Note 1 — CHAP. XIX.

I was no sooner returned home, than I acquainted Joanna with all that had happened; who, bursting into tears, called out, “Gado sa bresse da woma!”—“God will bless this woman!” and insisted that she herself should be mortgaged to Mrs. Godefroy till every farthing should be paid: she indeed was very anxious to see the emancipation of her boy, but till that was done, she absolutely refused to accept of her own freedom. I shall not here endeavour to paint the contest which I sustained between affection and duty, but bluntly say that I yielded to the wish of this so charming creature, and whose sentiments endeared her to me still more. Thus I instantly drew up a paper, declaring my Joanna, according to her desire, from this day to be the property of Mrs. Godefroy, till the last farthing of the money she lent me should be repaid; and, on the following day, with the consent of her relations1, I conducted her to Mrs. Godefroy’s house, where, throwing herself at the feet of that incomparable woman, Joanna herself put the paper into her hands; but this lady having raised her up, no sooner had read the contents, than she exclaimed, “Must it be so? Then come here, my Joanna, I have a spirit to accept of you not as my slave, but more as my companion: you shall have a house built in my orange-garden, with my own slaves to attend you, till Providence shall call me away, when you shall be perfectly free, as indeed you now are the moment you wish to possess your manumission; and this you claim both by your extraction and your conduct2.” On these terms, and on no other, I accepted of the money on the 5th, and carrying it in my hat to Mr. de Graav’s, I laid it on his table, demanding a receipt in full; and Joanna was transferred from the wretched estate Fauconberg, to the protection of the first woman perhaps in all the Dutch West-Indies, if not in the world; and for which she thanked me with a look that could only be expressed by the COUNTENANCE OF AN ANGEL.