Since emancipation, many proprietors have disposed of part of their uncultivated lands to the negroes, which are divided into lots, measuring 30 feet one way, and 40 the other, at 30 dollars, or 6l. sterling per lot. Upon these spots of ground, the purchasers have erected houses, some of them very neatly finished, and containing two rooms, a hall, and chamber; and here they reside, supporting themselves by working upon different estates, (where they obtain higher wages than the resident labourers, on account of not being provided with houses or negro grounds;) huckstering, or else working their own land. In some parts of the island, whole villages are formed in this manner; and from the similarity of the dwellings, and their several little patches of ground, laid out in rows of different luxuriant edibles, present, altogether, a very pleasing appearance. Some of the poorer negroes build their houses in the following manner. A sufficient number of stakes are firmly driven into the ground at regular distances; these are interwoven with the branches of the “black cherry,” (a native wood,) stript of their leaves, and the interstices filled up with clay. The roofs are composed of a species of coarse grass (called by the negroes, “hurricane grass,” on account of its wild growth,) fastened on with the bark of the “soursop tree.” I cannot speak much for the apparent comfort of these last-mentioned dwellings; there is one thing, however, to be considered, warmth is not necessary in this climate, yet, I should think, the heavy rains which fall at times must penetrate them, and render their clayey floors still more unpleasant. The fire with which the negroes cook their victuals is always made in the open air, unless they fence in a small portion of ground, and loosely throw a bundle of dry cane-leaves on the top, in which case it frequently answers for stable and kitchen.