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diff --git a/32728-h/32728-h.htm b/32728-h/32728-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9395dec --- /dev/null +++ b/32728-h/32728-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13506 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The English in the West Indies, by James Anthony Froude. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + .greek {font-size: 0.9em;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The English in the West Indies, by James Anthony Froude + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The English in the West Indies + or, The Bow of Ulysses + +Author: James Anthony Froude + +Release Date: June 7, 2010 [EBook #32728] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST INDIES *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jane Hyland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece"><img src="images/image0001.jpg" alt="MOUNTAIN CRATER, DOMINICA." title="" /></a><br /> +<span class="caption">MOUNTAIN CRATER, DOMINICA.</span> +<br /><br /><br /></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p> + + + +<h1>THE ENGLISH</h1> + +<h5>IN</h5> + +<h1>THE WEST INDIES</h1> + +<h5>OR</h5> + +<h4>THE BOW OF ULYSSES</h4> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h2>JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE<br /><br /></h2> + +<h5>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS ENGRAVED ON WOOD BY G. PEARSON +AFTER DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR</h5> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="title" id="title"><img src="images/image0002.jpg" alt="" title="" /></a> +</div> + + +<h5>NEW EDITION</h5> + + +<h4>LONDON</h4> + +<h3>LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.</h3> + +<p class="center">1888</p> + +<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved</i> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p style="margin-left:8em"> +Fürsten prägen so oft auf kaum versilbertes Kupfer<br /> +Ihr bedeutendes Bild: lange betrügt sich das Volk<br /> +Schwärmer prägen den Stempel des Geist's auf Lügen und Unsinn:<br /> +Wem der Probirstein fehlt, hält sie für redliches Gold.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:20em;" class="smcap">Goethe.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.</h3> + +<p>My purpose in writing this book is so fully explained +in the book itself that a Preface is unnecessary. I +visited the West India Islands in order to increase my +acquaintance with the condition of the British Colonies. +I have related what I saw and what I heard, with +the general impressions which I was led to form.</p> + +<p>In a few instances, when opinions were conveyed +to me which were important in themselves, but which +it might be undesirable to assign to the persons from +whom I heard them, I have altered initials and disguised +localities and circumstances.</p> + +<p>The illustrations are from sketches of my own, +which, except so far as they are tolerably like the +scenes which they represent, are without value. They +have been made producible by the skill and care of +the engraver, Mr. Pearson, to whom my warmest +thanks are due.</p> + +<p style="text-align:right">J.A.F.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Onslow Gardens</span>: <i>November 15, 1887</i>.<br /> +<br /><br /><br /></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/image0003.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<br /><span class="link"><a href="images/image03full.jpg">View larger image</a></span> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER I.</td><td align='left'>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Colonial policy—Union or separation—Self-government—Varieties of + condition—The Pacific colonies—The West Indies—Proposals for a West Indian + federation—Nature of the population—American union and British plantations—Original + conquest of the West Indies</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER II.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>In the train for Southampton—Morning papers—The new 'Locksley +Hall'—Past and present—The> 'Moselle'—Heavy weather—The Petrel—The + Azores</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER III.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The tropics—Passengers on board—Account of the Darien canal—Planters' + complaints—West Indian history—The Spanish conquest—Drake and Hawkins—The + buccaneers—The pirates—French and English—Rodney—Battle of April 12—Peace + with honour—Doers and talkers</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER IV.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>First sight of Barbadoes—Origin of the name—Père Labat—Bridgetown + two hundred years ago—Slavery and Christianity—Economic crisis—Sugar bounties—Aspect + of the streets—Government House and its occupants—Duties of a governor of Barbadoes</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER V.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>West Indian politeness—Negro morals and felicity—Island of St. +Vincent—Grenada—The harbour—Disappearance of the whites—An island of black + freeholders—Tobago—Dramatic art—A promising incident</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER VI.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Charles Kingsley at Trinidad—'Lay of the Last Buccaneer'—A French + <i>forban</i>—Adventure at Aves—Mass on board a pirate ship—Port of Spain—A + house in the tropics—A political meeting—Government House—The Botanical + Gardens—Kingsley's + rooms—Sugar estates and coolies</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER VII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A coolie village—Negro freeholds—Waterworks—Snakes—Slavery—Evidence + of Lord Rodney—Future of the negroes—Necessity of English rule—The Blue Basin—Black boy + and crayfish</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER VIII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Home Rule in Trinidad—Political aspirations—Nature of the + problem—Crown administration—Colonial governors—A Russian apologue—Dinner + at Government House—'The Three Fishers'—Charles Warner—Alternative futures of the colony</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER IX.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Barbadoes again—Social condition of the island—Political constitution—Effects + of the sugar bounties—Dangers of general bankruptcy—The Hall of Assembly—Sir Charles + Pearson—Society in Bridgetown—A morning drive—Church of St. John's—Sir Graham + Briggs—An old planter's palace—The Chief Justice of Barbadoes</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER X.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Leeward and Windward Islands—The Caribs of Dominica—Visit of Père + Labat—St. Lucia—The Pitons—The harbour at Castries—Intended coaling station—Visit + to the administrator—The old fort and barracks—Conversation with an American—Constitution of + Dominica—Land at Roseau</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER XI.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Curiosities in Dominica—Nights in the tropics—English and Catholic + churches—The market place at Roseau—Fishing extraordinary—A storm—Dominican + boatmen—Morning walks—Effects of the Leeward Islands Confederation—An estate cultivated + as it ought to be—A mountain ride—Leave the island—Reflections</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER XII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Darien canal—Jamaican mail packet—Captain W.—Retrospect of + Jamaican history—Waterspout at sea—Hayti—Jacmel—A walk through the town—A + Jamaican planter—First sight of the Blue Mountains—Port Royal—Kingston—The Colonial + Secretary—Gordon riots—Changes in the Jamaican constitution</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_155">155</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER XIII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The English mails—Irish agitation—Two kinds of colonies—Indian + administration—How far applicable in the West Indies—Land at Kingston—Government + House—Dinner party—Interesting officer—Majuba Hill—Mountain station—Kingston + curiosities—Tobacco—Valley in the Blue Mountains</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_180">180</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER XIV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Visit to Port Royal—Dockyard—Town—Church—Fort Augusta—The + eyrie in the mountains—Ride to Newcastle—Society in Jamaica—Religious bodies—Liberty and + authority</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER XV.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Church of England in Jamaica—Drive to Castleton—Botanical Gardens—Picnic + by the river—Black women—Ball at Government House—Mandeville—Miss Roy—Country + society—Manners—American visitors—A Moravian missionary—The modern Radical creed</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER XVI.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Jamaican hospitality—Cherry Garden—George William Gordon—The Gordon + riots—Governor Eyre—A dispute and its consequences—Jamaican country-house society—Modern + speculation—A Spanish fable—Port Royal—The commodore—Naval theatricals—The + modern sailor</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_224">224</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER XVII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Present state of Jamaica—Test of progress—Resources of the island—Political + alternatives—Black supremacy and probable consequences—The West Indian problem</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER XVIII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Passage to Cuba—A Canadian commissioner—Havana—The Moro—The city and + harbour—Cuban money—American visitors—The cathedral—Tomb of Columbus—New friends—The + late rebellion—Slave emancipation—Spain and progress—A bull fight</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_253">253</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER XIX.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Hotels in Havana—Sights in the city—Cigar manufactories—West Indian + industries—The Captain-General—The Jesuit college—Father Viñez—Clubs in + Havana—Spanish aristocracy—Sea lodging house</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER XX.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Return to Havana—The Spaniards in Cuba—Prospects—American influence—Future + of the West Indies—English rumours—Leave Cuba—The harbour at night—The Bahama + Channel—Hayti—Port au Prince—The black republic—West Indian history</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_291">291</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER XXI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Return to Jamaica—Cherry Garden again—Black servants—Social + conditions—Sir Henry Norman—King's House once more—Negro suffrage—The will of + the people—The Irish python—Conditions of colonial union—Oratory and statesmanship</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_308">308</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER XXII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Going home—Retrospect—Alternative courses—Future of the + Empire—Sovereignty of the sea—The Greeks—The rights of man—Plato—The + voice of the people—Imperial federation—Hereditary colonial policy—New Irelands—Effects + of party government</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_318">318</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS.</h3> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="illustrations"> +<tr><td align='left'>Mountain Crater, Dominica</td><td align='right'><i><a href="#Frontispiece">Frontispiece</a></i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Silk Cotton Tree, Jamaica</td><td align='right'><i><a href="#title">Title page</a></i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Blue Basin, Trinidad</td><td align='right'><i>To face page</i> <a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Morning Walk, Dominica</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Port Royal, Jamaica</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Valley in the Blue Mountains, Jamaica</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Kingston and Harbour, from Cherry Gardens</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_234">234</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Havana, from the Quarries</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Port au Prince, Hayti</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td></tr> +</table></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST INDIES.</h2> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Colonial policy—Union or separation—Self-government—Varieties of condition—The +Pacific colonies—The West Indies—Proposals for a West +Indian federation—Nature of the population—American union and +British plantations—Original conquest of the West Indies.</p></div> + + +<p>The Colonial Exhibition has come and gone. Delegates from +our great self-governed dependencies have met and consulted +together, and have determined upon a common course of +action for Imperial defence. The British race dispersed over +the world have celebrated the Jubilee of the Queen with an +enthusiasm evidently intended to bear a special and peculiar +meaning. The people of these islands and their sons and +brothers and friends and kinsfolk in Canada, in Australia, +and in New Zealand have declared with a general voice, +scarcely disturbed by a discord, that they are fellow-subjects +of a single sovereign, that they are united in feeling, united +in loyalty, united in interest, and that they wish and mean +to preserve unbroken the integrity of the British Empire. +This is the answer which the democracy has given to the +advocates of the doctrine of separation. The desire for union +while it lasts is its own realisation. As long as we have no +wish to part we shall not part, and the wish can never rise +if when there is occasion we can meet and deliberate together +with the same regard for each other's welfare which has been +shown in the late conference in London.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<p>Events mock at human foresight, and nothing is certain but +the unforeseen. Constitutional government and an independent +executive were conferred upon our larger colonies, with +the express and scarcely veiled intention that at the earliest +moment they were to relieve the mother country of responsibility +for them. They were regarded as fledgelings who are +fed only by the parent birds till their feathers are grown, and +are then expected to shift for themselves. They were provided +with the full plumage of parliamentary institutions on +the home pattern and model, and the expectation of experienced +politicians was that they would each at the earliest +moment go off on their separate accounts, and would bid us +a friendly farewell. The irony of fate has turned to folly the +wisdom of the wise. The wise themselves, the same political +party which were most anxious twenty years ago to see the +colonies independent, and contrived constitutions for them +which they conceived must inevitably lead to separation, appeal +now to the effect of those very constitutions in drawing +the Empire closer together, as a reason why a similar method +should be immediately adopted to heal the differences between +Great Britain and Ireland. New converts to any belief, +political or theological, are proverbially zealous, and perhaps +in this instance they are over-hasty. It does not follow that +because people of the same race and character are +drawn together by equality and liberty, people of different +races and different characters, who have quarrelled +for centuries, will be similarly attracted to one another. +Yet so far as our own colonies are concerned it is clear +that the abandonment by the mother country of all pretence +to interfere in their internal management has removed +the only cause which could possibly have created a desire for +independence. We cannot, even if we wish it ourselves, +shake off connections who cost us nothing and themselves refuse +to be divided. Politicians may quarrel; the democracies +have refused to quarrel; and the result of the wide extension +of the suffrage throughout the Empire has been to show that +being one the British people everywhere intend to remain one.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +With the same blood, the same language, the same habits, the +same traditions, they do not mean to be shattered into dishonoured +fragments. All of us, wherever we are, can best +manage our own affairs within our own limits; yet local +spheres of self-management can revolve round a common centre +while there is a centripetal power sufficient to hold them; +and so long as England 'to herself is true' and continues +worthy of her ancient reputation, there are no causes working +visibly above the political horizon which are likely to induce +our self-governed colonies to take wing and leave us. The +strain will come with the next great war. During peace these +colonies have only experienced the advantage of union with +us. They will then have to share our dangers, and may ask why +they are to be involved in quarrels which are not of their own +making. How they will act then only experience can tell; +and that there is any doubt about it is a sufficient answer to +those rapid statesmen who would rush at once into the application +of the same principle to countries whose continuance +with us is vital to our own safety, whom we cannot part with +though they were to demand it at the cannon's mouth.</p> + +<p>But the result of the experiment is an encouragement as far +as it has gone to those who would extend self-government +through the whole of our colonial system. It seems to lead +as a direct road into the 'Imperial Federation' which has +fascinated the general imagination. It removes friction. We +relieve ourselves of responsibilities. If federation is to come +about at all as a definite and effective organisation, the +spontaneous action of the different members of the Empire +in a position in which they are free to stay with us or to leave +us as they please, appears the readiest and perhaps the only +means by which it can be brought to pass. So plausible is the +theory, so obviously right would it be were the problem as +simple and the population of all our colonies as homogeneous +as in Australia, that one cannot wonder at the ambition of +politicians to win themselves a name and achieve a great +result by the immediate adoption of it. Great results +generally imply effort and sacrifice. Here effort is un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>necessary +and sacrifice is not demanded. Everybody is to +have what he wishes, and the effect is to come about of itself. +When we think of India, when we think of Ireland, prudence +tells us to hesitate. Steps once taken in this direction cannot +be undone, even if found to lead to the wrong place. But +undoubtedly, wherever it is possible, the principle of self-government +ought to be applied in our colonies and will be +applied, and the danger now is that it will be tried in haste in +countries either as yet unripe for it or from the nature of +things unfit for it. The liberties which we grant freely to +those whom we trust and who do not require to be restrained, +we bring into disrepute if we concede them as readily to +perversity or disaffection or to those who, like most Asiatics, +do not desire liberty, and prosper best when they are led +and guided.</p> + +<p>In this complex empire of ours the problem presents itself +in many shapes, and each must be studied and dealt with +according to its character. There is the broad distinction +between colonies and conquered countries. Colonists are +part of ourselves. Foreigners attached by force to our +dominions may submit to be ruled by us, but will not always +consent to rule themselves in accordance with our views or +interests, or remain attached to us if we enable them to leave +us when they please. The Crown, therefore, as in India, +rules directly by the police and the army. And there are +colonies which are neither one nor the other, where our own +people have been settled and have been granted the land in +possession with the control of an insubordinate population, +themselves claiming political privileges which had to be +refused to the rest. This was the position of Ireland, and +the result of meddling theoretically with it ought to have +taught us caution. Again, there are colonies like the West +Indies, either occupied originally by ourselves, as Barbadoes, +or taken by force from France or Spain, where the mass of +the population were slaves who have been since made free, +but where the extent to which the coloured people can be +admitted to share in the administration is still an unsettled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +question. To throw countries so variously circumstanced +under an identical system would be a wild experiment. +Whether we ought to try such an experiment at all, or even +wish to try it and prepare the way for it, depends perhaps +on whether we have determined that under all circumstances +the retention of them under our own flag is indispensable to +our safety.</p> + +<p>I had visited our great Pacific colonies. Circumstances +led me afterwards to attend more particularly to the West +ladies. They were the earliest, and once the most prized, of +all our distant possessions. They had been won by the most +desperate struggles, and had been the scene of our greatest +naval glories. In the recent discussion on the possibility of an +organised colonial federation, various schemes came under my +notice, in every one of which the union of the West Indian +Islands under a free parliamentary constitution was regarded +as a necessary preliminary. I was reminded of a conversation +which I had held seventeen years ago with a high colonial +official specially connected with the West Indian department, +in which the federation of the islands under such a constitution +was spoken of as a measure already determined on, +though with a view to an end exactly the opposite of that +which was now desired. The colonies universally were then +regarded in such quarters as a burden upon our resources, of +which we were to relieve ourselves at the earliest moment. +They were no longer of special value to us; the whole world +had become our market; and whether they were nominally +attached to the Empire, or were independent, or joined themselves +to some other power, was of no commercial moment to +us. It was felt, however, that as long as any tie remained, we +should be obliged to defend them in time of war; while they, +in consequence of their connection, would be liable to attack. +The sooner, therefore, the connection was ended, the better +for them and for us.</p> + +<p>By the constitutions which had been conferred upon them, +Australia and Canada, New Zealand and the Cape, were +assumed to be practically gone. The same measures were to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +be taken with the West Indies. They were not prosperous. +They formed no outlet for British emigration; the white +population was diminishing; they were dissatisfied; they lay +close to the great American republic, to which geographically +they more properly belonged. Representative assemblies +under the Crown had failed to produce the content expected +from them or to give an impulse to industry. The free +negroes could not long be excluded from the franchise. The +black and white races had not amalgamated and were not +inclining to amalgamate. The then recent Gordon riots had +been followed by the suicide of the old Jamaican constitution. +The government of Jamaica had been flung back upon the +Crown, and the Crown was impatient of the addition to its +obligations. The official of whom I speak informed me that a +decision had been irrevocably taken. The troops were to be +withdrawn from the islands, and Jamaica, Trinidad, and the +English Antilles were to be masters of their own destiny, +either to form into free communities like the Spanish American +republics, or to join the United States, or to do what they +pleased, with the sole understanding that we were to have no +more responsibilities.</p> + +<p>I do not know how far the scheme was matured. To +an outside spectator it seemed too hazardous to have been +seriously meditated. Yet I was told that it had not been +meditated only but positively determined upon, and that +further discussion of a settled question would be fruitless and +needlessly irritating.</p> + +<p>Politicians with a favourite scheme are naturally sanguine. +It seemed to me that in a West Indian Federation the black +race would necessarily be admitted to their full rights as +citizens. Their numbers enormously preponderated, and the +late scenes in Jamaica were signs that the two colours would +not blend into one, that there might be, and even inevitably +would be, collisions between them which would lead to actions +which we could not tolerate. The white residents and the +negroes had not been drawn together by the abolition of +slavery, but were further apart than ever. The whites, if by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +superior intelligence they could gain the upper hand, would +not be allowed to keep it. As little would they submit to +be ruled by a race whom they despised; and I thought it +quite certain that something would happen which would +compel the British Government to interfere again, whether +we liked it or not. Liberty in Hayti had been followed +by a massacre of the French inhabitants, and the French +settlers had done no worse than we had done to deserve the +ill will of their slaves. Fortunately opinion changed in England +before the experiment could be tried. The colonial +policy of the doctrinaire statesmen was no sooner understood +than it was universally condemned, and they could not press +proposals on the West Indies which the West Indians showed +so little readiness to meet.</p> + +<p>So things drifted on, remaining to appearance as they were. +The troops were not recalled. A minor confederation was +formed in the Leeward Antilles. The Windward group +was placed under Barbadoes, and islands which before had +governors of their own passed under subordinate administrators. +Local councils continued under various conditions, +the popular element being cautiously and silently introduced. +The blacks settled into a condition of easy-going peasant +proprietors. But so far as the white or English interest was +concerned, two causes which undermined West Indian prosperity +continued to operate. So long as sugar maintained its +price the planters with the help of coolie labour were able to +struggle on; but the beetroot bounties came to cut from +under them the industry in which they had placed their main +dependence; the reports were continually darker of distress +and rapidly approaching ruin; petitions for protection were +not or could not be granted. They were losing heart—the +worst loss of all; while the Home Government, no longer with +a view to separation, but with the hope that it might produce +the same effect which it produced elsewhere, were still looking +to their old remedy of the extension of the principle of self-government. +One serious step was taken very recently towards +the re-establishment of a constitution in Jamaica. It was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +assumed that it had failed before because the blacks were not +properly represented. The council was again made partially +elective, and the black vote was admitted on the widest basis. +A power was retained by the Crown of increasing in case of +necessity the nominated official members to a number which +would counterbalance the elected members; but the power +had not been acted on and was not perhaps designed to +continue, and a restless hope was said to have revived among +the negroes that the day was not far off when Jamaica would +be as Hayti and they would have the island to themselves.</p> + +<p>To a person like myself, to whom the preservation of the +British Empire appeared to be the only public cause in which +just now it was possible to feel concern, the problem was +extremely interesting. I had no prejudice against self-government. +I had seen the Australian colonies growing under it in +health and strength with a rapidity which rivalled the progress +of the American Union itself. I had observed in South Africa +that the confusions and perplexities there diminished exactly +in proportion as the Home Government ceased to interfere. I +could not hope that as an outsider I could see my way through +difficulties where practised eyes were at a loss. But it was +clear that the West Indies were suffering, be the cause what it +might. I learnt that a party had risen there at last which was +actually in favour of a union with America, and I wished to +find an answer to a question which I had long asked myself to +no purpose. My old friend Mr. Motley was once speaking to +me of the probable accession of Canada to the American +republic. I asked him if he was sure that Canada would like +it. 'Like it?' he replied. 'Would I like the house of Baring +to take me into partnership?' To be a partner in the British +Empire appeared to me to be at least as great a thing as +to be a State under the stars and stripes. What was it that +Canada, what was it that any other colony, would gain by exchanging +British citizenship for American citizenship? What +did America offer to those who joined her which we refused +to give or neglected to give? Was it that Great Britain did +not take her colonies into partnership at all? was it that while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +in the United States the blood circulated freely from the heart +to the extremities, so that 'if one member suffered all the +body suffered with it,' our colonies were simply (as they used +to be called) 'plantations,' offshoots from the old stock set +down as circumstances had dictated in various parts of the +globe, but vitally detached and left to grow or to wither +according to their own inherent strength?</p> + +<p>At one time the West Indian colonies had been more to +us than such casual seedlings. They had been precious regarded as +jewels, which hundreds of thousands of English +lives had been sacrificed to tear from France and Spain. +The Caribbean Sea was the cradle of the Naval Empire of +Great Britain. There Drake and Hawkins intercepted the +golden stream which flowed from Panama into the exchequer +at Madrid, and furnished Philip with the means to carry on +his war with the Reformation. The Pope had claimed to +be lord of the new world as well as of the old, and had declared +that Spaniards, and only Spaniards, should own territory +or carry on trade there within the tropics. The seamen +of England took up the challenge and replied with cannon +shot. It was not the Crown, it was not the Government, +which fought that battle: it was the people of England who +fought it with their own hands and their own resources. Adventurers, +buccaneers, corsairs, privateers, call them by what +name we will, stand as extraordinary, but characteristic figures +on the stage of history, disowned or acknowledged by their +sovereign as suited diplomatic convenience. The outlawed +pirate of one year was promoted the next to be a governor +and his country's representative. In those waters, the men +were formed and trained who drove the Armada through the +Channel into wreck and ruin. In those waters, in the centuries +which followed, France and England fought for the +ocean empire, and England won it—won it on the day when +her own politicians' hearts had failed them, and all the powers +of the world had combined to humiliate her, and Rodney +shattered the French fleet, saved Gibraltar, and avenged York +Town. If ever the naval exploits of this country are done<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +into an epic poem—and since the Iliad there has been no +subject better fitted for such treatment or better deserving +it—the West Indies will be the scene of the most brilliant +cantos. For England to allow them to drift away from her +because they have no immediate marketable value would be +a sign that she had lost the feelings with which great nations +always treasure the heroic traditions of their fathers. When +those traditions come to be regarded as something which +concerns them no longer, their greatness is already on the +wane.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In the train for Southampton—Morning papers—The new 'Locksley Hall'—Past +and present—The 'Moselle'—Heavy weather—The petrel—The +Azores.</p></div> + + +<p>The last week in December, when the year 1886 was waning +to its close, I left Waterloo station to join a West Indian mail +steamer at Southampton. The air was frosty; the fog lay thick +over city and river; the Houses of Parliament themselves +were scarcely visible as I drove across Westminster Bridge in +the heavy London vapour—a symbol of the cloud which was +hanging over the immediate political future. The morning +papers were occupied with Lord Tennyson's new 'Locksley +Hall' and Mr. Gladstone's remarks upon it. I had read +neither; but from the criticisms it appeared that Lord Tennyson +fancied himself to have seen a change pass over England +since his boyhood, and a change which was not to his mind. +The fruit of the new ideas which were then rising from the +ground had ripened, and the taste was disagreeable to him. +The day which had followed that 'august sunrise' had not +been 'august' at all; and 'the beautiful bold brow of Freedom' +had proved to have something of brass upon it. The 'use +and wont' England, the England out of which had risen the +men who had won her great position for her, was losing its old +characteristics. Things which in his eager youth Lord Tenny<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>son +had despised he saw now that he had been mistaken in +despising; and the new notions which were to remake the +world were not remaking it in a shape that pleased him. Like +Goethe, perhaps he felt that he was stumbling over the roots of +the tree which he had helped to plant.</p> + +<p>The contrast in Mr. Gladstone's article was certainly remarkable. +Lord Tennyson saw in institutions which were passing +away the decay of what in its time had been great and noble, +and he saw little rising in the place of them which humanly +could be called improvement. To Mr. Gladstone these +revolutionary years had been years of the sweeping off of long +intolerable abuses, and of awaking to higher and truer perceptions +of duty. Never, according to him, in any period of her +history had England made more glorious progress, never had +stood higher than at the present moment in material power +and moral excellence. How could it be otherwise when they +were the years of his own ascendency?</p> + +<p>Metaphysicians tell us that we do not know anything as it +really is. What we call outward objects are but impressions +generated upon our sense by forces of the actual nature of +which we are totally ignorant. We imagine that we hear a +sound, and that the sound is something real which is outside +us; but the sound is in the ear and is made by the ear, and +the thing outside is but a vibration of air. If no animal +existed with organs of hearing, the vibrations might be as +before, but there would be no such thing as sound; and all +our opinions on all subjects whatsoever are equally subjective. +Lord Tennyson's opinions and Mr. Gladstone's opinions +reveal to us only the nature and texture of their own minds, +which have been affected in this way or that way. The scale +has not been made in which we can weigh the periods in a +nation's life, or measure them one against the other. The past +is gone, and nothing but the bones of it can be recalled. We +but half understand the present, for each age is a chrysalis, and +we are ignorant into what it may develop. We do not even +try to understand it honestly, for we shut our eyes against what +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>we do not wish to see. I will not despond with Lord Tennyson. +To take a gloomy view of things will not mend them, +and modern enlightenment may have excellent gifts in store +for us which will come by-and-by. But I will not say that they +have come as yet. I will not say that public life is improved +when party spirit has degenerated into an organised civil war, +and a civil war which can never end, for it renews its life like +the giant of fable at every fresh election. I will not say that +men are more honest and more law-abiding when debts are +repudiated and law is defied in half the country, and Mr. +Gladstone himself applauds or refuses to condemn acts of open +dishonesty. We are to congratulate ourselves that duelling +has ceased, but I do not know that men act more honourably +because they can be called less sharply to account. 'Smuggling,' +we are told, has disappeared also, but the wrecker scuttles +his ship or runs it ashore to cheat the insurance office. The +Church may perhaps be improved in the arrangement of the +services and in the professional demonstrativeness of the clergy, +but I am not sure that the clergy have more influence over +the minds of men than they had fifty years ago, or that the +doctrines which the Church teaches are more powerful over +public opinion. One would not gather that our morality was +so superior from the reports which we see in the newspapers, +and girls now talk over novels which the ladies' maids of their +grandmothers might have read in secret but would have blushed +while reading. Each age would do better if it studied its own +faults and endeavoured to mend them, instead of comparing +itself with others to its own advantage.</p> + +<p>This only was clear to me in thinking over what Mr. Gladstone +was reported to have said, and in thinking of his own +achievements and career, that there are two classes of men who +have played and still play a prominent part in the world—those +who accomplish great things, and those who talk and +make speeches about them. The doers of things are for the +most part silent. Those who build up empires or discover +secrets of science, those who paint great pictures or write great +poems, are not often to be found spouting upon platforms. +The silent men do the work. The talking men cry out at what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +is done because it is not done as they would have had it, and +afterwards take possession of it as if it was their own property. +Warren Hastings wins India for us; the eloquent Burke desires +and passionately tries to hang him for it. At the supreme +crisis in our history when America had revolted and Ireland +was defiant, when the great powers of Europe had coalesced to +crush us, and we were staggering under the disaster at York +Town, Rodney struck a blow in the West Indies which sounded +over the world and saved for Britain her ocean sceptre. Just +in time, for the popular leaders had persuaded the House of +Commons that Rodney ought to be recalled and peace made +on any terms. Even in politics the names of oratorical statesmen +are rarely associated with the organic growth of enduring +institutions. The most distinguished of them have been conspicuous +only as instruments of destruction. Institutions are +the slow growths of centuries. The orator cuts them down in +a day. The tree falls, and the hand that wields the axe is +admired and applauded. The speeches of Demosthenes and +Cicero pass into literature, and are studied as models of +language. But Demosthenes and Cicero did not understand +the facts of their time; their language might be beautiful, and +their sentiments noble, but with their fine words and sentiments +they only misled their countrymen. The periods where +the orator is supreme are marked always by confusion and +disintegration. Goethe could say of Luther that he had +thrown back for centuries the spiritual cultivation of mankind, +by calling the passions of the multitude to judge of matters +which should have been left to the thinkers. We ourselves +are just now in one of those uneasy periods, and we have +decided that orators are the fittest people to rule over us. The +constituencies choose their members according to the fluency +of their tongues. Can he make a speech? is the one test of +competency for a legislator, and the most persuasive of the +whole we make prime minister. We admire the man for his +gifts, and we accept what he says for the manner in which it is +uttered. He may contradict to-day what he asserted yesterday. +No matter. He can persuade others wherever he is persuaded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +himself. And such is the nature of him that he can convince +himself of anything which it is his interest to believe. These +are the persons who are now regarded as our wisest. It was +not always so. It is not so now with nations who are in a +sound state of health. The Americans, when they choose a +President or a Secretary of State or any functionary from +whom they require wise action, do not select these famous +speech-makers. Such periods do not last, for the condition +which they bring about becomes always intolerable. I do not +believe in the degeneracy of our race. I believe the present +generation of Englishmen to be capable of all that their +fathers were and possibly of more; but we are just now in a +moulting state, and are sick while the process is going on. Or +to take another metaphor. The bow of Ulysses is unstrung. +The worms have not eaten into the horn or the moths injured +the string, but the owner of the house is away and the suitors +of Penelope Britannia consume her substance, rivals one of +another, each caring only for himself, but with a common +heart in evil. They cannot string the bow. Only the true +lord and master can string it, and in due time he comes, and +the cord is stretched once more upon the notch, singing to the +touch of the finger with the sharp note of the swallow; and +the arrows fly to their mark in the breasts of the pretenders, +while Pallas Athene looks on approving from her coign of +vantage.</p> + +<p>Random meditations of this kind were sent flying through +me by the newspaper articles on Tennyson and Mr. Gladstone. +The air cleared, and my mind also, as we ran beyond +the smoke. The fields were covered deep with snow; a white +vapour clung along the ground, the winter sky shining through +it soft and blue. The ponds and canals were hard frozen, and +men were skating and boys were sliding, and all was brilliant +and beautiful. The ladies of the forest, the birch trees beside +the line about Farnborough, were hung with jewels of ice, and +glittered like a fretwork of purple and silver. It was like +escaping out of a nightmare into happy healthy England once +more. In the carriage with me were several gentlemen;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +officers going out to join their regiments; planters who had +been at home on business; young sportsmen with rifles and +cartridge cases who were hoping to shoot alligators, &c., all +bound like myself for the West Indian mail steamer. The +elders talked of sugar and of bounties, and of the financial ruin +of the islands. I had heard of this before I started, and I +learnt little from them which I had not known already; but I +had misgivings whether I was not wandering off after all on a +fool's errand. I did not want to shoot alligators, I did not +understand cane growing or want to understand it, nor was I +likely to find a remedy for encumbered and bankrupt landowners. +I was at an age too when men grow unfit for roaming, +and are expected to stay quietly at home. Plato says that to +travel to any profit one should go between fifty and sixty; not +sooner because one has one's duties to attend to as a citizen; +not after because the mind becomes hebetated. The chief +object of going abroad, in Plato's opinion, is to converse with +<span class="greek">θειοι ἅνδρες</span> inspired men, whom Providence scatters about +the globe, and from whom alone wisdom can be learnt. And +I, alas! was long past the limit, and <span class="greek">θειοι ἅνδρες</span> are not to be +met with in these times. But if not with inspired men, I +might fall in at any rate with sensible men who would talk on +things which I wanted to know. Winter and spring in a warm +climate were pleasanter than a winter and spring at home; and +as there is compensation in all things, old people can see some +objects more clearly than young people can see them. They +have no interest of their own to mislead their perception. +They have lived too long to believe in any formulas or +theories. 'Old age,' the Greek poet says, 'is not wholly a +misfortune. Experience teaches things which the young know +not.'<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Old men at any rate like to think so.</p> + +<p>The 'Moselle,' in which I had taken my passage, was a +large steamer of 4,000 tons, one of the best where all are good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>—on +the West Indian mail line. Her long straight sides and +rounded bottom promised that she would roll, and I may say +that the promise was faithfully kept; but except to the +stomachs of the inexperienced rolling is no disadvantage. A +vessel takes less water on board in a beam sea when she yields +to the wave than when she stands up stiff and straight against +it. The deck when I went on board was slippery with ice. +There was the usual crowd and confusion before departure, +those who were going out being undistinguishable, till the bell +rang to clear the ship, from the friends who had accompanied +them to take leave. I discovered, however, to my satisfaction +that our party in the cabin would not be a large one. +The West Indians who had come over for the Colonial +Exhibition were most of them already gone. They, along +with the rest, had taken back with them a consciousness that +their visit had not been wholly in vain, and that the interest of +the old country in her distant possessions seemed quickening +into life once more. The commissioners from all our dependencies +had been fêted in the great towns, and the people had +come to Kensington in millions to admire the productions +which bore witness to the boundless resources of British +territory. Had it been only a passing emotion of wonder and +pride, or was it a prelude to a more energetic policy and +active resolution? Anyway it was something to be glad of. +Receptions and public dinners and loyal speeches will not +solve political problems, but they create the feeling of good +will which underlies the useful consideration of them. The +Exhibition had served the purpose which it was intended for. +The conference of delegates grew out of it which has discussed +in the happiest temper the elements of our future relations.</p> + +<p>But the Exhibition doors were now closed, and the multitude +of admirers or contributors were dispersed or dispersing +to their homes. In the 'Moselle' we had only the latest +lingerers or the ordinary passengers who went to and fro +on business or pleasure. I observed them with the curiosity +with which one studies persons with whom one is to be +shut up for weeks in involuntary intimacy. One young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +Demerara planter attracted my notice, as he had with him +a newly married and beautiful wife whose fresh complexion +would so soon fade, as it always does in those lands where +nature is brilliant with colour and English cheeks grow +pale. I found also to my surprise and pleasure a daughter +of one of my oldest and dearest friends, who was going out +to join her husband in Trinidad. This was a happy accident +to start with. An announcement printed in Spanish in large +letters in a conspicuous position intimated that I must be +prepared for habits in some of our companions of a less +agreeable kind.</p> + +<p>'Se suplica á los señores pasajeros de no escupir sobre la +cubierta de popa.'</p> + +<p>I may as well leave the words untranslated, but the 'supplication' +is not unnecessary. The Spanish colonists, like their +countrymen at home, smoke everywhere with the usual consequences. +The captain of one of our mail boats found it +necessary to read one of them who disregarded it a lesson +which he would remember. He sent for the quartermaster +with a bucket and a mop, and ordered him to stay by this +gentleman and clean up till he had done.</p> + +<p>The wind when we started was light and keen from the +north. The afternoon sky was clear and frosty. Southampton +Water was still as oil, and the sun went down crimson +behind the brown woods of the New Forest. Of the 'Moselle's' +speed we had instant evidence, for a fast Government +launch raced us for a mile or two, and off Netley gave up the +chase. We went leisurely along, doing thirteen knots without +effort, swept by Calshot into the Solent, and had cleared the +Needles before the last daylight had left us. In a few days +the ice would be gone, and we should lie in the soft air of +perennial summer.</p> + +<p style="margin-left:10em"> +Singula de nobis anni prædantur euntes:<br /> +Eripuere jocos, Venerem, convivia, ludum—<br /> +</p> + +<p>But the flying years had not stolen from me the delight of +finding myself once more upon the sea; the sea which is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +eternally young, and gives one back one's own youth and +buoyancy.</p> + +<p>Down the Channel the north wind still blew, and the water +was still smooth. We set our canvas at the Needles, and +flew on for three days straight upon our course with a steady +breeze. We crossed 'the Bay' without the fiddles on the +dinner table; we were congratulating ourselves that, mid-winter +as it was, we should reach the tropics and never need them. +I meanwhile made acquaintances among my West Indian +fellow-passengers, and listened to their tale of grievances. +The Exhibition had been well enough in its way, but Exhibitions +would not fill an empty exchequer or restore ruined +plantations. The mother country I found was still regarded +as a stepmother, and from more than one quarter I heard a +more than muttered wish that they could be 'taken into partnership' +by the Americans. They were wasting away under +Free Trade and the sugar bounties. The mother country +gave them fine words, but words were all. If they belonged +to the United States they would have the benefit of a close +market in a country where there were 60,000,000 sugar +drinkers. Energetic Americans would come among them and +establish new industries, and would control the unmanageable +negroes. From the most loyal I heard the despairing cry of +the Britons, 'the barbarians drive us into the sea and the sea +drives us back upon the barbarians.' They could bear Free +Trade which was fair all round, but not Free Trade which was +made into a mockery by bounties. And it seemed that their +masters in Downing Street answered them as the Romans +answered our forefathers. 'We have many colonies, and we +shall not miss Britain. Britain is far off, and must take care +of herself. She brings us responsibility, and she brings us no +revenue; we cannot tax Italy for the sake of Britons. We +have given them our arms and our civilisation. We have +done enough. Let them do now what they can or please.' +Virtually this is what England says to the West Indians, or +would say if despair made them actively troublesome, notwithstanding +Exhibitions and expansive sentiments. The answer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +from Rome we can now see was the voice of dying greatness, +which was no longer worthy of the place in the world which it +had made for itself in the days of its strength; but it +doubtless seemed reasonable enough at the time, and indeed +was the only answer which the Rome of Honorius could +give.</p> + +<p>A change in the weather cut short our conversations, and +drove half the company to their berths. On the fourth morning +the wind chopped back to the north-west. A beam sea set +in, and the 'Moselle' justified my conjectures about her. She +rolled gunwale under, rolled at least forty degrees each way, +and unshipped a boat out of her davits to windward. The +waves were not as high as I have known the Atlantic produce +when in the humour for it, but they were short, steep, and +curling. Tons of water poured over the deck. The few of us +who ventured below to dinner were hit by the dumb waiters +which swung over our heads; and the living waiters staggered +about with the dishes and upset the soup into our laps. Everybody +was grumbling and miserable. Driven to my cabin I +was dozing on a sofa when I was jerked off and dropped upon +the floor. The noise down below on these occasions is considerable. +The steering chains clank, unfastened doors slam to +and fro, plates and dishes and glass fall crashing at some lurch +which is heavier than usual, with the roar of the sea underneath +as a constant accompaniment.</p> + +<p>When a wave strikes the ship full on the quarter and she +staggers from stem to stern, one wonders how any construction +of wood and iron can endure such blows without being +shattered to fragments. And it would be shattered, as I +heard an engineer once say, if the sea was not such a gentle +creature after all. I crept up to the deck house to watch +through the lee door the wild magnificence of the storm. +Down came a great green wave, rushed in a flood over everything, +and swept me drenched to the skin down the stairs into +the cabin. I crawled to bed to escape cold, and slid up and +down my berth like a shuttle at every roll of the ship till I fell +into the unconsciousness which is a substitute for sleep, slept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +at last really, and woke at seven in the morning to find the +sun shining, and the surface of the ocean still undulating but +glassy calm. The only signs left of the tempest were the +swallow-like petrels skimming to and fro in our wake, picking +up the scraps of food and the plate washings which the cook's +mate had thrown overboard; smallest and beautifullest of all +the gull tribe, called petrel by our ancestors, who went to their +Bibles more often than we do for their images, in memory of +St. Peter, because they seem for a moment to stand upon the +water when they stoop upon any floating object.<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> In the afternoon +we passed the Azores, rising blue and fairy-like out of the +ocean; unconscious they of the bloody battles which once +went on under their shadows. There it was that Grenville, in +the 'Revenge,' fought through a long summer day alone +against a host of enemies, and died there and won immortal +honour. The Azores themselves are Grenville's monument, +and in the memory of Englishmen are associated for ever with +his glorious story. Behind these islands, too, lay Grenville's +comrades, the English privateers, year after year waiting for +Philip's plate fleet. Behind these islands lay French squadrons +waiting for the English sugar ships. They are calm and silent +now, and are never likely to echo any more to battle thunder. +Men come and go and play out their little dramas, epic or +tragic, and it matters nothing to nature. Their wild pranks +leave no scars, and the decks are swept clean for the next +comers.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +ὦ τἑκνον, οὐχ ἅπαντα τῷ γήρᾳ κακἁ;<br /> + ἡ ᾿εμπειρἱα<br /> +ἕχει τι λέξαι τῶν νέων σοφώτερον.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> This is the explanation of the name which is given by Dampier.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The tropics—Passengers on board—Account of the Darien Canal—Planters' +complaints—West Indian history—The Spanish conquest—Drake and +Hawkins—The buccaneers—The pirates—French and English—Rodney—Battle +of April 12—Peace with honour—Doers and talkers.</p></div> + +<p>Another two days and we were in the tropics. The north-east +trade blew behind us, and our own speed being taken off +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>from the speed of the wind there was scarcely air enough to +fill our sails. The waves went down and the ports were opened, +and we had passed suddenly from winter into perpetual summer, +as Jean Paul says it will be with us in death. Sleep came +back soft and sweet, and the water was warm in our morning +bath, and the worries and annoyances of life vanished in these +sweet surroundings like nightmares when we wake. How well +the Greeks understood the spiritual beauty of the sea! <span class="greek">θάλασσα +κλύξει πάντα τἀνθρώπων +κακά</span>, says Euripides. 'The sea washes +off all the woes of men.' The passengers lay about the decks +in their chairs reading story books. The young ones played +Bull. The officers flirted mildly with the pretty young ladies. +For a brief interval care and anxiety had spread their wings +and flown away, and existence itself became delightful.</p> + +<p>There was a young scientific man on board who interested +me much. He had been sent out from Kew to take charge of +the Botanical Gardens in Jamaica—was quiet, modest, and +unaffected, understood his own subjects well, and could make +others understand them; with him I had much agreeable conversation. +And there was another singular person who attracted +me even more. I took him at first for an American. +He was a Dane I found, an engineer by profession, and was +on his way to some South American republic. He was a long +lean man with grey eyes, red hair, and a laugh as if he so +enjoyed the thing that amused him that he wished to keep it +all to himself, laughing inwardly till he choked and shook with +it. His chief amusement seemed to have lain in watching the +performances of Liberal politicians in various parts of the +world. He told me of an opposition leader in some parliament +whom his rival in office had disposed of by shutting him +up in the caboose. 'In the caboose,' he repeated, screaming +with enjoyment at the thought of it, and evidently wishing that +all the parliamentary orators on the globe were in the same +place. In his wanderings he had been lately at the Darien +Canal, and gave me a wonderful account of the condition of +things there. The original estimate of the probable cost had +been twenty-six millions of our (English) money. All these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +millions had been spent already, and only a fifth of the whole +had as yet been executed. The entire cost would not be less, +under the existing management, than one hundred millions, +and he evidently doubted whether the canal would ever be +completed at all, though professionally he would not confess +to such an opinion. The waste and plunder had been incalculable. +The works and the gold that were set moving by +them made a feast for unclean harpies of both sexes from +every nation in the four continents. I liked everything about +Mr. ——. Tom Cringle's <i>Obed</i> might have been something +like him, had not <i>Obed's</i> evil genius driven him into more +dangerous ways.</p> + +<p>There was a small black boy among us, evidently of pure +blood, for his hair was wool and his colour black as ink. His +parents must have been well-to-do, for the boy had been in +Europe to be educated. The officers on board and some of +the ladies played with him as they would play with a monkey. +He had little more sense than a monkey, perhaps less, and the +gestures of him grinning behind gratings and pushing out his +long thin arms between the bars were curiously suggestive of +the original from whom we are told now that all of us came. +The worst of it was that, being lifted above his own people, he +had been taught to despise them. He was spoilt as a black +and could not be made into a white, and this I found afterwards +was the invariable and dangerous consequence whenever +a superior negro contrived to raise himself. He might do well +enough himself, but his family feel their blood as a degradation. +His children will not marry among their own people, +and not only will no white girl marry a negro, but hardly any +dowry can be large enough to tempt a West Indian white to +make a wife of a black lady. This is one of the most sinister +features in the present state of social life there.</p> + +<p>Small personalities cropped up now and then. We had +representatives of all professions among us except the Church +of England clergy. Of them we had not one. The captain, +as usual, read us the service on Sundays on a cushion for a +desk, with the union jack spread over it. On board ship the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +captain, like a sovereign, is supreme, and in spiritual matters +as in secular. Drake was the first commander who carried +the theory into practice when he excommunicated his chaplain. +It is the law now, and the tradition has gone on unbroken. +In default of clergy we had a missionary, who for the most +part kept his lips closed. He did open them once, and at my +expense. Apropos of nothing he said to me, 'I wonder, sir, +whether you ever read the remarks upon you in the newspapers. +If all the attacks upon your writings which I have +seen were collected together they would make an interesting +volume.' This was all. He had delivered his soul and relapsed +into silence.</p> + +<p>From a Puerto Rico merchant I learnt that, if the English +colonies were in a bad way, the Spanish colonies were in a +worse. His own island, he said, was a nest of squalor, misery, +vice, and disease. Blacks and whites were equally immoral; +and so far as habits went, the whites were the filthier of the +two. The complaints of the English West Indians were less +sweeping, and, as to immorality between whites and blacks, +neither from my companions in the 'Moselle' nor anywhere +afterward did I hear or see a sign of it. The profligacy of +planter life passed away with slavery, and the changed condition +of the two races makes impossible any return to the old +habits. But they had wrongs of their own, and were eloquent +in their exposition of them. We had taken the islands from +France and Spain at an enormous expense, and we were throwing +them aside like a worn-out child's toy. We did nothing for +them. We allowed them no advantage as British subjects, and +when they tried to do something for themselves, we interposed +with an Imperial veto. The United States, seeing the West +Indian trade gravitating towards New York, had offered them +a commercial treaty, being willing to admit their sugar duty +free, in consideration of the islands admitting in return their +salt fish and flour and notions. A treaty was in process of +negotiation between the United States and the Spanish islands. +A similar treaty had been freely offered to them, which might +have saved them from ruin, and the Imperial Government had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +disallowed it. How, under such treatment, could we expect +them to be loyal to the British connection?