I say, Aggy!—
You remember me?—Very well.—Runaway Pompey, somebody else. Me Governor’s Pompey. You remember? Me carry out Governor’s piccaninny a walk. Very well. Massa Amen and me write this to say the news. Barbadoes all bustle. Nigger-mans do nothing but talkee talkee. [Pompey’s right, Jedidiah.] The Bishop is come. Missis Bishop. Miss Bishop—all the Bishops. Very well. The Bishop come in one ship, and him wigs come out in other ship. Bishop come one, two, three, weeks first. [It’s too true, Jedidiah.] Him say no wig, no Bishop. Massa Amen, you remember, say so too. Very well. Massa Amen ask me everything about nigger-man, where him baptises in a water. [So I did.] Me tell him in the sea, in the river, any wheres abouts. You remember. Massa Amen ask at me again, who ’ficiates. Me tell him de Cayman. [What man, Jedidiah, could he mean?] Very well. The day before the other day Bishop come to dinner with Governor and Governess, up at the Big House. You remember,—Missis Bishop too. Missis Bishop set him turban afire at a candle, and me put him out. [With a kettle of scalding water, Jedidiah.] Pompey get nothing for that. Very well.
“BY GUM HIM TURBAN AFIRE.”
I say, Aggy,—You know your Catechism? Massa Amen ask him at me and my wife, Black Juno, sometimes You remember. Massa Amen say, you give up a Devil? very well. Then him say, you give up all work? very well. Then him say again, Black Juno, you give up your Pompeys and vanities? Black Juno shake her head, and say no. Massa Amen say you must, and then my wife cry ever so much. [It’s a fact, Jedidiah, the black female made this ridiculous mistake.]
Very well. Governor come to you in three months to see the King. Pompey too. You remember. Come for me to Blackwall. Me bring you some of Governor’s rum. Black Juno say, tell Massa Agamemnon, he must send some fashions, sometimes. You remember? Black Juno very smart. Him wish for a Bell Assembly. [Jedidiah, so do I.] You send him out, you remember? Very well.
Massa Amen say write no more now. I say, O pray one little word more for Agamemnon’s wife. Give him good kiss from Pompey. [Jedidiah, what a heathenish message!] Black Diana a kiss too. You remember? Very well. No more.
SHIP LETTERS.