I was surprised to find the public market open on the Sabbath.

The very idea of such a custom conflicted with my pre-conceived notions of propriety and religion.

But Sunday was a great holiday in Demarara indeed the only day which the slaves on the plantations could call their own.

On Sunday they were allowed to visit each other, frolic as they pleased, cultivate their little gardens, make their purchases at the shops which were open on that day, and carry their produce to market.
Hence the spacious market square, in the midst of the town, was covered with articles of traffic.

The venders were chiefly negro women, who exposed for sale immense quantities of yams, tomatoes, cassava bread, sugar-cane, plantains, water-cresses, oranges, bananas, avocado pears, etc., with fancy articles of almost every description.
The scene was a novel and interesting one.