</p> + +<p>It was a relief to turn back from these lamentations to the +brilliant period of past West Indian history. With the planters +of the present it was all <i>sugar</i>—sugar and the lazy blacks who +were England's darlings and would not work for them. The +handbooks were equally barren. In them I found nothing +but modern statistics pointing to dreary conclusions, and in +the place of any human interest, long stories of constitutions, +suffrages, representative assemblies, powers of elected members, +and powers reserved to the Crown. Such things, important +as they might be, did not touch my imagination; and to an +Englishman, proud of his country, the West Indies had a far +higher interest. Strange scenes streamed across my memory, +and a shadowy procession of great figures who have printed +their names in history. Columbus and Cortez, Vasco Nuñez, +and Las Casas; the millions of innocent Indians who, according +to Las Casas, were destroyed out of the islands, the +Spanish grinding them to death in their gold mines; the black +swarms who were poured in to take their place, and the +frightful story of the slave trade. Behind it all was the +European drama of the sixteenth century—Charles V. and +Philip fighting against the genius of the new era, and feeding +their armies with the ingots of the new world. The convulsion +spread across the Atlantic. The English Protestants and +the French Huguenots took to sea like water dogs, and challenged +their enemies in their own special domain. To the +popes and the Spaniards the new world was the property of +the Church and of those who had discovered it. A papal bull +bestowed on Spain all the countries which lay within the tropics +west of the Atlantic—a form of Monroe doctrine, not unreasonable +as long as there was force to maintain it, but the force +was indispensable, and the Protestant adventurers tried the +question with them at the cannon's mouth. They were of the +reformed faith all of them, these sea rovers of the early days, +and, like their enemies, they were of a very mixed complexion. +The Spaniards, gorged with plunder and wading in blood, were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +at the same time, and in their own eyes, crusading soldiers of +the faith, missionaries of the Holy Church, and defenders of +the doctrines which were impiously assailed in Europe. The +privateers from Plymouth and Rochelle paid also for the cost +of their expeditions with the pillage of ships and towns and the +profits of the slave trade; and they too were the unlicensed +champions of spiritual freedom in their own estimate of themselves. +The gold which was meant for Alva's troops in +Flanders found its way into the treasure houses of the London +companies. The logs of the voyages of the Elizabethan navigators +represent them faithfully as they were, freebooters of +the ocean in one aspect of them; in another, the sea warriors +of the Reformation—uncommissioned, unrecognised, fighting +on their own responsibility, liable to be disowned when they +failed, while the Queen herself would privately be a shareholder +in the adventure. It was a wild anarchic scene, fit +cradle of the spiritual freedom of a new age, when the nations +of the earth were breaking the chains in which king and priest +had bound them.</p> + +<p>To the Spaniards, Drake and his comrades were <i>corsarios</i>, +robbers, enemies of the human race, to be treated to a short +shrift whenever found and caught. British seamen who fell +into their hands were carried before the Inquisition at Lima +or Carthagena and burnt at the stake as heretics. Four of +Drake's crew were unfortunately taken once at Vera Cruz. +Drake sent a message to the governor-general that if a hair of +their heads was singed he would hang ten Spaniards for each +one of them. (This curious note is at Simancas, where I saw +it.) So great an object of terror at Madrid was El Draque that +he was looked on as an incarnation of the old serpent, and +when he failed in his last enterprise and news came that he was +dead, Lope de Vega sang a hymn of triumph in an epic poem +which he called the 'Dragontea.'</p> + +<p>When Elizabeth died and peace was made with Spain, the +adventurers lost something of the indirect countenance which +had so far been extended to them; the execution of Raleigh +being one among other marks of the change of mind. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +they continued under other names, and no active effort was +made to suppress them. The Spanish Government did in +1627 agree to leave England in possession of Barbadoes, but +the pretensions to an exclusive right to trade continued to be +maintained, and the English and French refused to recognise +it. The French privateers seized Tortuga, an island off St. +Domingo, and they and their English friends swarmed in the +Caribbean Sea as buccaneers or flibustiers. They exchanged +names, perhaps as a symbol of their alliance. 'Flibustier' +was English and a corruption of freebooter. 'Buccaneer' +came from the boucan, or dried beef, of the wild cattle which +the French hunters shot in Española, and which formed the +chief of their sea stores. Boucan became a French verb, and, +according to Labat, was itself the Carib name for the cashew +nut.</p> + +<p>War breaking out again in Cromwell's time, Penn and +Venables took Jamaica. The flibustiers from the Tortugas +drove the Spaniards out of Hayti, which was annexed to the +French crown. The comradeship in religious enthusiasm +which had originally drawn the two nations together cooled by +degrees, as French Catholics as well as Protestants took to +the trade. Port Royal became the headquarters of the +English buccaneers—the last and greatest of them being +Henry Morgan, who took and plundered Panama, was knighted +for his services, and was afterwards made vice-governor of +Jamaica. From the time when the Spaniards threw open +their trade, and English seamen ceased to be delivered over +to the Inquisition, the English buccaneers ceased to be respectable +characters and gradually drifted into the pirates of later +history, when under their new conditions they produced their +more questionable heroes, the Kidds and Blackbeards. The +French flibustiers continued long after—far into the eighteenth +century—some of them with commissions as privateers, others +as <i>forbans</i> or unlicensed rovers, but still connived at in +Martinique.</p> + +<p>Adventurers, buccaneers, pirates pass across the stage—the +curtain falls on them, and rises on a more glorious scene.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +Jamaica had become the depôt of the trade of England with +the western world, and golden streams had poured into Port +Royal. Barbadoes was unoccupied when England took possession +of it, and never passed out of our hands; but the +Antilles—the Anterior Isles—which stand like a string of emeralds +round the neck of the Caribbean Sea, had been most of +them colonised and occupied by the French, and during the +wars of the last century were the objects of a never ceasing +conflict between their fleets and ours. The French had +planted their language there, they had planted their religion +there, and the blacks of these islands generally still speak the +French patois and call themselves Catholics; but it was +deemed essential to our interests that the Antilles should +be not French but English, and Antigua, Martinique, St. +Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada were taken and retaken and +taken again in a struggle perpetually renewed. When the +American colonies revolted, the West Indies became involved +in the revolutionary hurricane. France, Spain, and Holland—our +three ocean rivals—combined in a supreme effort to +tear from us our Imperial power. The opportunity was seized +by Irish patriots to clamour for Irish nationality, and by the +English Radicals to demand liberty and the rights of man. +It was the most critical moment in later English history. If +we had yielded to peace on the terms which our enemies +offered, and the English Liberals wished us to accept, the star +of Great Britain would have set for ever.</p> + +<p>The West Indies were then under the charge of Rodney, +whose brilliant successes had already made his name famous. +He had done his country more than yeoman's service. He +had torn the Leeward Islands from the French. He had +punished the Hollanders for joining the coalition by taking +the island of St. Eustachius and three millions' worth of stores +and money. The patriot party at home led by Fox and Burke +were ill pleased with these victories, for they wished us to be +driven into surrender. Burke denounced Rodney as he +denounced Warren Hastings, and Rodney was called home to +answer for himself. In his absence Demerara, the Leeward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +Islands, St. Eustachius itself, were captured or recovered by +the enemy. The French fleet, now supreme in the western +waters, blockaded Lord Cornwallis at York Town and forced +him to capitulate. The Spaniards had fitted out a fleet at +Havannah, and the Count de Grasse, the French admiral, +fresh from the victorious thunder of the American cannon, +hastened back to refurnish himself at Martinique, intending to +join the Spaniards, tear Jamaica from us, and drive us finally +and completely out of the West Indies. One chance remained. +Rodney was ordered back to his station, and he +went at his best speed, taking all the ships with him which +could then be spared. It was mid-winter. He forced his +way to Barbadoes in five weeks spite of equinoctial storms. +The Whig orators were indignant. They insisted that we +were beaten; there had been bloodshed enough, and we must +sit down in our humiliation. The Government yielded, and a +peremptory order followed on Rodney's track, 'Strike your +flag and come home.' Had that fatal command reached him +Gibraltar would have fallen and Hastings's Indian Empire +would have melted into air. But Rodney knew that his time +was short, and he had been prompt to use it. Before the +order came, the severest naval battle in English annals had +been fought and won. De Grasse was a prisoner, and the +French fleet was scattered into wreck and ruin.</p> + +<p>De Grasse had refitted in the Martinique dockyards. He +himself and every officer in the fleet was confident that +England was at last done for, and that nothing was left but to +gather the fruits of the victory which was theirs already. Not +Xerxes, when he broke through Thermopylae and watched +from the shore his thousand galleys streaming down to the +Gulf of Salamis, was more assured that his prize was in his +hands than De Grasse on the deck of the 'Ville de Paris,' +the finest ship then floating on the seas, when he heard that +Rodney was at St. Lucia and intended to engage him. He +did not even believe that the English after so many reverses +would venture to meddle with a fleet superior in force and +inspirited with victory. All the Antilles except St. Lucia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +were his own. Tobago, Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent, +Martinique, Dominica, Guadaloupe, Montserrat, Nevis, Antigua, +and St. Kitts, he held them all in proud possession, a +string of gems, each island large as or larger than the Isle of +Man, rising up with high volcanic peaks clothed from base to +crest with forest, carved into deep ravines, and fringed with +luxuriant plains. In St. Lucia alone, lying between St. +Vincent and Dominica, the English flag still flew, and Rodney +lay there in the harbour at Castries. On April 8, 1782, the +signal came from the north end of the island that the French +fleet had sailed. Martinique is in sight of St. Lucia, and the +rock is still shown from which Rodney had watched day by +day for signs that they were moving. They were out at last, +and he instantly weighed and followed. The air was light, +and De Grasse was under the high lands of Dominica before +Rodney came up with him. Both fleets were becalmed, and +the English were scattered and divided by a current which +runs between the islands. A breeze at last blew off the land. +The French were the first to feel it, and were able to attack at +advantage the leading English division. Had De Grasse +'come down as he ought,' Rodney thought that the consequences +might have been serious. In careless imagination of +superiority they let the chance go by. They kept at a +distance, firing long shots, which as it was did considerable +damage. The two following days the fleets manœuvred in +sight of each other. On the night of the eleventh Rodney +made signal for the whole fleet to go south under press of +sail. The French thought he was flying. He tacked at two +in the morning, and at daybreak found himself where he +wished to be, with the, French fleet on his lee quarter. The +French looking for nothing but again a distant cannonade, +continued leisurely along under the north highlands of Dominica +towards the channel which separates that island from +Guadaloupe. In number of ships the fleets were equal; in +size and complement of crew the French were immensely +superior; and besides the ordinary ships' companies they had +twenty thousand soldiers on board who were to be used in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +conquest of Jamaica. Knowing well that a defeat at that +moment would be to England irreparable ruin, they did not +dream that Rodney would be allowed, even if he wished it, to +risk a close and decisive engagement. The English admiral +was aware also that his country's fate was in his hands. It +was one of those supreme moments which great men dare to +use and small men tremble at. He had the advantage of the +wind, and could force a battle or decline it, as he pleased. +With clear daylight the signal to engage was flying from the +masthead of the 'Formidable,' Rodney's ship. At seven in +the morning, April 12, 1782, the whole fleet bore down +obliquely on the French line, cutting it directly in two. +Rodney led in person. Having passed through and broken +up their order he tacked again, still keeping the wind. The +French, thrown into confusion, were unable to reform, and +the battle resolved itself into a number of separate engagements +in which the English had the choice of position.</p> + +<p>Rodney in passing through the enemy's lines the first time +had exchanged broadsides with the 'Glorieux,' a seventy-four, +at close range. He had shot away her masts and bowsprit, +and left her a bare hull; her flag, however, still flying, +being nailed to a splintered spar. So he left her unable +to stir; and after he had gone about came himself yardarm +to yardarm with the superb 'Ville de Paris,' the pride of +France, the largest ship in the then world, where De Grasse +commanded in person. All day long the cannon roared. +Rodney had on board a favourite bantam cock, which stood +perched upon the poop of the 'Formidable' through the +whole action, its shrill voice heard crowing through the thunder +of the broadsides. One by one the French ships struck +their flags or fought on till they foundered and went down. +The carnage on board them was terrible, crowded as they were +with the troops for Jamaica. Fourteen thousand were reckoned +to have been killed, besides the prisoners. The 'Ville de +Paris' surrendered last, fighting desperately after hope was +gone till her masts were so shattered that they could not bear +a sail, and her decks above and below were littered over with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +mangled limbs. De Grasse gave up his sword to Rodney on +the 'Formidable's' quarter-deck. The gallant 'Glorieux,' +unable to fly, and seeing the battle lost, hauled down her flag, +but not till the undisabled remnants of her crew were too few +to throw the dead into the sea. Other ships took fire and blew +up. Half the French fleet were either taken or sunk; the rest +crawled away for the time, most of them to be picked up afterwards +like crippled birds.</p> + +<p>So on that memorable day was the English Empire saved. +Peace followed, but it was 'peace with honour.' The American +colonies were lost; but England kept her West Indies; her +flag still floated over Gibraltar; the hostile strength of Europe +all combined had failed to twist Britannia's ocean sceptre +from her: she sat down maimed and bleeding, but the wreath +had not been torn from her brow, she was still sovereign of the +seas.</p> + +<p>The bow of Ulysses was strung in those days. The order +of recall arrived when the work was done. It was proudly +obeyed; and even the great Burke admitted that no honour +could be bestowed upon Rodney which he had not deserved at +his country's hands. If the British Empire is still to have a +prolonged career before it, the men who make empires are the +men who can hold them together. Oratorical reformers can +overthrow what deserves to be overthrown. Institutions, even +the best of them, wear out, and must give place to others, and +the fine political speakers are the instruments of their overthrow. +But the fine speakers produce nothing of their own, +and as constructive statesmen their paths are strewed with +failures. The worthies of England are the men who cleared +and tilled her fields, formed her laws, built her colleges and +cathedrals, founded her colonies, fought her battles, covered +the ocean with commerce, and spread our race over the planet +to leave a mark upon it which time will not efface. These men +are seen in their work, and are not heard of in Parliament. +When the account is wound up, where by the side of them will +stand our famous orators? What will any one of these have +left behind him save the wreck of institutions which had done<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +their work and had ceased to serve a useful purpose? That +was their business in this world, and they did it and do it; but +it is no very glorious work, not a work over which it is possible +to feel any 'fine enthusiasm.' To chop down a tree is easier +than to make it grow. When the business of destruction is +once completed, they and their fame and glory will disappear +together. Our true great ones will again be visible, and thenceforward +will be visible alone.</p> + +<p>Is there a single instance in our own or any other history of +a great political speaker who has added anything to human +knowledge or to human worth? Lord Chatham may stand as +a lonely exception. But except Chatham who is there? Not +one that I know of. Oratory is the spendthrift sister of the +arts, which decks itself like a strumpet with the tags and ornaments +which it steals from real superiority. The object of it +is not truth, but anything which it can make appear truth; +anything which it can persuade people to believe by calling in +their passions to obscure their intelligence.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>First sight of Barbadoes—Origin of the name—Père Labat—Bridgetown +two hundred years ago—Slavery and Christianity—Economic crisis—Sugar +bounties—Aspect of the streets—Government House and its occupants—Duties +of a governor of Barbadoes.</p></div> + + +<p>England was covered with snow when we left it on December +30. At sunrise on January 12 we were anchored in the roadstead +at Bridgetown, and the island of Barbadoes lay before us +shining in the haze of a hot summer morning. It is about the +size of the Isle of Wight, cultivated so far as eye could see +with the completeness of a garden; no mountains in it, scarcely +even high hills, but a surface pleasantly undulating, the prevailing +colour a vivid green from the cane fields; houses in +town and country white from the coral rock of which they are +built, but the glare from them relieved by heavy clumps of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +trees. What the trees were I had yet to discover. You could +see at a glance that the island was as thickly peopled as an ant-hill. +Not an inch of soil seemed to be allowed to run to +waste. Two hundred thousand is, I believe, the present number +of Barbadians, of whom nine-tenths are blacks. They refuse +to emigrate. They cling to their home with innocent +vanity as though it was the finest country in the world, and +multiply at a rate so rapid that no one likes to think about it. +Labour at any rate is abundant and cheap. In Barbadoes the +negro is willing enough to work, for he has no other means of +living. Little land is here allowed him to grow his yams upon. +Almost the whole of it is still held by the whites in large +estates, cultivated by labourers on the old system, and, it is to +be admitted, cultivated most admirably. If the West Indies +are going to ruin, Barbadoes, at any rate, is being ruined with +a smiling face. The roadstead was crowded with shipping—large +barques, steamers, and brigs, schooners of all shapes and +sorts. The training squadron had come into the bay for a day +or two on their way to Trinidad, four fine ships, conspicuous +by their white ensigns, a squareness of yards, and generally +imposing presence. Boats were flying to and fro under sail or +with oars, officials coming off in white calico dress, with awnings +over the stern sheets and chattering crews of negroes. +Notwithstanding these exotic symptoms, it was all thoroughly +English; we were under the guns of our own men-of-war. +The language of the Anglo-Barbadians was pure English, the +voices without the smallest transatlantic intonation. On no +one of our foreign possessions is the print of England's foot +more strongly impressed than on Barbadoes. It has been +ours for two centuries and three-quarters, and was organised +from the first on English traditional lines, with its constitution, +its parishes and parish churches and churchwardens, and schools +and parsons, all on the old model; which the unprogressive +inhabitants have been wise enough to leave undisturbed.</p> + +<p>Little is known of the island before we took possession +of it—so little that the origin of the name is still uncertain. +Barbadoes, if not a corruption of some older word, is Spanish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +or Portuguese, and means 'bearded.' The local opinion is that +the word refers to a banyan or fig tree which is common there, +and which sends down from its branches long hairs or fibres +supposed to resemble beards. I disbelieve in this derivation. +Every Spaniard whom I have consulted confirms my own impression +that 'barbados' standing alone could no more refer +to trees than 'barbati' standing alone could refer to trees in +Latin. The name is a century older than the English occupation, +for I have seen it in a Spanish chart of 1525. The +question is of some interest, since it perhaps implies that at +the first discovery there was a race of bearded Caribs there. +However this may be, Barbadoes, after we became masters of +the island, enjoyed a period of unbroken prosperity for two +hundred years. Before the conquest of Jamaica, it was the +principal mart of our West Indian trade; and even after that +conquest, when all Europe drew its new luxury of sugar from +these islands, the wealth and splendour of the English residents +at Bridgetown astonished and stirred the envy of every passing +visitor. Absenteeism as yet was not. The owners lived on +their estates, governed the island as magistrates unpaid for +their services, and equally unpaid, took on themselves the +defences of the island. Père Labat, a French missionary, paid +a visit to Barbadoes at the beginning of the eighteenth century. +He was a clever, sarcastic kind of man, with fine literary skill, +and describes what he saw with a jealous appreciation which +he intended to act upon his own countrymen. The island, +according to him, was running over with wealth, and was very +imperfectly fortified. The jewellers' and silversmiths' shops +in Bridgetown were brilliant as on the Paris boulevards. The +port was full of ships, the wharves and warehouses crammed +with merchandise from all parts of the globe. The streets +were handsome, and thronged with men of business, who were +piling up fortunes. To the Father these sumptuous gentlemen +were all most civil. The governor, an English milor, asked +him to dinner, and talked such excellent French that Labat +forgave him his nationality. The governor, he said, resided +in a fine palace. He had a well-furnished library, was dignified,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +courteous, intelligent, and lived in state like a prince. A +review was held for the French priest's special entertainment, +of the Bridgetown cavalry. Five hundred gentlemen turned +out from this one district admirably mounted and armed. +Altogether in the island he says that there were 3,000 horse +and 2,000 foot, every one of them of course white and English. +The officers struck him particularly. He met one who had +been five years a prisoner in the Bastille, and had spent his +time there in learning mathematics. The planters opened +their houses to him. Dinners then as now were the received +form of English hospitality. They lived well, Labat says. +They had all the luxuries of the tropics, and they had imported +the partridges which they were so fond of from England. +They had the costliest and choicest wines, and knew how to +enjoy them. They dined at two o'clock, and their dinner +lasted four hours. Their mansions were superbly furnished, +and gold and silver plate, he observed with an eye to business, +was so abundant that the plunder of it would pay the cost of +an expedition for the reduction of the island.</p> + +<p>There was another side to all this magnificence which also +might be turned to account by an enterprising enemy. There +were some thousands of wretched Irish, who had been transplanted +thither after the last rebellion, and were bound under +articles to labour. These might be counted on to rise if an +invading force appeared; and there were 60,000 slaves, who +would rebel also if they saw a hope of success. They were ill +fed and hard driven. On the least symptom of insubordination +they were killed without mercy: sometimes they were burnt +alive, or were hung up in iron cages to die.<a name="FNanchor_1_3" id="FNanchor_1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_3" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> In the French and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>Spanish islands care was taken of the souls of the poor creatures. +They were taught their catechism, they were baptised, and attended +mass regularly. The Anglican clergy, Labat said with +professional malice, neither baptised them nor taught them +anything, but regarded them as mere animals. To keep Christians +in slavery they held would be wrong and indefensible, +and they therefore met the difficulty by not making their slaves +into Christians. That baptism made any essential difference, +however, he does not insist. By the side of Christianity, in the +Catholic islands, devil worship and witchcraft went on among +the same persons. No instance had ever come to his knowledge +of a converted black who returned to his country who +did not throw away his Christianity just as he would throw +away his clothes; and as to cruelty and immorality, he admits +that the English at Barbadoes were no worse than his own +people at Martinique.</p> + +<p>In the collapse of West Indian prosperity which followed +on emancipation, Barbadoes escaped the misfortunes of the +other islands. The black population being so dense, and the +place itself being so small, the squatting system could not be +tried; there was plenty of labour always, and the planters +being relieved of the charge of their workmen when they were +sick or worn out, had rather gained than lost by the change. +Barbadoes, however, was not to escape for ever, and was now +having its share of misfortunes. It is dangerous for any +country to commit its fortunes to an exclusive occupation. +Sugar was the most immediately lucrative of all the West +Indian productions. Barbadoes is exceptionally well suited +to sugar-growing. It has no mountains and no forests. The +soil is clean and has been carefully attended to for two hundred +and fifty years. It had been owned during the present century +by gentlemen who for the most part lived in England on the +profits of their properties, and left them to be managed by +agents and attorneys. The method of management was +expensive. Their own habits were expensive. Their incomes, +to which they had lived up, had been cut short lately by a +series of bad seasons. Money had been borrowed at high<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +interest year after year to keep the estates and their owners +going. On the top of this came the beetroot competition +backed up by a bounty, and the Barbadian sugar interest, I +was told, had gone over a precipice. Even the unencumbered +resident proprietors could barely keep their heads above water. +The returns on three-quarters of the properties on the island +no longer sufficed to pay the expenses of cultivation and the +interest of the loans which had been raised upon them. There +was impending a general bankruptcy which might break up +entirely the present system and leave the negroes for a time +without the wages which were the sole dependence.</p> + +<p>A very dark picture had thus been drawn to me of the prospects +of the poor little island which had been once so brilliant. +Nothing could be less like it than the bright sunny landscape +which we saw from the deck of our vessel. The town, the +shipping, the pretty villas, the woods, and the wide green sea +of waving cane had no suggestion of ruin about them. If the +ruin was coming, clearly enough it had not yet come. After +breakfast we went on shore in a boat with a white awning over +it, rowed by a crew of black boatmen, large, fleshy, shining on +the skin with ample feeding and shining in the face with +innocent happiness. They rowed well. They were amusing. +There was a fixed tariff, and they were not extortionate. The +temperature seemed to rise ten degrees when we landed. +The roads were blinding white from the coral dust, the houses +were white, the sun scorching. The streets were not the streets +described by Labat; no splendid magazines or jewellers' shops +like those in Paris or London; but there were lighters at the +quays loading or unloading, carts dashing along with mule +teams and making walking dangerous; signs in plenty of life +and business; few white faces, but blacks and mulattoes +swarming. The houses were substantial, though in want of +paint. The public buildings, law courts, hall of assembly &c. +were solid and handsome, nowhere out of repair, though with +something to be desired in point of smartness. The market +square would have been well enough but for a statue of Lord +Nelson which stands there, very like, but small and insignifi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>cant, +and for some extraordinary reason they have painted it a +bright pea-green.</p> + +<p>We crept along in the shade of trees and warehouses till we +reached the principal street. Here my friends brought me to +the Icehouse, a sort of club, with reading rooms and dining +rooms, and sleeping accommodation for members from a +distance who do not like colonial hotels. Before anything +else could be thought of I was introduced to cocktail, with +which I had to make closer acquaintance afterwards, cocktail +being the established corrective of West Indian languor, without +which life is impossible. It is a compound of rum, sugar, +lime juice, Angostura bitters, and what else I know not, +frisked into effervescence by a stick, highly agreeable to the +taste and effective for its immediate purpose. Cocktail over, +and walking in the heat being a thing not to be thought of, I +sat for two hours in a balcony watching the people, who were +thick as bees in swarming time. Nine-tenths of them were +pure black; you rarely saw a white face, but still less would +you see a discontented one, imperturbable good humour and +self-satisfaction being written on the features of every one. The +women struck me especially. They were smartly dressed in +white calico, scrupulously clean, and tricked out with ribands +and feathers; but their figures were so good, and they carried +themselves so well and gracefully, that, although they might +make themselves absurd, they could not look vulgar. Like the +old Greek and Etruscan women, they are trained from childhood +to carry heavy weights on their heads. They are thus +perfectly upright, and plant their feet firmly and naturally on +the ground. They might serve for sculptors' models, and are +well aware of it. There were no signs of poverty. Old and +young seemed well-fed. Some had brought in baskets of fruit, +bananas, oranges, pine apples, and sticks of sugar cane; others +had yams and sweet potatoes from their bits of garden in the +country. The men were active enough driving carts, wheeling +barrows, or selling flying fish, which are caught off the island +in shoals and are cheaper than herrings in Yarmouth. They +chattered like a flock of jackdaws, but there was no quarrel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>ling; +not a drunken man was to be seen, and all was merriment +and good humour. My poor downtrodden black brothers and +sisters, so far as I could judge from this first introduction, +looked to me a very fortunate class of fellow-creatures.</p> + +<p>Government House, where we went to luncheon, is a large +airy building shaded by heavy trees with a garden at the back +of it. West Indian houses, I found afterwards, are all constructed +on the same pattern, the object being to keep the +sun out and let in the wind. Long verandahs or galleries run +round them protected by green Venetian blinds which can be +opened or closed at pleasure; the rooms within with polished +floors, little or no carpet, and contrivances of all kinds to keep +the air in continual circulation. In the subdued green light, +human figures lose their solidity and look as if they were +creatures of air also.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles Lees and his lady were all that was polite and +hospitable. They invited me to make their house my home +during my stay, and more charming host and hostess it would +have been impossible to find or wish for. There was not the +state which Labat described, but there was the perfection of +courtesy, a courtesy which must have belonged to their +natures, or it would have been overstrained long since by the +demands made upon it. Those who have looked on at a +skating ring will have observed an orange or some such object +in the centre round which the evolutions are described, the +ice artist sweeping out from it in long curves to the extreme +circumference, returning on interior arcs till he gains the +orange again, and then off once more on a fresh departure. +Barbadoes to the West Indian steam navigation is like the +skater's orange. All mails, all passengers from Europe, arrive +at Barbadoes first. There the subsidiary steamers catch them +up, bear them north or south to the Windward or Leeward +Isles, and on their return bring them back to Carlisle Bay. +Every vessel brings some person or persons to whom the +Governor is called on to show hospitality. He must give +dinners to the officials and gentry of the island, he must give +balls and concerts for their ladies, he must entertain the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +officers of the garrison. When the West Indian squadron or +the training squadron drop into the roadstead, admirals, commodores, +captains must all be invited. Foreign ships of war +go and come continually, Americans, French, Spaniards, or +Portuguese. Presidents of South American republics, engineers +from Darien, all sorts and conditions of men who go to +Europe in the English mail vessels, take their departure from +Carlisle Bay, and if they are neglected regard it as a national +affront. Cataracts of champagne must flow if the British name +is not to be discredited. The expense is unavoidable and is +enormous, while the Governor's very moderate salary is found +too large by economic politicians, and there is a cry for +reduction of it.</p> + +<p>I was of course most grateful for Sir Charles's invitation to +myself. From him, better perhaps than from anyone, I could +learn how far the passionate complaints which I had heard +about the state of the islands were to be listened to as accounts +of actual fact. I found, however, that I must postpone both +this particular pleasure and my stay in Barbadoes itself till a +later opportunity. My purpose had been to remain there till +I had given it all the time which I could spare, thence to go +on to Jamaica, and from Jamaica to return at leisure round +the Antilles. But it had been ascertained that in Jamaica +there was small-pox. I suppose that there generally is small-pox +there, or typhus fever, or other infectious disorder. But +spasms of anxiety assail periodically the souls of local authorities. +Vessels coming from Jamaica had been quarantined in +all the islands, and I found that if I proceeded thither as I +proposed, I should be refused permission to land afterwards +in any one of the other colonies. In my perplexity my Trinidad +friends invited me to accompany them at once to Port of +Spain. Trinidad was the most thriving, or was at all events +the least dissatisfied, of all the British possessions. I could +have a glance at the Windward Islands on the way. I could +afterwards return to Barbadoes, where Sir Charles assured me +that I should still find a room waiting for me. The steamer +to Trinidad sailed the same afternoon. I had to decide in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +haste, and I decided to go. Our luncheon over, we had time +to look over the pretty gardens at Government House. There +were great cabbage palms, cannon-ball trees, mahogany trees, +almond trees, and many more which were wholly new acquaintances. +There was a grotto made by climbing plants and creepers, +with a fountain playing in the middle of it, where orchids +hanging on wires threw out their clusters of flowers for the +moths to fertilize, ferns waved their long fronds in the dripping +showers, humming birds cooled their wings in the spray, and +flashed in and out like rubies and emeralds. Gladly would I +have lingered there, at least for a cigar, but it could not be; we +had to call on the Commander of the Forces, Sir C. Pearson, +the hero of Ekowe in the Zulu war. Him, too, I was to see +again, and hear interesting stories from about our tragic enterprise +in the Transvaal. For the moment my mind was filled +sufficiently with new impressions. One reads books about +places, but the images which they create are always unlike the +real object. All that I had seen was absolutely new and unexpected. +I was glad of an opportunity to readjust the information +which I had brought with me. We joined our new vessel +before sunset, and we steamed away into the twilight.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_3" id="Footnote_1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_3"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +Labat seems to say that they were hung up alive in these cages, and +left to die there. He says elsewhere, and it may be hoped that the explanation +is the truer one, that the recently imported negroes often destroyed +themselves, in the belief that when dead they would return to their own +country. In the French islands as well as the English, the bodies of suicides +were exposed in these cages, from which they could not be stolen, to convince +the poor people of their mistake by their own eyes. He says that the contrivance +was successful, and that after this the slaves did not destroy themselves +any more.</p></div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>West Indian politeness—Negro morals and felicity—Island of St. Vincent— +Grenada—The harbour—Disappearance of the whites—An island of black +freeholders—Tobago—Dramatic art—A promising incident.</p></div> + + +<p>West Indian civilisation is old-fashioned, and has none of the +pushing manners which belong to younger and perhaps more +thriving communities. The West Indians themselves, though +they may be deficient in energy, are uniformly ladies and +gentlemen, and all their arrangements take their complexion +from the general tone of society. There is a refinement +visible at once in the subsidiary vessels of the mail service +which ply among the islands. They are almost as large as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +those which cross the Atlantic, and never on any line in the +world have I met with officers so courteous and cultivated. +The cabins were spacious and as cool as a temperature of 80°, +gradually rising as we went south, would permit. Punkahs +waved over us at dinner. In our berths a single sheet was all +that was provided for us, and this was one more than we +needed. A sea was running when we cleared out from under +the land. Among the cabin passengers was a coloured family +in good circumstances moving about with nurses and children. +The little things, who had never been at sea before, sat on +the floor, staring out of their large helpless black eyes, not +knowing what was the matter with them. Forward there were +perhaps two or three hundred coloured people going from +one island to another, singing, dancing, and chattering all +night long, as radiant and happy as carelessness and content +could make them. Sick or not sick made no difference. +Nothing could disturb the imperturbable good humour and +good spirits.</p> + +<p>It was too hot to sleep; we sat several of us smoking on +deck, and I learnt the first authentic particulars of the present +manner of life of these much misunderstood people. Evidently +they belonged to a race far inferior to the Zulus and +Caffres, whom I had known in South Africa. They were +more coarsely formed in limb and feature. They would have +been slaves in their own country if they had not been brought +to ours, and at the worst had lost nothing by the change. +They were good-natured, innocent, harmless, lazy perhaps, but +not more lazy than is perfectly natural when even Europeans +must be roused to activity by cocktail.</p> + +<p>In the Antilles generally, Barbadoes being the only exception, +negro families have each their cabin, their garden +ground, their grazing for a cow. They live surrounded by +most of the fruits which grew in Adam's paradise—oranges +and plantains, bread-fruit, and cocoa-nuts, though not apples. +Their yams and cassava grow without effort, for the soil is +easily worked and inexhaustibly fertile. The curse is taken +off from nature, and like Adam again they are under the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +covenant of innocence. Morals in the technical sense they +have none, but they cannot be said to sin, because they have +no knowledge of a law, and therefore they can commit no +breach of the law. They are naked and not ashamed. They +are <i>married</i> as they call it, but not <i>parsoned</i>. The woman +prefers a looser tie that she may be able to leave a man if he +treats her unkindly. Yet they are not licentious. I never +saw an immodest look in one their faces, and never heard of +any venal profligacy. The system is strange, but it answers. +A missionary told me that a connection rarely turns out well +which begins with a legal marriage. The children scramble +up anyhow, and shift for themselves like chickens as soon as +they are able to peck. Many die in this way by eating +unwholesome food, but also many live, and those who do live +grow up exactly like their parents. It is a very peculiar state +of things, not to be understood, as priest and missionary +agree, without long acquaintance. There is immorality, but an +immorality which is not demoralising. There is sin, but it is +the sin of animals, without shame, because there is no sense of +doing wrong. They eat the forbidden fruit, but it brings with it +no knowledge of the difference between good and evil. They +steal, but as a tradition of the time when they were themselves +chattels, and the laws of property did not apply to them. +They are honest about money, more honest perhaps than a +good many whites. But food or articles of use they take +freely, as they were allowed to do when slaves, in pure +innocence of heart. In fact these poor children of darkness +have escaped the consequences of the Fall, and must come of +another stock after all.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile they are perfectly happy. In no part of the +globe is there any peasantry whose every want is so completely +satisfied as her Majesty's black subjects in these West Indian +islands. They have no aspirations to make them restless. +They have no guilt upon their consciences. They have food +for the picking up. Clothes they need not, and lodging in +such a climate need not be elaborate. They have perfect +liberty, and are safe from dangers, to which if left to them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>selves +they would be exposed, for the English rule prevents +the strong from oppressing the weak. In their own country +they would have remained slaves to more warlike races. In +the West Indies their fathers underwent a bondage of a +century or two, lighter at its worst than the easiest form of it +in Africa; their descendants in return have nothing now to do +save to laugh and sing and enjoy existence. Their quarrels, +if they have any, begin and end in words. If happiness is the +be all and end all of life, and those who have most of it have +most completely attained the object of their being, the +'nigger' who now basks among the ruins of the West +Indian plantations is the supremest specimen of present +humanity.</p> + +<p>We retired to our berths at last. At waking we were at +anchor off St. Vincent, an island of volcanic mountains robed +in forest from shore to crest. Till late in the last century it +was the headquarters of the Caribs, who kept up a savage +independence there, recruited by runaway slaves from Barbadoes +or elsewhere. Brandy and Sir Ralph Abercrombie +reduced them to obedience in 1796, and St. Vincent throve +tolerably down to the days of free trade. Even now when I +saw it, Kingston, the principal town, looked pretty and well to +do, reminding me, strange to say, of towns in Norway, the +houses stretching along the shore painted in the same tints of +blue or yellow or pink, with the same red-tiled roofs, the trees +coming down the hill sides to the water's edge, villas of +modest pretensions shining through the foliage, with the +patches of cane fields, the equivalent in the landscape of the +brilliant Norwegian grass. The prosperity has for the last +forty years waned and waned. There are now two thousand +white people there, and forty thousand coloured people, and +proportions alter annually to our disadvantage. The usual +remedies have been tried. The constitution has been altered +a dozen times. Just now I believe the Crown is trying to do +without one, having found the results of the elective principle +not encouraging, but we shall perhaps revert to it before long; +any way, the tables show that each year the trade of the island<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +decreases, and will continue to decrease while the expenditure +increases and will increase.</p> + +<p>I did not land, for the time was short, and as a beautiful +picture the island was best seen from the deck. The characteristics +of the people are the same in all the Antilles, and +could be studied elsewhere. The bustle and confusion in the +ship, the crowd of boats round the ladder, the clamour of +negro men's tongues, and the blaze of colours from the negro +women's dresses, made up together a scene sufficiently entertaining +for the hour which we remained. In the middle of it +the Governor, Mr. S——, came on board with another official. +They were going on in the steamer to Tobago, which formed +part of his dominions.</p> + +<p>Leaving St. Vincent, we were all the forenoon passing the +Grenadines, a string of small islands fitting into their proper +place in the Antilles semicircle, but as if Nature had forgotten +to put them together or else had broken some large island to +pieces and scattered them along the line. Some were large +enough to have once carried sugar plantations, and are now +made over wholly to the blacks; others were fishing stations, +droves of whales during certain months frequenting these +waters; others were mere rocks, amidst which the white-sailed +American coasting schooners were beating up against the +north-east trade. There was a stiff breeze, and the sea was +white with short curling waves, but we were running before it +and the wind kept the deck fresh. At Grenada, the next +island, we were to go on shore.</p> + +<p>Grenada was, like St. Vincent, the home for centuries of +man-eating Caribs, French for a century and a half, and +finally, after many desperate struggles for it, was ceded to +England at the peace of Versailles. It is larger than St. +Vincent, though in its main features it has the same character. +There are lakes in the hills, and a volcanic crater not wholly +quiescent; but the especial value of Grenada, which made us +fight so hardly to win it, is the deep and landlocked harbour, +the finest in all the Antilles.</p> + +<p>Père Labat, to whose countrymen it belonged at the time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +of his own visit there, says that 'if Barbadoes had such a +harbour as Grenada it would be an island without a rival in +the world. If Grenada belonged to the English, who knew +how to turn to profit natural advantages, it would be a rich and +powerful colony. In itself it was all that man could desire. +To live there was to live in paradise.' Labat found the island +occupied by countrymen of his own, '<i>paisans aisez</i>', he calls +them, growing their tobacco, their indigo and scarlet rocou, +their pigs and their poultry, and contented to be without +sugar, without slaves, and without trade. The change of +hands from which he expected so much had actually come +about. Grenada did belong to the English, and had belonged +to us ever since Rodney's peace. I was anxious to see how +far Labat's prophecy had been fulfilled.</p> + +<p>St. George's, the 'capital,' stands on the neck of a peninsula +a mile in length, which forms one side of the harbour. Of the +houses, some look out to sea, some inwards upon the <i>carenage</i>, +as the harbour is called. At the point there was a fort, apparently +of some strength, on which the British flag was flying. +We signalled that we had the Governor on board, and the fort +replied with a puff of smoke. Sound there was none or next +to none, but we presumed that it had come from a gun of +some kind. We anchored outside. Mr. S—— landed in an +official boat with two flags, a missionary in another, which had +only one. The crews of a dozen other boats then clambered +up the gangway to dispute possession of the rest of us, shouting, +swearing, lying, tearing us this way and that way as if we +were carcases and they wild beasts wanting to dine upon us. +We engaged a boat for ourselves as we supposed; we had no +sooner entered it than the scandalous boatman proceeded to +take in as many more passengers as it would hold. Remonstrance +being vain, we settled the matter by stepping into the +boat next adjoining, and amidst howls and execrations we +were borne triumphantly off and were pulled in to the land.</p> + +<p>Labat had not exaggerated the beauty of the landlocked +basin into which we entered on rounding the point. On three +sides wooded hills rose high till they passed into mountains;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +on the fourth was the castle with its slopes and batteries, the +church and town beyond it, and everywhere luxuriant tropical +forest trees overhanging the violet-coloured water. I could +well understand the Frenchman's delight when he saw it, and +also the satisfaction with which he would now acknowledge +that he had been a shortsighted prophet. The English had +obtained Grenada, and this is what they had made of it. The +forts which had been erected by his countrymen had been +deserted and dismantled; the castle on which we had seen +our flag flying was a ruin; the walls were crumbling and in +many places had fallen down. One solitary gun was left, but +that was honeycombed and could be fired only with half a +charge to salute with. It was true that the forts had ceased +to be of use, but that was because there was nothing left to +defend. The harbour is, as I said, the best in the West Indies. +There was not a vessel in it, nor so much as a boat-yard that I +could see where a spar could be replaced or a broken rivet +mended. Once there had been a line of wharves, but the piles +had been eaten by worms and the platforms had fallen through. +Round us when we landed were unroofed warehouses, weed-choked +courtyards, doors gone, and window frames fallen in +or out. Such a scene of desolation and desertion I never saw +in my life save once, a few weeks later at Jamaica. An English +lady with her children had come to the landing place to meet +my friends. They, too, were more like wandering ghosts than +human beings with warm blood in them. All their thoughts +were on going home—home out of so miserable an exile.<a name="FNanchor_1_4" id="FNanchor_1_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_4" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> +<p>Nature and the dark race had been simply allowed by us to +resume possession of the island. Here, where the cannon had +roared, and ships and armies had fought, and the enterprising +English had entered into occupancy, under whom, as we are +proud to fancy, the waste places of the earth grow green, and +industry and civilisation follow as an inevitable fruit, all was +now silence. And this was an English Crown colony, as rich +in resources as any area of soil of equal size in the world. +England had demanded and seized the responsibility of +managing it—this was the result.</p> + +<p>A gentleman who for some purpose was a passing resident +in the island, had asked us to dine with him. His house was +three or four miles inland. A good road remained as a legacy +from other times, and a pair of horses and a phaeton carried +us swiftly to his door. The town of St. George's had once +been populous, and even now there seemed no want of people, +if mere numbers sufficed. We passed for half a mile through +a straggling street, where the houses were evidently occupied +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>though unconscious for many a year of paint or repair. They +were squalid and dilapidated, but the luxuriant bananas and +orange trees in the gardens relieved the ugliness of their appearance. +The road when we left the town was overshadowed +with gigantic mangoes planted long ago, with almond trees and +cedar trees, no relations of our almonds or our cedars, but the +most splendid ornaments of the West Indian forest. The +valley up which we drove was beautiful, and the house, when +we reached it, showed taste and culture. Mr. —— had rare +trees, rare flowers, and was taking advantage of his temporary +residence in the tropics to make experiments in horticulture. +He had been brought there, I believe, by some necessities +of business. He told us that Grenada was now the ideal +country of modern social reformers. It had become an island +of pure peasant proprietors. The settlers, who had once been +a thriving and wealthy community, had almost melted away. +Some thirty English estates remained which could still be +cultivated, and were being cultivated with remarkable success. +But the rest had sold their estates for anything which they +could get. The free blacks had bought them, and about +8,000 negro families, say 40,000 black souls in all, now shared +three-fourths of the soil between them. Each family lived +independently, growing coffee and cocoa and oranges, and all +were doing very well. The possession of property had brought +a sense of its rights with it. They were as litigious as Irish +peasants; everyone was at law with his neighbour, and the +island was a gold mine to the Attorney-General; otherwise +they were quiet harmless fellows, and if the politicians would +only let them alone, they would be perfectly contented, and +might eventually, if wisely managed, come to some good. To +set up a constitution in such a place was a ridiculous mockery, +and would only be another name for swindling and jobbery. +Black the island was, and black it would remain. The conditions +were never likely to arise which would bring back a +European population; but a governor who was a sensible +man, who would reside and use his natural influence, could +manage it with perfect ease. The island belonged to England;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +we were responsible for what we made of it, and for the blacks' +own sakes we ought not to try experiments upon them. They +knew their own deficiencies and would infinitely prefer a wise +English ruler to any constitution which could be offered them. +If left entirely to themselves, they would in a generation or +two relapse into savages; there were but two alternatives +before not Grenada only, but all the English West Indies—either +an English administration pure and simple, like the +East Indian, or a falling eventually into a state like that +of Hayti, where they eat the babies, and no white man can +own a yard of land.</p> + +<p>It was dark night when we drove back to the port. The +houses along the road, which had looked so miserable on the +outside, were now lighted with paraffin lamps. I could see +into them, and was astonished to observe signs of comfort +and even signs of taste—arm-chairs, sofas, sideboards with cut +glass upon them, engravings and coloured prints upon the +walls. The old state of things is gone, but a new state of +things is rising which may have a worth of its own. The plant +of civilisation as yet has taken but feeble root, and is only +beginning to grow. It may thrive yet if those who have +troubled all the earth will consent for another century to take +their industry elsewhere.</p> + +<p>The ship's galley was waiting at the wharf when we reached +it. The captain also had been dining with a friend on shore, +and we had to wait for him. The off-shore night breeze had +not yet risen. The harbour was smooth as a looking glass, +and the stars shone double in the sky and on the water. The +silence was only broken by the whistle of the lizards or the cry +of some far-off marsh frog. The air was warmer than we ever +feel it in the depth of an English summer, yet pure and +delicious and charged with the perfume of a thousand flowers. +One felt it strange that with so beautiful a possession lying at +our doors, we should have allowed it to slide out of our +hands. I could say for myself, like Père Labat, the island +was all that man could desire. 'En un mot, la vie y est +délicieuse.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<p>The anchor was got up immediately that we were on board. +In the morning we were to find ourselves at Port of Spain. +Mr. S——, the Windward Island governor, who had joined us +at St. Vincent, was, as I said, going to Tobago. De Foe took +the human part of his Robinson Crusoe from the story of +Juan Fernandez. The locality is supposed to have been +Tobago, and Trinidad the island from which the cannibal +savages came. We are continually shuffling the cards, in a +hope that a better game may be played with them. Tobago +is now-annexed to Trinidad. Last year it was a part of +Mr. S——'s dominions which he periodically visited. I fell +in with him again on his return, and he told us an incident +which befell him there, illustrating the unexpected shapes in +which the schoolmaster is appearing among the blacks. An +intimation was brought to him on his arrival that, as the +Athenian journeymen had played Pyramus and Thisbe at the +nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta, so a party of villagers from +the interior of Tobago would like to act before his Excellency. +Of course he consented. They came, and went through their +performance. To Mr. S——'s, and probably to the reader's +astonishment, the play which they had selected was the 'Merchant +of Venice.' Of the rest of it he perhaps thought, like +the queen of the Amazons, that it was 'sorry stuff;' but +Shylock's representative, he said, showed real appreciation. +With freedom and a peasant proprietary, the money lender is +a necessary phenomenon, and the actor's imagination may +have been assisted by personal recollections.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_4" id="Footnote_1_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_4"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> I have been told that this picture is overdrawn, that Grenada is the +most prosperous of the Antilles, that its exports are increasing, that English +owners are making large profits again, that the blacks are thriving beyond +example, that there are twenty guns in the Fort, that the wharves and Quay +are in perfect condition, that there are no roofless warehouses, that in my +description of St. George's I must have been asleep or dreaming. I can +only repeat and insist upon what I myself saw. I know very well that in +parts of the island a few energetic English gentlemen are cultivating their +land with remarkable success. Any enterprising Englishman with capital +and intelligence might do the same. I know also that in no part of the +West Indies are the blacks happier or better off. But notwithstanding the +English interest in the Island has sunk to relatively nothing. Once Englishmen +owned the whole of it. Now there are only thirty English estates. +There are five thousand peasant freeholds, owned almost entirely by +coloured men, and the effect of the change is written upon the features of +the harbour. Not a vessel of any kind was to be seen in it. The great +wooden jetty where cargoes used to be landed, or taken on board, was a +wreck, the piles eaten through, the platform broken. On the Quay there +was no sign of life, or of business, the houses along the side mean and +insignificant, while several large and once important buildings, warehouses, +custom houses, dwelling houses, or whatever they had been, were lying +in ruins, tropical trees growing in the courtyards, and tropical creepers +climbing over the masonry showing how long the decay had been going +on. These buildings had once belonged to English merchants, and were +evidence of English energy and enterprise, which once had been and +now had ceased to be. As to the guns in the fort, I cannot say how much +old iron may be left there. But I was informed that only one gun could +be fired and that with but half a charge. +</p><p> +This is of little consequence or none, but unless the English population +can be reinforced, Grenada in another generation will cease to be English +at all, while the prosperity, the progress, even the continued civilisation +of the blacks depends on the maintenance there of English influence and +authority.</p></div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Charles Kingsley at Trinidad—'Lay of the Last Buccaneer'—A French +<i>forban</i>—Adventure at Aves—Mass on board a pirate ship—Port of +Spain—A house in the tropics—A political meeting—Government House—The +Botanical Gardens'—Kingsley's rooms—Sugar estates and coolies.