o Cornwall; on the contrary, I _insisted_ upon her coming,
and bade her tell her _husband_ that I admired his taste very much for
having chosen her. I really think that her form and features were the
most _statue-like_ that I ever met with; her complexion had no yellow in
it and yet was not brown enough to be dark--it was more of an ash-dove
color than anything else; her teeth were admirable, both for color and
shape; her eyes equally mild and bright; and her face merely broad
enough to give it all possible softness and grandness of contour: her
air and countenance would have suited Yarico; but she reminded me most
of Grassini in "La Vergine del Sole," only that Mary Wiggins was a
thousand times more beautiful, and that, instead of a white robe, she
wore a mixed dress of brown, white, and dead yellow, which harmonized
excellently with her complexion; while one of her beautiful arms was
thrown across her brow to shade her eyes, and a profusion of rings on
her fingers glittered in the sunbeams. Mary Wiggins and an old cotton
tree are the most picturesque objects that I have seen for these twenty
years.

I really believe that the negresses can produce children at pleasure,
and where they are barren, it is just as hens will frequently not lay
eggs on shipboard, because they do not like their situation. Cubina's
wife is in a family way, and I told him that if the child should live, I
would christen it for him, if he wished it. "Tank you, kind massa, me
like it very much: much oblige if massa do that for _me_, too." So I
promised to baptize the father and the baby on the same day, and said
that I would be godfather to any children that might be born on the
estate during my residence in Jamaica. This was soon spread about, and,
although I have not yet been here a week, two women are in the straw
already, Jug Betty and Minerva: the first is wife to my head driver, The
Duke of Sully, but my sense of propriety was much gratified at finding
that Minerva's husband was called Captain. I think nobody will be able
to accuse me of neglecting the religious education of my negroes, for I
have not only promised to baptize all the infants, but, meeting a little
black boy this morning, who said that his name was Moses, I gave him a
piece of silver, and told him that it was for the sake of Aaron; which,
I flatter myself, was planting in his young mind the rudiments of
Christianity.

On my former visit to Jamaica, I found on my estate a poor