Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714 -- Fiction
We arrived at our new master's estate--which was, as I have said,
about seven miles from the port--towards sundown. We were marched
(rather, driven) to a kind of village, consisting of a double row
of huts or cottages, forming a broad street, in the middle of which
there were planted a large number of the fruit-trees named here
bonannows (they are a kind of plantain). The green fruit was hanging
in clusters, as yet unripe; but the leaves, which are also the
branches, being for the most part blown into long shreds, or rags,
by the wind, had an untidy appearance. The cottages looked more like
pigsties for size and shape; they were built of sticks, withs, and
plantain-leaves both for sides and for roof. Chimneys had they none,
nor windows; some of them had no door, but an opening only. Thus are
housed the servants and slaves of a plantation. The furniture within
is such as the occupants contrive. Sometimes there is a hammock or a
pallet with grass mats and rugs; there are some simple platters and
basins. In each hut there are two, three, or four occupants.
Here let me in brief make an end of describing the buildings on
this estate, which were, I suppose, like those of every other. If
you were to draw a great square, in which to lay down or figure the
buildings, you would have in one corner the street or village of
the people; next to the village lies the great pond which serves
for drinking-water as well as for washing. The negroes are fond
of swimming and bathing in it, and they say that the water is not
fouled thereby, which I cannot understand. In the opposite corner
you must place the Ingenio, or house where the sugar-canes are
brought to be crushed and ground, and the sugar is made. There
are all kinds of machines, with great wheels, small wheels, cogs,
gutters for running the juice, and contrivances which I cannot
remember. Some of the Ingenios are worked by a windmill, others by
horses and assinegoes. There is in every one a still where they make
that fiery spirit which they call "kill-devil." Near the Ingenio
are the stables, where there are horses, oxen, assinegoes, and the
curious beast spoken of in Holy Writ called the camel. It hath been
brought here from Africa, and is much used for carrying the sugar.
The open space around the Ingenio is generally covered and strewed
with trash, which is the crushed stalk of the cane. It always gives
forth a sour smell (as if fermenting), which I cannot think to be
wholesome. In the fourth corner is the planter's house. Considering
that these people sometimes grow so rich that they come home and buy
great estates, it is wonderful that they should consent to live in
houses so mean and paltry. They are of wood, with roofs so low that
one can hardly stand upright in them; and the people are so afraid
of the cool wind which blows from the east that they have neither
doors nor windows on that side; but will have them all towards the
west, whence cometh the chief heat of the sun--namely, the afternoon
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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