Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/129

Rh baskets again to the sugar-mill, where they serve as fuel to heat the furnaces in which the sugar is boiled. The work on a sugar-plantation must go on incessantly, night and day, during the whole time of the sugar-harvest, which is in Cuba, during the whole season called la Secca, which is probably half the year. It is true that I frequently heard the women chattering and laughing during their incessant labour, untroubled by the cracking of the whip, and that during the night I often heard African songs and merry shouts, but which—sounding from the sugar-mill—lacked all melody and music. I know also that the labourers on this plantation were changed every seven hours, so that they always have six hours in every four-and-twenty for rest and refreshment; and that during two nights in the week the sugar-mill rests, and they are able to sleep—but still I could not reconcile myself to it. Neither can I now, but I can bear it better, since I have seen the cheerfulness of the slaves at their work, and their good, pleasant, and even joyous appearance, as a general rule, on this plantation.

I have several times visited the Negro-Slaves' Bohea—which is a kind of low fortress-like wall—built on the four sides of a large square court-yard, with a large gateway on one side, which is locked at night. The slaves' dwellings are within the wall—one room for each family—and open into the court. Nothing is to be seen on the outside of the wall but a row of small openings, secured with iron bars, one to each room—and so high in the wall that the slaves cannot look out from within. In the middle of the large court-yard is a building which serves as a cooking-kitchen, wash-house, &c. I have been present in this bohea, more than once, at the slaves' meal-times, and seen them fetch their calabash bowls full of snow-white rice, which had been boiled for them in an immense kettle, and which the black cook dealt out with a ladle, and with what seemed to me unreserved liberality. I have