File:The Family Sepulchre (2).png

English: A depiction of Jamaica in the early 1800s. Illustration for The Family Sepulchre: A Tale of Jamaica by Mrs. Henry (Theodora Elizabeth) Lynch (London: Seelys, 1848). The drawing is by Alfred W. Cooper (signature in the lower left corner). The illustration is for one of a series of stories intended for the religious instruction of the young. Here, a woman being carried to the grave, prelude to a near escape from premature burial: "I was clothed in the garments of the grave; the Family Sepulchre was opened for my reception, and, being carefully put in a hammock, my brother and friends accompanying me, I was hastily borne onward to the dwelling of the dead. My first consciousness of life was the sensation of intense suffocating thirst; and ere I had power to speak, I discovered the shroud in which I was wrapped. Pushing the covering from my face, I at once ascertained my real situation, namely, that they were bearing me to the grave! After a desperate effort, I exclaimed, 'Water! my brother; water!' In an instant, he sprang from my horse, and was at my side; the terrified negro bearers put down their burden, flying off in all directions; and some minutes elapsed before my anxious brother could prevail on any of them to approach us with a cup of water from a mud-walled shed, which providentially happened to be at the road-side."