</p></div> + + +<p>I might spare myself a description of Trinidad, for the +natural features of the place, its forests and gardens, its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +exquisite flora, the loveliness of its birds and insects, have +been described already, with a grace of touch and a fullness of +knowledge which I could not rival if I tried, by my dear +friend Charles Kingsley. He was a naturalist by instinct, and +the West Indies and all belonging to them had been the +passion of his life. He had followed the logs and journals of +the Elizabethan adventurers till he had made their genius part +of himself. In Amyas Leigh, the hero of 'Westward Ho,' +he produced a figure more completely representative of that +extraordinary set of men than any other novelist, except +Sir Walter, has ever done for an age remote from his +own. He followed them down into their latest developments, +and sang their swan song in his 'Lay of the Last Buccaneer.' +So characteristic is this poem of the transformation of the +West Indies of romance and adventure into the West Indies +of sugar and legitimate trade, that I steal it to ornament my +own prosaic pages.</p> + + +<p class="center">THE LAY OF THE LAST BUCCANEER.</p> + +<p style="margin-left:14em"> +Oh! England is a pleasant place for them that's rich and high,<br /> +But England is a cruel place for such poor folks as I;<br /> +And such a port for mariners I'll never see again<br /> +As the pleasant Isle of Aves beside the Spanish main.<br /> +<br /> +There were forty craft in Aves that were both swift and stout,<br /> +All furnished well with small arms and cannon all about;<br /> +And a thousand men in Aves made laws so fair and free<br /> +To choose their valiant captains and obey them loyally.<br /> +<br /> +Then we sailed against the Spaniard with his hoards of plate and gold,<br /> +Which he wrung with cruel tortures from Indian folks of old;<br /> +Likewise the merchant captains, with hearts as hard as stone,<br /> +Who flog men and keelhaul them and starve them to the bone.<br /> +<br /> +Oh! palms grew high in Aves, and fruits that shone like gold,<br /> +And the colibris and parrots they were gorgeous to behold,<br /> +And the negro maids to Aves from bondage fast did flee<br /> +To welcome gallant sailors a sweeping in from sea.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span><br /> +Oh! sweet it was in Aves to hear the landward breeze,<br /> +A swing with good tobacco in a net between the trees,<br /> +With a negro lass to fan you while you listened to the roar<br /> +Of the breakers on the reef outside which never touched the shore.<br /> +<br /> +But Scripture saith an ending to all fine things must be,<br /> +So the king's ships sailed on Aves and quite put down were we.<br /> +All day we fought like bull dogs, but they burnt the booms at night,<br /> +And I fled in a piragua sore wounded from the fight.<br /> +<br /> +Nine days I floated starving, and a negro lass beside,<br /> +Till for all I tried to cheer her the poor young thing she died.<br /> +But as I lay a gasping a Bristol sail came by,<br /> +And brought me home to England here to beg until I die.<br /> +<br /> +And now I'm old and going: I'm sure I can't tell where.<br /> +One comfort is, this world's so hard I can't be worse off there.<br /> +If I might but be a sea dove, I'd fly across the main<br /> +To the pleasant Isle of Aves to look at it once again.<br /> +</p> + +<p>By the side of this imaginative picture of a poor English +sea rover, let me place another, an authentic one, of a French +<i>forban</i> or pirate in the same seas. Kingsley's Aves, or Isle of +Birds, is down on the American coast. There is another +island of the same name, which was occasionally frequented +by the same gentry, about a hundred miles south of Dominica. +Père Labat going once from Martinique to Guadaloupe had +taken a berth with Captain Daniel, one of the most noted of +the French corsairs of the day, for better security. People +were not scrupulous in those times, and Labat and Daniel had +been long good friends. They were caught in a gale off +Dominica, blown away, and carried to Aves, where they found +an English merchant ship lying a wreck. Two English ladies +from Barbadoes and a dozen other people had escaped on +shore. They had sent for help, and a large vessel came for +them the day after Daniel's arrival. Of course he made a +prize of it. Labat said prayers on board for him before the +engagement, and the vessel surrendered after the first shot. +The good humour of the party was not disturbed by this +incident. The pirates, their prisoners, and the ladies stayed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +together for a fortnight at Aves, catching turtles and boucanning +them, picnicking, and enjoying themselves. Daniel +treated the ladies with the utmost politeness, carried them +afterwards to St. Thomas's, dismissed them unransomed, sold +his prizes, and wound up the whole affair to the satisfaction of +every one. Labat relates all this with wonderful humour, and +tells, among other things, the following story of Daniel. On +some expedition, when he was not so fortunate as to have a +priest on board, he was in want of provisions. Being an outlaw +he could not furnish himself in an open port. One night +he put into the harbour of a small island, called Los Santos, +not far from Dominica, where only a few families resided. He +sent a boat on shore in the darkness, took the priest and two +or three of the chief inhabitants out of their beds, and carried +them on board, where he held them as hostages, and then +under pretence of compulsion requisitioned the island to send +him what he wanted. The priest and his companions were +treated meanwhile as guests of distinction. No violence was +necessary, for all parties understood one another. While the +stores were being collected, Daniel suggested that there was a +good opportunity for his crew to hear mass. The priest of +Los Santos agreed to say it for them. The sacred vessels &c. +were sent for from the church on shore. An awning was +rigged over the forecastle, and an altar set up under it. The +men chanted the prayers. The cannon answered the purpose +of music. Broadsides were fired at the first sentence, at the +<i>Exaudiat</i>, at the <i>Elevation</i>, at the <i>Benediction</i>, and a fifth at +the prayer for the king. The service was wound up by a <i>Vive +le Roi</i>! A single small accident only had disturbed the +ceremony. One of the pirates, at the <i>Elevation</i>, being of +a profane mind, made an indecent gesture. Daniel rebuked +him, and, as the offence was repeated, drew a pistol and blew +the man's brains out, saying he would do the same to any one +who was disrespectful to the Holy Sacrament. The priest +being a little startled, Daniel begged him not to be alarmed; +he was only chastising a rascal to teach him his duty. At any +rate, as Labat observed, he had effectually prevented the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +rascal from doing anything of the same kind again. Mass +being over, the body was thrown overboard, and priest and +congregation went their several ways.</p> + +<p>Kingsley's 'At Last' gave Trinidad an additional interest to +me, but even he had not prepared me completely for the place +which I was to see. It is only when one has seen any object +with one's own eyes, that the accounts given by others become +recognisable and instructive.</p> + +<p>Trinidad is the largest, after Jamaica, of the British West +Indian Islands, and the hottest absolutely after none of them. +It is square-shaped, and, I suppose, was once a part of South +America. The Orinoco river and the ocean currents between +them have cut a channel between it and the mainland, which +has expanded into a vast shallow lake known as the Gulf of +Paria. The two entrances by which the gulf is approached are +narrow and are called <i>bocas</i> or mouths—one the Dragon's +Mouth, the other the Serpent's. When the Orinoco is in flood, +the water is brackish, and the brilliant violet blue of the +Caribbean Sea is changed to a dirty yellow; but the harbour +which is so formed would hold all the commercial navies of +the world, and seems formed by nature to be the depôt one +day of an enormous trade.</p> + +<p>Trinidad has had its period of romance. Columbus was +the first discoverer of it. Raleigh was there afterwards on his +expedition in search of his gold mine, and tarred his vessels +with pitch out of the famous lake. The island was alternately +Spanish and French till Picton took it in 1797, since which +time it has remained English. The Carib part of the population +has long vanished. The rest of it is a medley of English, +French, Spaniards, negroes, and coolies. The English, chiefly +migratory, go there to make money and go home with it. The +old colonial families have few representatives left, but the +island prospers, trade increases, coolies increase, cocoa and +coffee plantations and indigo plantations increase. Port of +Spain, the capital, grows annually; and even sugar holds its +own in spite of low prices, for there is money at the back of +it, and a set of people who, being speculative and commercial,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +are better on a level with the times than the old-fashioned +planter aristocracy of the other islands. The soil is of extreme +fertility, about a fourth of it under cultivation, the rest natural +forest and unappropriated Crown land.</p> + +<p>We passed the 'Dragon's Jaws' before daylight. The sun +had just risen when we anchored off Port of Spain. We saw +before us the usual long line of green hills with mountains +behind them; between the hills and the sea was a low, broad, +alluvial plain, deposited by an arm of the Orinoco and by the +other rivers which run into the gulf. The cocoa-nut palms +thrive best on the water's edge. They stretched for miles on +either side of us as a fringe to the shore. Where the water +was shoal, there were vast swamps of mangrove, the lower +branches covered with oysters.</p> + +<p>However depressed sugar might be, business could not be +stagnant. Ships of all nations lay round us taking in or +discharging cargo. I myself formed for the time being part +of the cargo of my friend and host Mr. G——, who had +brought me to Trinidad, the accomplished son of a brilliant +mother, himself a distinguished lawyer and member of the +executive council of the island, a charming companion, an invaluable +public servant, but with the temperament of a man of +genius, half humorous, half melancholy, which does not find +itself entirely at home in West Indian surroundings.</p> + +<p>On landing we found ourselves in a large foreign-looking +town, 'Port of Spain' having been built by French and +Spaniards according to their national tendencies, and especially +with a view to the temperature, which is that of a forcing house +and rarely falls below 80°. The streets are broad and are +planted with trees for shade, each house where room permits +having a garden of its own, with palms and mangoes and +coffee plants and creepers. Of sanitary arrangements there +seemed to be none. There is abundance of rain, and the +gutters which run down by the footway are flushed almost +every day. But they are all open. Dirt of every kind lies +about freely, to be washed into them or left to putrefy as fate +shall direct. The smell would not be pleasant without the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +help of that natural scavenger the Johnny crow, a black +vulture who roosts on the trees and feeds in the middle of the +streets. We passed a dozen of these unclean but useful birds +in a fashionable thoroughfare gobbling up chicken entrails and +refusing to be disturbed. When gorged they perch in rows +upon the roofs. On the ground they are the nastiest to look +at of all winged creatures; yet on windy days they presume to +soar like their kindred, and when far up might be taken for +eagles.</p> + +<p>The town has between thirty and forty thousand people +living in it, and the rain and Johnny crows between them keep +off pestilence. Outside is a large savannah or park, where the +villas are of the successful men of business. One of these +belonged to my host, a cool airy habitation with open doors +and windows, overhanging portico, and rooms into which all the +winds might enter, but not the sun. A garden in front was +shut off from the savannah by a fence of bananas. At the +gate stood as sentinel a cabbage palm a hundred feet high; on +the lawn mangoes, oranges, papaws, and bread-fruit trees, +strange to look at, but luxuriantly shady. Before the door was +a tree of good dimensions, whose name I have forgotten, the +stem and branches of which were hung with orchids which +G—— had collected in the woods. The borders were blazing +with varieties of the single hibiscus, crimson, pink, and fawn +colour, the largest that I had ever seen. The average diameter +of each single flower was from seven to eight inches. Wind +streamed freely through the long sitting room, loaded with the +perfume of orange trees; on table and in bookcase the hand +and mind visible of a gifted and cultivated man. The particular +room assigned to myself would have been equally delightful +but that my possession of it was disputed even in daylight +by mosquitoes, who for bloodthirsty ferocity had a bad pre-eminence +over the worst that I had ever met with elsewhere. +I killed one who was at work upon me, and examined him +through a glass. Bewick, with the inspiration of genius, had +drawn his exact likeness as the devil—a long black stroke for +a body, nick for neck, horns on the head, and a beak for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +mouth, spindle arms, and longer spindle legs, two pointed +wings, and a tail. Line for line there the figure was before me +which in the unforgetable tailpiece is driving the thief under +the gallows, and I had a melancholy satisfaction in identifying +him. I had been warned to be on the look-out for scorpions, +centipedes, jiggers, and land crabs, who would bite me if I +walked slipperless over the floor in the dark. Of these I met +with none, either there or anywhere, but the mosquito of +Trinidad is enough by himself. For malice, mockery, and +venom of tooth and trumpet, he is without a match in the +world.</p> + +<p>From mosquitoes, however, one could seek safety in tobacco +smoke, or hide behind the lace curtains with which every bed +is provided. Otherwise I found every provision to make life +pass deliciously. To walk is difficult in a damp steamy +temperature hotter during daylight than the hottest forcing +house in Kew. I was warned not to exert myself and to take +cocktail freely. In the evening I might venture out with the +bats and take a drive if I wished in the twilight. Languidly +charming as it all was, I could not help asking myself of what +use such a possession could be either to England or the +English nation. We could not colonise it, could not cultivate +it, could not draw a revenue from it. If it prospered commercially +the prosperity would be of French and Spaniards, +mulattoes and blacks, but scarcely, if at all, of my own +countrymen. For here too, as elsewhere, they were growing +fewer daily, and those who remained were looking forward to +the day when they could be released. If it were not for the +honour of the thing, as the Irishman said after being carried +in a sedan chair which had no bottom, we might have spared +ourselves so unnecessary a conquest.</p> + +<p>Beautiful, however, it was beyond dispute. Before sunset a +carriage took us round the savannah. Tropical human beings, +like tropical birds, are fond of fine colours, especially black +human beings, and the park was as brilliant as Kensington +Gardens on a Sunday. At nightfall the scene became yet more +wonderful; air, grass, and trees being alight with fireflies, each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +as brilliant as an English glowworm. The palm tree at our +own gate stood like a ghostly sentinel clear against the starry +sky, a single long dead frond hanging from below the coronet +of leaves and clashing against the stem as it was blown to and +fro by the night wind, while long-winged bats swept and +whistled over our heads.</p> + +<p>The commonplace intrudes upon the imaginative. At moments +one can fancy that the world is an enchanted place after +all, but then comes generally an absurd awakening. On the +first night of my arrival, before we went to bed there came an +invitation to me to attend a political meeting which was to be +held in a few days on the savannah. Trinidad is a purely +Crown colony, and has escaped hitherto the introduction of +the election virus. The newspapers and certain busy gentlemen +in 'Port of Spain' had discovered that they were living +under 'a degrading tyranny,' and they demanded a 'constitution.' +They did not complain that their affairs had been ill +managed. On the contrary, they insisted that they were the +most prosperous of the West Indian colonies, and alone had a +surplus in their treasury. If this was so, it seemed to me that +they had better let well alone. The population, all told, was +but 170,000, less by thirty thousand than that of Barbadoes. +They were a mixed and motley assemblage of all races and +colours, busy each with their own affairs, and never hitherto +troubling themselves about politics. But it had pleased the +Home Government to set up the beginning of a constitution +again in Jamaica, no one knew why, but so it was, and Trinidad +did not choose to be behindhand. The official appointments +were valuable, and had been hitherto given away by the +Crown. The local popularities very naturally wished to have +them for themselves. This was the reality in the thing so far +as there was a reality. It was dressed up in the phrases +borrowed from the great English masters of the art, about +privileges of manhood, moral dignity, the elevating influence +of the suffrage, &c., intended for home consumption among +the believers in the orthodox Radical faith.</p> + +<p>For myself I could but reply to the gentlemen who had sent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +the invitation, that I was greatly obliged by the compliment, +but that I knew too little of their affairs to make my presence +of any value to them. As they were doing so well, I did not +see myself why they wanted an alteration. Political changes +were generally little more than turns of a kaleidoscope; you +got a new pattern, but it was made of the same pieces, and +things went on much as before. If they wanted political +liberty I did not doubt that they would get it if they were +loud and persistent enough. Only they must understand that +at home we were now a democracy. Any constitution which +was granted them would be on the widest basis. The blacks +and coolies outnumbered the Europeans by four to one, and +perhaps when they had what they asked for they might be less +pleased than they expected.</p> + +<p>You rise early in the tropics. The first two hours of daylight +are the best of the day. My friend drove me round the +town in his buggy the next morning. My second duty was to +pay my respects to the Governor, Sir William Robinson, who +had kindly offered me hospitality, and for which I must present +myself to thank him. In Sir William I found one of +those happy men whose constitution is superior to climate, +who can do a long day's work in his office, play cricket or +lawn tennis in the afternoon, and entertain his miscellaneous +subjects in the evening with sumptuous hospitality—a vigorous, +effective, perhaps ambitious gentleman, with a clear eye +to the views of his employers at home on whom his promotion +depends—certain to make himself agreeable to them, likely to +leave his mark to useful purpose on the colonies over which he +presides or may preside hereafter. Here in Trinidad he was +learning Spanish in addition to his other linguistic accomplishments, +that he might show proper courtesies to Spanish +residents and to visitors from South America.</p> + +<p>The 'Residence' stands in a fine situation, in large grounds +of its own at the foot of the mountains. It has been lately +built regardless of expense, for the colony is rich, and likes to +do things handsomely. On the lawn, under the windows, +stood a tree which was entirely new to me, an enormous ceiba<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +or silk cotton tree, umbrella shaped, fifty yards in diameter, +the huge and buttressed trunk throwing out branches so +massive that one wondered how any woody fibre could bear +the strain of their weight, the boughs twisting in and out till +they made a roof over one's head, which was hung with every +fantastic variety of parasites.</p> + +<p>Vast as the ceibas were which I saw afterwards in other +parts of the West Indies, this was the largest. The ceiba is +the sacred tree of the negro, the temple of Jumbi the proper +home of Obeah. To cut one down is impious. No black in +his right mind would wound even the bark. A Jamaica police +officer told me that if a ceiba had to be removed, the men who +used the axe were well dosed with rum to give them courage +to defy the devil.</p> + +<p>From Government House we strolled into the adjoining +Botanical Gardens. I had long heard of the wonders of these. +The reality went beyond description. Plants with which I +was familiar as <i>shrubs</i> in English conservatories were here +expanded into forest giants, with hundreds of others of which +we cannot raise even Lilliputian imitations. Let man be what +he will, nature in the tropics is always grand. Palms were +growing in the greatest luxuriance, of every known species, +from the cabbage towering up into the sky to the fan palm +of the desert whose fronds are reservoirs of water. Of exogenous +trees, the majority were leguminous in some shape or +other, forming flowers like a pea or vetch and hanging their +seed in pods; yet in shape and foliage they distanced far the +most splendid ornaments of an English park. They had Old +World names with characters wholly different: cedars which +were not conifers, almonds which were no relations to peaches, +and gum trees as unlike eucalypti as one tree can be unlike +another. Again, you saw forms which you seemed to recognise +till some unexpected anomaly startled you out of your +mistake. A gigantic Portugal laurel, or what I took for such, +was throwing out a flower direct from the stem like a cactus. +Grandest among them all, and happily in full bloom, was the +sacred tree of Burmah, the <i>Amherstia nobilis</i>, at a distance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +like a splendid horse-chestnut, with crimson blossoms in pendant +bunches, each separate flower in the convolution of its +parts exactly counterfeiting a large orchid, with which it has +not the faintest affinity, the Amherstia being leguminous like +the rest.</p> + +<p>Underneath, and dispersed among the imperial beauties, +were spice trees, orange trees, coffee plants and cocoa, or +again, shrubs with special virtues or vices. We had to be +careful what we were about, for fruits of fairest appearance +were tempting us all round. My companion was preparing +to eat something to encourage me to do the same. A gardener +stopped him in time. It was nux vomica. I was straying +along a less frequented path, conscious of a heavy vaporous +odour, in which I might have fainted had I remained exposed +to it. I was close to a manchineel tree.</p> + +<p>Prettiest and freshest were the nutmegs, which had a glen +all to themselves and perfumed the surrounding air. In Trinidad +and in Grenada I believe the nutmegs are the largest that +are known, being from thirty to forty feet high; leaves brilliant +green, something like the leaves of an orange, but extremely +delicate and thin, folded one over the other, the lowest +branches sweeping to the ground till the whole tree forms a +natural bower, which is proof against a tropical shower. The +fragrance attracts moths and flies; not mosquitoes, who prefer +a ranker atmosphere. I saw a pair of butterflies the match +of which I do not remember even in any museum, dark blue +shot with green like a peacock's neck, and the size of English +bats. I asked a black boy to catch me one. 'That sort no let +catchee, massa,' he said; and I was penitently glad to hear it.</p> + +<p>Among the wonders of the gardens are the vines as they +call them, that is, the creepers of various kinds that climb +about the other trees. Standing in an open space there was +what once had been a mighty 'cedar.' It was now dead, +only the trunk and dead branches remaining, and had been +murdered by a 'fig' vine which had started from the root, +twined itself like a python round the stem, strangled out the +natural life, and spreading out in all directions had covered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +boughs and twigs with a foliage not their own. So far the 'vine' +had done no worse than ivy does at home, but there was one +feature about it which puzzled me altogether. The lowest of +the original branches of the cedar were about twenty feet above +our heads. From these in four or five places the parasite had +let fall shoots, perhaps an inch in diameter, which descended +to within a foot of the ground and then suddenly, without +touching that or anything, formed a bight like a rope, went +straight up again, caught hold of the branch from which they +started, and so hung suspended exactly as an ordinary swing. +In three distinctly perfect instances the 'vine' had executed +this singular evolution, while at the extremity of one of the +longest and tallest branches high up in the air it had made a +clean leap of fifteen feet without visible help and had caught +hold of another tree adjoining on the same level. These performances +were so inexplicable that I conceived that they +must have been a freak of the gardener's. I was mistaken. +He said that at particular times in the year the fig vine threw +out fine tendrils which hung downwards like strings. The +strongest among them would lay hold of two or three others +and climb up upon them, the rest would die and drop off, +while the successful one, having found support for itself above, +would remain swinging in the air and thicken and prosper. +The leap he explained by the wind. I retained a suspicion +that the wind had been assisted by some aspiring energy in +the plant itself, so bold it was and so ambitious.</p> + +<p>But the wonders of the garden were thrown into the shade +by the cottage at the extreme angle of it (the old Government +House before the present fabric had been erected), where +Kingsley had been the guest of Sir Arthur Gordon. It is a +long straggling wooden building with deep verandahs lying in a +hollow overshadowed by trees, with views opening out into the +savannah through arches formed by clumps of tall bamboos, +the canes growing thick in circular masses and shooting up a +hundred feet into the air, where they meet and form frames +for the landscape, peculiar and even picturesque when there +are not too many of them. These bamboos were Kingsley's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +special delight, as he had never seen the like of them elsewhere. +The room in which he wrote is still shown, and the +gallery where he walked up and down with his long pipe. His +memory is cherished in the island as of some singular and +beautiful presence which still hovers about the scenes which so +delighted him in the closing evening of his own life.</p> + +<p>It was the dry season, mid-winter, yet raining every day for +two or three hours, and when it rains in these countries it +means business. When the sky cleared the sun was intolerably +hot, and distant expeditions under such conditions suited +neither my age nor my health. With cocktail I might have +ventured, but to cocktail I could never heartily reconcile +myself. Trinidad has one wonder in it, a lake of bitumen +some ninety acres in extent, which all travellers are expected +to visit, and which few residents care to visit. A black lake is +not so beautiful as an ordinary lake. I had no doubt that it +existed, for the testimony was unimpeachable. Indeed I was +shown an actual specimen of the crystallised pitch itself. I +could believe without seeing and without undertaking a tedious +journey. I rather sympathised with a noble lord who came to +Port of Spain in his yacht, and like myself had the lake impressed +upon him. As a middle course between going thither +and appearing to slight his friends' recommendations, he said +that he would send his steward.</p> + +<p>In Trinidad, as everywhere else, my own chief desire was to +see the human inhabitants, to learn what they were doing, how +they were living, and what they were thinking about, and this +could best be done by drives about the town and neighbourhood. +The cultivated land is a mere fringe round the edges +of the forest. Three-fourths of the soil are untouched. The +rivers running out of the mountains have carved out the usual +long deep valleys, and spread the bottoms with rich alluvial +soil. Here among the wooded slopes are the country houses +of the merchants. Here are the cabins of the black peasantry +with their cocoa and coffee and orange plantations, which as in +Grenada they hold largely as freeholds, reproducing as near as +possible the life in Paradise of our first parents, without the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +consciousness of a want which they are unable to gratify, not +compelled to work, for the earth of her own self bears for them +all that they need, and ignorant that there is any difference +between moral good and evil.</p> + +<p>Large sugar estates, of course, there still are, and as the +owners have not succeeded in bringing the negroes to work +regularly for them,<a name="FNanchor_1_5" id="FNanchor_1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_5" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> they have introduced a few thousand +Coolies under indentures for five years. These Asiatic importations +are very happy in Trinidad; they save money, and +many of them do not return home when their time is out, but +stay where they are, buy land, or go into trade. They are +proud, however, and will not intermarry with the Africans. +Few bring their families with them; and women being scanty +among them, there arise inconveniences and sometimes serious +crimes.</p> + +<p>It were to be wished that there was more prospect of the +Coolie race becoming permanent than I fear there is. They +work excellently. They are picturesque additions to the landscape, +as they keep to the bright colours and graceful drapery +of India. The grave dignity of their faces contrasts remarkably +with the broad, good-humoured, but common features of the +African. The black women look with envy at the straight hair +of Asia, and twist their unhappy wool into knots and ropes in +the vain hope of being mistaken for the purer race; but this is +all. The African and the Asiatic will not mix, and the African +being the stronger will and must prevail in Trinidad as elsewhere +in the West Indies. Out of a total population of +170,000, there are 25,000 whites and mulattoes, 10,000 coolies, +the rest negroes. The English part of the Europeans shows +no tendency to increase. The English come as birds of +passage, and depart when they have made their fortunes. +The French and Spaniards may hold on to Trinidad as a home. +Our people do not make homes there, and must be looked on +as a transient element.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_5" id="Footnote_1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_5"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The negroes in the interior are beginning to cultivate sugar cane in +small patches, with common mills to break it up. If the experiment succeeds +it may extend.</p></div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A Coolie village—Negro freeholds—Waterworks—Pythons—Slavery—Evidence +of Lord Rodney—Future of the negroes—Necessity of English +rule—The Blue Basin—Black boy and cray fish.</p></div> + + +<p>The second morning after my arrival, my host took me to a +Coolie village three miles beyond the town. The drive was +between spreading cane fields, beneath the shade of bamboos, +or under rows of cocoa-nut palms, between the stems of which +the sea was gleaming.</p> + +<p>Human dwelling places are rarely interesting in the tropics. +A roof which will keep the rain out is all that is needed. The +more free the passage given to the air under the floor and +through the side, the more healthy the habitation; and the +houses, when we came among them, seemed merely enlarged +packing cases loosely nailed together and raised on stones a +foot or two from the ground. The rest of the scene was picturesque +enough. The Indian jewellers were sitting cross-legged +before their charcoal pans, making silver bracelets and +earrings. Brilliant garments, crimson and blue and orange, +were hanging to dry on clothes lines. Men were going out to +their work, women cooking, children (not many) playing or +munching sugar cane, while great mango trees and ceibas +spread a cool green roof over all. Like Rachel, the Coolies +had brought their gods to their new home. In the centre of +the village was a Hindoo temple, made up rudely out of +boards with a verandah running round it. The doors were +locked. An old man who had charge told us we could not +enter; a crowd, suspicious and sullen, gathered about us as we +tried to prevail upon him; so we had to content ourselves +with the outside, which was gaudily and not unskilfully painted +in Indian fashion. There were gods and goddesses in various +attitudes; Vishnu fighting with the monkey god, Vishnu with +cutlass and shield, the monkey with his tail round one tree +while he brandished two others, one in each hand, as clubs. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +suppose that we smiled, for our curiosity was resented, and we +found it prudent to withdraw.</p> + +<p>The Coolies are useful creatures. Without them sugar cultivation +in Trinidad and Demerara would cease altogether. +They are useful and they are singularly ornamental. Unfortunately +they have not the best character with the police. There +is little crime among the negroes, who quarrel furiously with +their tongues only. The Coolies have the fiercer passions of +their Eastern blood. Their women being few are tempted +occasionally into infidelities, and would be tempted more often +but that a lapse in virtue is so fearfully avenged. A Coolie regards +his wife as his property, and if she is unfaithful to him +he kills her without the least hesitation. One of the judges +told me that he had tried a case of this kind, and could not +make the man understand that he had done anything wrong. +It is a pity that a closer intermixture between them and the +negroes seems so hopeless, for it would solve many difficulties. +There is no jealousy. The negro does not regard the +Coolie as a competitor and interloper who has come to +lower his wages. The Coolie comes to work. The negro +does not want to work, and both are satisfied. But if there is +no jealousy there is no friendship. The two races are more +absolutely apart than the white and the black. The Asiatic +insists the more on his superiority in the fear perhaps that if +he did not the white might forget it.</p> + +<p>Among the sights in the neighbourhood of Port of Spain are +the waterworks, extensive basins and reservoirs a few miles off +in the hills. We chose a cool afternoon, when the temperature +in the shade was not above 86°, and went to look at them. +It was my first sight of the interior of the island, and my first +distinct acquaintance with the change which had come over +the West Indies. Trinidad is not one of our oldest possessions, +but we had held it long enough for the old planter +civilisation to take root and grow, and our road led us +through jungles of flowering shrubs which were running wild +over what had been once cultivated estates. Stranger still (for +one associates colonial life instinctively with what is new and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +modern), we came at one place on an avenue of vast trees, at +the end of which stood the ruins of a mansion of some great +man of the departed order. Great man he must have been, +for there was a gateway half crumbled away on which were his +crest and shield in stone, with supporters on either side, like +the Baron of Bradwardine's Bears; fallen now like them, but +unlike them never, I fear, to be set up again. The Anglo-West +Indians, like the English gentry in Ireland, were a fine race of +men in their day, and perhaps the improving them off the earth +has been a less beneficial process in either case than we are in +the habit of supposing.</p> + +<p>Entering among the hills we came on their successors. In +Trinidad there are 18,000 freeholders, most of them negroes +and representatives of the old slaves. Their cabins are spread +along the road on either side, overhung with bread-fruit trees, +tamarinds, calabash trees, out of which they make their cups +and water jugs. The luscious granadilla climbs among the +branches; plantains throw their cool shade over the doors; +oranges and limes and citrons perfume the air, and droop their +boughs under the weight of their golden burdens. There were +yams in the gardens and cows in the paddocks, and cocoa +bushes loaded with purple or yellow pods. Children played +about in swarms, in happy idleness and abundance, with +schools, too, at intervals, and an occasional Catholic chapel, for +the old religion prevails in Trinidad, never having been disturbed. +What form could human life assume more charming +than that which we were now looking on? Once more, the +earth does not contain any peasantry so well off, so well cared +for, so happy, so sleek and contented as the sons and daughters +of the emancipated slaves in the English West Indian +Islands. Sugar may fail the planter, but cocoa, which each +peasant can grow with small effort for himself, does not fail +and will not. He may 'better his condition,' if he has any +such ambition, without stirring beyond his own ground, and so +far, perhaps, his ambition may extend, if it is not turned off +upon politics. Even the necessary evils of the tropics are not +many or serious. His skin is proof against mosquitoes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +There are snakes in Trinidad as there were snakes in Eden. +'Plenty snakes,' said one of them who was at work in his +garden, 'plenty snakes, but no bitee.' As to costume, he +would prefer the costume of innocence if he was allowed. +Clothes in such a climate are superfluous for warmth, and to +the minds of the negroes, unconscious as they are of shame, +superfluous for decency. European prejudice, however, still +passes for something; the women have a love for finery, which +would prevent a complete return to African simplicity; and in +the islands which are still French, and in those like Trinidad, +which the French originally colonised, they dress themselves +with real taste. They hide their wool in red or yellow handkerchiefs, +gracefully twisted; or perhaps it is not only to conceal +the wool. Columbus found the Carib women of the +island dressing their hair in the same fashion.<a name="FNanchor_1_6" id="FNanchor_1_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_6" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The waterworks, when we reached them, were even more +beautiful than we had been taught to expect. A dam has been +driven across a perfectly limpid mountain stream; a wide open +area has been cleared, levelled, strengthened with masonry, and +divided into deep basins and reservoirs, through which the current +continually flows. Hedges of hibiscus shine with crimson +blossoms. Innumerable humming birds glance to and fro +among the trees and shrubs, and gardens and ponds are overhung +by magnificent bamboos, which so astonished me by +their size that I inquired if their height had been measured. +One of them, I was told, had lately fallen, and was found to be +130 feet long. A single drawback only there was to this enchanting +spot, and it was again the snakes. There are huge +pythons in Trinidad which are supposed to have crossed the +straits from the continent. The cool water pools attract them, +and they are seen occasionally coiled among the branches of +the bamboos. Some washerwomen at work in the stream had +been disturbed a few days before our visit by one of these +monsters, who had come down to see what they were about. +They are harmless, but trying to the nerves. One of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +men about the place shot this one, and he told me that +he had shot another a short time before asleep in a tree. The +keeper of the works was a retired soldier, an Irish-Scot from +Limerick, hale, vigorous, and happy as the blacks themselves. +He had married one of them—a remarkable exception +to an almost universal rule. He did not introduce us, +but the dark lady passed by us in gorgeous costume, just +noticing our presence with a sweep which would have done +credit to a duchess.</p> + +<p>We made several similar small expeditions into the settled +parts of the neighbourhood, seeing always (whatever else we +saw) the boundless happiness of the black race. Under the +rule of England in these islands the two million of these poor +brothers-in-law of ours are the most perfectly contented specimens +of the human race to be found upon the planet. Even +Schopenhauer, could he have known them, would have admitted +that there were some of us who were not hopelessly +wretched. If happiness be the satisfaction of every conscious +desire, theirs is a condition which admits of no improvement: +were they independent, they might quarrel among themselves, +and the weaker become the bondmen of the stronger; under +the beneficent despotism of the English Government, which +knows no difference of colour and permits no oppression, +they can sleep, lounge, and laugh away their lives as they +please, fearing no danger. If they want money, work and +wages are waiting for them. No one can say what may be +before them hereafter. The powers which envy human beings +too perfect felicity may find ways one day of disturbing the +West Indian negro; but so long as the English rule continues, +he may be assured of the same tranquil existence.</p> + +<p>As life goes he has been a lucky mortal. He was taken +away from Dahomey and Ashantee—to be a slave indeed, but +a slave to a less cruel master than he would have found at +home. He had a bad time of it occasionally, and the +plantation whip and the branding irons are not all dreams, yet +his owner cared for him at least as much as he cared for his +cows and his horses. Kind usage to animals is more eco<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>nomical +than barbarity, and Englishmen in the West Indies +were rarely inhuman. Lord Rodney says:</p> + +<p>'I have been often in all the West India Islands, and I have +often made my observations on the treatment of the negro slaves, +and can aver that I never knew the least cruelty inflicted on them, +but that in general they lived better than the honest day-labouring +man in England, without doing a fourth part of his work +in a day, and I am fully convinced that the negroes in our islands +are better provided for and live better than when in Guinea.'</p> + +<p>Rodney, it is true, was a man of facts and was defective in +sentiment. Let us suppose him wrong, let us believe the +worst horrors of the slave trade or slave usage as fluent +tongue of missionary or demagogue has described them, yet +nevertheless, when we consider what the lot of common +humanity has been and is, we shall be dishonest if we deny +that the balance has been more than redressed; and the +negroes who were taken away out of Africa, as compared with +those who were left at home, were as the 'elect to salvation,' +who after a brief purgatory are secured an eternity of blessedness. +The one condition is the maintenance of the authority +of the English crown. The whites of the islands cannot +equitably rule them. They have not shaken off the old +traditions. If, for the sake of theory or to shirk responsibility, +we force them to govern themselves, the state of Hayti stands +as a ghastly example of the condition into which they will +then inevitably fall. If we persist, we shall be sinning against +light—the clearest light that was ever given in such affairs. +The most hardened believers in the regenerating effects of +political liberty cannot be completely blind to the ruin which +the infliction of it would necessarily bring upon the race for +whose interests they pretend particularly to care.</p> + +<p>The Pitch Lake I resisted all exhortations to visit, but the +days in the forest were delightful—pre-eminently a day which +we spent at the 'Blue Basin,' a pool scooped out in the course +of ages by a river falling through a mountain gorge; blue, not +from any colour in the water, which is purely transparent, but +from a peculiar effect of sky reflection through an opening in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +the overhanging trees. As it was far off, we had to start early +and encounter the noonday heat. We had to close the +curtains of the carriage to escape the sun, and in losing the +sun we shut out the wind. All was well, however, when we +turned into the hills. Thenceforward the road followed the +bottom of a densely wooded ravine; impenetrable foliage +spreading over our heads, and a limpid river flashing along in +which our horses cooled their feet and lips as we crossed +it again and again. There were the usual cabins and gardens +on either side of us, sometimes single, sometimes clustering +into villages, and high above them the rocks stood out, +broken into precipices or jutting out into projecting crags, +with huge trees starting from the crevices, dead trunks with +branching arms clothed scantily with creepers, or living giants +with blue or orange-coloured flowers. Mangoes scented the +valley with their blossom. Bananas waved their long broad +leaves—some flat and unbroken as we know them in conservatories, +some split into palm-like fronds which quivered in the +breeze. The cocoa pods were ripe or ripening, those which +had been gathered being left on the ground in heaps as we see +apples in autumn in an English orchard.</p> + +<p>We passed a lady on the way who was making sketches and +daring the mosquitoes, that were feeding at leisure upon her +face and arms. The road failed us at last. We alighted with +our waterproofs and luncheon basket. A couple of half-naked +boys sprang forward to act as guides and porters—nice little +fellows, speaking a French patois for their natural language, +but with English enough to earn shillings and amuse the +British tourist. With their help we scrambled along a steep +slippery path, the river roaring below, till we came to a spot +where, the rock being soft, a waterfall had cut out in the +course of ages a natural hollow, of which the trees formed the +roof, and of which the floor was the pool we had come in +search of. The fall itself was perpendicular, and fifty or +sixty feet high, the water issuing at the top out of a dark +green tunnel among overhanging branches. The sides of the +basin were draped with the fronds of gigantic ferns and wild +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>plantains, all in wild luxuriance and dripping with the spray. +In clefts above the rocks, large cedars or gum trees had struck +their roots and flung out their gnarled and twisted branches, +which were hung with ferns; while at the lower end of the pool, +where the river left it again, there grew out from among the +rocks near the water's edge tall and exquisitely grouped +acacias with crimson flowers for leaves.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/image0004.jpg" alt="BLUE BASIN, TRINIDAD." title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption">BLUE BASIN, TRINIDAD.</span> +</div> + +<p>The place broke on us suddenly as we scrambled round +a corner from below. Three young blacks were bathing in the +pool, and as we had a lady with us, they were induced, +though sullenly and with some difficulty, to return into +their scanty garments and depart. Never certainly was there +a more inviting spot to swim in, the more so from exciting +possibilities of adventure. An English gentleman went to +bathe there shortly before our coming. He was on a rock, +swaying his body for a plunge, when something caught his eye +among the shadows at the bottom. It proved to be a large +dead python.</p> + +<p>We had not the luck ourselves of falling in with so interesting +a beast. Great butterflies and perhaps a humming bird or +two were flitting among the leaves as we came up; other signs +of life there were none, unless we call life the motion of the +plantain leaves, waving in the draughts of air which were +eddying round the waterfall. We sat down on stones, or on +the trunk of a fallen tree, the mosquitoes mercifully sparing +us. We sketched a little, talked a little, ate our sandwiches, +and the male part of us lighted our cigars. G—— then, to +my surprise, produced a fly rod. In the streams in the +Antilles, which run out of the mountains, there is a fish in +great abundance which they call <i>mullet</i>, an inferior trout, but a +good substitute where the real thing is not. He runs sometimes +to five pounds weight, will take the fly, and is much +sought after by those who try to preserve in the tropics +the amusements and habits of home. G—— had caught +many of them in Dominica. If in Dominica, why not in +Trinidad?</p> + +<p>He put his tackle together, tied up a cast of trout flies, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +commenced work. He tried the still water at the lower end +of the basin. He crept round the rock and dropped his line +into the foam at the foot of the fall. No mullet rose, nor fish +of any kind. One of our small boys had looked on with +evident impatience. He cried out at last, 'No mullet, but +plenty crayfish,' pointing down into the water; and there, +following the direction of his finger, we beheld strange grey +creatures like cuttle-fish, moving about on the points of their +toes, the size of small lobsters. The flies were dismounted, a +bare hook was fitted on a fine gut trace, with a split shot or +two to sink the line, all trim and excellent. A fresh-water +shrimp was caught under a stone for a bait. G—— went to +work, and the strange things took hold and let themselves be +lifted halfway to the surface. But then, somehow, they let go +and disappeared.</p> + +<p>Our small boy said nothing; but I saw a scornful smite upon +his lips. He picked up a thin dry cane, found some twine in +the luncheon basket which had tied up our sandwiches, found +a pin there also, and bent it, and put a shrimp on it. With a +pebble stone for a sinker he started in competition, and in a +minute he had brought out upon the rock the strangest thing +in the shape of a fish which I had ever seen in fresh water or +salt. It was a true 'crayfish,' <i>écrevisse</i>, eight inches long, +formed regularly with the thick powerful tail, the sharp serrated +snout, the long antennæ, and the spider-like legs of the lobster +tribe. As in a crayfish, the claws were represented by the +correctly shaped but diminutive substitutes.</p> + +<p>When we had done wondering at the prize, we could admire +the smile of conscious superiority in the face of the captor. +The fine tackle had been beaten, as usual, by the proverbial +string and crooked pin, backed by knowledge in the head of a +small nigger boy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_6" id="Footnote_1_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_6"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Traen las cabezas atadas con unos panuelos labrados hermosos que +parecen de lejos de seda y almazarrones.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Home Rule in Trinidad—Political aspirations—Nature of the problem—Crown +administration—Colonial governors—A Russian apologue—Dinner +at Government House—'The Three Fishers'—Charles Warner—Alternative +futures of the colony.</p></div> + + +<p>The political demonstration to which I had been invited came +off the next day on the savannah. The scene was pretty +enough. Black coats and white trousers, bright-coloured +dresses and pink parasols, look the same at a distance whether +the wearer has a black face or a white one, and the broad +meadow was covered over with sparkling groups. Several +thousand persons must have attended, not all to hear the +oratory, for the occasion had been taken when the Governor +was to play close by in a cricket match, and half the crowd +had probably collected to see His Excellency at the wicket. +Placards had been posted about the town, setting out the purpose +of the meeting. Trinidad, as I said, is at present a Crown +colony, the executive council and the legislature being equally +nominated by the authorities. The popular orators, the newspaper +writers, and some of the leading merchants in Port of +Spain had discovered, as I said, that they were living under +what they called 'a degrading tyranny.' They had no grievances, +or none that they alleged, beyond the general one that +they had no control over the finance. They very naturally +desired that the lucrative Government appointments for which +the colony paid should be distributed among themselves. The +elective principle had been reintroduced in Jamaica, evidently +as a step towards the restoration of the full constitution which +had been surrendered and suppressed after the Gordon riots. +Trinidad was almost as large as Jamaica, in proportion to the +population wealthier and more prosperous, and the people were +invited to come together in overwhelming numbers to insist +that the 'tyranny' should end. The Home Government in +their action about Jamaica had shown a spontaneous readiness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +to transfer responsibility from themselves to the inhabitants. +The promoters of the meeting at Port of Spain may have +thought that a little pressure on their part might not be unwelcome +as an excuse for further concessions of the same kind. +Whether this was so I do not know. At any rate they showed +that they were as yet novices in the art of agitation. The +language of the placard of invitation was so violent that, in the +opinion of the legal authorities, the printer might have been +indicted for high treason. The speakers did their best to +imitate the fine phrases of the apostles of liberty in Europe, +but they succeeded only in caricaturing their absurdities. The +proceedings were described at length in the rival newspapers. +One gentleman's speech was said to have been so brilliant that +every sentence was a 'gem of oratory,' the gem of gems being +when he told his hearers that, 'if they went into the thing at +all, they should go the entire animal.' All went off good-humouredly. +In the Liberal journal the event of the day was +spoken of as the most magnificent demonstration in favour of +human freedom which had ever been seen in the West Indian +Islands. In the Conservative journal it was called a ridiculous +<i>fiasco</i>, and the people were said to have come together only to +admire the Governor's batting, and to laugh at the nonsense +which was coming from the platform. Finally, the same journal +assured us that, beyond a handful of people who were interested +in getting hold of the anticipated spoils of office, no one in +the island cared about the matter.</p> + +<p>The result, I believe, was some petition or other which +would go home and pass as evidence, to minds eager to +believe, that Trinidad was rapidly ripening for responsible +government, promising relief to an overburdened Secretary +for the Colonies, who has more to do than he can attend to, +and is pleased with opportunities of gratifying popular sentiment, +or of showing off in Parliament the development of +colonial institutions. He knows nothing, can know nothing, +of the special conditions of our hundred dependencies. He +accepts what his representatives in the several colonies choose +to tell him; and his representatives, being birds of passage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +responsible only to their employers at home, and depending +for their promotion on making themselves agreeable, are +under irresistible temptations to report what it will please +the Secretary of State to hear.</p> + +<p>For the Secretary of State, too, is a bird of passage as they +are, passing through the Colonial Office on his way to other +departments, or holding the seals as part of an administration +whose tenure of office grows every year more precarious, +which exists only upon popular sentiment, and cannot, and +does not try to look forward beyond at furthest the next +session of Parliament.</p> + +<p>But why, it may be asked, should not Trinidad govern +itself as well as Tasmania or New Zealand? Why not +Jamaica, why not all the West Indian Islands? I will answer +by another question. Do we wish these islands to remain as +part of the British Empire? Are they of any use to us, or +have we responsibilities connected with them of which we are +not entitled to divest ourselves? A government elected by +the majority of the people (and no one would think of setting +up constitutions on any other basis) reflects from the nature +of things the character of the electors. All these islands tend +to become partitioned into black peasant proprietaries. In +Grenada the process is almost complete. In Trinidad it is +rapidly advancing. No one can stop it. No one ought to wish +to stop it. But the ownership of freeholds is one thing, and +political power is another. The blacks depend for the progress +which they may be capable of making on the presence +of a white community among them; and although it is +undesirable or impossible for the blacks to be ruled by the +minority of the white residents, it is equally undesirable and +equally impossible that the whites should be ruled by them. +The relative numbers of the two races being what they are, +responsible government in Trinidad means government by a +black parliament and a black ministry. The negro voters +might elect, to begin with, their half-caste attorneys or such +whites (the most disreputable of their colour) as would court +their suffrages. But the black does not love the mulatto, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +despises the white man who consents to be his servant. He +has no grievances. He is not naturally a politician, and if +left alone with his own patch of land, will never trouble +himself to look further. But he knows what has happened in +St. Domingo. He has heard that his race is already in full +possession of the finest of all the islands. If he has any +thought or any hopes about the matter, it is that it may be +with the rest of them as it has been with St. Domingo, and if +you force the power into his hands, you must expect him to +use it. Under the constitution which you would set up, +whites and blacks may be nominally equal; but from the +enormous preponderance of numbers the equality would be +only in name, and such English people, at least, as would be +really of any value, would refuse to remain in a false and +intolerable position. Already the English population of +Trinidad is dwindling away under the uncertainties of their +future position. Complete the work, set up a constitution +with a black prime minister and a black legislature, and they +will withdraw of themselves before they are compelled to go. +Spaniards and French might be tempted by advantages of +trade to remain in Port of Spain, as a few are still to be found +in Hayti. They, it is possible, might in time recover and +reassert their supremacy. Englishmen have the world open +to them, and will prefer lands where they can live under less +degrading conditions. In Hayti the black republic allows +no white man to hold land in freehold. The blacks elsewhere +with the same opportunities will develop the same +aspirations.</p> + +<p>Do we, or do we not, intend to retain our West Indian +Islands under the sovereignty of the Queen? If we are +willing to let them go, the question is settled. But we ought +to face the alternative. There is but one form of government +under which we can retain these colonies with honour and +security to ourselves and with advantage to the negroes +whom we have placed there—the mode of government +which succeeds with us so admirably that it is the world's +wonder in the <i>East</i> Indies, a success so unique and so extra<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>ordinary +that it seems the last from which we are willing to +take example.</p> + +<p>In Natal, where the circumstances are analogous, and +where report says that efforts are being also made to force +on constitutional independence, I remember suggesting a few +years ago that the governor should be allowed to form his own +council, and that in selecting the members of it he should go +round the colony, observe the farms where the land was well +inclosed, the fields clean, the farm buildings substantial and in +good repair; that he should call on the owners of these to be +his advisers and assistants. In all Natal he might find a +dozen such. They would be unwilling to leave their own +business for so thankless a purpose; but they might be +induced by good feeling to grant him a few weeks of their +time. Under such an administration I imagine Natal would +have a happier future before it than it will experience with the +boon which is designed for it.</p> + +<p>In the West Indies there is indefinite wealth waiting to be +developed by intelligence and capital; and men with such +resources, both English and American, might be tempted still +to settle there, and lead the blacks along with them into more +settled manners and higher forms of civilisation. But the +future of the blacks, and our own influence over them for +good, depend on their being protected from themselves and +from the schemers who would take advantage of them. However +little may be the share to which the mass of a population +be admitted in the government of their country, they are +never found hard to manage where they prosper and are +justly dealt with. The children of darkness are even easier +of control than the children of light. Under an administration +formed on the model of that of our Eastern Empire these +islands would be peopled in a generation or two with dusky +citizens, as proud as the rest of us of the flag under which +they will have thriven, and as willing to defend it against any +invading enemy as they are now unquestionably indifferent. +Partially elected councils, local elected boards, &c., serve only +as contrivances to foster discontent and encourage jobbery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +They open a rift which time will widen, and which will create +for us, on a smaller scale, the conditions which have so +troubled us in Ireland, where each concession of popular demands +makes the maintenance of the connection more difficult. +In the Pacific colonies self-government is a natural right; the +colonists are part of ourselves, and have as complete a claim +to the management of their own affairs as we have to the +management of ours. The less we interfere with them the +more heartily they identify themselves with us. But if we +choose besides to indulge our ambition with an empire, if we +determine to keep attached to our dominion countries which, +like the East Indies, have been conquered by the sword, +countries, like the West Indies, which, however acquired, are +occupied by races enormously outnumbering us, many of +whom do not speak our language, are not connected with us +by sentiment, and not visibly connected by interest, with +whom our own people will not intermarry or hold social intercourse, +but keep aloof from, as superior from inferior—to +impose on such countries forms of self-government at which +we have ourselves but lately arrived, to put it in the power of +these overwhelming numbers to shake us off if they please, +and to assume that when our real motive has been only to +save ourselves trouble they will be warmed into active loyalty +by gratitude for the confidence which we pretend to place +in them, is to try an experiment which we have not the +slightest right to expect to be successful, and which if it fails +is fatal.