"Rev. Mr. Walton, from Montserrat, told us the planters on that island were getting tired of the apprenticeship, and, from mere considerations of interest and comfort, were adopting free labor. There had been repeated instances of planters emancipating all their apprentices. He said a new impulse had been given to education. Schools were springing up in all parts of the island. Marriages were occurring every week. The planters now encouraged missionaries to labor among their people, and were ready to give land for chapels, which were fast multiplying." NEGRO TESTIMONY IN BARBADOES, IN 1837. Mr. Thome says: "The tender of the sugar-mill at Lear's was an old negro, with furrowed brow and thin gray locks. We asked him how they were getting along under the new system. He replied, 'Bery well, massa, tank God. All peaceable and good.' 'Then you like apprenticeship better than slavery?' 'Great deal better, massa. We'se doing well, now.' 'You like apprenticeship as well as freedom, don't you?' 'Oh, no, me massa. Freedom till better.' 'What would you do, if you were entirely free?' 'We mus work, massa. All hab to work, when de free come. 'How are you treated now?' 'Bery well, tank God. No flogging, no shutting up in dungeon, now.' 'But what makes you want freedom? You are so old, you couldn't enjoy it long.' 'Me want to _die_ free, massa. It good ting to die free. And me want to see children free, too.'" FOOTNOTE: [5] The population of Barbadoes was 14,959 whites; 82,807 slaves; 5,146 free colored people. CHAPTER IV. TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE WEST INDIES, FROM 1840 TO 1859. Joseph J. Gurney, of England, visited the British West Indies in 1840. At St. Christopher's, the Solicitor General of the Colony told him that a small estate on the island sold shortly before emancipation, with all the slaves on it, for £2,000. He said, six years afterward, it would sell, without the slaves for £6,000. Mr. Gurney adds: "This remarkable rise in the value of property is by no means confined to particular estates." "In this island, the negroes perform a far greater amount of work in a given time, than could be obtained from them under slavery. One of my informants said, 'They will do an infinity of work for wages.'" Sir William Colebrook, Governor of Antigua, and Mr. Gilbert, a clergyman, both gave the following testimony to Mr. Gurney: "At the lowest computation, the land, without a single slave upon it, is fully as valuable now, as it was, including all the slaves, before emancipation." Mr. Gilbert told Mr. Gurney that the compensation he received for his slaves, from the British government, was "a mere present put into his pocket; a gratuity, on which he had no reasonable claim. For his land, _without_ the slaves, was at least of the same value that it formerly was _with_ the slaves; and since emancipation, his profits had increased."