint among the thirteen thousand
apprentices embraced in his district._ Saturday is the day set apart for
the apprentices to visit him at his house for advice on any points
connected with their duties. He had several calls while we were with
him. One was from the mother of an apprentice girl who had been
committed for injuring the master's son. She came to inform Captain H.
that the girl had been whipped twice contrary to law, before her
commitment. Captain H. stated that the girl had said nothing about this
at the time of her trial; if she had, she would in all probability have
been _set free_, instead of being _committed to prison_. He remarked
that he had no question but there were numerous cases of flogging on the
estates which never came to light. The sufferers were afraid to inform
against their masters, lest they should be treated still worse. The
opportunity which he gave them of coming, to him one day in the week for
private advice, was the means of exposing many outrages which would
otherwise he unheard of: He observed that there were not a few whom he
had liberated on account of the cruelty of their masters.

Captain H. stated that the apprentices were much disposed to purchase
their freedom. To obtain money to pay for themselves they practice the
most severe economy and self-denial in the very few indulgences which
the law grants them. They sometimes resort to deception to depreciate
their value with the appraisers. He mentioned an instance of a man who
lead for many years been an overseer on a large estate. Wishing to
purchase himself, and knowing that his master valued him very highly, he
permitted his beard to grow; gave his face a wrinkled and haggard
appearance, and bound a handkerchief about his head. His clothes were
suffered to become ragged and dirty, and he began to feign great
weakness in his limbs, and to complain of a "misery all down his back."
He soon appeared marked with all the signs of