</p> + +<p>Once more, if we mean to keep the blacks as British subjects, +we are bound to govern them, and to govern them well. +If we cannot do it, we had better let them go altogether. And +here is the real difficulty. It is not that men competent for +such a task cannot be found. Among the public servants of +Great Britain there are persons always to be found fit and +willing for posts of honour and difficulty if a sincere effort be +made to find them. Alas! in times past we have sent persons +to rule our Baratarias to whom Sancho Panza was a sage—troublesome +members of Parliament, younger brothers of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +powerful families, impecunious peers; favourites, with backstairs +influence, for whom a provision was to be found; colonial +clerks, bred in the office, who had been obsequious and useful.</p> + +<p>One had hoped that in the new zeal for the colonial connection +such appointments would have become impossible for the +future, yet a recent incident at the Mauritius has proved that +the colonial authorities are still unregenerate. The unfit are +still maintained in their places; and then, to prevent the +colonies from suffering too severely under their incapacity, we +set up the local councils, nominated or elected, to do the work, +while the Queen's representative enjoys his salary. Instances +of glaring impropriety like that to which I have alluded are of +course rare, and among colonial governors there are men of +quality so high that we would desire only to see their power +equal to it. But so limited is the patronage, on the other +hand, which remains to the home administrations, and so heavy +the pressure brought to bear upon them, that there are persons +also in these situations of whom it may be said that the less +they do, and the less they are enabled to do, the better for the +colony over which they preside.</p> + +<p>The West Indies have been sufferers from another cause. +In the absence of other use for them they have been made to +serve as places where governors try their 'prentice hand and +learn their business before promotion to more important situations. +Whether a man has done well or done ill makes, it +seems, very little difference unless he has offended prejudices +or interests at home: once in the service he acquires a vested +right to continue in it. A governor who had been suspended +for conduct which is not denied to have been most improper, +is replaced with the explanation that if he was not sent back +to his old post it would have been necessary to provide a +situation for him elsewhere. Why would it? Has a captain +of a man-of-war whose ship is taken from him for misconduct +an immediate claim to have another? Unfortunate colonies! +It is not their interest which is considered under this system. +But the subject is so delicate that I must say no more about +it. I will recommend only to the attention of the British<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +democracy, who are now the parties that in the last instance +are responsible, because they are the real masters of the +Empire, the following apologue.</p> + +<p>In the time of the Emperor Nicholas the censors of the +press seized a volume which had been published by the poet +Kriloff, on the ground that it contained treasonable matter. +Nicholas sent for Kriloff. The censor produced the incriminated +passage, and Kriloff was made to read it aloud. It was +a fable. A governor of a Russian province was represented +as arriving in the other world, and as being brought up before +Rhadamanthus. He was accused, not of any crime, but of +having been simply a nonentity—of having received his salary +and spent it, and nothing more. Rhadamanthus listened, and +when the accusing angel had done sentenced the prisoner into +Paradise. 'Into Paradise!' said the angel, 'why, he has done +nothing!' 'True,' said Rhadamanthus, 'but how would it have +been if he had done anything?'</p> + +<p>'Write away, old fellow,' said Nicholas to Kriloff.</p> + +<p>Has it never happened that British colonial officials who +have similarly done nothing have been sent into the Paradise +of promotion because they have kept things smooth and have +given no trouble to their employers at home?</p> + +<p>In the evening of the day of the political meeting we dined +at Government House. There was a large representative +party, English, French, Spaniards, Corsicans—ladies and +gentlemen each speaking his or her own language. There +were the mayors of the two chief towns of Trinidad—Port of +Spain and San Fernando—both enthusiastic for a constitution. +The latter was my neighbour at dinner, and insisted much on +the fine qualities of the leading persons in the island and the +splendid things to be expected when responsible government +should be conceded. The training squadron had arrived from +Barbadoes, and the commodore and two or three officers were +present in their uniforms. There was interesting talk about +Trinidad's troublesome neighbour, Guzman Blanco, the President +of Venezuela. It seems that Sir Walter Raleigh's +Eldorado has turned out to be a fact after all. On the higher<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +waters of the Orinoco actual gold mines do exist, and the +discovery has quickened into life a long unsettled dispute +about boundaries between British Guiana and the republic. +Don Guzman had been encroaching, so it was alleged, and in +other ways had been offensive and impertinent. Ships were +going—had been actually ordered to La Guyra, to pull his +nose for him, and to tell him to behave himself. The time is +past when we flew our hawks at game birds. The opinion of +most of the party was that Don Guzman knew it, and that his +nose would not be pulled. He would regard our frigates as +picturesque ornaments to his harbour, give the officers in command +the politest reception, evade their demands, offer good +words in plenty, and nothing else but words, and in the end +would have the benefit of our indifference.<a name="FNanchor_1_7" id="FNanchor_1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_7" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>In the late evening we had music. Our host sang well, our +hostess was an accomplished artist. They had duets together, +Italian and English, and the lady then sang 'The Three +Fishers,' Kingsley being looked on as the personal property of +Trinidad and as one of themselves. She sang it very well, as +well as any one could do who had no direct acquaintance with +an English sea-coast people. Her voice was beautiful, and she +showed genuine feeling. The silence when she ended was +more complimentary than the loudest applause. It was broken +by a stupid member of council, who said to me, 'Is it not +strange that a poet with such a gift of words as Mr. Kingsley +should have ended that song with so weak a line? "The +sooner it's over the sooner to sleep" is nothing but prose.' +He did not see that the fault which he thought he had discovered +is no more than the intentional 'dying away' of the +emotion created by the story in the common lot of poor +humanity. We drove back across the savannah in a blaze of +fireflies. It is not till midnight that they put their lights out +and go to sleep with the rest of the world.</p> + +<p>One duty remained to me before I left the island. The +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>Warners are among the oldest of West Indian families, distinguished +through many generations, not the least in their then +living chief and representative, Charles Warner, who in the +highest ministerial offices had steered Trinidad through the +trying times which followed the abolition of slavery. I had +myself in early life been brought into relations with other +members of his family. He himself was a very old man on +the edge of the grave; but hearing that I was in Port of +Spain, he had expressed a wish to see me. I found him in +his drawing room, shrunk in stature, pale, bent double by +weight of years, and but feebly able to lift his head to speak. +I thought, and I judged rightly, that he could have but a few +weeks, perhaps but a few days, to live.</p> + +<p>There is something peculiarly solemn in being brought to +speak with a supremely eminent man, who is already struggling +with the moment which is to launch him into a new existence. +He raised himself in his chair. He gave me his withered +hand. His eyes still gleamed with the light of an untouched +intelligence. All else of him seemed dead. The soul, untouched +by the decay of the frame which had been its earthly +tenement, burnt bright as ever on the edge of its release.</p> + +<p style="margin-left:4em"> +When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain,<br /> +And they breathe truth who breathe their words in pain.<br /> +</p> + +<p>He roused himself to talk, and he talked sadly, for all things +at home and everywhere were travelling on the road which he +well knew could lead to no good end. No statesman had +done better practical work than he, or work which had borne +better fruit, could it be allowed to ripen. But for him Trinidad +would have been a wilderness, savage as when Columbus +found the Caribs there. He belonged to the race who make +empires, as the orators lose them, who do things and do not +talk about them, who build and do not cast down, who reverence +ancient habits and institutions as the organic functions of +corporate national character; a Tory of the Tories, who +nevertheless recognised that Toryism itself was passing away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +under the universal solvent, and had ceased to be a faith which +could be believed in as a guide to conduct.</p> + +<p>He no more than any one could tell what it was now wisest +or even possible to do. He spoke like some ancient <i>seer</i>, +whose eyes looked beyond the present time and the present +world, and saw politics and progress and the wild whirlwind of +change as the play of atoms dancing to and fro in the sunbeams +of eternity. Yet he wished well to our poor earth, and +to us who were still struggling upon it. He was sorry for the +courses on which he saw mankind to be travelling. Spite of +all the newspapers and the blowing of the trumpets, he well +understood whither all that was tending. He spoke with +horror and even loathing of the sinister leader who was drawing +England into the fatal whirlpool. He could still hope, for he +knew the power of the race. He knew that the English heart +was unaffected, that we were suffering only from delirium of +the brain. The day would yet come, he thought, when we +should struggle back into sanity again with such wreck of our +past greatness as might still be left to us, torn and shattered, +but clothed and in our right mind, and cured for centuries of +our illusions.</p> + +<p>My forebodings of the nearness of the end were too well +founded. A month later I heard that Charles Warner was +dead. To have seen and spoken with such a man was worth +a voyage round the globe.</p> + +<p>On the prospects of Trinidad I have a few more words to +add. The tendency of the island is to become what Grenada +has become already—a community of negro freeholders, each +living on his own homestead, and raising or gathering off the +ground what his own family will consume. They will multiply, +for there is ample room. Three-quarters of the soil are still +unoccupied. The 140,000 blacks will rapidly grow into a half-million, +and the half-million, as long as we are on the spot to +keep the peace, will speedily double itself again. The English +inhabitants will and must be crowded out. The geographical +advantages of the Gulf of Paria will secure a certain amount of +trade. There will be merchants and bankers in the town as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +floating passage birds, and there will be mulatto lawyers and +shopkeepers and newspaper writers. But the blacks hate the +mulattoes, and the mulatto breed will not maintain itself, as +with the independence of the blacks the intimacy between +blacks and whites diminishes and must diminish. The English +peasant immigration which enthusiasts have believed in is a +dream, a dream which passed through the ivory gate, a dream +which will never turn to a waking reality; and unless under +the Indian system, which our rulers will never try unless the +democracy orders them to adopt it, the English interest will +come to an end.</p> + +<p>The English have proved in India that they can play a great +and useful part as rulers over recognised inferiors. Even in +the West Indies the planters were a real something. Like the +English in Ireland, they produced a remarkable breed of men: +the Codringtons, the Warners, and many illustrious names +besides. They governed cheaply on their own resources, and +the islands under their rule were so profitable that we fought +for them as if our Empire was at stake. All that is gone. +The days of ruling races are supposed to be numbered. Trade +drifts away to the nearest market—to New York or New +Orleans—and in a money point of view the value of such possessions +as Trinidad will soon be less than nothing to us.</p> + +<p>As long as the present system holds, there will be an appreciable +addition to the sum of human (coloured human) happiness. +Lighter-hearted creatures do not exist on the globe. +But the continuance of it depends on the continuance of the +English rule. The peace and order which they benefit by is +not of their own creation. In spite of schools and missionaries, +the dark connection still maintains itself with Satan's invisible +world, and modern education contends in vain with Obeah +worship. As it has been in Hayti, so it must be in Trinidad +if the English leave the blacks to be their own masters.</p> + +<p>Scene after scene passes by on the magic slide. The man-eating +Caribs first, then Columbus and his Spaniards, the +French conquest, the English occupation, but they have left +behind them no self-quickening seed of healthy civilisation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +and the prospect darkens once more. It is a pity, for there is +no real necessity that it should darken. The West Indian +negro is conscious of his own defects, and responds more +willingly than most to a guiding hand. He is faithful and +affectionate to those who are just and kind to him, and with a +century or two of wise administration he might prove that his +inferiority is not inherent, and that with the same chances as +the white he may rise to the same level. I cannot part with +the hope that the English people may yet insist that the chance +shall not be denied to him, and that they may yet give their +officials to understand that they must not, shall not, shake off +their responsibilities for this unfortunate people, by flinging +them back upon themselves 'to manage their own affairs,' now +that we have no further use for them.</p> + +<p>I was told that the keener-witted Trinidad blacks are watching +as eagerly as we do the development of the Irish problem. +They see the identity of the situation. They see that if the +Radical view prevails, and in every country the majority are to +rule, Trinidad will be theirs and the government of the English +will be at an end. I, for myself, look upon Trinidad and the +West Indies generally as an opportunity for the further extension +of the influence of the English race in their special +capacity of leaders and governors of men. We cannot with +honour divest ourselves of our responsibility for the blacks, or +after the eloquence we have poured out and the self-laudation +which we have allowed ourselves for the suppression of slavery, +leave them now to relapse into a state from which slavery itself +was the first step of emancipation. Our world-wide dominion +will not be of any long endurance if we consider that we have +discharged our full duty to our fellow-subjects when we have +set them free to follow their own devices. If that is to be all, +the sooner it vanishes into history the better for us and for the +world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_7" id="Footnote_1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_7"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> A squadron did go while I was in the West Indies. I have not heard +that any advance has been made in consequence towards the settlement of +the Border.</p></div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Barbadoes again—Social condition of the island—Political constitution—Effects +of the sugar bounties—Dangers of general bankruptcy—The +Hall of Assembly—Sir Charles Pearson—Society in Bridgetown—A +morning drive—Church of St. John's—Sir Graham Briggs—An old +planter's palace—The Chief Justice of Barbadoes.</p></div> + + +<p>Again at sea, and on the way back to Barbadoes. The commodore +of the training squadron had offered me a berth to +St. Vincent, but he intended to work up under sail against the +north-east trade, which had risen to half a gale, and I preferred +the security and speed of the mail boat. Among the passengers +was Miss ——, the lady whom I had seen sketching +on the way to the Blue Basin. She showed me her drawings, +which were excellent. She showed me in her mosquito-bitten +arms what she had endured to make them, and I admired her +fortitude. She was English, and was on her way to join her +father at Codrington College.</p> + +<p>We had a wild night, but those long vessels care little +for winds and waves. By morning we had fought our way +back to Grenada. In the St. Vincent roadstead, which we +reached the same day, the ship was stormed by boatloads of +people who were to go on with us; boys on their way to +school at Barbadoes, ladies young and old, white, black, and +mixed, who were bound I know not where. The night fell +dark as pitch, the storm continued, and we were no sooner +beyond the shelter of the land than every one save +Miss —— and myself was prostrate. The vessel ploughed on +upon her way indifferent to us and to them. We were at +Bridgetown by breakfast time, and I was now to have an opportunity +of studying more at leisure the earliest of our West +Indian colonies.</p> + +<p>Barbadoes is as unlike in appearance as it is in social condition +to Trinidad or the Antilles. There are no mountains +in it, no forests, no rivers, and as yet no small freeholders.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +The blacks, who number nearly 200,000 in an island not +larger than the Isle of Wight, are labourers, working for wages +on the estates of large proprietors. Land of their own they +have none, for there is none for them. Work they must, for +they cannot live otherwise. Thus every square yard of soil is +cultivated, and turn your eyes where you will you see houses, +sugar canes, and sweet potatoes. Two hundred and fifty +years of occupation have imprinted strongly an English character; +parish churches solid and respectable, the English +language, the English police and parochial system. However +it may be in the other islands, England in Barbadoes is still a +solid fact. The headquarters of the West Indian troops +are there. There is a commander-in-chief residing in a +'Queen's House,' so called. There is a savannah where there +are English barracks under avenues of almond and mahogany. +Red coats are scattered about the grass. Officers canter about +playing polo, and naval and military uniforms glitter at the +side of carriages, and horsemen and horsewomen take their +evening rides, as well mounted and as well dressed as you can +see in Rotten Row. Barbadoes is thus in pleasing contrast +with the conquered islands which we have not taken the +trouble to assimilate. In them remain the wrecks of the +French civilisation which we superseded, while we have +planted nothing of our own. Barbadoes, the European aspect +of it at any rate, is English throughout.</p> + +<p>The harbour, when we arrived, was even more brilliant +than we had left it a fortnight before. The training squadron +had gone, but in the place of it the West Indian fleet was +there, and there were also three American frigates, old wooden +vessels out merely on a cruise, but heavily sparred, smart +and well set up, with the stars and stripes floating carelessly at +their sterns, as if in these western seas, be the nominal +dominion British, French, or Spanish, the American has a +voice also and intends to be heard.</p> + +<p>We had no sooner anchored than a well-appointed boat +was alongside with an awning and an ensign at the stern. +Colonel ——, the chief of the police, to whom it belonged,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +came on board in search of Miss ——, who was to be his +guest in Bridgetown. She introduced me to him. He insisted +on my accompanying him home to breakfast, and, as he was a +person in authority, I had nothing to do but obey. Colonel ——, +to whose politeness then and afterwards I was in many +ways indebted, had seen life in various forms. He had been +in the navy. He had been in the army. He had been called +to the bar. He was now the head of the Barbadoes police, +with this anomalous addition to his other duties, that in default +of a chaplain he read the Church service on Sundays in the +barracks. He had even a license from the bishop to preach +sermons, and being a man of fine character and original sense +he discharged this last function, I was told, remarkably well. +His house was in the heart of the town, but shaded with +tropical trees. The rooms were protected by deep outside +galleries, which were overrun with Bougainvillier creepers. +He was himself the kindest of entertainers, his Irish lady the +kindest of hostesses, with the humorous high breeding of +the old Sligo aristocracy, to whom she belonged. I found +that I had been acquainted with some of her kindred there +long ago, in the days when the Anglo-Irish rule had not +been discovered to be a upas tree, and cultivated human life +was still possible in Connaught. Of the breakfast, which +consisted of all the West Indian dainties I had ever heard +or read of, I can say nothing, nor of the pleasant talk which +followed. I was to see more of Colonel ——, for he offered +to drive me some day across the island, a promise which +he punctually fulfilled. My stay with him for the present +could be but brief, as I was expected at Government House.</p> + +<p>I have met with exceptional hospitality from the governors +of British colonies in many parts of the world. They are +not chosen like the Roman proconsuls from the ranks of +trained statesmen who have held high administrative offices at +home. They are appointed, as I said just now, from various +motives, sometimes with a careful regard to fitness for their +post, sometimes with a regard merely to routine or convenience +or to personal influence brought to bear in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +favour. I have myself seen some for whom I should have +thought other employment would have been more suitable; +but always and everywhere those that I have fallen in with +have been men of honour and integrity above reproach or +suspicion, and I have met with one or two gentlemen in these +situations whose admirable qualities it is impossible to praise +too highly, who in their complicated responsibilities—responsibilities +to the colonies and responsibilities to the authorities +at home—have considered conscience and duty to be their +safest guides, have cared only to do what they believed to be +right to the best of their ability, and have left their interests +to take care of themselves.</p> + +<p>The Governor of Barbadoes is not despotic. He controls +the administration, but there is a constitution as old as the +Stuarts; an Assembly of thirty-three members, nine of whom +the Crown nominates, the rest are elected. The friction is +not so violent as when the number of the nominated and +elected members is equal, and as long as a property qualification +was required for the franchise, the system may have +worked tolerably without producing any violent mischief. +There have been recent modifications, however, pointing in +the same direction as those which have been made in Jamaica. +By an ordinance from home the suffrage has been widely extended, +obviously as a step to larger intended changes.</p> + +<p>Under such conditions and with an uncertain future a +governor can do little save lead and influence, entertain +visitors, discharge the necessary courtesies to all classes of his +subjects, and keep his eyes open. These duties at least Sir +Charles Lee discharges to perfection, the entertaining part of +them on a scale so liberal that if Père Labat came back he +would suppose that the two hundred years which have gone +by since his visit was a dream, and that Government House +at least was still as he left it. In an establishment which had +so many demands upon it, and where so many visitors of all +kinds were going and coming, I had no claim to be admitted. +I felt that I should be an intruder, and had I been allowed +would have taken myself elsewhere, but Sir Charles's peremp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>tory +generosity admitted of no refusal. As a subject I was +bound to submit to the Queen's representative. I cannot say I +was sorry to be compelled. In Government House I should see +and hear what I could neither have seen nor heard elsewhere. +I should meet people who could tell me what I most wanted +to know. I had understood already that owing to the sugar +depression the state of the island was critical. Officials were +alarmed. Bankers were alarmed. No one could see beyond +the next year what was likely to happen. Sir Charles himself +would have most to say. He was evidently anxious. Perhaps +if he had a fault, he was over anxious; but with the possibility +of social confusion before him, with nearly 200,000 peasant +subjects, who in a few months might be out of work and so +out of food, with the inflammable negro nature, and a suspicious +and easily excited public opinion at home, the position of +a Governor of Barbadoes is not an enviable one. The Government +at home, no doubt with the best intentions, has aggravated +any peril which there may be by enlarging the suffrage. +The experience of Governor Eyre in Jamaica has taught the +danger of being too active, but to be too inactive may be +dangerous also. If there is a stir again in any part of these +islands, and violence and massacre come of it, as it came in +St. Domingo, the responsibility is with the governor, and the +account will be strictly exacted of him.</p> + +<p>I must describe more particularly the reasons which there +are for uneasiness. On the day on which I landed I saw an +article in a Bridgetown paper in which my coming there was +spoken of as perhaps the last straw which would break the +overburdened back. I know not why I should be thought +likely to add anything to the load of Barbadian afflictions. I +should be a worse friend to the colonies than I have tried to +be if I was one of those who would quench the smoking flax +of loyalty in any West Indian heart. But loyalty, I very well +know, is sorely tried just now. The position is painfully +simple. The great prosperity of the island ended with +emancipation. Barbadoes suffered less than Jamaica or the +Antilles because the population was large and the land limited,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +and the blacks were obliged to work to keep themselves alive. +The abolition of the sugar duties was the next blow. The +price of sugar fell, and the estates yielded little more than the +expense of cultivation. Owners of properties who were their +own managers, and had sense and energy, continued to keep +themselves afloat; but absenteeism had become the fashion. +The brilliant society which is described by Labat had been +melting for more than a century. More and more the old West +Indian families removed to England, farmed their lands +through agents and overseers, or sold them to speculating +capitalists. The personal influence of the white man over the +black, which might have been brought about by a friendly +intercourse after slavery was abolished, was never so much as +attempted. The higher class of gentry found the colony more +and more distasteful to them, and they left the arrangement +of the labour question to persons to whom the blacks were +nothing, emancipated though they might be, except instruments +of production. A negro can be attached to his employer at least +as easily as a horse or a dog. The horse or dog requires kind +treatment, or he becomes indifferent or sullen; so it is with +the negro. But the forced equality of the races before the +law made more difficult the growth of any kindly feeling. To +the overseer on a plantation the black labourer was a machine +out of which the problem was to get the maximum of work +with the minimum of pay. In the slavery times the horse and +dog relation was a real thing. The master and mistress +joked and laughed with their dark bondsmen, knew Cæsar +from Pompey, knew how many children each had, gave them +small presents, cared for them when they were sick, and +maintained them when they were old and past work. All this +ended with emancipation. Between whites and blacks no +relations remained save that of employer and employed. They +lived apart. They had no longer, save in exceptional instances, +any personal communication with each other. The law refusing +to recognise a difference, the social line was drawn the harder, +which the law was unable to reach.</p> + +<p>In the Antilles the plantations broke up as I had seen in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +Grenada. The whites went away, and the land was divided +among the negroes. In Barbadoes, the estates were kept +together. The English character and the English habits were +stamped deeper there, and were not so easily obliterated. But +the stars in their courses have fought against the old system. +Once the West Indies had a monopoly of the sugar trade. +Steam and progress have given them a hundred <i>natural</i> competitors; +and on the back of these came the <i>unnatural</i> +bounty-fed beetroot sugar competition. Meanwhile the expense +of living increased in the days of inflated hope and +'unexampled prosperity.' Free trade, whatever its immediate +consequences, was to make everyone rich in the end. When +the income of an estate fell short one year, it was to rise in the +next, and the money was borrowed to make ends meet; when +it didn't rise, more money was borrowed; and there is now +hardly a property in the island which is not loaded to the +sinking point. Tied to sugar-growing, Barbadoes has no +second industry to fall back upon. The blacks, who are heedless +and light-hearted, increase and multiply. They will not +emigrate, they are so much attached to their homes; and the +not distant prospect is of a general bankruptcy, which may +throw the land for the moment out of cultivation, with a +hungry unemployed multitude to feed without means of +feeding them, and to control without the personal acquaintance +and influence which alone can make control possible.</p> + +<p>At home there is a general knowledge that things are not +going on well out there. But, true to our own ways of +thinking, we regard it as their affair and not as ours. If cheap +sugar ruins the planters, it benefits the English workman. +The planters had their innings; it is now the consumer's turn. +What are the West Indies to us? On the map they appear +to belong more to the United States than to us. Let the +United States take them and welcome. So thinks, perhaps, +the average Englishman; and, analogous to him, the West +Indian proprietor reflects that, if admitted into the Union, he +would have the benefit of the American market, which would +set him on his feet again; and that the Americans, probably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +finding that they, if not we, could make some profit out of the +islands, would be likely to settle the black question for him in +a more satisfactory manner.</p> + +<p>That such a feeling as this should exist is natural and pardonable; +and it would have gone deeper than it has gone if it +were not that there are two parties to every bargain, and those +in favour of such a union have met hitherto with no encouragement. +The Americans are wise in their generation. They +looked at Cuba; they looked at St. Domingo. They might +have had both on easy terms, but they tell you that their constitution +does not allow them to hold dependent states. What +they annex they absorb, and they did not wish to absorb +another million and a half of blacks and as many Roman +Catholics, having enough already of both. Our English islands +may be more tempting, but there too the black cloud hangs +thick and grows yearly thicker, and through English indulgence +is more charged with dangerous elements. Already, they say, +they have every advantage which the islands can give them. +They exercise a general protectorate, and would probably +interfere if France or England were to attempt again to +extend their dominions in that quarter; but they prefer to +leave to the present owners the responsibility of managing and +feeding the cow, while they are to have the milking of it.</p> + +<p>Thus the proposal of annexation, which has never gone +beyond wishes and talk, has so far been coldly received; but +the Americans did make their offer a short time since, at +which the drowning Barbadians grasped as at a floating plank. +England would give them no hand to save them from the +effects of the beetroot bounties. The Americans were willing +to relax their own sugar duties to admit West Indian sugar +duty free, and give them the benefit of their own high prices. +The colonies being unable to make treaties for themselves, the +proposal was referred home and was rejected. The Board of +Trade had, no doubt, excellent reasons for objecting to an +arrangement which would have flung our whole commerce +with the West Indies into American hands, and might have +formed a prelude to a closer attachment. It would have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +a violation also of those free-trade principles which are the +English political gospel. Moreover, our attitude towards our +colonies has changed in the last twenty years; we now wish to +preserve the attachment of communities whom a generation +back we should have told to do as they liked, and have bidden +them God speed on their way; and this treaty may have been +regarded as a step towards separation. But the unfortunate +Barbadians found themselves, with the harbour in sight, driven +out again into the free-trade hurricane. We would not help +them ourselves; we declined to let the Americans help them; +and help themselves they could not. They dare not resent +our indifference to their interests, which, if they were stronger, +would have been more visibly displayed. They must wait +now for what the future will bring with as much composure as +they can command, but I did hear outcries of impatience to +which it was unpleasant to listen. Nay, it was even suggested +as a means of inducing the Americans to forego their reluctance +to take them into the Union, that we might relinquish +such rights as we possessed in Canada if the Americans would +relieve us of the West Indies, for which we appeared to care +so little.</p> + +<p>If Barbadoes is driven into bankruptcy, the estates will have +to be sold, and will probably be broken up as they have been +in the Antilles. The first difficulty will thus be got over. But +the change cannot be carried out in a day. If wages suddenly +cease the negroes will starve, and will not take their starvation +patiently. At the worst, however, means will probably be +found to keep the land from falling out of cultivation. +The Barbadians see their condition in the light of their +grievances, and make the worst of it. The continental +powers may tire of the bounty system, or something else +may happen to make sugar rise. The prospect is not a bright +one, but what actually happens in this world is generally the +unexpected.</p> + +<p>As a visit my stay at Government House was made simply +delightful to me. I remained there (with interruptions) for a +fortnight, and Lady L—— did not only permit, but she insisted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +that I should be as if in an hotel, and come and go as I liked. +The climate of Barbadoes, so far as I can speak of it, is as +sparkling and invigorating as champagne. Cocktail may be +wanted in Trinidad. In Barbadoes the air is all one asks for, +and between night breezes and sea breezes one has plenty of +it. Day begins with daylight, as it ought to do. You have +slept without knowing anything about it. There are no +venomous crawling creatures. Cockroaches are the worst, +but they scuttle out of the way so alarmed and ashamed of +themselves if you happen to see them, that I never could +bring myself to hurt one. You spring out of bed as if the +process of getting up were actually pleasant. Well-appointed +West Indian houses are generally provided with a fresh-water +swimming bath. Though cold by courtesy the water seldom +falls below 65°, and you float luxuriously upon it without +dread of chill. The early coffee follows the bath, and then +the stroll under the big trees, among strange flowers, or in the +grotto with the ferns and humming birds. If it were part of +one's regular life, I suppose that one would want something +to do. Sir Charles was the most active of men, and had been +busy in his office for an hour before I had come down to +lounge. But for myself I discovered that it was possible, at +least for an interval, to be perfectly idle and perfectly happy, +surrounded by the daintiest beauties of an English hothouse, +with palm trees waving like fans to cool one, and with sensitive +plants, which are common as daisies, strewing themselves +under one's feet to be trodden upon.</p> + +<p>After breakfast the heat would be considerable, but with an +umbrella I could walk about the town and see what was to be +seen. Alas! here one has something to desire. Where Père +Labat saw a display of splendour which reminded him of Paris +and London, you now find only <i>stores</i> on the American pattern, +for the most part American goods, bad in quality and +extravagantly dear. Treaty or no treaty, it is to America that +the trade is drifting, and we might as well concede with a +good grace what must soon come of itself whether we like it +or not. The streets are relieved from ugliness by the trees<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +and by occasional handsome buildings. Often I stood to +admire the pea-green Nelson. Once I went into the Assembly +where the legislature was discussing more or less unquietly the +prospects of the island. The question of the hour was economy. +In the opinion of patriot Barbadians, sore at the refusal of the +treaty, the readiest way to reduce expenditure was to diminish +the salaries of officials from the governor downwards. The +officials, knowing that they were very moderately paid already, +naturally demurred. The most interesting part of the thing +to me was the <i>hall</i> in which the proceedings were going on. +It is handsome in itself, and has a series of painted windows +representing the English sovereigns from James I. to Queen +Victoria. Among them in his proper place stood Oliver +Cromwell, the only formal recognition of the great Protector +that I know of in any part of the English dominions. Barbadoes +had been Cavalier in its general sympathies, but has +taken an independent view of things, and here too has had an +opinion of its own.</p> + +<p>Hospitality was always a West Indian characteristic. There +were luncheons and dinners, and distinguished persons to be +met and talked to. Among these I had the special good fortune +of making acquaintance with Sir Charles Pearson, now +commanding-in-chief in those parts. Even in these days, +crowded as they are by small incidents made large by newspapers, +we have not yet forgotten the defence of a fort in the +interior of Zululand where Sir Charles Pearson and his small +garrison were cut off from their communications with Natal. +For a week or two he was the chief object of interest in every +English house. In obedience to orders which it was not his +business to question, he had assisted Sir T. Shepstone in the +memorable annexation of the Transvaal. He had seen also to +what that annexation led, and, being a truth-speaking man, he +did not attempt to conceal the completeness of our defeat. +Our military establishment in the West Indies is of modest +dimensions; but a strong English soldier, who says little and +does his duty, and never told a lie in his life or could tell one, +is a comforting figure to fall in with. One feels that there will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +be something to retire upon when parliamentary oratory has +finished its work of disintegration.</p> + +<p>The pleasantest incident of the day was the evening drive +with Lady L——. She would take me out shortly before +sunset, and bring me back again when the tropical stars were +showing faintly and the fireflies had begun to sparkle about +the bushes, and the bats were flitting to and fro after the night +moths like spirits of darkness chasing human souls.</p> + +<p>The neighbourhood of Bridgetown has little natural beauty; +but the roads are excellent, the savannah picturesque with riding +parties and polo players and lounging red jackets, every one +being eager to pay his or her respect to the gracious lady of +the Queen's representative. We called at pretty villas where +there would be evening teas and lawn tennis in the cool. The +society is not extensive, and here would be collected most of +it that was worth meeting. At one of these parties I fell in +with the officers of the American squadron, the commodore a +very interesting and courteous gentleman whom I should have +taken for a fellow-countryman. There are many diamonds, +and diamonds of the first water, among the Americans as among +ourselves; but the cutting and setting is different. Commodore +D—— was cut and set like an Englishman. He introduced +me to one of his brother officers who had been in Hayti. +Spite of Sir Spenser St. John, spite of all the confirmatory +evidence which I had heard, I was still incredulous about the +alleged cannibalism there. To my inquiries this gentleman +had only the same answer to give. The fact was beyond question. +He had himself known instances of it.</p> + +<p>The commodore had a grievance against us illustrating West +Indian manners. These islands are as nervous about their +health as so many old ladies. The yellow flags float on ship +after ship in the Bridgetown roadstead, and crews, passengers, +and cargoes are sternly interdicted from the land. Jamaica +was in ill name from small-pox, and, as Cuba will not drop its +intercourse with Jamaica, Cuba falls also under the ban. The +commodore had directed a case of cigars from Havana to meet +him at Barbadoes. They arrived, but might not be transferred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +from the steamer which brought them, even on board his own +frigate, lest he might bring infection on shore in his pocket. +They went on to England, to reach him perhaps eventually in +New York.</p> + +<p>Colonel ——'s duties, as chief of the police, obliged him to +make occasional rounds to visit his stations. He recollected +his promise, and he invited me one morning to accompany him. +We were to breakfast at his house on our return, so I anticipated +an excursion of a few miles at the utmost. He called +for me soon after sunrise with a light carriage and a brisk pair +of horses. We were rapidly clear of the town. The roads were +better than the best I have seen out of England, the only fault +in them being the white coral dust which dazzles and blinds the +eyes. Everywhere there were signs of age and of long occupation. +The stone steps leading up out of the road to the +doors of the houses had been worn by human feet for hundreds +of years. The houses themselves were old, and as if suffering +from the universal depression—gates broken, gardens disordered, +and woodwork black and blistered for want of paint. +But if the habitations were neglected, there was no neglect in +the fields. Sugar cane alternated with sweet potatoes and yams +and other strange things the names of which I heard and forgot; +but there was not a weed to be seen or broken fence +where fence was needed. The soil was clean every inch of it, +as well hoed and trenched as in a Middlesex market garden. +Salt fish and flour, which is the chief food of the blacks, is +imported; but vegetables enough are raised in Barbadoes to +keep the cost of living incredibly low; and, to my uninstructed +eyes, it seemed that even if sugar and wages did fail there +could be no danger of any sudden famine. The people were +thick as rabbits in a warren; women with loaded baskets on their +heads laughing and chirruping, men driving donkey carts, four +donkeys abreast, smoking their early pipes as if they had not a +care in the world, as, indeed, they have not.</p> + +<p>On we went, the Colonel's horses stepping out twelve miles +an hour, and I wondered privately what was to become of our +breakfast. We were striking right across the island, along the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +coral ridge which forms the backbone of it. We found ourselves +at length in a grove of orange trees and shaddocks, at +the old church of St. John's, which stands upon a perpendicular +cliff; Codrington College on the level under our feet, +and beyond us the open Atlantic and the everlasting breakers +from the trade winds fringing the shore with foam. Far out +were the white sails of the fishing smacks. The Barbadians +are careless of weather, and the best of boat sailors. It was +very pretty in the bright morning, and the church itself was not +the least interesting part of the scene. The door was wide +open. We went in, and I seemed to be in a parish church in +England as parish churches used to be when I was a child. +There were the old-fashioned seats, the old unadorned communion +table, the old pulpit and reading desk and the clerk's +desk below, with the lion and the unicorn conspicuous above +the chancel arch. The white tablets on the wall bore familiar +names dating back into the last century. On the floor were +flagstones still older with armorial bearings and letters cut in +stone, half effaced by the feet of the generations who had +trodden up the same aisles till they, too, lay down and rested +there. And there was this, too, to be remembered—that these +Barbadian churches, old as they might seem, had belonged +always to the Anglican communion. No mass had ever been +said at that altar. It was a milestone on the high road of time, +and was venerable to me at once for its antiquity and for the +era at which it had begun to exist.</p> + +<p>At the porch was an ancient slab on which was a coat of +arms, a crest with a hand and sword, and a motto, '<i>Sic nos, +sic nostra tuemur.</i>' The inscription said that it was in +memory of Michael Mahon, 'of the kingdom of Ireland,' +erected by his children and grandchildren. Who was Michael +Mahon? Some expatriated, so-called rebel, I suppose, whose +sword could not defend him from being Barbados'd with so +many other poor wretches who were sent the same road—victims +of the tragi-comedy of the English government of +Ireland. There were plenty of them wandering about in +Labat's time, ready, as Labat observes, to lend a help to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +French, should they take a fancy to land a force in the +island.</p> + +<p>The churchyard was scarcely so home-like. The graves +were planted with tropical shrubs and flowers. Palms waved +over the square stone monuments—stephanotis and jessamine +crept about the iron railings. The primroses and hyacinths +and violets, with which we dress the mounds under which our +friends are sleeping, will not grow in the tropics. In the place +of them are the exotics of our hot-houses. We too are, +perhaps, exotics of another kind in these islands, and may +not, after all, have a long abiding place in them.</p> + +<p>Colonel ——, who with his secular duties combined serious +and spiritual feeling, was a friend of the clergyman of St. +John's, and hoped to introduce me to him. This gentleman, +however, was absent from home. Our round was still but half +completed; we had to mount again and go another seven +miles to inspect a police station. The police themselves were, +of course, blacks—well-grown fine men, in a high state of +discipline. Our visit was not expected, but all was as it should +be; the rooms well swept and airy, the horses in good condition, +stables clean, harness and arms polished and ready for +use. Serious as might be the trials of the Barbadians and +decrepit the financial condition, there were no symptoms of +neglect either on the farms or in the social machinery.</p> + +<p>Altogether we drove between thirty and forty miles that +morning. We were in time for breakfast after all, and I had +seen half the island. It is like the Isle of Thanet, or the +country between Calais and Boulogne. One characteristic +feature must not be forgotten: there are no rivers and no +waterpower; steam engines have been introduced, but the +chief motive agent is still the never-ceasing trade wind. You +see windmills everywhere, as it was in the time of Labat. +The planters are reproached as being behind the age; they +are told that with the latest improvements they might still +defy their beetroot enemy. It may be so, but a wind which +never rests is force which costs little, and it is possible that +they understand their own business best.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>Another morning excursion showed me the rest of the +country, and introduced me to scenes and persons still more +interesting. Sir Graham Briggs<a name="FNanchor_1_8" id="FNanchor_1_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_8" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> is perhaps the most distinguished +representative of the old Barbadian families. He +is, or was, a man of large fortune, with vast estates in this +and other islands. A few years ago, when prospects were +brighter, he was an advocate of the constitutional development +so much recommended from England. The West Indian +Islands were to be confederated into a dominion like that of +Canada, to take over the responsibilities of government, and +to learn to stand alone. The decline in the value of property, +the general decay of the white interest in the islands, and the +rapid increase of the blacks, taught those who at one time +were ready for the change what the real nature of it would be. +They have paused to consider; and the longer they consider +the less they like it.</p> + +<p>Sir Graham had called upon me at Government House, +and had spoken fully and freely about the offered American +sugar treaty. As a severe sufferer he was naturally irritated at +the rejection of it; and in the mood in which I found him, I +should think it possible that if the Americans would hold their +hands out with an offer of admission into the Union, he and a +good many other gentlemen would meet them halfway. He +did not say so—I conjecture only from natural probabilities, +and from what I should feel myself if I were in their position. +Happily the temptation cannot fall in their way. An American +official laconically summed up the situation to me: 'As satellites, +sir, as much as you please; but as parts of the primary—no, +sir.' The Americans will not take them into the Union; +they must remain, therefore, with their English primary and +make the best of it; neither as satellites, for they have no +proper motion of their own, nor as incorporated in the British +Empire, for they derive no benefit from their connection with +it, but as poor relations distantly acknowledged. I did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +expect that Sir Graham would have more to say to me than he +had said already: but he was a cultivated and noteworthy +person, his house was said to be the most splendid of the old +Barbadian merchant palaces, and I gratefully accepted an +invitation to pay him a short visit.</p> + +<p>I started as before in the early morning, before the sun was +above the trees. The road followed the line of the shore. +Originally, I believe, Barbadoes was like the Antilles, covered +with forest. In the interior little remains save cabbage palms +and detached clumps of mangy-looking mahogany trees. The +forest is gone, and human beings have taken the place of it. +For ten miles I was driving through a string of straggling +villages, each cottage or cabin having its small vegetable +garden and clump of plantains. Being on the western or +sheltered side of the island, the sea was smooth and edged +with mangrove, through which at occasional openings we saw +the shining water and the white coral beach, and fishing +boats either drawn up upon it or anchored outside with their +sails up. Trees had been planted for shade among the houses. +There were village greens with great silk-cotton trees, banyans +and acacias, mangoes and oranges, and shaddocks with their +large fruit glowing among the leaves like great golden melons. +The people swarmed, children tumbling about half naked, so +like each other that one wondered whether their mothers +knew their own from their neighbours'; the fishermen's wives +selling flying fish, of which there are infinite numbers. It was +an innocent, pretty scene. One missed green fields with cows +upon them. Guinea grass, which is all that they have, makes +excellent fodder, but is ugly to look at; and is cut and carried, +not eaten where it grows. Of animal life there were innumerable +donkeys—no black man will walk if he can find a donkey +to carry him—infinite poultry, and pigs, familiar enough, but +not allowed a free entry into the cabins as in Ireland. Of +birds there was not any great variety. The humming birds +preferred less populated quarters. There were small varieties +of finches and sparrows and buntings, winged atoms without +beauty of form or colour; there were a few wild pigeons;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +but the prevailing figure was the Barbadian crow, a little fellow +no bigger than a blackbird, a diminutive jackdaw, who gets his +living upon worms and insects and parasites, and so tame that +he would perch upon a boy's head if he saw a chance of +finding anything eatable there. The women dress ill in +Barbadoes, for they imitate English ladies; but no dress can +conceal the grace of their forms when they are young. It +struck Père Labat two centuries ago, and time and their +supposed sufferings as slaves have made no difference. They +work harder than the men, and are used as beasts of burden +to fetch and carry, but they carry their loads on their heads, +and thus from childhood have to stand upright with the neck +straight and firm. They do not spoil their shapes with stays, +or their walk with high-heeled shoes. They plant their feet +firmly on the ground. Every movement is elastic and rounded, +and the grace of body gives, or seems to give, grace also to +the eyes and expression. Poor things! it cannot compensate +for their colour, which now when they are free is harder +to bear than when they were slaves. Their prettiness, such as +it is, is short-lived. They grow old early, and an old negress +is always hideous.</p> + +<p>After keeping by the sea for an hour we turned inland, and +at the foot of a steep hill we met my host, who transferred me +to his own carriage. We had still four or five miles to go +through cane fields and among sugar mills. At the end of +them we came to a grand avenue of cabbage palms, a hundred +or a hundred and twenty feet high. How their slim stems +with their dense coronet of leaves survive a hurricane is one +of the West Indian marvels. They escape destruction by the +elasticity with which they yield to it. The branches, which in +a calm stand out symmetrically, forming a circle of which the +stem is the exact centre, bend round before a violent wind, +are pressed close together, and stream out horizontally like a +horse's tail.</p> + +<p>The avenue led up to Sir Graham's house, which stands 800 +feet above the sea. The garden, once the wonder of the +island, was running wild, though rare trees and shrubs survived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +from its ancient splendour. Among them were two Wellingtonias +as tall as the palms, but bent out of shape by the trade +winds. Passing through a hall, among a litter of Carib curiosities, +we entered the drawing-room, a magnificent saloon extending +with various compartments over the greater part of +the ground-floor story. It was filled with rare and curious +things, gathered in the days when sugar was a horn of plenty, +and selected with the finest taste; pictures, engravings, gems, +antiquarian relics, books, maps, and manuscripts. There had +been fine culture in the West Indies when all these treasures +were collected. The English settlers there, like the English +in Ireland, had the tastes of a grand race, and by-and-by we +shall miss both of them when they are overwhelmed, as they +are likely to be, in the revolutionary tide. Sir Graham was +stemming it to the best of his ability, and if he was to go +under would go under like a gentleman. A dining room almost +as large had once been the scene of hospitalities like those +which are celebrated by Tom Cringle. A broad staircase led +up from the hall to long galleries, out of which bedrooms +opened; with cool deep balconies and the universal green +blinds. It was a palace with which Aladdin himself might +have been satisfied, one of those which had stirred the envying +admiration of foreign travellers in the last century, one of +many then, now probably the last surviving representative of +Anglo-West Indian civilisation. Like other forms of human +life, it has had its day and could not last for ever. Something +better may grow in the place of it, but also something worse +may grow. The example of Hayti ought to suggest misgivings +to the most ardent philonegro enthusiast.</p> + +<p>West Indian cookery was famous over the world. Père +Labat devotes at least a thousand pages to the dishes compounded +of the spices and fruits of the islands, and their fish +and fowl. Carib tradition was developed by artists from +London and Paris. The Caribs, according to Labat, only ate +one another for ceremony and on state occasions; their +common diet was as excellent as it was innocent; and they +had ascertained by careful experience the culinary and medi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>cinal +virtues of every animal and plant around them. Tom +Cringle is eloquent on the same subject, but with less scientific +knowledge. My own unfortunately is less than his, and I can +do no justice at all to Sir Graham's entertainment of me; I +can but say that he treated me to a West Indian banquet of +the old sort, infinite in variety, and with subtle differences of +flavour for which no language provides names. The wine—laid +up <i>consule Planco</i>, when Pitt was prime minister, and the +days of liberty as yet were not—was as admirable as the dishes, +and the fruit more exquisite than either. Such pineapples, +such shaddocks, I had never tasted before, and shall never taste +again.</p> + +<p>Hospitable, generous, splendid as was Sir Graham's reception +of me, it was nevertheless easy to see that the prospects of the +island sat heavy upon him. We had a long conversation when +breakfast was over, which, if it added nothing new to what I +had heard before, deepened and widened the impression of it.</p> + +<p>The English West Indies, like other parts of the world, are +going through a silent revolution. Elsewhere the revolution, +as we hope, is a transition state, a new birth; a passing away +of what is old and worn out, that a fresh and healthier +order may rise in its place. In the West Indies the most +sanguine of mortals will find it difficult to entertain any such +hope at all. We have been a ruling power there for two +hundred and fifty years; the whites whom we planted as our +representatives are drifting into helplessness, and they regard +England and England's policy as the principal cause of it. +The blacks whom, in a fit of virtuous benevolence, we emancipated, +do not feel that they are particularly obliged to us. +They think, if they think at all, that they were ill treated +originally, and have received no more than was due to them, +and that perhaps it was not benevolence at all on our part, +but a desire to free ourselves from the reproach of slaveholding. +At any rate, the tendencies now in operation are loosening +the hold which we possess on the islands, and the longer +they last the looser that hold will become. French influence +is in no danger of dying out in Martinique and Guadaloupe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +The Spanish race is not dying in Cuba and Puerto Rico. +England will soon be no more than a name in Barbadoes +and the Antilles. Having acquitted our conscience by emancipation, +we have left our West Indian interest to sink or +swim. Our principle has been to leave each part of our +empire (except the East Indies) to take care of itself: we give +the various inhabitants liberty, and what we understand by fair +play; that we have any further moral responsibilities towards +them we do not imagine, even in our dreams, when they have +ceased to be of commercial importance to us; and we assume +that the honour of being British subjects will suffice to secure +their allegiance. It will not suffice, as we shall eventually discover. +We have decided that if the West Indies are to +become again prosperous they must recover by their own +energy. Our other colonies can do without help; why not +they? We ought to remember that they are not like the other +colonies. We occupied them at a time when slavery was considered +a lawful institution, profitable to ourselves and useful +to the souls of the negroes, who were brought by it within +reach of salvation.