[[24]] A gold coin, of about the value of 3l. 4s.. sterling. The joe was a gold coin worth about 36s.. sterling.
[[25]] Decomposition takes place so soon in this warm country, that interment is necessary within twenty-four hours after dissolution.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Negroes: The crime of poisoning—Instance of it—Murder of Mr. Brown—Love and jealousy—The end of unlawful love—Infanticide—Incendiarism—A late instance of it—Polygamy—Disregard of marriage vows.
After having given a short sketch of the murder of Mr. Blizard and Mr. Ogilvie by their slaves, it was my intention to have entered more fully into the cases of poisoning which in days gone by have occurred in this country. But in looking over the dreadful catalogue of such crimes, I find them so frequent, and the manner in which they were carried into effect so similar, that one instance will suffice.
About twenty years ago, a woman of the name of Betsey, belonging to a highly respectable family, had a dispute with her mistress. With the feeling of revenge burning at her heart, she carried her complaint to a friend, who advised her to consult an Obeah man, and get him to give her something. Not having an opportunity of going herself, or else not wishful of being known, she sent an old woman of the name of Jenny, an attachée of the yard, to obtain the deadly potion, the mysterious something, as the negroes generally termed it. The old woman accordingly visited an Obeah man of the name of John, who gave her a liquid which was to be administered to her mistress in some of her nourishment, and which he said would kill her in one minute. This obtained by Betsey, who, like most of her tribe, was the slave of her passions, she resolved to lose no time in carrying her plan of revenge into execution; accordingly, she handed it to the butler, with whom, it appears, she had formed a liaison, and who was concerned with her in her plot, with injunctions to put it into whatever liquid her mistress might order. By some means or the other, a suspicion that all was not right was raised; certain circumstances were inquired into, and the result was that Betsey and her accomplices were tried and executed. Old Jenny, the messenger employed in their dealings with the Obeah man, was sentenced to work in the street-gang for a certain period. From her statement at her trial, that the Obeah man, John, told her the draught would kill her mistress in “one minute,” she ever after obtained that cognomen from the negroes about the streets.
In the year 1820-30, another murder was committed, the details of which are as follows:—A person of the name of Brown was living as overseer upon an estate called Big Deurs, now in possession of Messrs. Manning and Anderdon. The negroes upon this property had been for a long time in the habit of pilfering, and in many instances Mr. Brown had discovered the offenders, which caused him to be disliked, and determined one among them, more heartless, perhaps, than the rest, to undertake his destruction. On Christmas day, Mr. Brown rode to La Roche’s, a neighbouring estate, and upon his return in the evening, between the hours of six and seven, he met with his untimely death.
The slave to whom Mr. Brown had rendered himself particularly obnoxious was named Cambridge, and this man had long lain in wait for an opportunity of completing his crime, and for the purpose had sharpened an old copper skimmer, (used in boiling sugar,) which he thought would prove an effective weapon.
Mr. Brown, like too many other white men in this island, carried on an amour with a woman belonging to the property, named Christiana, and it was the first intention of Cambridge to murder her as well as the overseer, supposing it was through her communications that so many discoveries of thefts had been made. On the Christmas day, Cambridge dressed himself in his best suit, and proceeded with many of his fellow slaves to the Methodist chapel at Parham, intending upon his return home to waylay and murder the woman, who had also visited the same place of worship. In pursuance of his plan, he hurried out of chapel immediately after service, and took up his stand in a part of the road which he knew Christiana must pass. After waiting in vain for a long time, a group of negroes at length hastened by, when Cambridge, whose stock of patience was exhausted, joined them, and asked if they knew where Christiana was? In answer to his query, they informed him she had visited a neighbouring estate, and after remaining there for a short time had proceeded home by another path. Thus thwarted in his views of obtaining revenge, his designs upon Mr. Brown gained double hold of him; and hastening home, he disrobed himself, put on his working-dress, and first telling his wife, “That he had lost one opportunity, but he would take good care he did not lose the next,” quitted the house, taking the old copper skimmer with him.
It was a beautiful evening; the moon shone in all her splendour, and every star that twinkled in the heavens glittered around that murderer’s step. Oh, that such dreadful thoughts should have possessed that man’s mind in the midst of such a lovely scene upon the evening of that very day when angels proclaimed “Good will towards man!” But, alas!—