The steward of the ship was very kind to me. He and my husband were in the
same class in the Moravian Church. I was thankful that he was so friendly,
for my mistress was not kind to me on the passage; and she told me, when
she was angry, that she did not intend to treat me any better in England
than in the West Indies--that I need not expect it. And she was as good as
her word.

When we drew near to England, the rheumatism seized all my limbs worse
than ever, and my body was dreadfully swelled. When we landed at the
Tower, I shewed my flesh to my mistress, but she took no great notice of
it. We were obliged to stop at the tavern till my master got a house; and
a day or two after, my mistress sent me down into the wash-house to learn
to wash in the English way. In the West Indies we wash with cold water--in
England with hot. I told my mistress I was afraid that putting my hands
first into the hot water and then into the cold, would increase the pain
in my limbs. The doctor had told my mistress long before I came from the
West Indies, that I was a sickly body and the washing did not agree with
me. But Mrs. Wood would not release me from the tub, so I was forced to do
as I could. I grew worse, and could not stand to wash. I was then forced
to sit down with the tub before me, and often through pain and weakness
was reduced to kneel or to sit down on the floor, to finish my task. When
I complained to my mistress of this, she only got into a passion as usual,
and said washing in hot water could not hurt any one;--that I was lazy and
insolent, and wanted to be free of my work; but that she would make me do
it. I thought her very hard on me, and my heart rose up within me. However
I kept still at that time, and went down again to wash the child's things;
but the English washerwomen who were at work there, when they saw that I
was so ill, had pity upon me and washed them for me.