<a name="FNanchor_1_9" id="FNanchor_1_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_9" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> We became ourselves the chief slave +dealers in the world. We peopled our islands with a population +of blacks more dense by far in proportion to the whites +than France or Spain ever ventured to do. We did not recognise, +as the French and Spaniards did, that if our western +colonies were permanently to belong to us, we must occupy +them ourselves. We thought only of the immediate profit +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>which was to be gathered out of the slave gangs; and the disproportion +of the two races—always dangerously large—has +increased with ever-gathering velocity since the emancipation. +It is now beyond control on the old lines. The scanty whites +are told that they must work out their own salvation on equal +terms with their old servants. The relation is an impossible +one. The independent energy which we may fairly look for +in Australia and New Zealand is not to be looked for in Jamaica +and Barbadoes; and the problem must have a new solution.</p> + +<p>Confederation is to be the remedy, we are told. Let the +islands be combined under a constitution. The whites collectively +will then be a considerable body, and can assert themselves +successfully. Confederation is, as I said before of the +movement in Trinidad, but a turn of the kaleidoscope, the +same pieces with a new pattern. A West Indian self-governed +Dominion is possible only with a full negro vote. If the +whites are to combine, so will the blacks. It will be a +rule by the blacks and for the blacks. Let a generation +or two pass by and carry away with them the old traditions, +and an English governor-general will be found presiding over +a black council, delivering the speeches made for him by a +black prime minister; and how long could this endure? No +English gentleman would consent to occupy so absurd a situation. +The two races are not equal and will not blend. If the +white people do not depart of themselves, black legislation +will make it impossible for any of them to stay who would not +be better out of the way. The Anglo-Irish Protestants will +leave Ireland if there is an Irish Catholic parliament in College +Green; the whites, for the same reason, will leave the West +Indies; and in one and the other the connection with the +British Empire will disappear along with them. It must be +so; only politicians whose horizon does not extend beyond +their personal future, and whose ambition is only to secure the +immediate triumph of their party, can expect anything else.</p> + +<p>Before my stay at Barbadoes ended, I had an opportunity +of meeting at dinner a negro of pure blood who has risen to +eminence by his own talent and character. He has held the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +office of attorney-general. He is now chief justice of the +island. Exceptions are supposed proverbially to prove nothing, +or to prove the opposite of what they appear to prove. When +a particular phenomenon occurs rarely, the probabilities are +strong against the recurrence of it. Having heard the craniological +and other objections to the supposed identity of the +negro and white races, I came to the opinion long ago in +Africa, and I have seen no reason to change it, that whether +they are of one race or not there is no original or congenital +difference of capacity between them, any more than there is +between a black horse and a black dog and a white horse and +a white dog. With the same chances and with the same treatment, +I believe that distinguished men would be produced +equally from both races, and Mr. ——'s well-earned success is +an additional evidence of it. But it does not follow that what +can be done eventually can be done immediately, and the gulf +which divides the colours is no arbitrary prejudice, but has +been opened by the centuries of training and discipline which +have given us the start in the race. We set it down to slavery. +It would be far truer to set it down to freedom. The African +blacks have been free enough for thousands, perhaps for tens +of thousands of years, and it has been the absence of restraint +which has prevented them from becoming civilised. Generation +has followed generation, and the children are as like their +father as the successive generations of apes. The whites, it is +likely enough, succeeded one another with the same similarity +for a long series of ages. It is now supposed that the human +race has been upon the planet for a hundred thousand years +at least, and the first traces of civilisation cannot be thrown +back at farthest beyond six thousand. During all those ages +mankind went on treading in the same steps, century after +century making no more advance than the birds and beasts. +In Egypt or in India or one knows not where, accident or +natural development quickened into life our moral and intellectual +faculties; and these faculties have grown into what we +now experience, not in the freedom in which the modern takes +delight, but under the sharp rule of the strong over the weak,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +of the wise over the unwise. Our own Anglo-Norman race +has become capable of self-government only after a thousand +years of civil and spiritual authority. European government, +European instruction, continued steadily till his natural tendencies +are superseded by a higher instinct, may shorten the +probation period of the negro. Individual blacks of exceptional +quality, like Frederick Douglas in America, or the Chief +Justice of Barbadoes, will avail themselves of opportunities to +rise, and the freest opportunities ought to be offered them. +But it is as certain as any future event can be that if we give +the negroes as a body the political powers which we claim for +ourselves, they will use them only to their own injury. They +will slide back into their old condition, and the chance will be +gone of lifting them to the level to which we have no right to +say that they are incapable of rising.</p> + +<p>Chief Justice R—— owes his elevation to his English environment +and his English legal training. He would not +pretend that he could have made himself what he is in Hayti +or in Dahomey. Let English authority die away, and the +average black nature, such as it now is, be left free to assert +itself, and there will be no more negroes like him in Barbadoes +or anywhere.</p> + +<p>Naturally, I found him profoundly interested in the late +revelations of the state of Hayti. Sir Spenser St. John, an +English official, after residing for twelve years in Port au +Prince, had in a published narrative with many details and +particulars, declared that the republic of Toussaint l'Ouverture, +the idol of all believers in the new gospel of liberty, had, after +ninety years of independence, become a land where cannibalism +could be practised with impunity. The African Obeah, +the worship of serpents and trees and stones, after smouldering +in all the West Indies in the form of witchcraft and poisoning, +had broken out in Hayti in all its old hideousness. Children +were sacrificed as in the old days of Moloch and were devoured +with horrid ceremony, salted limbs being preserved and +sold for the benefit of those who were unable to attend the +full solemnities.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> + +<p>That a man in the position of a British resident should have +ventured on a statement which, if untrue, would be ruinous to +himself, appeared in a high degree improbable. Yet one had +to set one incredibility against another. Notwithstanding the +character of the evidence, when I went out to the West Indies +I was still unbelieving. I could not bring myself to credit that +in an island nominally Catholic, where the French language +was spoken, and there were cathedrals and churches and priests +and missionaries, so horrid a revival of devil-worship could +have been really possible. All the inquiries which I had been +able to make, from American and other officers who had been in +Hayti, confirmed Sir S. St. John's story. I had hardly found +a person who entertained a doubt of it. I was perplexed and +uncertain, when the Chief Justice opened the subject and +asked me what I thought. Had I been convinced I should +have turned the conversation, but I was not convinced and I +was not afraid to say so. I reminded him of the universal +conviction through Europe that the Jews were habitually +guilty of sacrificing children also. There had been detailed +instances. Alleged offenders had been brought before courts +of justice at any time for the last six hundred years. Witnesses +had been found to swear to facts which had been accepted as +conclusive. Wretched creatures in Henry III.'s time had +been dragged by dozens at horses' tails through the streets of +London, broken on the wheel, or torn to pieces by infuriated +mobs. Even within the last two years, the same accusation +had been brought forward in Russia and Germany, and had +been established apparently by adequate proof. So far as +popular conviction of the guilt of the Jews was an evidence +against them, nothing could be stronger; and no charge could +be without foundation on ordinary principles of evidence which +revived so often and in so many places. And yet many persons, +I said, and myself among them, believed that although +the accusers were perfectly sincere, the guilt of the Jews was +from end to end an hallucination of hatred. I had looked into +the particulars of some of the trials. They were like the trials +for witchcraft. The belief had created the fact, and accusa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>tion +was itself evidence. I was prepared to find these stories +of child murder in Hayti were bred similarly of anti-negro +prejudice.</p> + +<p>Had the Chief Justice caught at my suggestion with any +eagerness I should have suspected it myself. His grave diffidence +and continued hesitation in offering an opinion confirmed +me in my own. I told him that I was going to Hayti +to learn what I could on the spot. I could not expect that I, +on a flying visit, could see deeper into the truth than Sir +Spenser St. John had seen, but at least I should not take with +me a mind already made up, and I was not given to credulity. +He took leave of me with an expression of passionate anxiety +that it might be found possible to remove so black a stain from +his unfortunate race.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_8" id="Footnote_1_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_8"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> As I correct the proofs I learn, to my great sorrow, that Sir Graham +is dead. I have lost in him a lately made but valued friend; and the +colony has lost the ablest of its legislators.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_9" id="Footnote_1_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_9"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> It was on this ground alone that slavery was permitted in the French +islands. Labat says: +</p><p> +C'est une loi très-ancienne que les terres soumises aux rois de France +rendent libres tous ceux qui s'y peuvent retirer. C'est ce qui fit que le roi +Louis XIII, de glorieuse mémoire, aussi pieux qu'il étoit sage, eut toutes les +peines du monde à consentir que les premiers habitants des isles eussent +des esclaves: et ne se rendit enfin qu'aux pressantes sollicitations qu'on luy +faisoit de leur octroyer cette permission que parce qu'on lui remontra que +c'étoit un moyen infaillible et l'unique qu'il y eût pour inspirer le culte du +vrai Dieu aux Africains, les retirer de l'idolâtrie, et les faire persévérer jusqu'à +la mort dans la religion chrétienne qu'on leur feroit embrasser.—Vol. iv. +p. 14.</p></div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Leeward and Windward Islands—The Caribs of Dominica—Visit of Père +Labat—St. Lucia—The Pitons—The harbour at Castries—Intended +coaling station—Visit to the administrator—The old fort and barracks—Conversation +with an American—Constitution of Dominica—Land at +Roseau.</p></div> + + +<p>Beyond all the West Indian Islands I had been curious to see +Dominica.<a name="FNanchor_1_10" id="FNanchor_1_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_10" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> It was the scene of Rodney's great fight on April +12. It was the most beautiful of the Antilles and the least +known. A tribe of aboriginal Caribs still lingered in the +forests retaining the old look and the old language, and, except +that they no longer ate their prisoners, retaining their old +habits. They were skilful fishermen, skilful basket makers, +skilful in many curious arts.</p> + +<p>The island lies between Martinique and Guadaloupe, and is +one of the group now called Leeward Islands, as distinguished +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>from St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, &c., which form the +Windward. The early geographers drew the line differently +and more rationally. The main direction of the trade winds +is from east to west. To them the Windward Islands were the +whole chain of the Antilles, which form the eastern side of the +Caribbean Sea. The Leeward were the great islands on the +west of it—Cuba, St. Domingo, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. +The modern division corresponds to no natural phenomenon. +The drift of the trades is rather from the north-east than from +the south-east, and the names serve only now to describe our +own not very successful political groupings.</p> + +<p>Dominica cuts in two the French West Indian possessions. +The French took it originally from the Spaniards, occupied it, +colonised it, planted in it their religion and their language, +and fought desperately to maintain their possession. Lord +Rodney, to whom we owe our own position in the West Indies, +insisted that Dominica must belong to us to hold the French +in check, and regarded it as the most important of all our stations +there. Rodney made it English, and English it has ever +since remained in spite of the furious efforts which France +made to recover an island which she so highly valued during +the Napoleon wars. I was anxious to learn what we had made +of a place which we had fought so hard for.</p> + +<p>Though Dominica is the most mountainous of all the Antilles, +it is split into many valleys of exquisite fertility. Through +each there runs a full and ample river, swarming with fish, and +yielding waterpower enough to drive all the mills which industry +could build. In these valleys and on the rich levels along the +shore the French had once their cane fields and orange gardens, +their pineapple beds and indigo plantations.</p> + +<p>Labat, who travelled through the island at the close of the +seventeenth century, found it at that time chiefly occupied by +Caribs. With his hungry appetite for knowledge, he was a +guest in their villages, acquainted himself with their characters +and habits, and bribed out of them by lavish presents of brandy +the secrets of their medicines and poisons. The Père was a +clever, curious man, with a genial human sympathy about him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +and was indulgent to the faults which the poor coloured sinners +fell into from never having known better. He tried to make +Christians of them. They were willing to be baptised as often +as he liked for a glass of brandy. But he was not very angry +when he found that the Christianity went no deeper. Moral +virtues, he concluded charitably, could no more be expected +out of a Carib than reason and good sense out of a woman.</p> + +<p>At Roseau, the capital, he fell in with the then queen of +Dominica, a Madame Ouvernard, a Carib of pure blood, who +in her time of youth and beauty had been the mistress of an +English governor of St. Kitts. When Labat saw her she was +a hundred years old with a family of children and grandchildren. +She was a grand old lady, unclothed almost absolutely, +bent double, so that under ordinary circumstances +nothing of her face could be seen. Labat, however, presented +her with a couple of bottles of eau de vie, under the influence +of which she lifted up to him a pair of still brilliant eyes and a +fair mouthful of teeth. They did very well together, and on +parting they exchanged presents in Homeric fashion, she loading +him with baskets of fruit, he giving a box in return full of +pins and needles, knives and scissors.</p> + +<p>Labat was a student of languages before philology had +become a science. He discovered from the language of the +Caribs that they were North American Indians. They called +themselves <i>Banari</i>, which meant 'come from over sea.' +Their dialect was almost identical with what he had heard +spoken in Florida. They were cannibals, but of a peculiar +kind. Human flesh was not their ordinary food; but they +'boucanned' or dried the limbs of distinguished enemies +whom they had killed in, battle, and handed them round to +be gnawed at special festivals. They were a light-hearted, +pleasant race, capital shots with bows and arrows, and ready +to do anything he asked in return for brandy. They killed a +hammer shark for his amusement by diving under the monster +and stabbing him with knives. As to their religion, they had +no objection to anything. But their real belief was in a sort +of devil.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<p>Soon after Labat's visit the French came in, drove the +Caribs into the mountains, introduced negro slaves, and an +ordered form of society. Madame Ouvernard and her court +went to their own place. Canes were planted, and indigo and +coffee. A cathedral was built at Roseau, and parish churches +were scattered about the island. There were convents of +nuns and houses of friars, and a fort at the port with a garrison +in it. The French might have been there till now had not we +turned them out some ninety years ago; English enterprise +then setting in that direction under the impulse of Rodney's +victories. I was myself about to see the improvements +which we had introduced into an acquisition which had cost +us so dear.</p> + +<p>I was to be dropped at Roseau by the mail steamer from +Barbadoes to St. Thomas's. On our way we touched at +St. Lucia, another once famous possession of ours. This +island was once French also. Rodney took it in 1778. It +was the only one of the Antilles which was left to us in the +reverses which followed the capitulation of York Town. It +was in the harbour at Castries, the chief port, that Rodney +collected the fleet which fought and won the great battle with +the Count de Grasse. At the peace of Versailles, St. Lucia +was restored to France; but was retaken in 1796 by Sir +Ralph Abercrombie, and, like Dominica, has ever since +belonged to England. This, too, is a beautiful mountainous +island, twice as large as Barbadoes, in which even at this +late day we have suddenly discovered that we have an +interest. The threatened Darien canal has awakened us to +a sense that we require a fortified coaling station in those +quarters. St. Lucia has the greatest natural advantages for +such a purpose, and works are already in progress there, +and the long-deserted forts and barracks which had been +made over to snakes and lizards, are again to be occupied +by English troops.</p> + +<p>We sailed one evening from Barbadoes. In the grey of +the next morning we were in the passage between St. Lucia +and St. Vincent just under the 'Pitons,' which were soaring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +grandly above us in the twilight. The Pitons are two conical +mountains rising straight out of the sea at the southern end of +St. Lucia, one of them 3,000 feet high, the other a few feet +lower, symmetrical in shape like sugar loaves, and so steep as +to be inaccessible to any one but a member of the Alpine +Club. Tradition says that four English seamen, belonging to +the fleet, did once set out to climb the loftier of the two. +They were watched in their ascent through a telescope. +When halfway up one of them was seen to drop, while three +went on; a few hundred feet higher a second dropped, and +afterwards a third; one had almost reached the summit, when +he fell also. No account of what had befallen them ever +reached their ship. They were supposed to have been bitten +by the fer de lance, the deadliest snake in St. Lucia and +perhaps in the world, who had resented and punished their +intrusion into regions where they had no business. Such +is the local legend, born probably out of the terror of a +reptile which is no legend at all, but a living and very +active reality.</p> + +<p>I had gone on deck on hearing where we were, and saw +the twin grey peaks high above me in the sky, the last stars +glimmering over their tops and the waves washing against +the black precipices at their base. The night had been +rough, and a considerable sea was running, which changed, +however, to an absolute calm when we had passed the Pitons +and were under the lee of the island. I could then observe +the peculiar blue of the water which I was told that I should +find at St. Lucia and Dominica. I have seen the sea of +very beautiful colours in several parts of the world, but I +never saw any which equalled this. I do not know the cause. +The depth is very great even close to the shore. The islands +are merely volcanic mountains with sides extremely steep. +The coral insect has made anchorages in the bays and inlets; +elsewhere you are out of soundings almost immediately. +As to St. Lucia itself, if I had not seen Grenada, if I had not +known what I was about to see in Dominica, I should have +thought it the most exquisite place which nature had ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +made, so perfect were the forms of the forest-clothed hills, +the glens dividing them and the high mountain ranges in the +interior still draped in the white mist of morning. Here and +there along the shore there were bright green spots which +meant cane fields. Sugar cane in these countries is always +called for brevity <i>cane</i>.</p> + +<p>Here, as elsewhere, the population is almost entirely negro, +forty thousand blacks and a few hundred whites, the ratio +altering every year to white disadvantage. The old system +has not, however, disappeared as completely as in other +places. There are still white planters with large estates, +which are not encumbered as in Barbadoes. They are +struggling along, discontented of course, but not wholly +despondent. The chief complaint is the somewhat weary +one of the laziness of the blacks, who they say will work only +when they please, and are never fully awake except at dinner +time. I do not know that they have a right to expect anything +else from poor creatures whom the law calls human, +but who to them are only mechanical tools, not so manageable +as tools ought to be, with whom they have no acquaintance +and no human relations, whose wages are but twopence +an hour and are diminished by fines at the arbitrary pleasure +of the overseer.</p> + +<p>Life and hope and energy are the qualities most needed. +When the troops return there will be a change, and spirit +may be put into them again. Castries, the old French town, +lies at the head of a deep inlet which runs in among the +mountains like a fiord. This is to be the future coaling +station. The mouth of the bay is narrow with a high projecting +'head' on either side of it, and can be easily and +cheaply fortified. There is little or no tide in these seas. +There is depth of water sufficient in the greater part of the +harbour for line-of-battle ships to anchor and turn, and the +few coral shoals which would be in the way are being torn +up with dredging machines. The island has borrowed +seventy thousand pounds on Government security to prepare +for the dignity which awaits it and for the prosperity which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +is to follow. There was real work actively going on, a rare +and perhaps unexampled phenomenon in the English West +Indies.</p> + +<p>We brought up alongside of a wharf to take in coal. It was +a strange scene; cocoa-nut palms growing incongruously out +of coal stores, and gorgeous flowering creepers climbing over +the workmen's sheds. Volumes of smoke rose out of the +dredging engines and hovered over the town. We had come +back to French costume again; we had left the white dresses +behind at Barbadoes, and the people at Castries were bright as +parrots in crimsons and blues and greens; but fine colours +looked oddly out of place by the side of the grimy reproduction +of England.</p> + +<p>I went on shore and fell in with the engineer of the works, +who kindly showed me his plans of the harbour, and explained +what was to be done. He showed me also some beautiful +large bivalves which had been brought up in the scrapers +out of the coral. They were new to me and new to him, +though they may be familiar enough to more experienced +naturalists. Among other curiosities he had a fer de lance, +lately killed and preserved in spirits, a rat-tailed, reddish, +powerful-looking brute, about four feet long and as thick +as a child's wrist. Even when dead I looked at him respectfully, +for his bite is fatal and the effect almost instantaneous. +He is fearless, and will not, like most snakes, get out of your +way if he hears you coming, but leaves you to get out of his. +He has a bad habit, too, of taking his walks at night; he +prefers a path or a road to the grass, and your house or your +garden to the forest; while if you step upon him you will +never do it again. They have introduced the mongoose, who +has cleared the snakes out of Jamaica, to deal with him; but +the mongoose knows the creature that he has to encounter, +and as yet has made little progress in extirpating him.</p> + +<p>St. Lucia is under the jurisdiction of Barbadoes. It has no +governor of its own, but only an administrator indifferently +paid. The elective principle has not yet been introduced into +the legislature, and perhaps will not be introduced since we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +have discovered the island to be of consequence to us, unless +as part of some general confederation. The present administrator—Mr. +Laborde, a gentleman, I suppose, of French +descent—is an elderly official, and resides in the old quarters +of the general of the forces, 900 feet above the sea. He +has large responsibilities, and, having had large experience +also, seems fully equal to the duties which attach to him. He +cannot have the authority of a complete governor, or undertake +independent enterprises for the benefit of the island, +as a Rajah Brooke might do, but he walks steadily on in +the lines assigned to him. St. Lucia is better off in this +respect than most of the Antilles, and may revive perhaps +into something like prosperity when the coaling station is +finished and under the command of some eminent engineer +officer.</p> + +<p>Mr. Laborde had invited us to lunch with him. Horses were +waiting for us, and we rode up the old winding track which +led from the town to the barracks. The heat below was +oppressive, but the air cooled as we rose. The road is so +steep that resting places had been provided at intervals, where +the soldiers could recover breath or shelter themselves from +the tropical cataracts of rain which fall without notice, as +if the string had been pulled of some celestial shower bath. +The trees branched thickly over it, making an impenetrable +shade, till we emerged on the plateau at the top, where we were +on comparatively level ground, with the harbour immediately at +our feet. The situation had been chosen by the French when +St. Lucia was theirs. The general's house, now Mr. Laborde's +residence, is a long airy building with a deep colonnade, +the drawing and dining rooms occupying the entire breadth of +the ground floor, with doors and windows on both sides for +coolness and air. The western front overlooked the sea. +Behind were wooded hills, green valleys, a mountain range in +the background, and the Pitons blue in the distance. As we +were before our time, Mr. Laborde walked me out to see the +old barracks, magazines, and water tanks. They looked neglected +and dilapidated, the signs of decay being partly hid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +by the creepers with which the walls were overgrown. The +soldiers' quarters were occupied for the time by a resident +gentleman, who attended to the essential repairs and prevented +the snakes from taking possession as they were inclined +to do. I forget how many of the fer de lance sort he told me +he had killed in the rooms since he had lived in them.</p> + +<p>In the war time we had maintained a large establishment in +St. Lucia; with what consequences to the health of the troops +I could not clearly make out. One informant told me that +they had died like flies of yellow fever, and that the fields +adjoining were as full of bodies as the Brompton cemetery; +another that yellow fever had never been known there or +any dangerous disorder; and that if we wanted a sanitary +station this was the spot for it. Many thousands of pounds +will have to be spent there before the troops can return; +but that is our way with the colonies—to change our minds +every ten years, to do and undo, and do again, according to +parliamentary humours, while John Bull pays the bill patiently +for his own irresolution.</p> + +<p>The fortress, once very strong, is now in ruins, but, I +suppose, will be repaired and rearmed unless we are to trust +to the Yankees, who are supposed to have established a <i>Pax +Dei</i> in these waters and will permit no aggressive action there +either by us or against us. We walked round the walls; we +saw the hill a mile off from which Abercrombie had battered +out the French, having dragged his guns through a roadless +forest to a spot to which there seemed no access except on +wings. The word 'impossible' was not known in those days. +What Englishmen did once they may do again perhaps if +stormy days come back. The ruins themselves were silently +impressive. One could hear the note of the old bugles as +they sounded the reveille and the roaring of the <i>feu de joie</i> +when the shattered prizes were brought in from the French +fleet. The signs of what once had been were still visible +in the parade ground, in the large mangoes which the soldiers +had planted, in the English grass which they had introduced +and on which cattle were now grazing. There was a clump of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +guavas, hitherto only known to me in preserves. I gathered +a blossom as a remembrance, white like a large myrtle flower, +but heavily scented—too heavily, with an odour of death +about it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Laborde's conversation was instructive. His entertainment +of us was all which our acquired West Indian +fastidiousness could desire. The inevitable cigars followed, +and Mr. L. gave me a beating at billiards. There were some +lively young ladies in the party, and two or three of the ship's +officers. The young ones played lawn tennis, and we old +ones looked on and wished the years off our shoulders. So +passed the day. The sun was setting when we mounted to +ride down. So short is the twilight in these latitudes, that it +was dark night when we reached the town, and we required +the light of the stars to find our boat.</p> + +<p>When the coaling process was finished, the ship had been +washed down in our absence and was anchored off beyond the +reach of the dirt; but the ports were shut; the windsails had +been taken down; the air in the cabins was stifling; so I +stayed on deck till midnight with a clever young American, +who was among our fellow-passengers, talking of many things. +He was ardent, confident, self-asserting, but not disagreeably +either one or the other. It was rather a pleasure to hear a man +speak in these flabby uncertain days as if he were sure of anything, +and I had to notice again, as I had often noticed +before, how well informed casual American travellers are on +public affairs, and how sensibly they can talk of them. He had +been much in the West Indies and seemed to know them well. +He said that all the whites in the islands wished at the bottom +of their hearts to be taken into the Union; but the Union +Government was too wise to meddle with them. The trade +would fall to America of itself. The responsibility and trouble +might remain where it was. I asked him about the Canadian +fishery dispute. He thought it would settle itself in time, and +that nothing serious would come of it. 'The Washington +Cabinet had been a little hard on England,' he admitted; 'but +it was six of one and half a dozen of the other.' 'Honours<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +were easy; neither party could score.' 'We had been equally +hard on them about Alaska.'</p> + +<p>He was less satisfied about Ireland. The telegraph had +brought the news of Mr. Goschen's defeat at Liverpool, and +Home Rule, which had seemed to have been disposed of, +was again within the range of probabilities. He was watching +with pitying amusement, like most of his countrymen, the +weakness of will with which England allowed herself to be +worried by so contemptible a business; but he did seem to +fear, and I have heard others of his countrymen say the same, +that if we let it go on much longer the Americans may become +involved in the thing one way or another, and trouble may +rise about it between the two countries.</p> + +<p>We weighed; and I went to bed and to sleep, and so missed +Pigeon Island, where Rodney's fleet lay before the action, and +the rock from which, through his telescope, he watched De +Grasse come out of Martinique, and gave his own signal to +chase. We rolled as usual between the islands. At daylight +we were again in shelter under Martinique, and again in classic +regions; for close to us was Diamond Rock—once his +Majesty's ship 'Diamond,' commissioned with crew and officers—one +of those curious true incidents, out of which a legend +might have grown in other times, that ship and mariners had +been turned to stone. The rock, a lonely pyramid six hundred +feet high, commanded the entrance to Port Royal in Martinique. +Lord Howe took possession of it, sent guns up in +slings to the top, and left a midshipman with a handful of men +in charge. The gallant little fellow held his fortress for several +months, peppered away at the French, and sent three of their +ships of war to the bottom. He was blockaded at last by an +overwhelming force. No relief could be spared for him. +Escape was impossible, as he had not so much as a boat, and +he capitulated to famine.</p> + +<p>We stayed two hours under Martinique. I did not land. +It has been for centuries a special object of care on the part of +the French Government. It is well looked after, and, considering +the times, prosperous. It has a fine garrison, and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +dockyard well furnished, with frigates in the harbours ready for +action should occasion arise. I should infer from what I heard +that in the event of war breaking out between England and +France, Martinique, in the present state of preparation on both +sides, might take possession of the rest of the Antilles with +little difficulty. Three times we took it, and we gave it back +again. In turn, it may one day, perhaps, take us, and the +English of the West Indies become a tradition like the +buccaneers.</p> + +<p>The mountains of Dominica are full in sight from Martinique. +The channel which separates them is but thirty miles +across, and the view of Dominica as you approach it is +extremely grand. Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Martinique +are all volcanic, with lofty peaks and ridges; but +Dominica was at the centre of the force which lifted the +Antilles out of the ocean, and the features which are common +to all are there in a magnified form. The mountains range +from four to five thousand feet in height. Mount Diablot, +the highest of them, rises to between five and six thousand +feet. The mountains being the tallest in all the group, the +rains are also the most violent, and the ravines torn out by +the torrents are the wildest and most magnificent. The volcanic +forces are still active there. There are sulphur springs +and boiling water fountains, and in a central crater there is a +boiling lake. There are strange creatures there besides: great +snakes—harmless, but ugly to look at; the diablot—from +which the mountain takes its name—a great bird, black as +charcoal, half raven, half parrot, which nests in holes in the +ground as puffins do, spends all the day in them, and flies +down to the sea at night to fish for its food. There were once +great numbers of these creatures, and it was a favourite amusement +to hunt and drag them out of their hiding places. +Labat says that they were excellent eating. They are confined +now in reduced numbers to the inaccessible crags about +the peak which bears their name.</p> + +<p>Martinique has two fine harbours. Dominica has none. +At the north end of the island there is a bay, named after Prince<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +Rupert, where there is shelter from all winds but the south, +but neither there nor anywhere is there an anchorage which +can be depended upon in dangerous weather.</p> + +<p>Roseau, the principal or only town, stands midway along the +western shore. The roadstead is open, but as the prevailing +winds are from the east the island itself forms a breakwater. +Except on the rarest occasions there is neither surf nor swell +there. The land shelves off rapidly, and a gunshot from shore +no cable can find the bottom, but there is an anchorage in +front of the town, and coasting smacks, American schooners, +passing steamers bring up close under the rocks or alongside of +the jetties which are built out from the beach upon piles.</p> + +<p>The situation of Roseau is exceedingly beautiful. The sea +is, if possible, a deeper azure even than at St. Lucia; the air +more transparent; the forests of a lovelier green than I ever +saw in any other country. Even the rain, which falls in such +abundance, falls often out of a clear sky as if not to interrupt +the sunshine, and a rainbow almost perpetually hangs its arch +over the island. Roseau itself stands on a shallow promontory. +A long terrace of tolerable-looking houses faces the +landing place. At right angles to the terrace, straight streets +strike backwards at intervals, palms and bananas breaking the +lines of roof. At a little distance, you see the towers of the +old French Catholic cathedral, a smaller but not ungraceful-looking +Anglican church, and to the right a fort, or the ruins +of one, now used as a police barrack, over which flies the +English flag as the symbol of our titular dominion. Beyond +the fort is a public garden with pretty trees in it along the +brow of a precipitous cliff, at the foot of which, when we +landed, lay at anchor a couple of smart Yankee schooners and +half a dozen coasting cutters, while rounding inwards behind +was a long shallow bay dotted over with the sails of fishing +boats. White negro villages gleamed among the palms along +the shore, and wooded mountains rose immediately above them. +It seemed an attractive, innocent, sunny sort of place, very +pleasant to spend a few days in, if the inner side of things +corresponded to the appearance. To a looker-on at that calm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +scene it was not easy to realise the desperate battles which had +been fought for the possession of it, the gallant lives which had +been laid down under the walls of that crumbling castle. +These cliffs had echoed the roar of Rodney's guns on the day +which saved the British Empire, and the island I was gazing +at was England's Salamis.</p> + +<p>The organisation of the place, too, seemed, so far as I could +gather from official books, to have been carefully attended to. +The constitution had been touched and retouched by the home +authorities as if no pains could be too great to make it worthy +of a spot so sacred. There is an administrator, which is a +longer word than governor. There is an executive council, a +colonial secretary, an attorney-general, an auditor-general, and +other such 'generals of great charge.' There is a legislative +assembly of fourteen members, seven nominated by the Crown +and seven elected by the people. And there are revenue +officers and excise officers, inspectors of roads, and civil +engineers, and school boards, and medical officers, and registrars, +and magistrates. Where would political perfection be +found if not here with such elaborate machinery?</p> + +<p>The results of it all, in the official reports, seemed equally +satisfactory till you looked closely into them. The tariff of +articles on which duties were levied, and the list of articles raised +and exported, seemed to show that Dominica must be a beehive +of industry and productiveness. The revenue, indeed, was a +little startling as the result of this army of officials. Eighteen +thousand pounds was the whole of it, scarcely enough to pay +their salaries. The population, too, on whose good government +so much thought had been expended, was only 30,000; of +these 30,000 only a hundred were English. The remaining +whites, and those in scanty numbers, were French and principally +Catholics. The soil was as rich as the richest in the world. +The cultivation was growing annually less. The inspector of +roads was likely to have an easy task, for except close to the +town there were no roads at all on which anything with wheels +could travel, the old roads made by the French having dropped +into horse tracks, and the horse tracks into the beds of torrents.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +Why in an island where the resources of modern statesmanship +had been applied so lavishly and with the latest discoveries in +political science, the effect should have so ill corresponded to +the means employed, was a problem into which it would be +curious to inquire.</p> + +<p>The steamer set me down upon the pier and went on upon +its way. At the end of a fortnight it would return and pick +me up again. Meanwhile, I was to make the best of my +time. I had been warned beforehand that there was no hotel +in Roseau where an Englishman with a susceptible skin and +palate could survive more than a week; and as I had two weeks +to provide for, I was uncertain what to do with myself. I was +spared the trial of the hotels by the liberality of her Majesty's +representative in the colony. Captain Churchill, the administrator +of the island, had heard that I was coming there, and I was met +on the landing stage by a message from him inviting me to be his +guest during my stay. Two tall handsome black girls seized +my bags, tossed them on their heads, and strode off with a light +step in front of me, cutting jokes with their friends; I following, +and my mind misgiving me that I was myself the object +of their wit.</p> + +<p>I was anxious to see Captain Churchill, for I had heard much +of him. The warmest affection had been expressed for him +personally, and concern for the position in which he was placed. +Notwithstanding 'the latest discoveries of political science,' +the constitution was still imperfect. The administrator, to +begin with, is allowed a salary of only 500<i>l.</i> a year. That is not +much for the chief of such an army of officials; and the hospitalities +and social civilities which smooth the way in such +situations are beyond his means. His business is to preside at +the council, where, the official and the elected members being +equally balanced and almost invariably dividing one against +the other, his duty is to give the casting vote. He cannot give +it against his own officers, and thus the machine is contrived +to create the largest amount of friction, and to insure the highest +amount of unpopularity to the administrator. His situation is +the more difficult because the European element in Roseau,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +small as it is at best, is more French than English. The +priests, the sisterhoods, are French or French-speaking. A +French patois is the language of the blacks. They are almost +to a man Catholics, and to the French they look as their natural +leaders. England has done nothing, absolutely nothing, to +introduce her own civilisation; and thus Dominica is English +only in name. Should war come, a boatload of soldiers from +Martinique would suffice to recover it. Not a black in the +whole island would draw a trigger in defence of English +authority, and, except the Crown officials, not half a dozen +Europeans. The administrator can do nothing to improve +this state of things. He is too poor to open Government +House to the Roseau shopkeepers and to bid for social popularity. +He is no one. He goes in and out unnoticed, and +flits about like a bat in the twilight. He can do no good, and +from the nature of the system on the construction of which so +much care was expended, no one else can do any good. The +maximum of expense, the minimum of benefit to the island, is +all that has come of it.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the island drifts along, without credit to borrow +money and therefore escaping bankruptcy. The blacks there, +as everywhere, are happy with their yams, and cocoa nuts and +land crabs. They desire nothing better than they have, and +do not imagine that they have any rulers unless agitated by the +elected members. These gentlemen would like the official +situations for themselves as in Trinidad, and they occasionally +attempt a stir with partial success; otherwise the island goes +on in a state of torpid content. Captain Churchill, quiet and +gentlemanlike, gives no personal offence, but popularity he +cannot hope for, having no means of recommending himself. +The only really powerful Europeans are the Catholic bishop +and the priests and sisterhoods. They are looked up to with +genuine respect. They are reaping the harvest of the long and +honourable efforts of the French clergy in all their West Indian +possessions to make the blacks into Catholic Christians. In +the Christian part of it they have succeeded but moderately; +but such religion as exists in the island is mainly what they have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +introduced and taught, and they have a distinct influence which +we ourselves have not tried to rival.</p> + +<p>But we have been too long toiling up the paved road to +Captain Churchill's house. My girl-porter guides led me past +the fort, where they exchanged shots with the lounging black +police, past the English church, which stood buried in trees, +the churchyard prettily planted with tropical flowers. The +sun was dazzling, the heat was intense, and the path which +led through it, if not apparently much used, looked shady and +cool.</p> + +<p>A few more steps brought us to the gate of the Residence, +where Captain Churchill had his quarters in the absence of the +Governor-in-Chief of the Leeward Islands, whose visits were +few and brief. In the event of the Governor's arrival he +removed to a cottage in the hills. The house was handsome, +the gardens well kept; a broad walk led up to the door, a hedge +of lime trees closely clipt on one side of it, on the other a lawn +with orange trees, oleanders, and hibiscus, palms of all varieties +and almond trees, which in Dominica grow into giants, their +broad leaves turning crimson before they fall, like the Virginia +creeper. We reached the entrance of the house by wide stone +steps, where countless lizards were lazily basking. Through +the bars of the railings on each side of them there were intertwined +the runners of the largest and most powerfully scented +stephanotis which I have ever seen. Captain Churchill (one of +the Marlborough Churchills) received me with more than +cordiality. Society is not abundant in his Barataria, and +perhaps as coming from England I was welcome to him in his +solitude. His wife, an English Creole—that is, of pure English +blood, but born in the island—was as hospitable as her husband. +They would not let me feel that I was a stranger, and set me +at my ease in a moment with a warmth which was evidently +unassumed. Captain C. was lame, having hurt his foot. In a +day or two he hoped to be able to mount his horse again, when +we were to ride together and see the curiosities. Meanwhile, +he talked sorrowfully enough of his own situation and the +general helplessness of it. A man whose feet are chained and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +whose hands are in manacles is not to be found fault with if he +cannot use either. He is not intended to use either. The +duty of an administrator of Dominica, it appears, is to sit still +and do nothing, and to watch the flickering in the socket of +the last remains of English influence and authority. Individually +he was on good terms with everyone, with the Catholic +bishop especially, who, to his regret and mine, was absent at +the time of my visit.</p> + +<p>His establishment was remarkable; it consisted of two black +girls—a cook and a parlourmaid—who 'did everything;' and +'everything,' I am bound to say, was done well enough to +please the most fastidious nicety. The cooking was excellent. +The rooms, which were handsomely furnished, were kept as +well and in as good order as in the Churchills' ancestral palace +at Blenheim. Dominica has a bad name for vermin. I had +been threatened with centipedes and scorpions in my bedroom. +I had been warned there, as everywhere in the West Indies, +never to walk across the floor with bare feet, lest a land crab +should lay hold of my toe or a jigger should bite a hole in it, +lay its eggs there, and bring me into the hands of the surgeon. +Never while I was Captain C.'s guest did I see either centipede, +or scorpion, or jigger, or any other unclean beast in any +room of which these girls had charge. Even mosquitoes did +not trouble me, so skilfully and carefully they arranged the +curtains. They were dressed in the fashion of the French +islands, something like the Moorish slaves whom one sees in +pictures of Eastern palaces. They flitted about silent on their +shoeless feet, never stumbled, or upset chairs or plates or dishes, +but waited noiselessly like a pair of elves, and were always in +their place when wanted. One had heard much of the idleness +and carelessness of negro servants. In no part of the globe +have I ever seen household work done so well by two pairs of +hands. Of their morals I know nothing. It is usually said +that negro girls have none. They appeared to me to be perfectly +modest and innocent. I asked in wonder what wages +were paid to these black fairies, believing that at no price at all +could the match of them be found in England. I was informed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +that they had three shillings a week each, and 'found themselves,' +i.e. found their own food and clothes. And this was +above the usual rate, as Government House was expected to +be liberal. The scale of wages may have something to do +with the difficulty of obtaining labour in the West Indies. I +could easily believe the truth of what I had been often told, +that free labour is more economical to the employer than slave +labour.</p> + +<p>The views from the drawing room windows were enchantingly +beautiful. It is not the form only in these West Indian +landscapes, or the colour only, but form and colour seen +through an atmosphere of very peculiar transparency. On +one side we looked up a mountain gorge, the slopes covered +with forest; a bold lofty crag jutting out from them brown +and bare, and the mountain ridge behind half buried in mist. +From the other window we had the Botanical Gardens, the +bay beyond them sparkling in the sunshine, and on the farther +side of it, a few miles off, an island fortress which the Marquis +de Bouillé, of Revolution notoriety, took from the English in +1778. The sea stretched out blue and lovely under the fringe of +sand, box trees, and almonds which grew along the edge of the +cliff. The air was perfumed by white acacia flowers sweeter +than orange blossom.</p> + +<p>Captain C. limped down with me into the gardens for a +fuller look at the scene. Dusky fishermen were busy with +their nets catching things like herrings, which come in daily +to the shore to escape the monsters which prey upon them. +Canoes on the old Carib pattern were slipping along outside, +trailing lines for kingfish and bonitos. Others were setting +baskets, like enormous lobster pots or hoop nets—such as we +use to catch tench in English ponds—these, too, a legacy from +the Caribs, made of strong tough cane. At the foot of the +cliff were the smart American schooners which I had seen on +landing—broad-beamed, shallow, low in the water with heavy +spars, which bring Yankee 'notions' to the islands and carry +back to New York bananas and limes and pineapples. There +they were, models of Tom Cringle's 'Wave,' airy as English<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +yachts, and equal to anything from a smuggling cruise to a +race for a cup. I could have gazed for ever, so beautiful, so +new, so like a dream it was, had I not been brought back +swiftly to prose and reality. Suddenly out of a clear sky, +without notice, and without provocation, first a few drops of +rain fell, and then a deluge which set the gutters running. +We had to scuttle home under our umbrellas. I was told, +and I discovered afterwards by fuller experience, that this +was the way in Dominica, and that if I went out anywhere I +must be prepared for it. In our retreat we encountered a +distinguished-looking abbé with a collar and a gold cross, who +bowed to my companion. I would gladly have been introduced +to him, but neither he nor we had leisure for courtesies in the +torrent which was falling upon us.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_10" id="Footnote_1_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_10"><span class="label">[11</span></a> Not to be confounded with St. Domingo, which is called after St. +Domenic, where the Spaniards first settled, and is now divided into the +two black republics of St. Domingo and Hayti. Dominica lies in the +chain of the Antilles between Martinique and Guadaloupe, and was so +named by Columbus because he discovered it on a Sunday.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Curiosities in Dominica—Nights in the tropics—English and Catholic +churches—The market place at Roseau—Fishing extraordinary—A +storm—Dominican boatmen—Morning walks—Effects of the Leeward +Islands Confederation—An estate cultivated as it ought to be—A mountain +ride—Leave the island—Reflections.</p></div> + + +<p>There was much to be seen in Dominica of the sort which +travellers go in search of. There was the hot sulphur spring +in the mountains; there was the hot lake; there was another +volcanic crater, a hollow in the centre of the island now filled +with water and surrounded with forest; there were the Caribs, +some thirty families of them living among thickets, through +which paths must be cut before we could reach them. We +could undertake nothing till Captain C. could ride again. +Distant expeditions can only be attempted on horses. They +are bred to the work. They climb like cats, and step out +safely where a fall or a twisted ankle would be the probable +consequence of attempting to go on foot. Meanwhile, Roseau +itself was to be seen and the immediate neighbourhood, and +this I could manage for myself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> + +<p>My first night was disturbed by unfamiliar noises and strange +imaginations. I escaped mosquitoes through the care of the +black fairies. But mosquito curtains will not keep out sounds, +and when the fireflies had put out their lights there began the +singular chorus of tropical midnight. Frogs, lizards, bats, +croaked, sang, and whistled with no intermission, careless +whether they were in discord or harmony. The palm branches +outside my window swayed in the land breeze, and the dry +branches rustled crisply, as if they were plates of silver. At +intervals came cataracts of rain, and above all the rest the +deep boom of the cathedral bell tolling out the hours like a +note of the Old World. The Catholic clergy had brought the +bells with them as they had brought their faith into these new +lands. It was pathetic, it was ominous music; for what had +we done and what were we doing to set beside it in the century +for which the island had been ours? Towards morning I +heard the tinkle of the bell of the convent adjoining the garden +calling the nuns to matins. Happily in the tropics hot nights +do not imply an early dawn. The darkness lingers late, sleep +comes at last and drowns our fancies in forgetfulness.</p> + +<p>The swimming bath was immediately under my room. I +ventured into it with some trepidation. The basement story +in most West Indian houses is open, to allow the air free +passage under them. The space thus left vacant is used for +lumber and rubbish, and, if scorpions or snakes are in the +neighbourhood, is the place where one would look for them. +There the bath was. I had been advised to be careful, and as +it was dark this was not easy. The fear, however, was worse +than the reality. Awkward encounters do happen if one is +long in these countries; but they are rare, and seldom befall +the accidental visitor; and the plunge into fresh water is so +delicious that one is willing to risk the chance.</p> + +<p>I wandered out as soon as the sun was over the horizon. +The cool of the morning is the time to see the people. The +market girls were streaming into the town with their baskets +of vegetables on their heads. The fishing boats were out +again on the bay. Our Anglican church had its bell too as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +well as the cathedral. The door was open, and I went in and +found a decent-looking clergyman preparing a flock of seven +or eight blacks and mulattoes for the Communion. He was +taking them through their catechism, explaining very properly, +that religion meant doing one's duty, and that it was not +enough to profess particular opinions. Dominica being +Roman Catholic, and Roman Catholics not generally appreciating +or understanding the claims of Anglicans to the +possession of the sacraments, he pointed out where the difference +lay. He insisted that we had priests as well as they; +we had confession; we had absolution; only our priests did +not claim, as the Catholics did, a direct power in themselves +to forgive sins. Their office was to tell sinners that if they +truly and sincerely repented and amended their lives God +would forgive them. What he said was absolutely true; but +I could not see in the dim faces of the catechumens that +the distinction was particularly intelligible to them. If they +thought at all, they probably reflected that no divinely constituted +successor of the Apostles was needed to communicate +a truism which every sensible person was equally able and +entitled to tell them. Still the good earnest man meant well, +and I wished him more success in his missionary enterprise +than he was likely to find.</p> + +<p>From the Church of England to the great rival establishment +was but a few minutes' walk. The cathedral was five times as +large, at least, as the building which I had just left—old in +age, old in appearance, with the usual indifferent pictures or +coloured prints, with the usual decorated altar, but otherwise +simple and venerable. There was no service going on, for it +was a week-day; a few old men and women only were silently +saying their prayers. On Sundays I was told that it was overflowing. +The negro morals are as emancipated in Dominica +as in the rest of the West Indies. Obeah is not forgotten; +and along with the Catholic religion goes on an active belief +in magic and witchcraft. But their religion is not necessarily +a sham to them; it was the same in Europe in the ages of +faith. Even in enlightened Protestant countries people calling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +themselves Christians believe that the spirits of the dead can +be called up to amuse an evening party. The blacks in this +respect are no worse than their white kinsmen. The priests +have a genuine human hold upon them; they baptize the +children; they commit the dead to the cemetery with the +promise of immortality; they are personally loved and respected: +and when a young couple marry, as they seldom but +occasionally do, it is to the priest that they apply to tie them +together.</p> + +<p>From the cathedral I wandered through the streets of +Roseau; they had been well laid out; the streets themselves, +and the roads leading to them from the country, had been +carefully paved, and spoke of a time when the town had been +full of life and vigour. But the grass was growing between the +stones, and the houses generally were dilapidated and dirty. +A few massive stone buildings there were, on which time and +rain had made no impression; but these probably were all +French—built long ago, perhaps in the days of Labat and +Madame Ouvernard. The English hand had struck the island +with paralysis. The British flag was flying over the fort, but +for once I had no pride in looking at it. The fort itself was +falling to pieces, like the fort at Grenada. The stones on the +slope on which it stands had run with the blood which we +spilt in the winning of it. Dominica had then been regarded +as the choicest jewel in the necklace of the Antilles. For the +last half-century we have left it to desolation, as a child leaves +a plaything that it is tired of.</p> + +<p>In Roseau, as in most other towns, the most interesting +spot is the market. There you see the produce of the soil; +there you see the people that produce it; and you see them, +not on show, as in church on Sundays, but in their active +working condition. The market place at Roseau is a large +square court close to the sea, well paved, surrounded, by warehouses, +and luxuriantly shaded by large overhanging trees. +Under these trees were hundreds of black women, young and +old, with their fish and fowls, and fruit and bread, their yams +and sweet potatoes, their oranges and limes and plantains.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +They had walked in from the country five or ten miles before +sunrise with their loaded baskets on their heads. They would +walk back at night with flour or salt fish, or oil, or whatever +they happened to want. I did not see a single sullen face +among them. Their figures were unconscious of lacing, and +their feet of the monstrosities which we call shoes. They +moved with the lightness and elasticity of leopards. I thought +that I had never seen in any drawing room in London so +many perfectly graceful forms. They could not mend their +faces, but even in some of these there was a swarthy beauty. +The hair was hopeless, and they knew it, but they turn the +defect into an ornament by the coloured handkerchief which +they twist about their heads, leaving the ends flowing. They +chattered like jackdaws about a church tower. Two or three +of the best looking, seeing that I admired them a little, used +their eyes and made some laughing remarks. They spoke in +their French <i>patois</i>, clipping off the first and last syllables of +the words. I but half understood them, and could not return +their bits of wit. I can only say that if their habits were as +loose as white people say they are, I did not see a single +licentious expression either in face or manner. They seemed +to me light-hearted, merry, innocent young women, as free +from any thought of evil as the peasant girls in Brittany.