A few days after, we went by invitation to a bazaar, or fair, which was held in the court-house in St. John’s.  The avails were to be appropriated to the building of a new Wesleyan chapel in the town.  The council chamber and the assembly’s call were given for the purpose.  The former spacious room was crowded with people of every class and complexion.  The fair was got up by the colored members of the Wesleyan church; nevertheless, some of the first ladies and gentlemen in town attended it, and mingled promiscuously in the throng.  Wealthy proprietors, lawyers legislators, military officers in their uniform, merchants, etc. swelled the crowd.  We recognised a number of ladies whom we had previously met at a fashionable dinner in St. John’s.  Colored ladies presided at the tables, and before them was spread a profusion of rich fancy articles.  Among a small number of books exhibited for sale were several copies of a work entitled “COMMEMORATIVE WREATH,” being a collection of poetical pieces relating to the abolition of slavery in the West Indies.

VISIT TO MR. CRANSTOUN’S.

On the following morning Mr. C.’s gig came for us, and we drove out to his residence.  We were met at the door by the American Consul, who breakfasted with us.  When he had taken leave, Mr. C. proposed that we should go over his grounds.  To reach the estate, which lies in a beautiful valley far below Mr. C.’s mountainous residence, we were obliged to go on foot by a narrow path that wound along the sides of the precipitous hills.  This estate is the property of Mr. Athill, a colored gentleman now residing in England.  Mr. A. is post-master general of Antigua, one of the first merchants in St. John’s, and was a member of the assembly until the close of 1836, when, on account of his continued absence, he resigned his seat.  A high-born white man, the Attorney General, now occupies the same chair which this colored member vacated.  Mr. C. was formerly attorney for several estates, is now agent for a number of them, and also a magistrate.

He remarked, that since emancipation the nocturnal disorders and quarrels in the negro villages, which were incessant during slavery, had nearly ceased.  The people were ready and willing to work.  He had frequently given his gang jobs, instead of paying them by the day.  This had proved a gear stimulant to industry, and the work of the estate was performed so much quicker by this plan that it was less expensive than daily wages.  When they had jobs given them, they would sometimes go to work by three o’clock in the morning, and work by moonlight.  When the moon was not shining, he had known them to kindle fires among the trash or dry cane leaves to work by.  They would then continue working all day until four o clock, stopping only for breakfast, and dispensing with the usual intermission from twelve to two.