was scarcely a minute at any time in which we did not pass them.  As far as the eye could reach there were files of men and women, moving peaceably forward.  From the cross paths leading through the estates, the busy marketers were pouring into the highway.  To their heads as usual was committed the safe conveyance of the various commodities.  It was amusing to observe the almost infinite diversity of products which loaded them.  There were sweet potatoes, yams, eddoes, Guinea and Indian corn, various fruits and berries, vegetables, nuts, cakes, bottled beer and empty bottles, bundles of sugar cane, bundles of fire wood, &c. &c.  Here was one woman (the majority were females, as usual with the marketers in these islands) with a small black pig doubled up under her arm.  Another girl had a brood of young chickens, with nest, coop, and all, on her head.  Further along the road we were specially attracted by a woman who was trudging with an immense turkey elevated on her head.  He quite filled the tray; head and tail projecting beyond its bounds.  He advanced, as was very proper, head foremost, and it was irresistibly laughable to see him ever and anon stretch out his neck and peep under the tray, as though he would discover by what manner of locomotive it was that he got along so fast while his own legs were tied together.

Of the hundreds whom we past, there were very few who were not well dressed, healthy, and apparently in good spirits.  We saw nothing indecorous, heard no vile language, and witnessed no violence.

About four miles from town, we observed on the side of the road a small grove of shade trees.  Numbers of the marketers were seated there, or lying in the cool shade with their trays beside them.  It seemed to be a sort of rendezvous place, where those 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