</p> + +<p>Two middle-aged dames were in a state of violent excitement +about some subject on which they differed in opinion. +A ring gathered about them, and they declaimed at one +another with fiery volubility. It did not go beyond words; +but both were natural orators, throwing their heads back, +waving their arms, limbs and chest quivering with emotion. +There was no personal abuse, or disposition to claw each other. +On both sides it was a rhetorical outpouring of emotional +argument. One of them, a tall pure blood negress, black as if +she had just landed from Guinea, began at last to get the best +of it. Her gesticulations became more imposing. She shook +her finger. <i>Mandez</i> this, she said, and <i>mandez</i> that, till she +bore her antagonist down and sent her flying. The audience +then melted away, and I left the conqueror standing alone +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>shooting a last volley at the retreating enemy and making +passionate appeals to the universe. The subject of the discussion +was a curious one. It was on the merits of race. The +defeated champion had a taint of white blood in her. The +black woman insisted that blacks were of pure breed, and +whites were of pure breed. Mulattoes were mongrels, not +creatures of God at all, but creatures of human wickedness. +I do not suppose that the mulatto was convinced, but she +accepted her defeat. The conqueror, it was quite clear, was +satisfied that she had the best of the discussion, and that the +hearers were of the same opinion.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/image0005.jpg" alt="MORNING WALK, DOMINICA." title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption">MORNING WALK, DOMINICA.</span> +</div> + +<p>From the market I stepped back upon the quay, where I +had the luck to witness a novel form of fishing, the most +singular I have ever fallen in with. I have mentioned the +herring-sized white fish which come in upon the shores of the +island. They travel, as most small fish do, in enormous shoals, +and keep, I suppose, in the shallow waters to avoid the kingfish +and bonitos, who are good judges in their way, and find these +small creatures exceptionally excellent. The wooden pier ran +out perhaps a hundred and fifty feet into the sea. It was a +platform standing on piles, with openings in several places +from which stairs led down to landing stages. The depth at +the extremity was about five fathoms. There is little or no +tide, the difference between high water and low being not more +than a couple of feet. Looking down the staircases, I saw +among the piles in the brilliantly clear water unnumbered thousands +of the fish which I have described. The fishermen had +carried a long net round the pier from shore to shore, completely +inclosing it. The fish were shut in, and had no means +of escape except at the shore end, where boys were busy +driving them back with stones; but how the net was to be +drawn among the piles, or what was to be done next, I was +curious to learn. I was not left long to conjecture. A circular +bag net was produced, made of fine strong thread, coloured a +light green, and almost invisible in the sea. When it was +spread, one side could be left open and could be closed at will +by a running line from above. This net was let carefully down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +between the piles, and was immediately swollen out by the current +which runs along the coast into a deep bag. Two young +blacks then dived; one saw them swimming about under +water like sharks, hunting the fish before them as a dog would +hunt a flock of sheep. Their companions, who were watching +from the platform, waited till they saw as many driven into the +purse of the inner net as they could trust the meshes to bear +the weight of. The cord was then drawn. The net was +closed. Net and all that it contained were hoisted into a boat, +carried ashore and emptied. The net itself was then brought +back and spread again for a fresh haul. In this way I saw as +many fish caught as would have filled a large cart. The contrivance, +I believe, is one more inheritance from the Caribs, +whom Labat describes as doing something of a similar kind.</p> + +<p>Another small incident happened a day or two after, which +showed the capital stuff of which the Dominican boatmen and +fishermen are made. They build their own vessels large and +small, and sail them themselves, not afraid of the wildest +weather, and doing the local trade with Martinique and +Guadaloupe. Four of these smacks, cutter rigged, from ten to +twenty tons burden, I had seen lying at anchor one evening +with an American schooner under the gardens. In the night, +the off-shore wind rose into one of those short violent tropical +storms which if they lasted longer would be called hurricanes, +but in these winter months are soon over. It came on at midnight, +and lasted for two hours. The noise woke me, for the +house shook, and the roar was like Niagara. It was too dark, +however, to see anything. The tempest died away at last, and I +slept till daybreak. My first thought on waking was for the +smacks and the schooner Had they sunk at their moorings? +Had they broken loose, or what had become of them? I got up +and went down to the cliff to see. The damage to the trees had +been less than I expected. A few torn branches lay on the lawn +and the leaves were cast about, but the anchorage was empty. +Every vessel of every sort and size was gone. There was still +a moderate gale blowing. As the wind was off-shore the sea was +tolerably smooth for a mile or two, but outside the waves were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +breaking violently, and the foam scuds were whirling off their +crests. The schooner was about four miles off, beating back +under storm canvas, making good weather of it and promising +in a tack or two to recover the moorings. The smacks, being +less powerful vessels, had been driven farther out to sea. +Three of them I saw labouring heavily in the offing. The +fourth I thought at first had disappeared altogether, but finally +I made out a white speck on the horizon which I supposed to +be the missing cutter. One of the first three presently +dropped away to leeward, and I lost sight of her. The rest +made their way back in good time. Towards the afternoon +when the wind had gone down the two that remained came in +after them, and before night they were all in their places again.</p> + +<p>The gale had struck them at about midnight. Their cables +had parted, and they had been blown away to sea. The crews +of the schooner and of three of the cutters were all on board. +They got their vessels under command, and had been in no +serious danger. In the fourth there was no one but a small +black boy of the island. He had been asleep, and woke to find +himself driving before the wind. In an hour or two he would +have been beyond the shelter of the land, and in the high seas +which were then running must have been inevitably swamped. +The little fellow contrived in the darkness—no one could tell +how—to set a scrap of his mainsail, get his staysail up, and in +this condition to lie head to the wind. So handled, small cutters, +if they have a deck over them, can ride out an ordinary +gale in tolerable security. They drift, of course; in a hurricane +the only safety is in yielding to it; but they make fair +resistance, and the speed is checked. The most practical +seaman could have done no better than this boy. He had to +wait for help in the morning. He was not strong enough to +set his canvas properly, and work his boat home. He would +have been driven out at last, and as he had neither food nor +water would have been starved had he escaped drowning. But +his three consorts saw him. They knew how it was, and one +of them went back to his assistance.</p> + +<p>I have known the fishing boys of the English Channel all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +my life; they are generally skilful, ready, and daring beyond +their years; but I never knew one lad not more than thirteen +or fourteen years old who, if woke out of his sleep by a hurricane +in a dark night and alone, would have understood so well +what to do, or have it done so effectually. There are plenty +more of such black boys in Dominica, and they deserve a +better fate than to be sent drifting before constitutional +whirlwinds back into barbarism, because we, on whom their +fate depends, are too ignorant or too careless to provide them +with a tolerable government.</p> + +<p>The kind Captain Churchill, finding himself tied to his +chair, and wishing to give me every assistance towards seeing +the island, had invited a creole gentleman from the other side +of it to stay a few days with us. Mr. F——, a man about +thirty, was one of the few survivors from among the planters; +he had never been out of the West Indies, but was a man of +honesty and intelligence, could use his eyes, and form sound +judgments on subjects which immediately concerned him. I +had studied Roseau for myself. With Mr. F—— for a companion, +I made acquaintance with the environs. We started +for our walks at daybreak, in the cool of the morning. We +climbed cliffs, we rambled on the rich levels about the river, +once amply cultivated, and even now the soil is luxuriant in +neglect; a few canefields still survive, but most of them are +turned to other uses, and you pass wherever you go the ruins +of old mills, the massive foundations of ancient warehouses, +huge hewn stones built and mortared well together, telling what +once had been; the mango trees, which the owners had +planted, waving green over the wrecks of their forgotten industry. +Such industry as is now to be found is, as elsewhere +in general, the industry of the black peasantry. It is the same +as in Grenada: the whites, or the English part of them, have +lost heart, and cease to struggle against the stream. A state +of things more helplessly provoking was never seen. Skill and +capital and labour have only to be brought to bear together, +and the land might be a Garden of Eden. All precious fruits, +and precious spices, and gums, and plants of rarest medicinal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +virtues will spring and grow and flourish for the asking. The +limes are as large as lemons, and in the markets of the United +States are considered the best in the world.</p> + +<p>As to natural beauty, the West Indian Islands are like +Scott's novels, where we admire most the one which we have +read the last. But Dominica bears the palm away from all of +them. One morning Mr. F—— took me a walk up the Roseau +river, an ample stream even in what is called the dry season, +with deep pools full of eels and mullet. We entered among +the hills which were rising steep above us. The valley grew +deeper, or rather there were a series of valleys, gorges dense +with forest, which had been torn out by the cataracts. The +path was like the mule tracts of the Alps, cut in other days +along the sides of the precipices with remnants of old conduits +which supplied water to the mills below. Rich odorous +acacias bent over us. The flowers, the trees, the birds, the +insects, were a maze of perfume and loveliness. Occasionally +some valley opposite the sun would be spanned by a rainbow +as the rays shone through a morning shower out of the blue +sky. We wandered on and on, wading through tributary +brooks, stopping every minute to examine some new fern or +plant, peasant women and children meeting us at intervals on +their way into the town. There were trees to take shelter +under when indispensable, which even the rain of Dominica +could not penetrate. The levels at the bottom of the valleys +and the lower slopes, where the soil was favourable, were carelessly +planted with limes which were in full bearing. Small +black boys and girls went about under the trees, gathering the +large lemon-shaped fruit which lay on the ground thick as +apples in a West of England orchard. Here was all this +profusion of nature, lavish beyond example, and the enterprising +youth of England were neglecting a colony which might +yield them wealth beyond the treasures of the old sugar +planters, going to Florida, to Texas, to South America, taking +their energy and their capital to the land of the foreigner, +leaving Dominica, which might be the garden of the world, a +precious emerald set in the ring of their own Antilles, enriched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +by the sacred memories of glorious English achievements, as +if such a place had no existence. Dominica would surrender +herself to-morrow with a light heart to France, to America, to +any country which would accept the charge of her destinies. +Why should she care any more for England, which has so +little care for her? Beauties conscious of their charms do +not like to be so thrown aside. There is no dislike to us +among the blacks; they are indifferent, but even their indifference +would be changed into loyalty if we made the slightest +effort to recover it. The poor black was a faithful servant as +long as he was a slave. As a freeman he is conscious of his +inferiority at the bottom of his heart, and would attach himself +to a rational white employer with at least as much fidelity +as a spaniel. Like the spaniel, too, if he is denied the chance +of developing under guidance the better qualities which are in +him, he will drift back into a mangy cur.</p> + +<p>In no country ought a government to exist for which +respect is impossible, and English rule as it exists in Dominica +is a subject for a comedy. The Governor-General of the +Leeward Islands resides in Antigua, and in theory ought to go +on progress and visit in turn his subordinate dominions. His +visits are rare as those of angels. The eminent person, who +at present holds that high office, has been once in Nevis; and +thrice in Dominica, but only for the briefest stay there. +Perhaps he has held aloof in consequence of an adventure +which befell a visiting governor some time ago on one of these +occasions. When there is a constitution there is an opposition. +If there are no grievances the opposition manufacture them, +and the inhabitants of Roseau were persuaded that they were +an oppressed people and required fuller liberties. I was +informed that His Excellency had no sooner landed and taken +possession of the Government House, than a mob of men and +women gathered in the market place under the leadership of +their elected representative. The girls that I had admired very +likely made a part of it. They swarmed up into the gardens, +they demonstrated under the windows, laughing, shouting, and +petitioning. His Excellency first barricaded the doors, then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +opened them and tried a speech, telling the dear creatures how +much he loved and respected them. Probably they did not +understand him, as few of them speak English. Producing no +effect, he retreated again, barred the door once more, slipped +out at a back entrance down a lane to the port, took refuge on +board his steamer, and disappeared. So the story was told +me—not by the administrator, who was not a man to turn +English authority into ridicule—but by some one on the spot, +who repeated the current report of the adventure. It may be +exaggerated in some features, but it represents, at any rate, +the feeling of the place towards the head representative of the +existing government.</p> + +<p>I will mention another incident, said to have occurred still +more recently to one of these great persons, very like what +befell Sancho Panza in Barataria. This, too, may have been +wickedly turned, but it was the subject of general talk and +general amusement on board the steamers which make the +round of the Antilles. Universal belief is a fact of its kind, +and though it tends to shape itself in dramatic form more +completely than the facts justify, there is usually some truth +at the bottom of it. The telegrams to the West Indies pass +through New York, and often pick up something on the way. +A warning message reached a certain colony that a Yankee-Irish +schooner with a Fenian crew was coming down to annex +the island, or at least to kidnap the governor. This distinguished +gentleman ought perhaps to have suspected that a +joke was being played upon his fears; but he was a landlord. +A governor-general had been threatened seriously in Canada, +why not he in the Antilles? He was as much agitated as +Sancho himself. All these islands were and are entirely undefended +save by a police which cannot be depended on to +resist a serious invasion. They were called out. Rumour +said that in half the rifles the cartridges were found afterwards +inverted. The next day dispelled the alarm. The schooner +was the creation of some Irish telegraph clerk, and the scare +ended in laughter. But under the jest lies the wretched +certainty that the Antilles have no protection except in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +own population, and so little to thank England for that +scarcely one of the inhabitants, except the officials, would lift +a finger to save the connection.</p> + +<p>Once more, I tell these stories not as if they were authenticated +facts, but as evidence of the scornful feeling towards +English authority. The current belief in them is a fact of a +kind and a very serious one.</p> + +<p>The confederation of the Leeward Islands may have been a +convenience to the Colonial Office, and may have allowed a +slight diminution in the cost of administration. The whole +West Indies might be placed under a single governor with only +good results if he were a real one like the Governor-General at +Calcutta. But each single island has lost from the change, so +far, more than it has gained. Each ship of war has a captain +of its own and officers of its own trained specially for the +service. If the Antilles are ever to thrive, each of them also +should have some trained and skilful man at its head, unembarrassed +by local elected assemblies. The whites have become +so weak that they would welcome the abolition of such assemblies. +The blacks do not care for politics, and would be +pleased to see them swept away to-morrow if they were +governed wisely and fairly. Of course, in that case it would be +necessary to appoint governors who would command confidence +and respect. But let governors be sent who would be governors +indeed, like those who administer the Indian presidencies, and +the white residents would gather heart again, and English and +American capitalists would bring their money and their enterprise, +and the blacks would grow upwards instead of downwards. +Let us persist in the other line, let us use the West +Indian governments as asylums for average worthy persons +who have to be provided for, and force on them black parliamentary +institutions as a remedy for such persons' inefficiency, +and these beautiful countries will become like Hayti, with +Obeah triumphant, and children offered to the devil and salted +and eaten, till the conscience of mankind wakes again and the +Americans sweep them all away.</p> + +<p>I had an opportunity of seeing what can really be done in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +Dominica by an English gentleman who has gone the right way +to work there. Dr. Nicholls came out a few years ago to +Roseau as a medical officer. He was described to me as a man +not only of high professional skill, but with considerable +scientific attainments. Either by purchase or legacy (I think +the latter) he had become possessed of a small estate on a hillside +a mile or two from the town. He had built a house upon +it. He was cultivating the soil on scientific principles, and had +politely sent me an invitation to call on him and see what he +was about. I was delighted to avail myself of such an opportunity.</p> + +<p>I do not know the exact extent of the property which was +under cultivation; perhaps it was twenty-five or thirty acres. +The chief part of it was planted with lime trees, the limes which +I saw growing being as large as moderate-sized lemons; most +of the rest was covered with Liberian coffee, which does not +object to the moist climate, and was growing with profuse +luxuriance. Each tree, each plant had been personally attended +to, pruned when it needed pruning, supported by bamboos +if it was overgrowing its strength, while the ground about +the house was consecrated to botanical experiments, and +specimens were to be seen there of every tropical flower, shrub, +or tree, which was either remarkable for its beauty or valuable +for its chemical properties. His limes and coffee went principally +to New York, where they had won a reputation, and were +in special demand; but ingenuity tries other tracks besides the +beaten one. Dr. Nicholls had a manufactory of citric acid +which had been found equally excellent in Europe. Everything +which he produced was turning to gold, except donkeys, +seven or eight of which were feeding under his windows, and +which multiplied so fast that he could not tell what to do with +them.</p> + +<p>Industries so various and so active required labour, and I +saw many of the blacks at work on the grounds. In apparent +contradiction to the general West Indian experience, he told me +that he had never found a difficulty about it. He paid them +fair wages, and paid them regularly without the overseer's fines<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +and drawbacks. He knew one from the other personally +could call each by his name, remembered where he came from, +where he lived, and how, and could joke with him about his +wife or mistress. They in consequence clung to him with an +innocent affection, stayed with him all the week without asking +for holidays, and worked with interest and goodwill. Four +years only had elapsed since Dr. Nicholls commenced his +undertakings, and he already saw his way to clearing a thousand +pounds a year on that one small patch of acres. I may +mention that, being the only man in the island of really superior +attainments, he had tried in vain to win one of the seats in the +elective part of the legislature.</p> + +<p>There was nothing particularly favourable in the situation of +his land. All parts of Dominica would respond as willingly to +similar treatment. What could be the reason, Dr. Nicholls +asked me, why young Englishmen went planting to so many +other countries, went even to Ceylon and Borneo, while comparatively +at their own doors, within a fortnight's sail of Plymouth, +there was this island immeasurably more fertile than +either? The explanation, I suppose, is the misgiving that the +West Indies are consigned by the tendencies of English policy +to the black population, and that a local government created +by representatives of the negro vote would make a residence +there for an energetic and self-respecting European less tolerable +than in any other part of the globe. The republic of +Hayti not only excludes a white man from any share of the +administration, but forbids his acquisition or possession of real +property in any form. Far short of such extreme provisions, +the most prosperous industry might be blighted by taxation. +Self-government is a beautiful subject for oratorical declamation. +If the fact corresponded to the theory and if the possession +of a vote produced the elevating effects upon the +character which are so noisily insisted upon, it would be the +welcome panacea for political and social disorder. Unfortunately +the fact does not correspond to the theory. The +possession of a vote never improved the character of any +human being and never will.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> + +<p>There are many islands in the West Indies, and an experiment +might be ventured without any serious risk. Let the +suffrage principle be applied in its fullness where the condition +of the people seems best to promise success. In some one of +them—Dominica would do as well as any other—let a man of +ability and character with an ambition to distinguish himself be +sent to govern with a free hand. Let him choose his own +advisers, let him be untrammelled, unless he falls into fatal and +inexcusable errors, with interference from home. Let him +have time to carry out any plans which he may form, without +fear of recall at the end of the normal period. After ten or +fifteen years, let the results of the two systems be compared +side by side. I imagine the objection to such a trial would be +the same which was once made in my hearing by an Irish +friend of mine, who was urging on an English statesman the +conversion of Ireland into a Crown colony. 'You dare not +try it,' he said, 'for if you did, in twenty years we would be the +most prosperous island of the two, and you would be wanting +to follow our example.'</p> + +<p>We had exhausted the neighbourhood of Roseau. After a +few days Captain C. was again able to ride, and we could +undertake more extended expeditions. He provided me with +a horse or pony or something between both, a creature that +would climb a stone staircase at an angle of forty-five, or slide +down a clay slope soaked by a tropical shower, with the same +indifference with which it would canter along a meadow. In +the slave times cultivation had been carried up into the +mountains. There were the old tracks through the forest +engineered along the edges of precipices, torrents roaring far +down below, and tall green trees standing in hollows underneath, +whose top branches were on a level with our eyes. We +had to ride with mackintosh and umbrella, prepared at any +moment to have the floods descend upon us. The best costume +would be none at all. While the sun is above the horizon the +island seems to lie under the arches of perpetual rainbows. +One gets wet and one dries again, and one is none the worse +for the adventure. I had heard that it was dangerous. It did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +no harm to me. A very particular object was to reach the crest +of the mountain ridge which divides Dominica down the +middle. We saw the peaks high above us, but it was useless to +try the ascent if one could see nothing when one arrived, and +mists and clouds hung about so persistently that we had to put +off our expedition day after day.</p> + +<p>A tolerable morning came at last. We started early. A +faithful black youth ran alongside of the horses to pick us up +if we fell, and to carry the indispensable luncheon basket. +We rode through the town, over the bridge and by the foot +of Dr. Nicholls's plantations. We passed through lime and +banana gardens rising slowly along the side of a glen above +the river. The road had been made by the French long ago, +and went right across the island. It had once been carefully +paved, but wet and neglect had loosened the stones and +tumbled them out of their places. Trees had driven their +roots through the middle of the track. Mountain streams had +taken advantage of convenient cuttings and scooped them into +waterways. The road commissioner on the official staff seemed +a merely ornamental functionary. We could only travel at a +foot pace and in single file. Happily our horses were used to +it. Along this road in 1805 Sir George Prevost retreated with +the English garrison of Roseau, when attacked in force from +Martinique; saved his men and saved the other part of the +island till relief came and the invaders were driven out again. +That was the last of the fighting, and we have been left since +in undisturbed possession. Dominica was then sacred as the +scene of Rodney's glories. Now I suppose, if the French +came again, we should calculate the mercantile value of the +place to us, and having found it to be nothing at all, might +conclude that it would be better to let them keep it.</p> + +<p>We went up and up, winding round projecting spurs of +mountain, here and there coming on plateaus where pioneering +blacks were clearing patches of forest for their yams and coffee. +We skirted the edge of a valley several miles across, on the +far side of which we saw the steaming of the sulphur springs, +and beyond and above it a mountain peak four thousand feet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +high and clothed with timber to the summit. In most countries +the vegetation grows thin as you rise into the higher altitudes. +Here the bush only seems to grow denser, the trees grander +and more self-asserting, the orchids and parasites on the +boughs more variously brilliant. There were tree ferns less +splendid than those in New Zealand and Australia, but larger +than any one can see in English hot-houses, wild oranges bending +under the weight of ripe fruit which was glowing on their +branches, wild pines, wild begonias scattered along the banks, +and a singularly brilliant plant which they call the wild plantain, +but it is not a plantain at all, with large broad pointed +leaves radiating out from a centre like an aloe's, and a crimson +flower stem rising up straight in the middle. It was startling +to see such insolent beauty displaying itself indifferently in the +heart of the wilderness with no human eye to look at it unless +of some passing black or wandering Carib.</p> + +<p>The track had been carried across hot streams fresh from +boiling springs, and along the edge of chasms where there was +scarcely foothold for the horses. At length we found ourselves +on what was apparently the highest point of the pass. We +could not see where we were for the trees and bushes which +surrounded us, but the path began to descend on the other +side. Near the summit was a lake formed in an old volcanic +crater which we had come specially to look at. We descended +a few hundred feet into a hollow among the hills where the +lake was said to be. Where was it, then? I asked the guide, +for I could discover nothing that suggested a lake or anything +like one. He pointed into the bush where it was thicker with +tropical undergrowth than a wheatfield with ears of corn. If +I cared to creep below the branches for two hundred yards at +the risk of meeting snakes, scorpions, and other such charming +creatures, I should find myself on the water's edge.</p> + +<p>To ride up a mountain three thousand feet high, to be near +a wonder which I could not see after all, was not what I had +proposed to myself. There was a traveller's rest at the point +where we halted, a cool damp grotto carved into the sand-stone. +We picketed our horses, cutting leafy boughs off the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +trees for them, and making cushions for ourselves out of the +ferns. We were told that if we walked on for half a mile we +should see the other side of the island, and if we were lucky +we might catch a glimpse of the lake. Meanwhile clouds +rolled, down off the mountains, filled the hollow where we +stood, and so wrapped us in mist, that the question seemed +rather how we were to return than whether we should venture +farther.</p> + +<p>While we were considering what to do, we heard steps +approaching through the fog, and a party of blacks came up +on their way to Roseau with a sick companion whom they +were carrying in a palanquin. We were eating our luncheon +in the grotto, and they stopped to talk to our guide and stare +at us. Two of them, a lad and a girl, came up closer to me +than good manners would have allowed if they had possessed +such things; the 'I am as good as you, and you will be good +enough to know it,' sort of tone which belongs to these democratic +days showing itself rather notably in the rising generation +in parts of these islands. I defended myself with producing a +sketch book and proceeding to take their likenesses, on which +they fled precipitately.</p> + +<p>Our sandwiches finished, we were pensively consuming our +cigars, I speculating on Sir George Prevost and his party of +redcoats who must have bivouacked on that very spot, when +the clouds broke and the sun came out. The interval was +likely to be a short one, so we hurried to our feet, walked +rapidly on, and at a turn of the path where a hurricane had +torn a passage through the trees, we caught a sight of our lake +as we had been told that perhaps we might do. It lay a couple +of hundred feet beneath us deep and still, winding away round +a promontory under the crags and woods of the opposite hills: +they call it a crater, and I suppose it may have been one, for +the whole island shows traces of violent volcanic disturbance, +but in general a crater is a bowl, and this was like a reach of +a river, which lost itself before one could see where it ended. +They told us that in old times, when troops were in the fort, +and the white men of the island went about and enjoyed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +themselves, there were boats on this lake, and parties came up +and fished there. Now it was like the pool in the gardens of +the palace of the sleeping princess, guarded by impenetrable +thickets, and whether there are fish there, or enchanted +princesses, or the huts of some tribe of Caribs, hiding in +those fastnesses from negroes whom they hate, or from white +men whom they do not love, no one knows or cares to know. +I made a hurried pencil sketch, and we went on.</p> + +<p>A little farther and we were out of the bush, at a rocky +terrace on the rim of the great valley which carries the rainfall +on the eastern side of the mountains down into the Atlantic. +We were 3,000 feet above the sea. Far away the ocean +stretched out before us, the horizon line where sky met water +so far distant that both had melted into mist at the point +where they touched. Mount Diablot, where Labat spent a +night catching the devil birds, soared up on our left hand. Below, +above, around us, it was forest everywhere; forest, and +only forest, a land fertile as Adam's paradise, still waiting for +the day when 'the barren woman shall bear children.' Of +course it was beautiful, if that be of any consequence—mountain +peaks and crags and falling waters, and the dark green of +the trees in the foreground, dissolving from tint to tint to grey, +violet, and blue in the far-off distance. Even at the height +where we stood, the temperature must have been 70°. But +the steaming damp of the woods was gone, the air was clear +and exhilarating as champagne. What a land! And what +were we doing with it? This fair inheritance, won by English +hearts and hands for the use of the working men of England, +and the English working men lying squalid in the grimy alleys +of crowded towns, and the inheritance turned into a wilderness. +Visions began to rise of what might be, but visions +which were taken from me before they could shape themselves. +The curtain of vapour fell down over us again, and all was +gone, and of that glorious picture nothing was left but our own +two selves and the few yards of red rock and soil on which we +were standing.</p> + +<p>There was no need for haste now. We return slowly to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +our horses, and our horses carried us home by the way that +we had come. Captain C. went carelessly in front through +the fog, over boulders and watercourses and roots of fallen +trees. I followed as I could, expecting every moment to find +myself flying over my horse's head; stumbling, plunging, +sliding, but getting through with it somehow. The creature +had never seen me before, but was as careful of my safety as +if I had been an old acquaintance and friend. Only one misadventure +befell me, if misadventure it may be called. Shaken, +and damp with heat, I was riding under a wild orange tree, +the fruit within reach of my hand. I picked an orange and +plunged my teeth into the skin, and I had to remember my +rashness for days. The oil in the rind, pungent as aromatic +salts, rushed on my palate, and spurted on my face and eyes. +The smart for the moment half blinded me. I bethought me, +however, that oranges with such a flavour would be worth +something, and a box of them which was sent home for me +was converted into marmalade with a finer flavour than ever +came from Seville.</p> + +<p>What more can I say of Dominica? I stayed with the +hospitable C.'s for a fortnight. At the appointed time the +returning steamer called for me. I left Capt. C. with a warm +hope that he might not be consigned for ever to a post which +an English gentleman ought not to be condemned to occupy; +that if matters could not be mended for him where he stood, +he might find a situation where his courage and his understanding +might be turned to useful purpose. I can never +forget the kindness both of himself and his clever, good, +graceful lady. I cannot forget either the two dusky damsels +who waited upon me like spirits in a fairy tale. It was night +when I left. The packet came alongside the wharf. We took +leave by the gleaming of her lights. The whistle screamed, +and Dominica, and all that I had seen, faded into a memory. +All that I had seen, but not all that I had thought. That +island was the scene of the most glorious of England's many +famous actions. It had been won for us again and again by +the gallantry of our seamen and soldiers. It had been secured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +at last to the Crown by the genius of the greatest of our +admirals. It was once prosperous. It might be prosperous +again, for the resources of the soil are untouched and inexhaustible. +The black population are exceptionally worthy. +They are excellent boatmen, excellent fishermen, excellent +mechanics, ready to undertake any work if treated with +courtesy and kindness. Yet in our hands it is falling into +ruin. The influence of England there is gone. It is nothing. +Indifference has bred indifference in turn as a necessary +consequence. Something must be wrong when among 30,000 +of our fellow-subjects not one could be found to lift a hand +for us if the island were invaded, when a boat's crew from +Martinique might take possession of it without a show of +resistance.</p> + +<p>If I am asked the question, What use is Dominica to us? +I decline to measure it by present or possible marketable +value; I answer simply that it is part of the dominions of the +Queen. If we pinch a finger, the smart is felt in the brain. If we +neglect a wound in the least important part of our persons, it +may poison the system. Unless the blood of an organised body +circulates freely through the extremities, the extremities mortify +and drop off, and the dropping off of any colony of ours will +not be to our honour and may be to our shame. Dominica +seems but a small thing, but our larger colonies are observing +us, and the world is observing us, and what we do or fail to do +works beyond the limits of its immediate operation. The +mode of management which produces the state of things which +I have described cannot possibly be a right one. We have +thought it wise, with a perfectly honest intention, to leave our +dependencies generally to work out their own salvation. We +have excepted India, for with India we dare not run the risk. +But we have refused to consider that others among our +possessions may be in a condition analogous to India, and we +have allowed them to drift on as they could. It was certainly +excusable, and it may have been prudent, to try popular +methods first, but we have no right to persist in the face of a +failure so complete. We are obliged to keep these islands,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +for it seems that no one will relieve us of them; and if they +are to remain ours, we are bound so to govern them that our +name shall be respected and our sovereignty shall not be a +mockery. Am I asked what shall be done? I have answered +already. Among the silent thousands whose quiet work keeps +the Empire alive, find a Rajah Brooke if you can, or a Mr. +Smith of Scilly. If none of these are attainable, even a +Sancho Panza would do. Send him out with no more instructions +than the knight of La Mancha gave Sancho—to +fear God and do his duty. Put him on his mettle. Promise +him the respect and praise of all good men if he does well; +and if he calls to his help intelligent persons who understand +the cultivation of soils and the management of men, in half a +score of years Dominica would be the brightest gem of the +Antilles. From America, from England, from all parts of the +world, admiring tourists would be flocking there to see what +Government could do, and curious politicians with jealous +eyes admitting reluctantly unwelcome conclusions.</p> + +<p style="margin-left:4em"> +Woman! no mortal o'er the widespread earth<br /> +Can find a fault in thee; thy good report<br /> +Doth reach the widespread heaven, as of some prince<br /> +Who, in the likeness of a god, doth rule<br /> +O'er subjects stout of heart and strong of hand;<br /> +And men speak greatly of him, and his land<br /> +Bears wheat and rye, his orchards bend with fruit,<br /> +His flocks breed surely, the sea yields her fish,<br /> +Because he guides his folk with wisdom.<br /> +In grace and manly virtue.<a name="FNanchor_1_11" id="FNanchor_1_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_11" class="fnanchor">[12]</a><br /> +</p> + +<p>Because 'He guides with wisdom.' That is the whole +secret. The leading of the wise few, the willing obedience of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>the many, is the beginning and the end of all right action. +Secure this, and you secure everything. Fail to secure it, and +be your liberties as wide as you can make them, no success is +possible.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_11" id="Footnote_1_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_11"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> +ὦ γύναι, οὐκ ἂν τίς σε βροτῶν ἐπ᾽ ἀπείρονα γαῖαν<br /> +νεικέοι; ἦγάρ σευ κλέος οὐρανὸν εὐρὺν ἱκάνει;<br /> +ὥστε τευ ἢ βασιλῆος ἀμύμονος, ὅστε θεουδὴς<br /> + ἀνδράσιν ἐν πολλοῖσι καὶ ἰφθίμοισιν ἀνάσσων,<br /> + εὐδικίας ἀνέχησι; φέρησι δέ γαῖα μέλαινα<br /> +πυροὺς καὶ κριθάς, βρίθησι δὲ δένδρεα καρπῷ,<br /> +τίκτει δ᾽ ἔμπεδα μῆλα, θάλασσα δὲ παρέχει ἰχθῦς,<br /> +ἐξ εὐηγεσίης; ἀρετῶσι δὲ λαοὶ ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ.—<i>Odyssey</i>, xix. 107. +</p></div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Darien canal—Jamaica mail packet—Captain W.—Retrospect of +Jamaican history—Waterspout at sea—Hayti—Jacmel—A walk +through the town—A Jamaican planter—First sight of the Blue +Mountains—Port Royal—Kingston—The Colonial Secretary—Gordon +riots—Changes in the Jamaican constitution.</p></div> + + +<p>Once more to Barbadoes, but merely to change there from +steamer to steamer. My course was now across the Caribbean +Sea to the great islands at the bottom of it. The +English mail, after calling and throwing off its lateral branches +at Bridgetown, pursues its direct course to Hayti and Jamaica, +and so on to Vera Cruz and the Darien canal. This wonderful +enterprise of M. Lesseps has set moving the loose negro +population of the Antilles and Jamaica. Unwilling to work +as they are supposed to be, they have swarmed down to the +isthmus, and are still swarming thither in tens of thousands, +tempted by the dollar or dollar and a half a day which M. +Lesseps is furnishing. The vessel which called for us at +Dominica was crowded with them, and we picked up more as +we went on. Their average stay is for a year. At the end of +a year half of them have gone to the other world. Half go +home, made easy for life with money enough to buy a few +acres of land and 'live happy ever after.' Heedless as school-boys +they plunge into the enterprise, thinking of nothing but +the harvest of dollars. They might earn as much or more at +their own doors if there were any one to employ them, but +quiet industry is out of joint, and Darien has seized their +imaginations as an Eldorado.</p> + +<p>If half the reports which reached me are correct, in all +the world there is not perhaps now concentrated in any +single spot so much foul disease, such a hideous dungheap of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +moral and physical abomination, as in the scene of this far-famed +undertaking of nineteenth-century engineering. By the +scheme, as it was first propounded, six-and-twenty millions of +English money were to unite the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, +to form a highway for the commerce of the globe, and enrich +with untold wealth the happy owners of original shares. The +thrifty French peasantry were tempted by the golden bait, and +poured their savings into M. Lesseps's lottery box. All that +money and more besides, I was told, had been already spent, +and only a fifth of the work was done. Meanwhile the human +vultures have gathered to the spoil. Speculators, adventurers, +card sharpers, hell keepers, and doubtful ladies have carried +their charms to this delightful market. The scene of operations +is a damp tropical jungle, intensely hot, swarming with +mosquitoes, snakes, alligators, scorpions, and centipedes; the +home, even as nature made it, of yellow fever, typhus, and +dysentery, and now made immeasurably more deadly by the +multitudes of people who have crowded thither. Half buried +in mud lie about the wrecks of costly machinery, consuming +by rust, sent out under lavish orders, and found unfit for the +work for which they were intended. Unburied altogether lie +also skeletons of the human machines which have broken +down there.<a name="FNanchor_1_12" id="FNanchor_1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_12" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Everything which imagination can conceive that +is ghastly and loathsome seems to be gathered into that +locality just now. I was pressed to go on and look at the +moral surroundings of 'the greatest undertaking of our age,' +but my curiosity was less strong than my disgust. I did not +see the place and the description which I have given is probably +too highly coloured. The accounts which reached me, +however, were uniform and consistent. Not one person whom +I met and who could speak from personal knowledge had any +other story to tell.</p> + +<p>We looked again into St. Lucia on our way. The training +squadron was lying outside, and the harbour was covered with +boats full of blue-jackets. The big ships were rolling heavily. +They could have eaten up Rodney's fleet. The great 'Ville +de Paris' would have been a mouthful to the smallest of them. +Man for man, officers and crew were as good as Rodney ever +commanded. Yet, somehow, they produce small effect on the +imagination of the colonists. The impression is that they +are meant more for show than for serious use. Alas! the stars<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +and stripes on a Yankee trader have more to say in the +West Indies than the white ensigns of a fleet of British iron-clads.</p> + +<p>At Barbadoes there was nothing more for me to do or see. +The English mail was on the point of sailing, and I hastened +on board. One does not realise distance on maps. Jamaica +belongs to the West Indies, and the West Indies are a collective +entity. Yet it is removed from the Antilles by the +diameter of the Caribbean Sea, and is farther off than Gibraltar +from Southampton. Thus it was a voyage of several +days, and I looked about to see who were to be my companions. +There were several Spaniards, one or two English +tourists, and some ladies who never left their cabins. The +captain was the most remarkable figure: an elderly man with +one eye lost or injured, the other as peremptory as I have +often seen in a human face; rough and prickly on the outside +as a pineapple, internally very much resembling the same fruit, +for at the bottom he was true, genuine, and kindly hearted, very +amusing, and intimately known to all travellers on the West +Indian line, in the service of which he had passed forty years of +his life. In his own ship he was sovereign and recognised no +superior. Bishops, colonial governors, presidents of South +American republics were, so far as their office went, no more +to him than other people, and as long as they were on board +were chattels of which he had temporary charge. Peer and +peasant were alike under his orders, which were absolute as +the laws of Medes and Persians. On the other hand, his eye +was quick to see if there was any personal merit in a man, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +if you deserved his respect you would have it. One particular +merit he had which I greatly approved. He kept his cabin to +himself, and did not turn it into a smoking room, as I have +known captains do a great deal too often.</p> + +<p>All my own thoughts were fixed upon Jamaica. I had +read so much about it, that my memory was full of persons +and scenes and adventures of which Jamaica was the stage or +subject. Penn and Venables and the Puritan conquest, and +Morgan and the buccaneers; Port Royal crowded with +Spanish prizes; its busy dockyards, and English frigates +and privateers fitting out there for glorious or desperate +enterprises. The name of Jamaica brought them crowding +up with incident on incident; and behind the history came +Tom Cringle and the wild and reckless, yet wholesome and +hearty, planter's life in Kingston; the dark figures of the +pirates swinging above the mangroves at Gallows Point; the +balls and parties and the beautiful quadroons, and the laughing, +merry innocent children of darkness, with the tricks of +the middies upon them. There was the tragic side of it, too, +in slavery, the last ugly flash out of the cloud being not two +decades distant in the Eyre and Gordon time. Interest +enough there was about Jamaica, and things would be +strangely changed in Kingston if nothing remained of the +society which was once so brilliant. There, if anywhere, +England and English rule were not yet a vanished quantity. +There was a dockyard still, and a commodore in command, +and a guardship and gunboats, and English regiments and +West Indian regiments with English officers. Some representatives, +too, I knew were to be found of the old Anglo-West +Indians, men whose fathers and grandfathers were born +in the island, and whose fortunes were bound up in it. +Aaron Bang! what would not one have given to meet Aaron? +The real Aaron had been gathered to his fathers, and nature +does not make two such as he was; but I might fall in with +something that would remind me of him. Paul Gelid and +Pepperpot Wagtail, and Peter Mangrove, better than either +of them—the likeness of these might be surviving, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +it would be delightful to meet and talk to them. They +would give fresh flavour to the immortal 'Log.' Even +another Tom was not impossible; some middy to develop +hereafter into a frigate captain and to sail again into Port +Royal with his prizes in tow.</p> + +<p>Nature at all events could not be changed. The white +rollers would still be breaking on the coral reefs. The palms +would still be waving on the sand ridge which forms the harbour, +and the amber mist would be floating round the peaks of the +Blue Mountains. There were English soldiers and sailors and +English people. The English language was spoken there by +blacks as well as whites. The religion was English. Our +country went for something, and there would be some +persons, at least, to whom the old land was more than a +stepmother, and who were not sighing in their hearts for +annexation to the American Union. The governor, Sir +Henry Norman, of Indian fame, I was sorry to learn, was +still absent; he had gone home on some legal business. +Sir Henry had an Imperial reputation. He had been spoken +of to me in Barbadoes as able, if he were allowed a chance, +to act as Viceroy of all the islands, and to set them on their +feet again. I could well believe that a man of less than +Sir Henry's reputed power could do it—for in the thing +itself there was no great difficulty—if only we at home were +once disenchanted; though all the ability in the world would +be thrown away as long as the enchantment continued. I +did see Sir Henry, as it turned out, but only for a few hours.</p> + +<p>Our voyage was without remarkable incident; as voyages +are apt to be in these days of powerful steamboats. One +morning there was a tropical rain storm which was worth +seeing. We had a strong awning over the quarter-deck, so +I could stand and watch it. An ink-black cloud came +suddenly up from the north which seemed to hang into the +sea, the surface of the water below being violently agitated. +According to popular belief, the cloud on these occasions is +drawing up water which it afterwards discharges. Were +this so the water discharged would be salt, which it never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +is. The cause of the agitation is a cyclonic rotation of air +or local whirlwind. The most noticeable feature was the +blackness of the cloud itself. It became so dark that it +would have been difficult to read any ordinary print. The +rain, when it burst, fell not in drops but in torrents. The +deck was flooded, and the scuttle-holes ran like jets from a +pump. The awning was ceasing to be a shelter, for the water +was driven bodily through it; but the downpour passed off +as suddenly as it had risen. There was no lightning and +no wind. The sea under our side was glassy smooth, and +was dashed into millions of holes by the plunging of the +rain pellets.</p> + +<p>The captain in his journeys to and fro had become acquainted +with the present black President of Hayti, Mr. +Salomon. I had heard of this gentleman as an absolute +person, who knew how to make himself obeyed, and who +treated opposition to his authority in a very summary +manner. He seemed to be a favourite of the captain's. +He had been educated in France, had met with many +changes of fortune, and after an exile in Jamaica had +become quasi-king of the black republic. I much wished +to see this paradise of negro liberty; we were to touch at +Jacmel, which is one of the principal ports, to leave the +mails, and Captain W—— was good enough to say that, if I +liked, I might go ashore for an hour or two with the officer +in charge.</p> + +<p>Hayti, as everyone knows who has studied the black +problem, is the western portion of Columbus's Española, or +St. Domingo, the largest after Cuba and the most fertile in +natural resources of all the islands of the Caribbean Sea. It +was the earliest of the Spanish settlements in the New World. +The Spaniards found there a million or two of mild and innocent +Indians, whom in their first enthusiasm they intended +to convert to Christianity, and to offer as the first fruits of +their discovery to the Virgin Mary and St. Domenic. The +saint gave his name to the island, and his temperament to +the conquerors. In carrying out their pious design, they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +converted the Indians off the face of the earth, working +them to death in their mines and plantations. They filled +their places with blacks from Africa, who proved of tougher +constitution. They colonised, they built cities; they throve +and prospered for nearly two hundred years; when Hayti, the +most valuable half of the island, was taken from them by +the buccaneers and made into a French province. The rest +which keeps the title of St. Domingo, continued Spanish, +and is Spanish still—a thinly inhabited, miserable, Spanish +republic. Hayti became afterwards the theatre of the exploits +of the ever-glorious Toussaint l'Ouverture. When the French +Revolution broke out, and Liberty and the Rights of Man +became the new gospel, slavery could not be allowed to +continue in the French dominions. The blacks of the colony +were emancipated and were received into the national brotherhood. +In sympathy with the Jacobins of France, who burnt +the chateaux of the nobles and guillotined the owners of +them, the liberated slaves rose as soon as they were free, and +massacred the whole French population, man, woman, and +child. Napoleon sent an army to punish the murderers and +recover the colony. Toussaint, who had no share in the +atrocities, and whose fault was only that he had been caught +by the prevailing political epidemic and believed in the +evangel of freedom, surrendered and was carried to France, +where he died or else was made an end of. The yellow fever +avenged him, and secured for his countrymen the opportunity +of trying out to the uttermost the experiment of negro +self-government. The French troops perished in tens of +thousands. They were reinforced again and again, but it was +like pouring water into a sieve. The climate won a victory +to the black man which he could not win for himself. They +abandoned their enterprise at last, and Hayti was free. We +English tried our hand to recover it afterwards, but we failed +also, and for the same reason.</p> + +<p>Hayti has thus for nearly a century been a black independent +state. The negro race have had it to themselves and have not +been interfered with. They were equipped when they started<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +on their career of freedom with the Catholic religion, a civilised +language, European laws and manners, and the knowledge of +various arts and occupations which they had learnt while they +were slaves. They speak French still; they are nominally +Catholics still; and the tags and rags of the gold lace of +French civilisation continue to cling about their institutions. +But in the heart of them has revived the old idolatry of the +Gold Coast, and in the villages of the interior, where they are +out of sight and can follow their instincts, they sacrifice children +in the serpent's honour after the manner of their forefathers. +Perhaps nothing better could be expected from a +liberty which was inaugurated by assassination and plunder. +Political changes which prove successful do not begin in that +way.</p> + +<p>The Bight of Leogane is a deep bay carved in the side of +the island, one arm of which is a narrow ridge of high mountains +a hundred and fifty miles long and from thirty to forty +wide. At the head of this bay, to the north of the ridge, is +Port au Prince, the capital of this remarkable community. +On the south, on the immediately opposite side of the mountains +and facing the Caribbean Sea, is Jacmel, the town next +in importance. We arrived off it shortly after daybreak. The +houses, which are white, looked cheerful in the sunlight. +Harbour there was none, but an open roadstead into which the +swell of the sea sets heavily, curling over a long coral reef which +forms a partial shelter. The mountain range rose behind, +sloping off into rounded woody hills. Here were the feeding +grounds of the herds of wild cattle which tempted the buccaneers +into the island, and from which they took their name. +The shore was abrupt; the land broke off in cliffs of coral rock +tinted brilliantly with various colours. One rather striking +white-cliff, a ship's officer assured me, was chalk; adding flint +when I looked incredulous. His geological education was imperfect. +We brought up a mile outside the black city. The +boat was lowered. None of the other passengers volunteered +to go with me; the English are out of favour in Hayti just +now; the captain discouraged landings out of mere curiosity;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +and, indeed, the officer with the mails had to reassure himself +of Captain W——'s consent before he would take me. The +presence of Europeans in any form is barely tolerated. A few +only are allowed to remain about the ports, just as the Irish +say they let a few Danes remain in Dublin and Waterford after +the battle of Clontarf, to attend to the ignoble business of +trade.</p> + +<p>The country after the green of the Antilles looked brown +and parched. In the large islands the winter months are dry. +As we approached the reef we saw the long hills of water turn +to emerald as they rolled up the shoal, then combing and +breaking in cataracts of snow-white foam. The officer in +charge took me within oar's length of the rock to try my +nerves, and the sea, he did not fail to tell me, swarmed with +sharks of the worst propensities. Two steamers were lying +inside, one of which, belonging to an English company, had +'happened a misfortune,' and was breaking up as a deserted +wreck. A Yankee clipper schooner had just come in with salt +fish and crackers—a singularly beautiful vessel, with immense +beam, which would have startled the builders of the Cowes +racers. It was precisely like the schooner which Tom Cringle +commanded before the dockyard martinets had improved her +into ugliness, built on the lines of the old pirate craft of the +islands, when the lives and fortunes of men hung on the extra +speed, or the point which they could lie closer to the wind. +Her return cargo would be coffee and bananas.</p> + +<p>Englishmen move about in Jacmel as if they were ashamed +of themselves among their dusky lords and masters. I observed +the Yankee skipper paddling himself off in a canoe +with his broad straw hat and his cigar in his mouth, looking as +if all the world belonged to him, and as if all the world, and +the Hayti blacks in particular, were aware of the fact. The +Yankee, whether we like it or not, is the acknowledged sovereign +in these waters.