us
a gloomy picture of the oppressions and cruelties of the planters. Their
complaints brought before him are often of the most trivial kind; yet
because he does not condemn the apprentices to receive a punishment
which the most serious offences alone could justify him in inflicting,
they revile and denounce him as unfit for his station. He represents the
planters as not having the most distant idea that it is the province of
the special magistrate to secure justice to the apprentice; but they
regard it as his sole duty to _help them_ in getting from the laborers
as much work as whips, and chains, and tread-wheels can extort. His
predecessor, in the Manchioneal district, answered perfectly to the
planters' _beau ideal_. He ordered a _cat_ to be kept on every estate in
his district, to be ready for use as he went around on his weekly
visits. Every week he inspected the cats, and when they became too much
worn to do good execution, he _condemned_ them, and ordered new ones
to be made.

Mr. C. said the most frequent complaints made by the planters are for
_insolence_. He gave a few specimens of what were regarded by the
planters as serious offences. An overseer will say to his apprentice,
"Work along there faster, you lazy villain, or I'll strike you;" the
apprentice will reply, "You _can't_ strike me now," and for this he is
taken before the magistrate on the complaint of _insolence_. An
overseer, in passing the gang on the field, will hear them singing; he
will order them, in a peremptory tone to stop instantly, and if they
continue singing, they are complained of for _insubordination_. An
apprentice has been confined to the hospital with disease,--when he gets
able to walk, tired of the filthy sick house, he hobbles to his hut,
where he may have the attentions of his wife until he gets well. That is
called _absconding from labor_! Where the magistrate does not happen to
be an independent man, the complaint is sustained, and the poor invalid
is sentenced to the treadmill for absenting himself from work. It is
easy to conjecture the dreadful consequence. The apprentice, debilitated
by sickness, dragged off twenty-five miles on foot to Morant Bay,
mounted on the wheel, is unable to keep the step with the stronger ones,
slips off and hangs by the wrists, and his flesh is mangled and torn by
the wheel.

The apprentices frequently called at our lodgings to complain to Mr. C.
of the hard treatment of their masters. Among th