</p> + +<p>The landing place was, or had been, a jetty built on piles +and boarded over. Half the piles were broken; the planks +had rotted and fallen through. The swell was rolling home,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +and we had to step out quickly as the boat rose on the crest of +the wave. A tattered crowd of negroes were loafing about +variously dressed, none, however, entirely without clothes of +some kind. One of them did kindly give me a hand, observing +that I was less light of foot than once I might have been. +The agent's office was close by. I asked the head clerk—a +Frenchman—to find me a guide through the town. He called +one of the bystanders whom he knew, and we started together, +I and my black companion, to see as much as I could in the +hour which was allowed me. The language was less hopeless +than at Dominica. We found that we could understand each +other—he, me, tolerably; I, him, in fragments, for his tongue +went as fast as a shuttle. Though it was still barely eight o'clock +the sun was scalding. The streets were filthy and the stench +abominable. The houses were of white stone, and of some +pretensions, but ragged and uninviting—paint nowhere, and the +woodwork of the windows and verandahs mouldy and worm-eaten. +The inhabitants swarmed as in a St. Giles's rookery. I +suppose they were all out of doors. If any were left at home +Jacmel must have been as populous as an African ants' nest. +As I had looked for nothing better than a Kaffir kraal, the +degree of civilisation was more than I expected. I expressed +my admiration of the buildings; my guide was gratified, and +pointed out to me with evident pride a new hotel or boarding +house kept by a Madame Somebody who was the great lady of +the place. Madame Ellemême was sitting in a shady balcony +outside the first-floor windows. She was a large menacing-looking +mulatto, like some ogress of the 'Arabian Nights,' +capable of devouring, if she found them palatable, any number +of salt babies. I took off my hat to this formidable dame, +which she did not condescend to notice, and we passed on. A +few houses in the outskirts stood in gardens with inclosures +about them. There is some trade in the place, and there were +evidently families, negro or European, who lived in less squalid +style than the generality. There was a governor there, my guide +informed me—an ornamental personage, much respected. To +my question whether he had any soldiers, I was answered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +'No,' the Haytians didn't like soldiers. I was to understand, +however, that they were not common blacks. They aspired to +be a commonwealth with public rights and alliances. Hayti a +republic, France a republic: France and Hayti good friends +now. They had a French bishop and French priests and a +French currency. In spite of their land laws, they were proud +of their affinity with the great nation; and I heard afterwards, +though not from my Jacmel companion, that the better part +of the Haytians would welcome back the French dominion if +they were not afraid that the Yankees would disapprove.</p> + +<p>My guide persisted in leading me outside the town, and +as my time was limited, I tried in various ways to induce him +to take me back into it. He maintained, however, that he had +been told to show me whatever was most interesting, and I +found that I was to see an American windmill-pump which +had been just erected to supply Jacmel with fresh water. It +was the first that had been seen in the island, and was a wonder +of wonders. Doubtless it implied 'progress,' and would assist +in the much-needed ablution of the streets and kennels. I +looked at it and admired, and having thus done homage, I +was allowed my own way.</p> + +<p>It was market day. The Yankee cargo had been unloaded, +and a great open space in front of the cathedral was covered +with stalls or else blankets stretched on poles to keep the sun +off, where hundreds of Haytian dames were sitting or standing +disposing of their wares—piles of salt fish, piles of coloured +calicoes, knives, scissors, combs, and brushes. Of home produce +there were great baskets of loaves, fruit, vegetables, and +butcher's meat on slabs. I looked inquisitively at these last; +but I acknowledge that I saw no joints of suspicious appearance. +Children were running about in thousands, not the least +as if they were in fear of being sacrificed, and babies hung upon +their mothers as if natural affection existed in Jacmel as much +as in other places. I asked no compromising questions, not +wishing to be torn in pieces. Sir Spenser St. John's book has +been heard of in Hayti, and the anger about it is considerable. +The scene was interesting enough, but the smell was unendur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>able. +The wild African black is not filthy in his natural state. +He washes much, as wild animals do, and at least tries to keep +himself clear of vermin. The blacks in Jacmel appeared (like +the same animals as soon as they are domesticated) to lose the +sense which belongs to them in their wild condition. My +prejudices, if I have any, had not blinded me to the good +qualities of the men and women in Dominica. I do not think +it was prejudice wholly which made me think the faces which +I saw in Hayti the most repulsive which I had ever seen in the +world, or Jacmel itself, taken for all in all, the foulest, dirtiest, +and nastiest of human habitations. The dirt, however, I will +do them the justice to say did not seem to extend to their +churches. The cathedral stood at the upper end of the +market place. I went in. It was airy, cool, and decent-looking. +Some priests were saying mass, and there was a fairly +large congregation. I wished to get a nearer sight of the altar +and the images and pictures, imagining that in Hayti the sacred +persons might assume a darker colour than in Europe; but I +could not reach the chancel without disturbing people who were +saying their prayers, and, to the disappointment of my companion, +who beckoned me on, and would have cleared a way +for me, I controlled my curiosity and withdrew.</p> + +<p>My hour's leave of absence was expired. I made my way +back to the landing place, where the mail steamer's boat was +waiting for me. On the steamer herself the passengers were +waiting impatiently for breakfast, which had been put off on +our account. We hurried on board at our best speed; but +before breakfast could be thought of, or any other thing, I had +to strip and plunge into a bath and wash away the odour of +the great negro republic of the West which clung to my clothes +and skin.</p> + +<p>Leaving Jacmel and its associations, we ran all day along +the land, skirting a range of splendid mountains between seven +and eight thousand feet high; past the Isle à Vache; past the +bay of Cayes, once famous as the haunt of the sea-rovers; +past Cape Tubiron, the Cape of Sharks. At evening we were +in the channel which divides St. Domingo from Jamaica.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +Captain —— insisted to me that this was the scene of Rodney's +action, and he pointed out to me the headland under +which the British fleet had been lying. He was probably +right in saying that it was the scene of some action of +Rodney's, for there is hardly a corner of the West Indies +where he did not leave behind him the print of his cannon +shot; but it was not the scene of the great fight which saved +the British Empire. That was below the cliffs of Dominica; +and Captain W——, as many others have done, was confounding +Dominica with St. Domingo.</p> + +<p>The next morning we were to anchor at Port Royal. We +had a Jamaica gentleman of some consequence on board. I +had failed so far to make acquaintance with him, but on this +last evening he joined me on deck, and I gladly used the +opportunity to learn something of the present condition of +things. I was mistaken in expecting to find a more vigorous +or more sanguine tone of feeling than I had left at the Antilles. +There was the same despondency, the same sense that their +state was hopeless, and that nothing which they could themselves +do would mend it. He himself, for instance, was the +owner of a large sugar estate which a few years ago was worth +60,000<i>l.</i> It was not encumbered. He was his own manager, +and had spared no cost in providing the newest machinery. +Yet, with the present prices and with the refusal of the +American Commercial Treaty, it would not pay the expense +of cultivation. He held on, for it was all that he could do. +To sell was impossible, for no one would buy even at the price +of the stock on the land. It was the same story which I had +heard everywhere. The expenses of the administration, this +gentleman said, were out of all proportion to the resources of +the island, and were yearly increasing. The planters had +governed in the old days as the English landlords had governed +Ireland. They had governed cheaply and on their own resources. +They had authority; they were respected; their +word was law. Now their power had been taken from them, +and made over to paid officials, and the expense was double +what it used to be. Between the demands made on them in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +the form of taxation and the fall in the value of their produce +their backs were breaking, and the 'landed interest' would +come to an end. I asked him, as I had asked many persons +without getting a satisfactory answer, what he thought that the +Imperial Government could do to mend matters. He seemed +to think that it was too late to do anything. The blacks were +increasing so fast, and the white influence was diminishing so +fast, that Jamaica in a few years would be another Hayti.</p> + +<p>In this gentleman, too, I found to my sorrow that there was +the same longing for admission to the American Union which +I had left behind me at the Antilles. In spite of soldiers and +the naval station, the old country was still looked upon as a +stepmother, and of genuine loyalty there was, according to him, +little or nothing. If the West Indies were ever to become +prosperous again, it could only be when they were annexed to +the United States. For the present, at least, he admitted +that annexation was impossible. Not on account of any +possible objection on the part of the British Government; for +it seems to be assumed by every one that the British Government +cares nothing what they do; nor wholly on account of +the objections of the Americans, though he admitted that the +Americans were unwilling to receive them; but because in the +existing state of feeling such a change could not be carried out +without civil war. In Jamaica, at least, the blacks and mulattoes +would resist. There were nearly 700,000 of them, while of the +whites there were but 15,000, and the relative numbers were +every year becoming more unfavourable. The blacks knew +that under England they had nothing to fear. They would +have everything more and more their own way, and in a short +time they expected to have the island to themselves. They +might collect arms; they might do what they pleased, and no +English officer dared to use rough measures with them; while, +if they belonged to the Union, the whites would recover +authority one way or another. The Americans were ready +with their rifles on occasions of disorder, and their own +countrymen did not call them to account for it as we did. +The blacks, therefore, preferred the liberty which they had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +and the prospects to which they looked forward, and they and +the mulattoes also would fight, and fight desperately, before +they would allow themselves to be made American citizens.</p> + +<p>The prospect which Mr. —— laid before me was not a +beautiful one, and was coming a step nearer at each advance +that was made in the direction of constitutional self-government; +for, like every other person with whom I spoke on the +subject, he said emphatically that Europeans would not remain +to be ruled under a black representative system; nor would +they take any part in it when they would be so overwhelmingly +outvoted and outnumbered. They would sooner forfeit all +that they had in the world and go away. An effective and +economical administration on the Indian pattern might have +saved all a few years ago. It was too late now, and Jamaica +was past recovery. At this rate it was a sadly altered Jamaica +since Tom Cringle's time, though his friend Aaron even then +had seen what was probably coming. But I could not accept +entirely all that Mr. —— had been saying, and had to discount +the natural irritation of a man who sees his fortune sliding out +of his hands. Moreover, for myself, I never listen much to a +desponding person. Even when a cause is lost utterly, and no +rational hope remains, I would still go down, if it had to be so, +with my spirit unbroken and my face to the enemy. Mr. —— perhaps +would recover heart if the price of sugar mended a +little. For my own part, I do not care much whether it mends +or not. The economics of the islands ought not to depend +exclusively on any single article of produce. I believe, too, +in spite of gloomy prognostics, that a loyal and prosperous +Jamaica is still among the possibilities of the future, if we will +but study in earnest the character of the problem. Mr. ——, +however, did most really convey to me the convictions of a +large and influential body of West Indians—convictions on +which they are already acting, and will act more and more. +With Hayti so close, and with opinion in England indifferent +to what becomes of them, they will clear out while they have +something left to lose, and will not wait till ruin is upon them +or till they are ordered off the land by a black legislature.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +There is a saying in Hayti that the white man has no rights +which the blacks are bound to recognise.</p> + +<p>I walked forward after we had done talking. We had five +hundred of the poor creatures on board on their way to the +Darien pandemonium. The vessel was rolling with a heavy +beam sea. I found the whole mass of them reduced into the +condition of the pigs who used to occupy the foredeck in the +Cork and Bristol packets. They were lying in a confused heap +together, helpless, miserable, without consciousness apparently, +save a sense in each that he was wretched. Unfortunate +brothers-in-law! following the laws of political economy, and +carrying their labour to the dearest market, where, before a +year was out, half of them were to die. They had souls, too, +some of them, and honest and kindly hearts. I observed one +man who was suffering less than the rest reading aloud to a +prostrate group a chapter of the New Testament; another was +reading to himself a French Catholic book of devotion.</p> + +<p>The dawn was breaking in the east when I came on deck in +the morning. The Blue Mountains were hanging over us on +our right hand, the peaks buried in white mist which the unrisen +sun was faintly tinting with orange. We had passed Morant +Bay, the scene of Gordon's rash attempt to imitate Toussaint +l'Ouverture. As so often in the Antilles, a level plain +stretched between the sea and the base of the hills, formed by +the debris washed down by the rivers in the rainy season. +Among cane fields and cocoa-nut groves we saw houses and +the chimneys of the sugar factories; and, as we came nearer, +we saw men and horses going to their early work. Presently +Kingston itself came in sight, and Up Park Camp, and the +white barracks high up on the mountain side, of which one had +read and heard so much. Here was actually Tom Cringle's +Kingston, and between us and the town was the long sand spit +which incloses the lagoon at the head of which Kingston is built. +How this natural breakwater had been deposited I could find no +one to tell me. It is eight miles long, rising but a few feet above +the water-line, in places not more than thirty yards across—nowhere, +except at the extremity, more than sixty or a hundred.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171-172]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/image0006.jpg" alt="PORT ROYAL, JAMAICA." title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption">PORT ROYAL, JAMAICA.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p><p>The thundering swell of the Caribbean Sea breaks upon it +from year's end to year's end, and never washes it any thinner. +Where the sand is dry, beyond the reach of the waves, it is +planted thickly all along with palms, and appears from the sea +a soft green line, over which appear the masts and spars of the +vessels at anchor in the harbour, and the higher houses of +Kingston itself. To reach the opening into the lagoon you +have to run on to the end of the sandbank, where there is a +peninsula on which is built the Port Royal so famous in West +Indian story. Halfway down among the palms the lighthouse +stands, from which a gun was fired as we passed, to give notice +that the English mail was coming in. Treacherous coral reefs +rise out of the deep water for several miles, some under water +and visible only by the breakers over them, others forming into +low wooded islands. Only local pilots can take a ship safely +through these powerful natural defence works. There are but +two channels through which the lagoon can be approached. +The eastern passage, along which we were steaming, runs so near +the shore that an enemy's ship would be destroyed by the +batteries among the sandhills long before it could reach the +mouth. The western passage is less intricate, but that also is +commanded by powerful forts. In old times Kingston was +unattackable, so strong had the position been made by nature +and art combined. It could be shelled now over the spit from +the open sea. It might be destroyed, but even so could not +easily be taken.</p> + +<p>I do not know that I have ever seen any scene more interesting +than that which broke upon my eyes as we rounded the +point, and the lagoon opened out before me. Kingston, which +we had passed half an hour, before, lay six miles off at the head +of the bay, now inside the sand, ridge, blue and hazy in the distance. +At the back were the mountains. The mist had melted +off, standing in shadowy grey masses with the sun rising behind +them. Immediately in front were the dockyards, forts, and +towers of Port Royal, with the guardship, gunboats, and tenders, +with street and terrace, roof and turret and glistening vane, all +clearly and sharply defined in the exquisite transparency of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +air. The associations of the place no doubt added to the impression. +Before the first hut was run up in Kingston, Port +Royal was the rendezvous of all English ships which, for spoil +or commerce, frequented the West Indian seas. Here the +buccaneers sold their plunder and squandered their gains in +gambling and riot. Here in the later century of legitimate +wars, whole fleets were gathered to take in stores, or refit when +shattered by engagements. Here Nelson had been, and +Collingwood and Jervis, and all our other naval heroes. Here +prizes were brought in for adjudication, and pirates to be tried +and hanged. In this spot more than in any other, beyond +Great Britain herself, the energy of the Empire once was +throbbing. The 'Urgent,' an old two-decker, and three gunboats +were all that were now floating in the once crowded water; +the 'Urgent,' no longer equipped for active service, imperfectly +armed, inadequately manned, but still flaunting the broad white +ensign, and as if grandly watching over the houses which lay +behind her. There were batteries at the point, and batteries +on the opposite shore. The morning bugle rang out clear and +inspiriting from the town, and white coats and gold and silver +lace glanced in and out as men and officers were passing to +parade. Here, at any rate, England was still alive.</p> + +<p>The channel at the entrance is a mile in width. The +lagoon (the open part of it) may be seven or eight miles long +and half as many broad. It forms the mouth of the Cobre +river, one of the largest in Jamaica, on which, ten miles up, +stands the original seat of government established by the +Spaniards, and called after them Spanish Town. The fashion +of past times, as old as the times of Thucydides, and continued +on till the end of the last century, was to choose the sites for +important towns in estuaries, at a distance from the sea, to be +out of the reach of pirates. The Cobre, running down from +Spanish Town, turns the plain through which it flows into a +swamp. The swamp covers itself with mangroves, and the +mangroves fringe the shore of the lagoon itself for two-thirds +of its circuit. As Jamaica grew in wealth and population the +trade was carried from Port Royal deeper into the bay.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +Another town sprang up there, called King's Town, or shortly +'Kingston.' The administration was removed thither for +convenience, and though fallen away from its old consequence, +Kingston, with its extended suburbs, its churches and warehouses, +and large mansions overhung with trees, looks at a +distance like a place of consideration. Many ships lay along +the wharves, or anchored a few cables' distance off. Among +them were a couple of Spanish frigates, which remain there in +permanence on the watch for refugees from Cuba. On the +slopes behind the town, as far as eye could see, were the once +splendid estates of the sugar princes of the last century. One +of them was pointed out to me as the West Indian home of +the author of 'Tom Cringle.'</p> + +<p>We had to stop for a few minutes as the officer of the port +came alongside for the mails. We then went on at reduced +speed. The lagoon is generally shoal. A deep water channel +runs along the side of it which is farthest from the sea; made, +I suppose, by the river, for as usual there is little tide or none. +Halfway up we passed under the walls of Fort Augusta, now +a ruin and almost deserted, but once mounting a hundred +guns. The money which we spent on the defence of Jamaica +in the old times was not always laid out wisely, as will be seen +in an account which I shall have to give of this remarkable +structure; but, at any rate, we were lavish of it.</p> + +<p>Of the sharks with which the water used to swarm we saw +none. Port Royal Jack and his kindred are said to have +disappeared, driven or frightened out by the screws of the +steamers. But it is not a place which I should choose for +a swim. Nor did the nigger boys seem as anxious as I had +seen them in other spots to dive for sixpences under the +ship's side.</p> + +<p>No account is made of days when you come into port after +a voyage. Cargoes have to be landed, or coal has to be taken +in. The donkey engines are at work, hoisting packing cases +and luggage out of the hold. Stewards run to and fro, and +state-room doors are opened, and busy figures are seen through +each, stuffing their portmanteaus and preparing for departure.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +The church bells at Kingston, ringing for early service, +reminded me that it was Sunday. We brought up at a jetty, +and I cannot say that, close at hand, the town was as +attractive as it had appeared when first I saw it. The +enchantment was gone. The blue haze of distance gave place +to reality. The water was so fetid under the ship's side that +it could not be pumped into the baths. Odours, not Arabian, +from open drains reminded me of Jacmel. The streets, up +which I could see from the afterdeck, looked dirty and the +houses shabby. Docks and wharves, however, are never the +brightest part of any town, English or foreign. There were +people enough at any rate, and white faces enough among +them. Gangways were rigged from the ship to the shore, and +ladies and gentlemen rushed on board to meet their friends. +The companies' agents appeared in the captain's cabin. +Porters were scrambling for luggage; pushing, shoving, and +swearing. Passengers who had come out with us, and had +never missed attendance at the breakfast table, were hurrying +home unbreakfasted to their wives and families. My own +plans were uncertain. I had no friends, not even an acquaintance. +I knew nothing of the hotels and lodging houses, save +that they had generally a doubtful reputation. I had brought +with me a letter of introduction to Sir H. Norman, the +governor, but Sir Henry had gone to England. On the +whole, I thought it best to inclose the letter to Mr. Walker, +the Colonial Secretary, who I understood was in Kingston, +with a note asking for advice. This I sent by a messenger. +Meanwhile I stayed on board to look about me from the deck. +The ship was to go on the next morning to the canal works at +Darien. Time was precious. Immediately on arriving she +had begun to take in coal, Sunday though it might be, and a +singular spectacle it was. The coal yard was close by, and +some hundreds of negroes, women and men, but women, in +four times the number, were hard at work. The entire process +was by hand and basket, each basket holding from eighty to a +hundred pounds weight. Two planks were laid down at a +steep incline from the ship's deck to the yard. Swinging their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +loads on their heads, erect as statues, and with a step elastic +as a racehorse's, they marched up one of the planks, emptied +their baskets into the coal bunkers, and ran down the other. +Round and round they went under the blazing sun all the +morning through, and round and round they would continue +to go all the afternoon. The men took it comparatively easy. +The women flew along, laughing, and clamouring, as if not +knowing what weariness was—willing beasts of burden, for they +had the care upon them of their children; the men disclaiming +all responsibilities on that score, after the babies have been +once brought into the world. The poor women are content +with the arrangement, which they prefer to what they would +regard as legal bondage. They earn at this coaling work +seven or eight shillings a day. If they were wives, their +husbands would take it from them and spend it in rum. The +companion who is not a wife can refuse and keep her earnings +for her little ones. If black suffrage is to be the rule in +Jamaica, I would take it away from the men and would give +it to the superior sex. The women are the working bees of +the hive. They would make a tolerable nation of black +amazons, and the babies would not be offered to Jumbi.</p> + +<p>When I had finished my meditations on the coaling women, +there were other black creatures to wonder at; great boobies +or pelicans, old acquaintances of the Zoological Gardens, who +act as scavengers in these waters. We had perhaps a couple +of dozen of them round us as large as vultures, ponderous and +sleepy to look at when squatting on rocks or piles, over-weighted +by their enormous bills. On the wing they were +astonishingly swift, wheeling in circles, till they could fix their +prey with their eyes, then pouncing upon it with a violent +slanting plunge. I suppose their beaks might be broken if +they struck directly, but I never saw one miss its aim. Nor +do they ever go below the surface, but seize always what is +close to it. I was told—I do not know how truly—that like the +diablots in Dominica, they nest in the mountains and only +come down to the sea to feed.</p> + +<p>Hearing that I was in search of quarters, a Miss Burton,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +a handsome mulatto woman, came up and introduced herself +to me. Hotels in the English West Indies are generally +detestable. This dame had set up a boarding house on improved +principles, or rather two boarding houses, between +which she invited me to take my choice, one in the suburbs of +Kingston, one on the bank of a river in a rocky gorge in the Blue +Mountains. In either of these she promised that she would +make me happy, and I do not doubt that she would have succeeded, +for her fame had spread through all Jamaica, and her +face was as merry as it was honest. As it turned out I was +provided for elsewhere, and I lost the chance of making an +acquaintance which I should have valued. When she spoke +to me she seemed a very model of vigour and health. She +died suddenly while I was in the island.</p> + +<p>The day was still early. When the vessel was in some order +again, and those who were going on shore had disappeared, the +rest of us were called down to breakfast to taste some of those +Jamaica delicacies on which Paul Gelid was so eloquent. The +fruit was the chief attraction: pineapples, of which one can +eat as much as one likes in these countries with immunity from +after suffering; oranges, more excellent than even those of +Grenada and Dominica; shaddocks, admirable as that memorable +one which seduced Adam; and for the first time mangoes, +the famous Number Eleven of which I had heard such +high report, and was now to taste. The English gardeners can +do much, but they cannot ripen a Number Eleven, and it is +too delicate to bear carriage. It must be eaten in the tropics +or nowhere. The mango is the size and shape of a swan's +egg, of a ruddy yellow colour when ripe, and in flavour like an +exceptionally good apricot, with a very slight intimation of resin. +The stone is disproportionately large. The flesh adheres to +it, and one abandons as hopeless the attempt to eat mangoes +with clean lips and fingers. The epicures insist that they +should be eaten only in a bath.</p> + +<p>The heat was considerable, and the feast of fruit was the +more welcome. Soon after the Colonial Secretary politely +answered my note in person. In the absence of the governor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +of a colony, the colonial secretary, as a rule, takes his place. +In Jamaica, and wherever we have a garrison, the commander +of the forces becomes acting governor; I suppose because it +is not convenient to place an officer of high military rank +under the orders of a civilian who is not the direct representative +of the sovereign. In the gentleman who now called on +me I found an old acquaintance whom I had known as a boy +many years ago. He told me that, if I had made no other +arrangements, Colonel J——, who was the present chief, was +expecting me to be his guest at the 'King's House' during +my stay in Jamaica. My reluctance to trespass on the hospitality +of an entire stranger was not to be allowed. Soldiers +who have distinguished themselves are, next to lawyers, the +most agreeable people to be met with, and when I was convinced +that I should really be welcome, I had no other objection. +An aide-de-camp, I was told, would call for me in the +afternoon. Meanwhile the secretary stayed with me for an +hour or two, and I was able to learn something authentic from +him as to the general condition of things. I had not given +entire credit to the representations of my planter friend of the +evening before. Mr. Walker took a more cheerful view, and, +although the prospects were not as bright as they might be, he +saw no reason for despondency. Sugar was down of course. +The public debt had increased, and taxation was heavy. Many +gentlemen in Jamaica, as in the Antilles, were selling, or trying +to sell, their estates and go out of it. On the other hand, expenses +of government were being reduced, and the revenue +showed a surplus. The fruit trade with the United States +was growing, and promised to grow still further. American +capitalists had come into the island, and were experimenting +on various industries. The sugar treaty with America would +naturally have been welcome; but Jamaica was less dependent +on its sugar crop, and the action of the British Government +was less keenly resented. In the Antilles, the Colonial Secretary +admitted, there might be a desire for annexation to the +United States, and Jamaican landowners had certainly expressed +the same wish to myself. Mr. Walker, however, assured me +that, while the blacks would oppose it unanimously, the feeling, +if it existed at all among the whites, was confined as yet +to a very few persons. They had been English for 230 years, +and the large majority of them wished to remain English. +There had been suffering among them; but there had been +suffering in other places besides Jamaica. Better times might +perhaps be coming with the opening of the Darien canal, when +Kingston might hope to become again the centre of a trade. +Of the negroes, both men and women, Mr. Walker spoke extremely +favourably. They were far less indolent than they +were supposed to be; they were settling on the waste lands, +acquiring property, growing yams and oranges, and harming no +one; they had no grievance left; they knew it, and were perfectly +contented.</p> + +<p>As Mr. Walker was an official, I did not ask him about the +working of the recent changes in the constitution; nor could +he have properly answered me if I had. The state of things +is briefly this: Jamaica, after the first settlement, received a +parliamentary form of government, modelled on that of Ireland, +the colonial liberties being restricted by a law analogous +to Poynings' Act. The legislature, so constructed, of course +represented the white interest only and was entirely composed +of whites. It remained substantially unaltered till 1853, when +modifications were made which admitted coloured men to the +suffrage, though with so high a franchise as to be almost exclusive. +It became generally felt that the franchise would +have to be extended. A popular movement, led by Mr. +Gordon, who was a member of the legislature, developed into +a riot, into bloodshed and panic. Gordon was hanged by a +court-martial, and the assembly, aware that, if allowed to exist +any longer, it could exist only with the broad admission of the +negro vote, pronounced its own dissolution, surrendered its +powers to the Crown, and represented formally 'that nothing +but a strong government could prevent the island from lapsing +into the condition of Hayti.'</p> + +<p>The surrender was accepted. Jamaica was administered till +within the last four years by a governor, officials, and council +all nominated by the Queen. No dissatisfaction had been expressed, +and the blacks at least had enjoyed a prosperity and +tranquillity which had been unbroken by a single disturbance. +If the island has suffered, it has suffered from causes with +which political dissatisfaction has had nothing to do, and +which, therefore, political changes cannot remove. In 1884 +Mr. Gladstone's Government, for reasons which I have not +been able to ascertain, revived suddenly the representative +system; constructed a council composed equally of nominated +and of elected members, and placed the franchise so low as to +include practically every negro peasant who possessed a hut +and a garden. So long as the Crown retains and exercises its +power of nomination, no worse results can ensue than the inevitable +discontent when the votes of the elected members +are disregarded or overborne. But to have ventured so important +an alteration with the intention of leaving it without +further extension would have been an act of gratuitous folly, +of which it would be impossible to imagine an English cabinet +to have been capable. It is therefore assumed and understood +to have been no more than an initial step towards passing over +the management of Jamaica to the black constituencies. It +has been so construed in the other islands, and was the occasion +of the agitation in Trinidad which I observed when I was +there.</p> + +<p>My own opinion as to the wisdom of such an experiment +matters little: but I have a right to say that neither blacks +nor whites have asked for it; that no one who knows anything +of the West Indies and wishes them to remain English sincerely +asked for it; that no one has agitated for it save a few newspaper +writers and politicians whom it would raise into consequence. +If tried at all, it will be tried either with a deliberate +intention of cutting Jamaica free from us altogether, or else in +deference to English political superstitions, which attribute +supernatural virtues to the exercise of the franchise, and assume +that a form of self-government which suits us tolerably at +home will be equally beneficial in all countries and under +all conditions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_12" id="Footnote_1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_12"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> This has been angrily denied. A gentleman whose veracity I cannot +doubt assured me that he had himself seen a dead body lying unburied +among some bushes. When he returned to the place a month after it was +still there. The frightful mortality among the labourers, at least in the +early years of the undertaking, is too notorious to be called in question.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The English mails—Irish agitation—Two kinds of colonies—Indian administration—How +far applicable in the West Indies—Land at Kingston—Government +House—Dinner party—Interesting officer—Majuba Hill—Mountain +station—Kingston curiosities—Tobacco—Valley in the Blue +Mountains.</p></div> + + +<p>I am reminded as I write of an adventure which befell +Archbishop Whately soon after his promotion to the see of +Dublin. On arriving in Ireland he saw that the people were +miserable. The cause, in his mind, was their ignorance of +political economy, of which he had himself written what he +regarded as an excellent manual. An Irish translation of this +manual he conceived would be the best possible medicine, and +he commissioned a native Scripture reader to make one. To +insure correctness he required the reader to retranslate to him +what he had written line by line. He observed that the man +as he read turned sometimes two pages at a time. The text +went on correctly, but his quick eye perceived that something +was written on the intervening leaves. He insisted on knowing +what it was, and at last extorted an explanation, 'Your +Grace, me and my comrade conceived that it was mighty dry +reading, so we have just interposed now and then a bit of a +pawem, to help it forward, your Grace.' I am myself imitating +the translators, and making sandwiches out of politics and +local descriptions.</p> + +<p>We had brought the English mails with us. There were +letters to read which had been in the ship with us, though out +of our reach. There were the newspapers to read. They +told me nothing but the weary round of Irish outrages and the +rival remedies of Tory or Radical politicians who cared for +Ireland less than I did, and considered only how to trim their +sails to keep in office or to get it. How sick one is of all that! +Half-a-dozen times at least in Anglo-Irish history things have +come to the same point. 'All Ireland cannot govern the Earl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +of Kildare,' said someone in Henry VIII.'s privy council. +Then answered Wolsey, in the tone of Mr. Gladstone, 'Let +the Earl of Kildare govern all Ireland.' Elizabeth wished to +conciliate. Shan O'Neil, Desmond, Tyrone promised in turn +to rule Ireland in loyal union with England under Irish ideas. +Lord Grey, who was for 'a Mahometan conquest,' was censured +and 'girded at:' yet the end was always broken heads. +From 1641 to 1649 an Irish parliament sat at Kilkenny, and +Charles I. and the Tories dreamt of an alliance between Irish +popery and English loyalism. Charles lost his head, and +Cromwell had to make an end of Irish self-government at +Drogheda and Wexford. Tyrconnell and James II. were to +repeal the Act of Settlement and restore the forfeited lands to +the old owners. The end of that came at the Boyne and at +Aghrim. Grattan would remake the Irish nation. The English +Liberals sent Lord Fitzwilliam to help him, and the Saxon +mastiff and the Celtic wolf were to live as brothers evermore. +The result has been always the same; the wretched country +inflated with a dream of independence, and then trampled into +mud again. So it has been. So it will be again. Ireland +cannot be independent, for England is stronger than she, and +cannot permit it. Yet nothing less will satisfy her. And so +there has been always a weary round of fruitless concessions +leading to demands which cannot be gratified, and in the end +we are driven back upon force, which the miserable people +lack the courage to encounter like men. Mr. Gladstone's +experiment differs only from its antecedents because in the +past the English friends of Irish liberty had a real hope that a +reconciliation was possible. They believed in what they were +trying to do. The present enterprise is the creation of parliamentary +faction. I have never met any person acquainted +with the minds and motives of the public men of the day who +would not confess to me that, if it had suited the interests of +the leaders of the present Radical party to adopt the Irish +policy of the Long Parliament, their energy and their eloquence +would have been equally at the service of the Protestant ascendency, +which they have now denounced as a upas tree.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +They even ask you with wide eyes what else you would +expect?</p> + +<p>Mr. Sexton says that if England means to govern Ireland +she must keep an army there as large as she keeps in India. +England could govern Ireland in perfect peace, without an +army at all, if there was no faction in the House of Commons. +The spirit of party will either destroy the British Empire, or +the British nation will make an end of party government on +its present lines. There are sounds in the air like the cracking +of the ice of the Neva at the incoming of spring, as if a nobler +purpose was at last awaking in us. In a few more years there +may be no more Radicals and no more Conservatives, and the +nation will be all in all.</p> + +<p>Here is the answer to the question so often asked, What is +the use of the colonies to us? The colonies are a hundredfold +multiplication of the area of our own limited islands. In +taking possession of so large a portion of the globe, we have +enabled ourselves to spread and increase, and carry our persons, +our language and our liberties, into all climates and continents. +We overflow at home; there are too many of us here already; +and if no lands belonged to us but Great Britain and Ireland, +we should become a small insignificant power beside the +mighty nations which are forming around us. There is space +for hundreds of millions of us in the territories of which we +and our fathers have possessed ourselves. In Canada, Australia, +New Zealand we add to our numbers and our resources. +There are so many more Englishmen in the world able to hold +their own against the mightiest of their rivals. And we have +another function, such as the Romans had. The sections of +men on this globe are unequally gifted. Some are strong and +can govern themselves; some are weak and are the prey of +foreign invaders or internal anarchy; and freedom, which all +desire, is only attainable by weak nations when they are subject +to the rule of others who are at once powerful and just. +This was the duty which fell to the Latin race two thousand +years ago. In these modern times it has fallen to ours, and +in the discharge of it the highest features in the English<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +character have displayed themselves. Circumstances forced +on us the conquest of India; we have given India in return +internal peace undisturbed by tribal quarrels or the ambitions +of dangerous neighbours, with a law which deals out right to +high and low among 250,000,000 human beings.</p> + +<p>Never have rulers been less self-seeking than we have been +in our Asiatic empire. No 'lex de repetundis' has been +needed to punish avaricious proconsuls who had fattened on +the provinces. In such positions the English show at their +best, and do their best. India has been the training school +of our greatest soldiers and greatest administrators. Strike off +the Anglo-Indian names from the roll of famous Englishmen, +and we shall lose the most illustrious of them all.</p> + +<p>In India the rule of England has been an unexampled +success, glorious to ourselves and of infinite benefit to our +subjects, because we have been upright and disinterested, and +have tried sincerely and honourably to do our duty. In other +countries belonging to us, where with the same methods we +might have produced the same results, we have applied them +with a hesitating and less clean hand. We planted Ireland as +a colony with our own people, we gave them a parliament of +their own, and set them to govern the native Irish for us +instead of doing it ourselves, to save appearances and to save +trouble. We have not failed altogether. All the good that +has been done at all in that poor island has been done by the +Anglo-Irish landlords. But it has not been much, as the +present condition of things shows. In the West Indies +similarly the first settlers carried with them their English +institutions. They were themselves a handful. The bulk of +the population were slaves, and as long as slavery continued +those institutions continued to work tolerably in the interest +of the white race. When the slaves were emancipated, the +distinction of colour done away with, and the black multitude +and their white employers made equal before the law and +equally privileged, constitutional government became no longer +adapted to the new conditions. The white minority could +not be trusted with the exclusive possession of political power.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +The blacks could not be trusted with the equally dangerous +supremacy which their numbers would insure them. Our +duty, if we did not and do not mean to abandon them +altogether, has been to govern both with the same equity with +which we govern at Calcutta. If you choose to take a race +like the Irish or like the negroes whom you have forced into +an unwilling subjection and have not treated when in that +condition with perfect justice—if you take such a race, strike +the fetters off them, and arm them at once with all the powers +and privileges of loyal citizens, you ought not to be surprised if +they attribute your concessions to fear, and if they turn again +and rend you. When we are brought in contact with races of +men who are not strong enough or brave enough to defend +their own independence, and whom our own safety cannot +allow to fall under any other power, our right and our duty is +to govern such races and to govern them well, or they will +have a right in turn to cut our throats. This is our mission. +When we have dared to act up to it we have succeeded +magnificently; we have failed when we have paltered and +trifled; and we shall fail again, and the great empire on which +the sun never sets will be shattered to atoms, if we refuse to +look facts in the face.</p> + +<p>From these meditations, suggested by the batch of newspapers +which I had been studying, I was roused by the arrival +of the promised aide-de-camp, a good-looking and good-humoured +young officer in white uniform (they all wear white +in the tropics), who had brought the governor's carriage for +me. Government House, or King's House, as it is called, +answering to a 'Queen's House' in Barbadoes, is five miles +from Kingston, on the slope which gradually ascends from the +sea to the mountains. We drove through the town, which did +not improve on closer acquaintance. The houses which front +towards the streets are generally insignificant. The better +sort, being behind walls or overhung with trees, were imperfectly +visible. The roads were deep in white dust, which flies everywhere +in whirling clouds from the unceasing wind. It was the +dry season. The rains are not constant in Jamaica, as they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +are in the Antilles. The fields and the sides of the mountains +were bare and brown and parched. The blacks, however, +were about in crowds in their Sunday finery. Being in a +British island, we had got back into the white calicoes and +ostrich plumes, and I missed the grace of the women at +Dominica; but men and women seemed as if they had not a +care in the world. We passed Up Park Camp and the +cantonments of the West India regiments, and then through a +'scrub' of dwarf acacia and blue flowered lignum vitae. +Handsome villas were spread along the road with lawns and +gardens, and the road itself was as excellent as those in +Barbadoes. Half an hour's drive brought us to the lodge, and +through the park to the King's House itself, which stands +among groups of fine trees four hundred feet above the sea.</p> + +<p>All the large houses in Jamaica—and this was one of the +largest of them—are like those in Barbadoes, with the type +more completely developed, generally square, built of stone, +standing on blocks, hollow underneath for circulation of air, +and approached by a broad flight of steps. On the three sides +which the sun touches, deep verandahs or balconies are thrown +out on the first and second floors, closed in front by green +blinds, which can be shut either completely or partially, so +that at a distance they look like houses of cards or great green +boxes, made pretty by the trees which shelter them or the +creepers which climb over them. Behind the blinds run long +airy darkened galleries, and into these the sitting rooms open +which are of course still darker with a subdued green light, in +which, till you are used to it, you can hardly read. The floors +are black, smooth, and polished, with loose mats for carpets. +The reader of 'Tom Cringle' will remember Tom's misadventure +when he blundered into a party of pretty laughing +girls, slipped on one of these floors with a retrospective misadventure, +and could not rise till his creole cousin slipped +a petticoat over his head. All the arrangements are made to +shut out heat and light. The galleries have sofas to lounge +upon—everybody smokes, and smokes where he pleases; the +draught sweeping away all residuary traces. At the King's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +House to increase the accommodation a large separate dining +saloon has been thrown out on the north side, to which you +descend from the drawing room by stairs, and thence along +a covered passage. Among the mango trees behind there is a +separate suite of rooms for the aides de-camp, and a superb +swimming bath sixty feet long and eight feet deep. Altogether +it was a sumptuous sort of palace where a governor with +7,000<i>l.</i> a year might spend his term of office with considerable +comfort were it not haunted by recollections of poor +Eyre. He, it seems, lived in the 'King's House,' and two +miles off, within sight of his windows, lived Gordon.</p> + +<p>I had a more than gracious welcome from Colonel J—— +and his family. In him I found a high-bred soldier, who had +served with distinction in India, who had been at the storm of +Delhi, and who was close by when Nicholson was shot. No +one could have looked fitter for the post which he now temporarily +occupied. I felt uncomfortable at being thus thrust +upon his hospitality. I had letters of introduction with me to +the various governors of the islands, but on Colonel J—— I +had no claim at all. I was not even aware of his existence, +or he, very likely, of mine. If not he, at any rate the ladies +of his establishment, might reasonably look upon me as a +bore, and if I had been allowed I should simply have paid my +respects and have gone on to my mulatto. But they would +not hear of it. They were so evidently hearty in their invitation +to me that I could only submit and do my best <i>not</i> to be +a bore, the one sin for which there is no forgiveness.</p> + +<p>In the circle into which I was thrown I was unlikely to hear +much of West Indian politics or problems. Colonel J—— +was acting as governor by accident, and for a few months only. +He had his professional duties to look after; his term of service +in Jamaica had nearly expired; and he could not trouble +himself with possibilities and tendencies with which he would +have no personal concern. As a spectator he considered +probably that we were not making much of the West Indies, +and were not on the way to make much. He confirmed +the complaint which I had heard so often, that the blacks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +would not work for wages more than three days in the week, +or regularly upon those, preferring to cultivate their own +yams and sweet potatoes; but as it was admitted that they +did work one way or another at home, I could not see that +there was much to complain of. The blacks were only doing +as we do. We, too, only work as much as we like or as we +must, and we prefer working for ourselves to working for +others.</p> + +<p>On his special subjects the Colonel was as interesting as he +could not help being. He talked of the army and of the +recent changes in it without insisting that it was going to the +devil. He talked of India and the Russians, and for a wonder +he had no Russophobia. He thought that England and +Russia might as easily be friends as enemies, and that it +would be better for the world if they were. As this had been +my own fixed opinion for the last thirty years, I thought him +a very sensible man. In the evening there was a small dinner +party, made up chiefly of officers from the West Indian regiments +at Kingston. The English troops are in the mountains +at Newcastle, four or five thousand feet up and beyond common +visiting distance. Among those whom I met on this +occasion was an officer who struck me particularly. There +was a mystery about his origin. He had risen from the ranks, +but was evidently a gentleman by birth; he had seen service +all over the world; he had been in Chili, and, among his +other accomplishments, spoke Spanish fluently; he entered +the English army as a private, had been in the war in the +Transvaal, and was the only survivor of the regiment which +was surprised and shot down by the Boers in an intricate pass +where they could neither retreat nor defend themselves. On +that occasion he had escaped and saved the colours, for which +he was rewarded by a commission. He was acquainted with +many of my friends there who had been in the thick of the +campaign; knew Sir Owen Lanyon, Sir Morrison Barlow, and +Colley. He had surveyed the plateau on Majuba Hill after +the action, and had gathered the rumours which were flying +many coloured about Colley's death. Friend and foe alike<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +loved Colley, and his already legendary fame is an unconscious +tribute to his memory. By whose hand he fell can never be +known. We believe as we wish or as we fancy. Mr. —— was +so fine an officer, so clever a man, and so reserved about his +personal affairs, that about him too 'myths' were growing. He +was credited in the mess room with being the then unknown +author of 'Solomon's Mines.' Mr. Haggard will forgive a +mistake which, if he knows Mr. ——, he will feel to be a +compliment.</p> + +<p>From general conversation I gathered that the sanguine +views of the Colonial Secretary were not widely shared. The +English interest was still something in Jamaica; but the phenomena +of the Antilles were present there also, if in a less +extreme form. There were 700,000 coloured people in the +island, with but 15,000 or 16,000 whites; and the blacks there +also were increasing rapidly, and the whites were stationary if +not declining. There was the same uneasy social jealousy, +and the absence of any social relation between the two races. +There were mulattoes in the island of wealth and consequence, +and at Government House there are no distinctions; but the +English residents of pure colonial blood would not associate +with them, social exclusiveness increasing with political equality. +The blacks disliked the mulattoes; the mulattoes despised the +blacks, and would not intermarry with them. The impression +was that the mulatto would die out, that the tendency of the +whites and blacks was to a constantly sharpening separation, +and that if things went on as they were going for another +generation, it was easy to see which of the two colours would +then be in the ascendant. The blacks were growing saucy, +too; with much else of the same kind. I could but listen +and wait to judge for myself.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile my quarters were unexceptionable, my kind +entertainers leaving nothing undone to make my stay with +them agreeable. In hot climates one sleeps lightly; but light +sleep is all that one wants, and one wakes early. The swimming +bath was waiting for me underneath my window. After +a plunge in the clear cold water came coffee, grown and dried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +and roasted on the spot, and 'made' as such coffee ought to +be. Then came the early walk. One missed the tropical +luxuriance of Trinidad and Dominica, for the winter months +in Jamaica are almost rainless; but it would have been beautiful +anywhere else, and the mango trees were in their glory. +There was a corner given to orchids, which were hung in +baskets and just coming into flower. Lizards swarmed in the +sunshine, running up the tree trunks, or basking on the garden +seats. Snakes there are none; the mongoose has cleared +them all away so completely that there is nothing left for him +to eat but the poultry, in which he makes havoc, and, having +been introduced to exterminate the vermin, has become a +vermin himself.</p> + +<p>To drive, to ride, to visit was the employment of the days. +I saw the country. I saw what people were doing, and heard +what they had to say.</p> + +<p>The details are mostly only worth forgetting. The senior +aide-de-camp, Captain C——, an officer in the Artillery, was a +man of ability and observation. He, too, like the Colonel, was +mainly interested in his profession, to which he was anxious to +return; but he was watching, too, with serious interest the waning +fortunes of the West Indies. He superintended the social part +of the governor's business to perfection. Anything which I +wished for had only to be mentioned to be provided. He gave +me the benefit, though less often than I could have wished, of +his shrewd, and not ungenial, observations. He drove me one +morning into Kingston. I had passed through it hastily on +the day of my landing. There were libraries, museums, public +offices, and such like to be seen, besides the town itself. High +up on the mountain side, more often in the clouds than out of +them, the cantonments of the English regiments were visible +from the park at Government House. The slope where they +had been placed was so steep that one wondered how they +held on. They looked like tablecloths stretched out to dry. +I was to ride up there one day. Meanwhile, as we were +driving through the park and saw the white spots shining up +above us, I asked the aide-de-camp what the privates found to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +do in such a place. The ground was too steep for athletics; +no cricket could be possible there, no lawn tennis, no quoits, +no anything. There were no neighbours. Sports there were +none. The mongoose had destroyed the winged game, and +there was neither hare nor rabbit, pig nor deer; not a wild +animal to be hunted and killed. With nothing to do, no one +to speak to, and nothing to kill, what could become of them? +Did they drink? Well, yes. They drank rum occasionally; +but there were no public houses. They could only get it at +the canteen, and the daily allowance was moderate. As to +beer, it was out of reach altogether. At the foot of the mountains +it was double the price which it was in England. At +Newcastle the price was doubled again by the cost of carriage +to the camp. I inquired if they did not occasionally hang +themselves. 'Perhaps they would,' he said, 'if they had no +choice, but they preferred to desert, and this they did in large +numbers. They slipped down the back of the range, made +their way to the sea, and escaped to the United States.' The +officers—what became of them? The officers! Oh, well! +they gardened! Did they like it? Some did and some +didn't. They were not so ill off as the men, as occasionally +they could come down on leave.</p> + +<p>One wondered what the process had been which had led the +authorities to select such a situation. Of course it was for the +health of the troops, but the hill country in Jamaica is wide; +there were many other places available, less utterly detestable, +and ennui and discontent are as mischievous as fever. +General ——, a short time ago, went up to hold an inquiry +into the desertions, and expressed his wonder how such things +could be. With such air, such scenery, such views far and +wide over the island, what could human creatures wish for +more? 'You would desert yourself, general,' said another +officer, 'if you were obliged to stay there a month.'</p> + +<p>Captain C—— undertook that I should go up myself in a +day or two. He promised to write and make arrangements. +Meanwhile we went on to Kingston. It was not beautiful. +There was Rodney's statue. Rodney is venerated in Jamaica,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +as he ought to be; but for him it would have been a Spanish +colony again. But there is nothing grand about the buildings, +nothing even handsome, nothing even specially characteristic +of England or the English mind. They were once perhaps +business-like, and business having slackened they are now +dingy. Shops, houses, wharves, want brightness and colour. +We called at the office of the Colonial Secretary, the central +point of the administration. It was an old mansion, plain, +unambitious, sufficient perhaps for its purpose, but lifeless and +dark. If it represented economy there would be no objection. +The public debt has doubled since Jamaica became a Crown +colony. In 1876 it was half a million. It is now more than a +million and a half. The explanation is the extension of the +railway system, and there has been no culpable extravagance. +I do not suppose that the re-establishment of a constitution +would mend matters. Democracies are always extravagant. +The majority, who have little property or none, regulate +the expenditure. They lay the taxes on the minority, who +have to find the money, and have no interest in sparing +them.</p> + +<p>Ireland when it was governed by the landowners, Jamaica in +the days of slavery, were administered at a cost which seems +now incredibly small. The authority of the landowners and +of the planters was undisputed. They were feared and obeyed, +and magistrates unpaid and local constables sufficed to maintain +tolerable order. Their authority is gone. Their functions +are transferred to the police, and every service has to be paid +for. There may be fewer serious crimes, but the subordination +is immeasurably less, the expense of administration is immeasurably +greater. I declined to be taken over sugar mills, +or to be shown the latest improvements. I was too ignorant +to understand in what the improvements consisted, and could +take them upon trust. The public bakery was more interesting. +In tropical climates a hot oven in a small house makes an +inconvenient addition to the temperature. The bread for +Kingston, and for many miles around it, is manufactured at +night by a single company and is distributed in carts in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +morning. We saw the museum and public library. There +were the usual specimens of island antiquities—of local fish, +birds, insects, reptiles, plants, geological formations, and such +like. In the library were old editions of curious books at the +West Indies, some of them unique, ready to yield ampler +pictures of the romance of the old life there than we at present +possess. I had but leisure to glance at title-pages and engravings. +The most noticeable relic preserved there, if it be +only genuine, is the identical bauble which Cromwell ordered +to be taken away from the Speaker's table in the House of +Commons. Explanations are given of the manner in which it +came to Jamaica. The evidence, so far as I could understand +it, did not appear conclusive.</p> + +<p>Among the new industries in the island in the place of sugar +was, or ought to be, tobacco. A few years ago I asked Sir J. +Hooker, the chief living authority in such matters, why Cuba +was allowed the monopoly of delicate cigar tobacco—whether +there were no other countries where it could be grown equally +good. He said that at the very moment cigars, as fine as the +finest Havanas, were being produced in Jamaica. He gave +me an excellent specimen with the address of the house which +supplied it; and for a year or two I was able to buy from it +what, if not perfect, was more than tolerable. The house +acquired a reputation; and then, for some reason or other, +perhaps from weariness of the same flavour, perhaps from a +falling off in the character of the cigars, I, and possibly others, +began to be less satisfied. Here on the spot I wished to make +another experiment. Captain C—— introduced me to a +famous manufacturer, a Spaniard, with a Spanish manager +under him who had been trained at Havana. I bespoke his +good will by adjuring him in his own tongue not to disappoint +me; and I believe that he gave me the best that he had. But, +alas! it is with tobacco as with most other things. Democracy +is king; and the greatest happiness of the greatest number is +the rule of modern life. The average of everything is higher +than it used to be; the high quality which rises above mediocrity +is rare or is non-existent. We are swept away by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +genius of the age, and must be content with such other +blessings as it has been pleased to bring with it.</p> + +<p style="margin-left:4em;"> +Why should I murmur thus and vainly moan?<br /> +The Gods will have it so—their will be done.<a name="FNanchor_1_13" id="FNanchor_1_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_13" class="fnanchor">[14]</a><br /> +</p> + +<p>The earth is patient also, and allows the successive generations +of human creatures to play their parts upon her surface as +they please. She spins on upon her own course; and seas +and skies, and crags and forests, are spiritual and beautiful as +ever.</p> + +<p>Gordon's Town is a straggling village in the Blue Range +underneath Newcastle. Colonel J—— had a villa there, and +one afternoon he took me over to see it. You pass abruptly +from the open country into the mountains. The way to +Gordon's Town was by the side of the Hope river, which cuts its +way out of them in a narrow deep ravine. The stream was +now trickling faintly among the stones; the enormous boulders +in the bed were round as cannon balls, and, weighing hundreds +of tons, show what its power must be in the coming down of +the floods. Within the limits of the torrent, which must rise +at such times thirty feet above its winter level, the rocks were +bare and stern, no green thing being able to grow there. +Above the line the tropical vegetation was in all its glory: +ferns and plantains waving in the moist air; cedars, tamarinds, +gum trees, orange trees striking their roots among the clefts +of the crags, and hanging out over the abysses below them. +Aloes flung up their tall spiral stems; flowering shrubs and +creepers covered bank and slope with green and blue and +white and yellow, and above and over our heads, as we drove +along, frowned the great limestone blocks which thunder +down when loosened by the rain. Farther up the hill sides, +where the slopes are less precipitous, the forest has been burnt +off by the unthrifty blacks, who use fire to clear the ground +for their yam gardens, and destroy the timber over a dozen +acres when they intend to cultivate but a single one. The +landscape suffers less than the soil. The effect to the eye is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>merely that the mountains in Jamaica, as in temperate climates, +become bare at a moderate altitude, and their outlines are +marked more sharply against the sky.</p> + +<p>Introduced among scenery of this kind, we followed the +river two or three miles, when it was crossed by a bridge, +above which stood my friend Miss Burton's lodging house, +where she had designed entertaining me. At Gordon's Town, +which is again a mile farther on, the valley widens out, and +there are cocoa and coffee plantations. Through an opening +we saw far above our heads, like specks of snow against the +mountain side, the homes or prisons of our unfortunate troops. +Overlooking the village through which we were passing, and +three hundred feet above it, was perched the Colonel's villa +on a projecting spur where a tributary of the Hope river has +carved out a second ravine. We drove to the door up a steep +winding lane among coffee bushes, which scented the air with +their jessamine-like blossom, and wild oranges on which the +fruit hung untouched, glowing like balls of gold. We were now +eleven hundred feet above the sea. The air was already many +degrees cooler than at Kingston. The ground in front of the +house was levelled for a garden. Ivy was growing about the +trellis work, and scarlet geraniums and sweet violets and roses +which cannot be cultivated in the lower regions, were here in +full bloom. Elsewhere in the grounds there was a lawn +tennis court to tempt the officers down from their eyrie in the +clouds. The house was empty, in charge of servants. From +the balcony in front of the drawing room we saw peak rising +behind peak, till the highest, four thousand feet above us, was +lost in the white mist. Below was the valley of the Hope +river with its gardens and trees and scattered huts, with buildings +here and there of higher pretensions. On the other side +the tributary stream rushed down its own ravine, while the +breeze among the trees and the sound of the falling waters +swayed up to us in intermittent pulsations.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/image0007.jpg" alt="VALLEY IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS, JAMAICA." title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption">VALLEY IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS, JAMAICA.</span> +</div> + +<p>The place had been made, I believe, in the days of plantation +prosperity. What would become of it all, if Jamaica +drifted after her sisters in the Antilles, as some persons +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>thought that she was drifting, and became, like Grenada, an +island of small black proprietors? Was such a fate really +hanging over her? Not necessarily, not by any law of nature. +If it came, it would come from the dispiritment, the lack of +energy and hope in the languid representatives of the English +colonists; for the land even in the mountains will grow what +it is asked to grow, and men do not live by sugar alone; and +my friend Dr. Nicholl in Dominica and Colonel Duncan in +Grenada itself were showing what English energy could do if +it was alive and vigorous. The pale complaining beings of +whom I saw too many, seemed as if they could not be of the +same race as the men who ruled in the days of the slave trade. +The question to be asked in every colony is, what sort of men +is it rearing? If that cannot be answered satisfactorily, the +rest is not worth caring for. The blacks do not deserve the +ill that is spoken of them. Colonel J——'s house is twelve +miles from Kingston. He told me that a woman would walk in +with a load for him, and return on the same day with another, +for a shilling. With such material of labour wisely directed, +whites and blacks might live and prosper together; but even +the poor negro will not work when he is regarded only as a +machine to bring grist to his master's mill.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_13" id="Footnote_1_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_13"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Euripides.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Visit to Port Royal—Dockyard—Town—Church—Fort Augusta—The +eyrie in the mountains—Ride to Newcastle—Society in Jamaica—Religious +bodies—Liberty and authority.</p></div> + + +<p>A new fort was being built at the mouth of the harbour. +New batteries were being armed on the sandbanks at Port +Royal. Colonel J—— had to inspect what was going on, and +he allowed me to go with him. We were to lunch with the +commodore of the station at the Port Royal dockyard. I +could then see the town—or what was left of it, for the story +went that half of it had been swallowed up by an earthquake.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +We ran out in a steam launch from Kingston, passing under the +sterns of the Spanish frigates. I was told that there were always +one or more Spanish ships of war stationed there, but no one +knew anything about them except generally that they were on +the look-out for Cuban conspirators. There was no exchange +of courtesies between their officers and ours, nor even official +communication beyond what was formally necessary. I +thought it strange, but it was no business of mine. My surprise, +however, was admitted to be natural. As the launch +drew little water, we had no occasion to follow the circuitous +channel, but went straight over the shoals. We passed close +by Gallows Point, where the Johnny crows used to pick the +pirates' bones. In the mangrove swamp adjoining, it was said +that there was an old Spanish cemetery; but the swamp was +poisonous, and no one had ever seen it. At the dockyard +pier the commodore was waiting for us. I found that he was +an old acquaintance whom I had met ten years before at the +Cape. He was a brisk, smart officer, quiet and sailor-like in +his manners, but with plenty of talent and cultivation. He +showed us his stores and his machinery, large engines, and +engineers to work them, ready for any work which might be +wanted, but apparently with none to do. We went over the +hospital, airy and clean, with scarcely a single occupant, so +healthy has now been made a spot which was once a nest of +yellow fever. Naval stores soon become antiquated; and +parts of the great square were paved with the old cannon balls +which had become useless on the introduction of rifled guns. +The fortifications were antiquated also, but new works were +being thrown up armed with the modern monster cannon. +One difficulty struck me; Port Royal stood upon a sandbank. +In such a place no spring of fresh water could be looked for. +On the large acreage of roofs there were no shoots to catch +the rain and carry it into cisterns. Whence did the water +come for the people in the town? How were the fleets supplied +which used to ride there? How was it in the old times +when Port Royal was crowded with revelling crews of buccaneers? +I found that every drop which is consumed in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +place, or which is taken on board either of merchant ship or +man-of-war, is brought in a steam tug from a spring ten miles +off upon the coast. Before steam came in, it was fetched in +barges rowed by hand. Nothing could be easier than to save +the rain which falls in abundance. Nothing could be easier +than to lay pipes along the sand-spit to the spring. But the +tug plies daily to and fro, and no one thinks more about the +matter.</p> + +<p>A West Indian regiment is stationed at Port Royal. After +the dockyard we went through the soldiers' quarters and then +walked through the streets of the once famous station. It is +now a mere hamlet of boatmen and fishermen, squalid and +wretched, without and within. Half-naked children stared +at us from the doors with their dark, round eyes. I found it +hard to call up the scenes of riot, and confusion, and wild +excitement which are alleged to have been witnessed there. +The story that it once covered a far larger area has been, +perhaps, invented to account for the incongruity. Old plans +exist which seem to show that the end of the spit could never +have been of any larger dimensions than it is at present. +There is proof enough, however, that in the sand there lie the +remains of many thousand English soldiers and seamen, who +ended their lives there for one cause or other. The bones lie +so close that they are turned up as in a country churchyard +when a fresh grave is dug. The walls of the old church are +inlaid thickly with monuments and monumental tablets to the +memory of officers of either service, young and old; some +killed by fever, some by accidents of war or sea; some +decorated with the honours which they had won in a hundred +fights, some carried off before they had gathered the first +flower of fame. The costliness of many of these memorials +was an affecting indication how precious to their families +those now resting there once had been. One in high relief +struck me as a characteristic specimen of Rubillac's workmanship. +It was to a young lieutenant who had been killed by +the bursting of a gun. Flame and vapour were rushing out of +the breech. The youth himself was falling backwards, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +his arms spread out, and a vast preternatural face—death, +judgment, eternity, or whatever it was meant to be—was +glaring at him through the smoke. Bad art, though the +execution was remarkable; but better, perhaps, than the +weeping angels now grown common among ourselves.</p> + +<p>After luncheon the commodore showed us his curiosities, +especially his garden, which, considering the state of his +water supply, he had created under unfavourable conditions. +He had a very respectable collection of tropical ferns and +flowers, with palms and plantains to shade and shelter them. +He was an artist besides, within the lines of his own profession. +Drawings of ships and boats of all sorts and in all +attitudes by his own brush or pencil were hanging on the +walls of his working room. He was good enough to ask me +to spend a day or two with him at Port Royal before I left +the island, and I looked forward with special pleasure to +becoming closer acquainted with such a genuine piece of +fine-grained British oak.</p> + +<p>There were the usual ceremonies to be attended to. The +officers of the guardship and gunboats had to be called on. +The forts constructed, or in the course of construction, were +duly inspected. I believe that there is a real serious intention +to strengthen Port Royal in view of the changes which may +come about through the opening, if that event ever takes +place, of the Darien canal.</p> + +<p>Our last visit was to a fort deserted, or all but deserted—the +once too celebrated Fort Augusta, which deserves particular +description. It stands on the inner side of the lagoon +commanding the deep-water channel at the point of the great +mangrove swamp at the mouth of the Cobre river. For the +purpose for which it was intended no better situation could +have been chosen, had there been nothing else to be considered +except the defence of the harbour, for a vessel trying +to reach Kingston had to pass close in front of its hundred +guns. It was constructed on a scale becoming its importance, +with accommodation for two or three regiments, and the +regiments were sent thither, and they perished, regiment after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +regiment, officers and men, from the malarious exhalations of +the morass. Whole battalions were swept away. The ranks +were filled up by reinforcements from home, and these, too, +went the same road. Of one regiment the only survivors, +according to the traditions of the place, were a quartermaster +and a corporal. Finally it occurred to the authorities at the +Horse Guards that a regiment of Hussars would be a useful +addition to the garrison. It was not easy to see what Hussars +were to do there. There is not a spot where the horses could +stand twenty yards beyond the lines; nor could they reach +Fort Augusta at all except in barges. However, it was +perhaps well that they were sent. Horses and men went the +way of the rest. The loss of the men might have been +supplied, but horses were costly, and the loss of them was +more serious. Fort Augusta was gradually abandoned, and +is now used only as a powder magazine. A guard is kept +there of twenty blacks from the West Indian force, but even +these are changed every ten days—so deadly the vapour of +that malarious jungle is now understood to be.</p> + +<p>I never saw so spectral a scene as met my eyes when we +steamed up to the landing place—ramparts broken down, and +dismantled cannon lying at the foot of the wall overgrown by +jungle. The sentinel who presented arms was like a corpse +in uniform. He was not pale, for he was a negro—he was +green, and he looked like some ghoul or afrite in a ghastly +cemetery. The roofs of the barracks and storehouses had +fallen in, the rafters being left standing with the light shining +between them as through the bones of skeletons. Great piles +of shot lay rusting, as not worth removal; among them +conical shot, so recently, had this fatal charnel house been +regarded as a fit location for British artillerymen.</p> + +<p>I breathed more freely as we turned our backs upon the +hideous memorial of parliamentary administration, and +steamed away into a purer air. My conservative instincts +had undergone a shock. As we look back into the past, +the brighter features stand out conspicuously. The mistakes +and miseries have sunk in the shade and are forgotten. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +the present faults and merits are visible alike. The faults +attract chief notice that they may be mended; and as there +seem so many of them, the impulse is to conclude that the +past was better. It is well to be sometimes reminded what +the past really was. In Colonel J—— I found a strong +advocate of the late army reforms. Thanks to recovering +energy and more distinct conscientiousness, thanks to the all-seeing +eye of the Press, such an experiment as that of Fort +Augusta could hardly be tried again, or if tried could not be +persisted in. Extravagance and absurdities, however, remain, +and I was next to witness an instance of them.</p> + +<p>Having ceased to quarter our regiments in mangrove swamps, +we now build a camp for them among the clouds. I mentioned +that Captain C—— had undertaken that I should see Newcastle. +He had written to a friend there to say that I was +coming up, and the junior aide-de-camp kindly lent his services +as a guide. As far as Gordon's Town we drove along +the same road which we had followed before. There, at a +small wayside inn, we found horses waiting which were accustomed +to the mountain. Suspicious mists were hanging +about aloft, but the landlord, after a glance at them, promised +us a fine day, and we mounted and set off. My animal's +merits were not in his appearance, but he had been up and +down a hundred times, and might be trusted to accomplish +his hundred and first without misfortune. For the first mile +or so the road was tolerably level, following the bank of the +river under the shade of the forest. It then narrowed into a +horse path and zigzagged upwards at the side of a torrent into +the deep pools of which we occasionally looked down over +the edges of uncomfortable precipices. Then again there +was a level, with a village and coffee plantations and oranges +and bananas. After this the vegetation changed. We issued +out upon open mountain, with English grass, English clover, +English gorse, and other familiar acquaintances introduced to +make the isolation less intolerable. The track was so rough +and narrow that we could ride only in single file, and was +often no better than a watercourse; yet by this and no other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +way every article had to be carried on donkeys' backs or +human heads which was required for the consumption of 300 +infantry and 100 artillerymen. Artillerymen might seem to +imply artillery, but they have only a single small field gun. +They are there for health's sake only, and to be fit for work if +wanted below. An hour's ride brought us to the lowest range +of houses, which were 4,000 feet above the sea. From thence +they rose, tier above tier, for 500 feet more. The weather so +far had held up, and the views had been glorious, but we +passed now into a cloud, through which we saw, dimly, groups +of figures listlessly lounging. The hillside was bare, and the +slope so steep that there was no standing on it, save where it +had been flattened by the spade; and here in this extraordinary +place were 400 young Englishmen of the common +type of which soldiers are made, with nothing to do and +nothing to enjoy—remaining, unless they desert or die of +ennui, for one, two, or three years, as their chance may be. +Every other day they can see nothing, save each other's forms +and faces in the fog; for, fine and bright as the air may be +below, the moisture in the air is condensed into cloud by the +chill rock and soil of the high ranges. The officers come down +now and then on furlough or on duty; the men rarely and +hardly at all, and soldiers, in spite of General ——, cannot +always be made happy by the picturesque. They are not +educated enough to find employment for their minds, and of +amusement there is none.</p> + +<p>We continued our way up, the track if anything growing +steeper, till we reached the highest point of the camp, and +found ourselves before a pretty cottage with creepers climbing +about it belonging to the major in command. A few yards off +was the officers' mess room. They expected us. They knew +my companion, and visitors from the under-world were +naturally welcome. The major was an active clever man, with +a bright laughing Irish wife, whose relations in the old country +were friends of my own. The American consul and his lady +happened to have ridden up also the same day; so, in spite +of fog, which grew thicker every moment, we had a good time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +As to seeing, we could see nothing; but then there was nothing +to see except views; and panoramic views from mountain +tops, extolled as they may be, do not particularly interest +me. The officers, so far as I could learn, are less ill off than +the privates. Those who are married have their wives with +them; they can read, they can draw, they can ride; they have +gardens about their houses where they can grow English +flowers and vegetables and try experiments. Science can be +followed anywhere, and is everywhere a resource. Major —— +told me that he had never known what it was to find the day +too long. Healthy the camp is at any rate. The temperature +never rises above 70° nor sinks often below 60°. They require +charcoal fires to keep the damp out and blankets to +sleep under; and when they see the sun it is an agreeable +change and something to talk about. There are no large +incidents, but small ones do instead. While I was there a +man came to report that he had slipped by accident and set a +stone rolling; the stone had cut a water pipe in two, and it +had to be mended, and was an afternoon's work for somebody. +Such officers as have no resources in themselves are, of course, +bored to extinction. There is neither furred game to hunt nor +feathered game to shoot; the mongoose has eaten up the +partridges. I suggested that they should import two or three +couple of bears from Norway; they would fatten and multiply +among the roots and sugar canes, with a black piccaninny now +and then for a special delicacy. One of the party extemporised +us a speech which would be made on the occasion in Exeter +Hall.</p> + +<p>We had not seen the worst of the weather. As we mounted +to ride back the fog changed to rain, and the rain to a deluge. +The track became a torrent. Macintoshes were a vanity, for +the water rushed down one's neck, and every crease made +itself into a conduit carrying the stream among one's inner +garments. Dominica itself had not prepared me for the +violence of these Jamaican downpourings. False had proved +our prophet down below. There was no help for it but to go +on; and we knew by experience that one does not melt on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +these occasions. At a turn of the road we met another group +of riders, among them Lady N——, who, during her husband's +absence in England, was living at a country house in the hills. +She politely stopped and would have spoken, but it was not +weather to stand talking in; the torrent washed us apart.</p> + +<p>And now comes the strangest part of the story. A thousand +feet down we passed out below the clouds into clear bright +sunshine. Above us it was still black as ever. The vapour +clung about the peaks and did not leave them. Underneath +us and round us it was a lovely summer's day. The farther +we descended the fewer the signs that any rain had fallen. +When we reached the stables at Gordon's Town, the dust was +on the road as we left it, and the horsekeeper congratulated us +on the correctness of his forecast. Clothes soon dry in that +country, and we drove down home none the worse for our +wetting. I was glad to have seen a place of which I had heard +so much. On the whole, I hoped that perhaps by-and-by the +authorities may discover some camping ground for our poor +soldiers halfway between the Inferno of Fort Augusta and the +Caucasian cliffs to which they are chained like Prometheus. +Malice did say that Newcastle was the property of a certain +Sir ——, a high official of a past generation, who wished to +part with it, and found a convenient purchaser in the Government.</p> + +<p>The hospitalities at Government House were well maintained +under the J—— administration. The Colonel was gracious, +the lady beautiful and brilliant. There were lawn parties and +evening parties, when all that was best in the island was +collected; the old Jamaican aristocracy, army and navy +officers, civilians, eminent lawyers, a few men among them +of high intelligence. The tone was old-fashioned and courteous, +with little, perhaps too little, of the <i>go-a-headism</i> of +younger colonies, but not the less agreeable on that account. +As to prospects, or the present condition of things in the +island, there were wide differences of opinion. If there was +unanimity about anything, it was about the consequences +likely to arise from an extension of the principle of self-govern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>ment. +There, at all events, lay the right road to the wrong +place. The blacks had nothing to complain of, and the wrong +at present was on the other side. The taxation fell heavily +on the articles consumed by the upper classes. The duty on +tea, for instance, was a shilling a pound, and the duties on +other luxuries in the same proportion. It scarcely touched +the negroes at all. They were acquiring land, and some +thought that there ought to be a land tax. They would probably +object and resist, and trouble would come if it was +proposed, for the blacks object to taxes. As long as there are +white men to pay them, they will be satisfied to get the benefit +of the expenditure; but let not their English friends suppose +that when they have the island for their own they will tax +themselves for police or schools, or for any other of those +educational institutions from which the believers in progress +anticipate such glorious results.</p> + +<p>As to the planters, it seemed agreed that when an estate +was unencumbered and the owner resided upon it and managed +it himself, he could still keep afloat. It was agreed also that +when the owner was an absentee the cost of management consumed +all the profits, and thus the same impulse to sell which +had gone so far in the Antilles was showing itself more and +more in Jamaica also. Fine properties all about the island +were in the market for any price which purchasers could be +found to give. Too many even of the old English families +were tired of the struggle, and were longing to be out of it at +any cost.</p> + +<p>At one time we heard much of the colonial Church and +the power which it was acquiring, and as it seems unlikely +that the political authority of the white race will be allowed +to reassert itself, it must be through their minds and through +those other qualities which religion addresses that the black race +will be influenced by the white, if it is ever to be influenced +at all.</p> + +<p>I had marked the respect with which the Catholic clergy +were treated in Dominica, and even the Hayti Republic still +maintains the French episcopate and priesthood. But I could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +not find that the Church of England in Jamaica either was at +present or had ever been more than the Church of the English +in Jamaica, respected as long as the English gentry were a +dominant power there, but with no independent charm to work +on imagination or on superstition. Labat says, as I noted +above, that the English clergy in his time did not baptise the +black babies, on the curious ground that Christians could not +lawfully be held as slaves, and the slaves therefore were not to +be made Christians. A Jesuit Father whom I met at Government +House told me that even now the clergy refuse to baptise +the illegitimate children, and as, according to the official returns, +nearly two-thirds of the children that are born in Jamaica +come into the world thus irregularly, they are not likely to become +more popular than they used to be. Perhaps Father —— +was doing what a good many other people do, making a general +practice out of a few instances. Perhaps the blacks themselves +who wish their children to be Christians carry them to the +minister whom they prefer, and that minister may not be the +Anglican clergyman. Of Catholics there are not many in +Jamaica; of the Moravians I heard on all sides the warmest +praise. They, above all the religious bodies in the island, are +admitted to have a practical power for good over the limited +number of people which belong to them. But the Moravians +are but a few. They do not rush to make converts in the +highways and hedges, and my observations in Dominica almost +led me to wish that, in the absence of other forms of spiritual +authority, the Catholics might become more numerous than +they are. The priests in Dominica were the only Europeans +who, for their own sakes and on independent grounds, were +looked up to with fear and respect.</p> + +<p>The religion of the future! That is the problem of problems +that rises before us at the close of this waning century. The +future of the West Indies is a small matter. Yet that, too, like +all else, depends on the spiritual beliefs which are to rise out +of the present confusion. Men will act well and wisely, or ill +and foolishly, according to the form and force of their conceptions +of duty. Once before, under the Roman Empire, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +conditions were not wholly dissimilar. The inherited creed +had become unbelievable, and the scientific intellect was turning +materialist. Christianity rose out of the chaos, confounding +statesmen and philosophers, and became the controlling power +among mankind for 1,800 years. But Christianity found a soil +prepared for the seed. The masses of the inhabitants of the +Roman world were not materialist. The masses of the people +believed already in the supernatural and in penal retribution +after death for their sins. Lucretius complains of the misery +produced upon them by the terrors of the anticipated Tartarus. +Serious and good men were rather turning away from atheism +than welcoming it; and if they doubted the divinity of the +Olympian gods, it was not because they doubted whether gods +existed at all, but because the immoralities attributed to them +were unworthy of the exalted nature of the Divine Being. +The phenomena are different now. Who is now made wretched +by the fear of hell? The tendency of popular thought is +against the supernatural in any shape. Far into space as the +telescope can search, deep as analysis can penetrate into mind +and consciousness or the forces which govern natural things, +popular thought finds only uniformity and connection of cause +and effect—no sign anywhere of a personal will which is influenced +by prayer or moral motive. When a subject is still +obscure we are confident that it admits of scientific explanation; +we no longer refer 'ad Deum,' whom we regard as a +constitutional monarch taking no direct part at all. The new +creed, however, not having crystallised as yet into a shape +which can be openly professed, and as without any creed at +all the flesh and the devil might become too powerful, we +maintain the old names and forms, as we maintain the +monarchy. We surround both with reverence and majesty, +and the reverence, being confined to feeling, continues to +exercise a vague but wholesome influence. We row in one +way while we look another. In the presence of the marked +decay of Protestantism as a positive creed, the Protestant +powers of Europe may, perhaps, patch up some kind of reconciliation +with the old spiritual organisation which was shattered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +in the sixteenth century, and has since shown no unwillingness +to adapt itself to modern forms of thought. The Olympian +gods survived for seven centuries after Aristophanes with the +help of allegory and 'economy.' The Church of Rome may +survive as long after Calvin and Luther. Carlyle mocked at +the possibility when I ventured to say so to him. Yet Carlyle +seemed to think that the mass was the only form of faith in +Europe which had any sincerity remaining in it.</p> + +<p>A religion, at any rate, which will keep the West Indian +blacks from falling into devil worship is still to seek. Constitutions +and belief in progress may satisfy Europe, but will not +answer in Jamaica. In spite of the priests, child murder and +cannibalism have reappeared in Hayti; but without them +things might have been worse than they are, and the preservation +of white authority and influence in any form at all may be +better than none.</p> + +<p>White authority and white influence may, however, still be +preserved in a nobler and better way. Slavery was a survival +from a social order which had passed away, and slavery could +not be continued. It does not follow that <i>per se</i> it was a crime. +The negroes who were sold to the dealers in the African factories +were most of them either slaves already to worse masters or were +<i>servi</i>, servants in the old meaning of the word, prisoners of war, +or else criminals, <i>servati</i> or reserved from death. They would +otherwise have been killed; and since the slave trade has been +abolished are again killed in the too celebrated 'customs.' +The slave trade was a crime when the chiefs made war on each +other for the sake of captives whom they could turn into +money. In many instances, perhaps in most, it was innocent +and even beneficent. Nature has made us unequal, and Acts +of Parliament cannot make us equal. Some must lead and +some must follow, and the question is only of degree and kind. +For myself, I would rather be the slave of a Shakespeare or a +Burghley than the slave of a majority in the House of Commons +or the slave of my own folly. Slavery is gone, with all that +belonged to it; but it will be an ill day for mankind if no one +is to be compelled any more to obey those who are wiser than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +himself, and each of us is to do only what is right in our own +eyes. There may be authority, yet not slavery: a soldier is +not a slave, a sailor is not a slave, a child is not a slave, a wife +is not a slave; yet they may not live by their own wills or +emancipate themselves at their own pleasure from positions in +which nature has placed them, or into which they have themselves +voluntarily entered. The negroes of the West Indies +are children, and not yet disobedient children. They have +their dreams, but for the present they are dreams only. If you +enforce self-government upon them when they are not asking +for it, you may turn the dream into a reality, and wilfully drive +them back into the condition of their ancestors, from which the +slave trade was the beginning of their emancipation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Church of England in Jamaica—Drive to Castleton—Botanical Gardens—Picnic +by the river—Black women—Ball at Government House—Mandeville—Miss +Roy—Country society—Manners—American visitors—A +Moravian missionary—The modern Radical creed.</p></div> + + +<p>If I have spoken without enthusiasm of the working of the +Church of England among the negroes, I have not meant to be +disrespectful. As I lay awake at daybreak on the Sunday +morning after my arrival, I heard the sound of church bells, +not Catholic bells as at Dominica, but good old English chimes. +The Church is disestablished so far as law can disestablish it, +but, as in Barbadoes, the royal arms still stand over the arches +of the chancel. Introduced with the English conquest, it has +been identified with the ruling order of English gentry, respectable, +harmless, and useful, to those immediately connected +with it.</p> + +<p>The parochial system, as in Barbadoes also, was spread over +the island. Each parish had its church, its parsonage and its +school, its fonts where the white children were baptised—in +spite of my Jesuit, I shall hope not whites only; and its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +graveyard, where in time they were laid to rest. With their +quiet Sunday services of the old type the country districts were +exact reproductions of English country villages. The church +whose bells I had heard was of the more fashionable suburban +type, standing in a central situation halfway to Kingston. +The service was at the old English hour of eleven. +We drove to it in the orthodox fashion, with our prayer books and Sunday +costumes, the Colonel in uniform. The gentry of the neighbourhood +are antiquated in their habits, and to go to church +on Sunday is still regarded as a simple duty. A dozen +carriages stood under the shade at the doors. The congregation +was upper middle-class English of the best sort, and was +large, though almost wholly white. White tablets as at Port +Royal covered the walls, with familiar English names upon +them. But for the heat I could have imagined myself at home. +There were no Aaron Bangs to be seen, or Paul Gelids, with +the rough sense, the vigour, the energy, and roystering light-heartedness +of our grandfathers. The faces of the men were +serious and thoughtful, with the shadow resting on them of an +uncertain future. They are good Churchmen still, and walk +on in the old paths, wherever those paths may lead. They are +old-fashioned and slow to change, and are perhaps belated in +an eddy of the great stream of progress; but they were pleasant +to see and pleasant to talk to. After service there were the +usual shakings of hands among friends outside; arrangements +were made for amusements and expeditions in which I was +invited to join—which were got up, perhaps, for my own +entertainment. I was to be taken to the sights of the neighbourhood. +I was to see this; I was to see that; above all, I +must see the Peak of the Blue Mountains. The peak itself I +could see better from below, for there it stood, never moving, +between seven and eight thousand feet high. But I had had +mountain riding enough and was allowed to plead my age and +infirmities. It was arranged finally that I should be driven the +next day to Castleton, seventeen miles off over a mountain +pass, to see the Botanical Gardens.</p> + +<p>Accordingly early on the following morning we set off; two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +carriages full of us; Mr. M——, a new friend lately made, but +I hope long to be preserved, on the box of his four-in-hand. +The road was as good as all roads are in Jamaica and +Barbadoes, and more cannot be said in their favour. Forest +trees made a roof over our heads as we climbed to the crest of +the ridge. Thence we descended the side of a long valley, a +stream running below us which gradually grew into a river. +We passed through all varieties of cultivation. On the high +ground there was a large sugar plantation, worked by coolies, +the first whom I had seen in Jamaica. In the alluvial meadows +on the river-side were tobacco fields, cleanly and carefully kept, +belonging to my Spanish friend in Kingston, and only too rich +in leaves. There were sago too, and ginger, and tamarinds, and +cocoa, and coffee, and cocoa-nut palms. On the hill-sides were +the garden farms of the blacks, which were something to see +and remember. They receive from the Government at an +almost nominal quit rent an acre or two of uncleared forest. +To this as the first step they set light; at twenty different +spots we saw their fires blazing. To clear an acre they waste +the timber on half a dozen or a dozen. They plant their yams +and sweet potatoes among the ashes and grow crops there till +the soil is exhausted. Then they move on to another, which +they treat with the same recklessness, leaving the first to go +back to scrub. Since the Chinaman burnt his house to roast +his pig, such waste was never seen. The male proprietors were +lounging about smoking. Their wives, as it was market day, were +tramping into Kingston with their baskets on their head. We +met them literally in thousands, all merry and light-hearted, +their little ones with little baskets trudging at their side. Of +the lords of the creation we saw, perhaps, one to each hundred +women, and he would be riding on mule or donkey, pipe in +mouth and carrying nothing. He would be generally sulky +too, while the ladies, young and old, had all a civil word +for us and curtsied under their loads. Decidedly if there +is to be a black constitution I would give the votes only to +the women.</p> + +<p>We reached Castleton at last. It was in a hot damp valley,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +said to be a nest of yellow fever. The gardens slightly disappointed +me; my expectations had been too much raised by +Trinidad. There were lovely flowers of course, and curious +plants and trees. Every known palm is growing there. They +try hard to grow roses, and they say that they succeed. The +roses were not in flower, and I could not judge. Bye the +familiar names were all there, and others which were not +familiar, the newest importations called after the great ladies +of the day. I saw one labelled Mabel Morrison. To find +the daughter of an ancient college friend and contemporary +giving name to a plant in the New World makes one feel +dreadfully old; but I expected to find, and I did not find, +some useful practical horticulture going on. They ought, for +instance, to have been trying experiments with orange trees. +The orange in Jamaica is left to nature. They plant the seeds, +and leave the result to chance. They neither bud nor graft, +and go upon the hypothesis that as the seed is, so will be the +tree which comes of it. Yet even thus, so favourable is the +soil and climate that the oranges of Jamaica are prized above +all others which are sold in the American market. With skill +and knowledge and good selection they might produce the +finest in the world. 'There are dollars in that island, sir,' as +an American gentleman said to me, 'if they look for them in +the right way.' Nothing of this kind was going on at Castleton; +so much the worse, but perhaps things will mend by-and-by. +I was consoled partly by another specimen of the <i>Amherstia +nobilis</i>. It was not so large as those which I had seen at +Trinidad, but it was in splendid bloom, and certainly is the +most gorgeous flowering tree which the world contains.</p> + +<p>Wild nature also was luxuriantly beautiful. We picnicked +by the river, which here is a full rushing stream with pools that +would have held a salmon, and did hold abundant mullet. +We found a bower formed by a twisted vine, so thick that +neither sun nor rain could penetrate the roof. The floor was +of shining shingle, and the air breathed cool from off the +water. It was a spot which nymph or naiad may haunt hereafter, +when nymphs are born again in the new era. The creatures<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +of imagination have fled away from modern enlightenment. But +we were a pleasant party of human beings, lying about under +the shade upon the pebbles. We had brought a blanket of ice +with us, and the champagne was manufactured into cup by +choicest West Indian skill. Figures fall unconsciously at such +moments into attitudes which would satisfy a painter, and the +scenes remain upon the memory like some fine finished work +of art. We had done with the gardens, and I remember no +more of them except that I saw a mongoose stalking a flock of +turkeys. The young ones and their mother gathered together +and showed fight. The old cock, after the manner of the +male animal, seemed chiefly anxious for his own skin, though +a little ashamed at the same time, as if conscious that more +was expected of him. On the way back we met the returning +stream of women and children, loaded heavily as before and +with the same elastic step. In spite of all that is incorrect +about them, the women are the material to work upon; and if +they saw that we were in earnest, they would lend their help +to make their husbands bestir themselves. A Dutch gentleman +once boasted to me of the wonderful prosperity of Java, +where everybody was well off and everybody was industrious. +He so insisted upon the industry that I ask him how it was +brought about. Were the people slaves? 'Oh,' he cried, as +if shocked, 'God forbid that a Christian nation should be so +wicked as to keep slaves!' 'Do they never wish to be idle?' +I asked. 'Never, never,' he said; 'no, no: we do not permit +anyone to be idle.'</p> + +<p>My stay with Colonel J—— was drawing to a close; one +great festivity was impending, which I wished to avoid; but the +gracious lady insisted that I must remain. There was to be a +ball, and all the neighbourhood was invited. Pretty it was sure +to be. Windows and doors, galleries and passages, would be +all open. The gardens would be lighted up, and the guests +could spread as they pleased. Brilliant it all was; more +brilliant than you would see in our larger colonies. A ball in +Sydney or Melbourne is like a ball in the north of England or +in New York. There are the young men in black coats, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +there are brightly dressed young ladies for them to dance with. +The chaperons sit along the walls; the elderly gentlemen +withdraw to the card room. Here all was different. The +black coats in the ball at Jamaica were on the backs of old or +middle-aged men, and, except Government officials, there was +hardly a young man present in civilian dress. The rooms +glittered with scarlet and white and blue and gold lace. The +officers were there from the garrison and the fleet; but of men +of business, of professional men, merchants, planters, lawyers, +&c. there were only those who had grown up to middle age in +the island, whose fortunes, bad or good, were bound up with it. +When these were gone, it seemed as if there would be no one +to succeed them. The coveted heirs of great estates were no +longer to be found for mothers to angle after. The trades and +professions in Kingston had ceased to offer the prospect of an +income to younger brothers who had to make their own way. +For 250 years generations of Englishmen had followed one +upon another, but we seemed to have come to the last. Of +gentlemen unconnected with the public service, under thirty-five +or forty, there were few to be seen, they were seeking +their fortunes elsewhere. The English interest in Jamaica is +still a considerable thing. The English flag flies over Government +House, and no one so far wishes to remove it. But the +British population is scanty and refuses to grow. Ships and +regiments come and go, and officers and State employés make +what appears to be a brilliant society. But it is in appearance +only. The station is no longer a favourite one. They are +gone, those pleasant gentry whose country houses were the +paradise of <i>middies</i> sixty years ago. All is changed, even to +the officers themselves. The drawling ensign of our boyhood, +brave as a lion in the field, and in the mess room or the +drawing room an idiot, appears also to be dead as the +dodo. Those that one meets now are intelligent and superior +men—no trace of the frivolous sort left. Is it the effect of +the abolition of purchase, and competitive examinations? Is +it that the times themselves are growing serious, and even the +most empty-headed feel that this is no season for levity?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p> + +<p>I had seen what Jamaican life was like in the upper spheres, +and I had heard the opinions that were current in them; but +I wished to see other parts of the country. I wished to see a +class of people who were farther from headquarters, and who +might not all sing to the same note. I determined to start off +on an independent cruise of my own. In the centre of the +island, two thousand feet above the sea, it was reported to me +that I should find a delightful village called Mandeville, after +some Duke of Manchester who governed Jamaica a hundred +years ago. The scenery was said to have a special charm of +its own, the air to be exquisitely pure, the land to be well cultivated. +Village manners were to be found there of the old-fashioned +sort, and a lodging house and landlady of unequalled +merit. There was a railway for the first fifty miles. The line +at starting crosses the mangrove swamps at the mouth of the +Cobre river. You see the trees standing in the water on each +side of the road. Rising slowly, it hardens into level grazing +ground, stocked with cattle and studded with mangoes and +cedars. You pass Spanish Town, of which only the roofs of +the old State buildings are visible from the carriages. Sugar +estates follow, some of which are still in cultivation, while +ruined mills and fallen aqueducts show where others once had +been. The scenery becomes more broken as you begin to +ascend into the hills. River beds, dry when I saw them, but +powerful torrents in the rainy season, are crossed by picturesque +bridges. You come to the forest, where the squatters were at +their usual work, burning out their yam patches. Columns of +white smoke were rising all about us, yet so abundant the +timber and so rapid the work of restoration when the devastating +swarm has passed, that in this direction they have as yet +made no marked impression, and the forest stretches as far as +eye can reach. The glens grew more narrow and the trees +grander as the train proceeded. After two hours we arrived +at the present terminus, an inland town with the singular +name of Porus. No explanation is given of it in the local +handbooks; but I find a Porus among the companions of +Columbus, and it is probably an interesting relic of the first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +Spanish occupation. The railway had brought business. +Mule carts were going about, and waggons; omnibuses stood +in the yards, and there were stores of various kinds. But it +was all black. There was not a white face to be seen after +we left the station. One of my companions in the train was a +Cuban engineer, now employed upon the line; a refugee, I +conjectured, belonging to the beaten party in the late rebellion, +from the bitterness with which he spoke of the Spanish +administration.</p> + +<p>Porus is many hundred feet above the sea, in a hollow +where three valleys meet. Mandeville, to which I was bound, +was ten miles farther on, the road ascending all the way. A +carriage was waiting for me, but too small for my luggage. A +black boy offered to carry up a heavy bag for a shilling, a feat +which he faithfully and expeditiously performed. After climbing +a steep hill, we came out upon a rich undulating plateau, +long cleared and cultivated; green fields with cows feeding on +them; pretty houses standing in gardens; a Wesleyan station; +a Moravian station, with chapels and parsonages. The red +soil was mixed with crumbling lumps of white coral, a ready-made +and inexhaustible supply of manure. Great silk-cotton +trees towered up in lonely magnificence, the home of the +dreaded Jumbi—woe to the wretch who strikes an axe into +those sacred stems! Almonds, cedars, mangoes, gum trees +spread their shade over the road. Orange trees were everywhere; +sometimes in orchards, sometimes growing at their +own wild will in hedges and copse and thicket. Finally, at +the outskirts of a perfectly English village, we brought up at +the door of the lodging house kept by the justly celebrated +Miss Roy. The house, or cottage, stood at the roadside, at +the top of a steep flight of steps; a rambling one-story building, +from which rooms, creeper-covered, had been thrown out as +they were wanted. There was the universal green verandah +into which they all opened; and the windows looked out on +a large common, used of old, and perhaps now, as a race-course; +on wooded slopes, with sunny mansions dropped here +and there in openings among the woods; on farm buildings at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +intervals in the distance, surrounded by clumps of palms; and +beyond them ranges of mountains almost as blue as the sky +against which they were faintly visible. Miss Roy, the lady +and mistress of the establishment, came out to meet me: +middle-aged, with a touch of the black blood, but with a face +in which one places instant and sure dependence, shrewd, +quiet, sensible, and entirely good-humoured. A white-haired +brother, somewhat infirm and older than she, glided behind +her as her shadow. She attends to the business. His pride +is in his garden, where he has gathered a collection of rare +plants in admired disorder; the night-blowing cereus hanging +carelessly over a broken paling, and a palm, unique of its kind, +waving behind it. At the back were orange trees and plantains +and coffee bushes, with long-tailed humming birds flitting +about their nests among the branches. All kinds of delicacies, +from fruit and preserves to coffee, Miss Roy grows for her +visitors on her own soil, and prepares from the first stage to +the last with her own cunning hands.</p> + +<p>Having made acquaintance with the mistress, I strolled out +to look about me. After walking up the road for a quarter of +a mile, I found myself in an exact reproduction of a Warwickshire +hamlet before the days of railways and brick chimneys. +There were no elms to be sure—there were silk cotton-trees +and mangoes where the elms should have been; but there +were the boys playing cricket, and a market house, and a +modest inn, and a shop or two, and a blacksmith's forge with +a shed where horses were standing waiting their turn to be +shod. Across the green was the parish church, with its three +aisles and low square tower, in which hung an old peal of bells. +Parish stocks I did not observe, though, perhaps, I might have +had I looked for them; but there was a schoolhouse and parsonage, +and, withdrawn at a distance as of superior dignity, +what had once perhaps been the squire's mansion, when squire +and such-like had been the natural growth of the country. It +was as if a branch of the old tree had been carried over and +planted there ages ago, and as if it had taken root and become +an exact resemblance of the parent stock. The people had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +black faces; but even they, too, had shaped their manners on +the old English models. The men touched their hats respectfully +(as they eminently did not in Kingston and its environs). +The women smiled and curtsied, and the children looked shy +when one spoke to them. The name of slavery is a horror to +us; but there must have been something human and kindly +about it, too, when it left upon the character the marks of +courtesy and good breeding. I wish I could say as much for +the effect of modern ideas. The negroes in Mandeville were, +perhaps, as happy in their old condition as they have been +since their glorious emancipation, and some of them to this +day speak regretfully of a time when children did not die of +neglect; when the sick and the aged were taken care of, and +the strong and healthy were, at least, as well looked after as +their owner's cattle.</p> + +<p>Slavery could not last; but neither can the condition last +which has followed it. The equality between black and white +is a forced equality and not a real one, and nature in the long +run has her way, and readjusts in their proper relations what +theorists and philanthropists have disturbed.</p> + +<p>I was not Miss Roy's only guest. An American lady and +gentleman were staying there; he, I believe, for his health, as +the climate of Mandeville is celebrated. Americans, whatever +may be their faults, are always unaffected; and so are easy to +get on with. We dined together, and talked of the place and +its inhabitants. They had been struck like myself with the +manners of the peasants, which were something entirely new +to them. The lady said, and without expressing the least +disapproval, that she had fallen in with an old slave who told +her that, thanks to God, he had seen good times. 'He was +bred in a good home, with a master and mistress belonging to +him. What the master and mistress had the slaves had, and +there was no difference; and his master used to visit at King's +House, and his men were all proud of him. Yes, glory be to +God, he had seen good times.'</p> + +<p>In the evening we sat out in the verandah in the soft sweet +air, the husband and I smoking our cigars, and the lady not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +minding it. They had come to Mandeville, as we go to Italy, +to escape the New England winter. They had meant to stay +but a few days; they found it so charming that they had stayed +for many weeks. We talked on till twilight became night, and +then appeared a show of natural pyrotechnics which beat anything +of the kind which I had ever seen or read of: fireflies as +large as cockchafers flitting round us among the leaves of the +creepers, with two long antennæ, at the point of each of which +hangs out a blazing lanthorn. The unimaginative colonists call +them gig-lamps. Had Shakespeare ever heard of them, they +would have played round Ferdinand and Miranda in Prospero's +cave, and would have borne a fairer name. The light is bluish-green, +like a glowworm's, but immeasurably brighter; and we +could trace them far away glancing like spirits over the +meadows.</p> + +<p>I could not wonder that my new friends had been charmed +with the place. The air was exquisitely pure; the temperature +ten degrees below that of Kingston, never oppressively hot and +never cold; the forest scenery as beautiful as at Arden; and +Miss Roy's provision for us, rooms, beds, breakfasts, dinners, +absolutely without fault. If ever there was an inspired coffee +maker, Miss Roy was that person. The glory of Mandeville +is in its oranges. The worst orange I ate in Jamaica was +better than the best I ever ate in Europe, and the best oranges +of Jamaica are the oranges of Mandeville. New York has +found out their merits. One gentleman alone sent twenty +thousand boxes to New York last year, clearing a dollar on +each box; and this, as I said just now, when Nature is left to +produce what she pleases, and art has not begun to help her. +Fortunes larger than were ever made by sugar wait for any +man, and the blessings of the world along with it, who will set +himself to work at orange growing with skill and science in a +place where heat will not wither the trees, nor frosts, as in +Florida, bite off the blossoms. Yellow fever was never heard +of there, nor any dangerous epidemic, nor snake nor other +poisonous reptile. The droughts which parch the lowlands +are unknown, for an even rain falls all the year and the soil is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +always moist. I inquired with wonder why the unfortunate +soldiers who were perched among the crags at Newcastle were +not at Mandeville instead. I was told that water was the +difficulty; that there was no river or running stream there, and +that it had to be drawn from wells or collected into cisterns. +One must applaud the caution which the authorities have at +last displayed; but cattle thrive at Mandeville, and sheep, and +black men and women in luxuriant abundance. One would +like to know that the general who sold the Newcastle estate to +the Government was not the same person who was allowed to +report as to the capabilities of a spot which, to the common +observer, would seem as perfectly adapted for the purpose as +the other is detestable.</p> + +<p>A few English families were scattered about the neighbourhood, +among whom I made a passing acquaintance. They +had a lawn-tennis club in the village, which met once a week; +they drove in with their pony carriages; a lady made tea +under the trees; they had amusements and pleasant society +which cost nothing. They were not rich; but they were +courteous, simple, frank, and cordial.</p> + +<p>Mandeville is the centre of a district which all resembles it in +character and extends for many miles. It is famous for its +cattle as well as for its fruit, and has excellent grazing grounds. +Mr. ——, an officer of police, took me round with him one +morning. It was the old story. Though there were still a +few white proprietors left, they were growing fewer, and the +blacks were multiplying upon them. The smoke of their +clearances showed where they were at work. Many of them +are becoming well-to-do. We met them on the roads with +their carts and mules; the young ones armed, too, in some +instances with good double-barrelled muzzle-loaders. There +is no game to shoot, but to have a gun raises them in their +own estimation, and they like to be prepared for contingencies. +Mr. —— had a troublesome place of it. The negro peasantry +were good-humoured, he said, but not universally honest. +They stole cattle, and would not give evidence against each +other. If brought into court, they held a pebble in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +mouths, being under the impression that when they were so +provided perjury did not count. Their education was only +skin-deep, and the schools which the Government provided +had not touched their characters at all. Mr. ——'s duties +brought him in contact with the unfavourable specimens. I +received a far pleasanter impression from a Moravian minister, +who called on me with a friend who had lately taken a farm. +I was particularly glad to see this gentleman, for of the +Moravians everyone had spoken well to me. He was not the +least enthusiastic about his poor black sheep, but he said that, +if they were not better than the average English labourers, he +did not think them worse. They were called idle. They +would work well enough if they had fair wages, and if the +wages were paid regularly; but what could be expected when +women servants had but three shillings a week and 'found +themselves,' when the men had but a shilling a day and the +pay was kept in arrear, in order that, if they came late to work, +or if they came irregularly, it might be kept back or cut down +to what the employer chose to give? Under such conditions +any man of any colour would prefer to work for himself if he +had a garden, or would be idle if he had none. 'Living' costs +next to nothing either to them or their families. But the +minister said, and his friend confirmed it by his own experience, +that these same fellows would work regularly and faithfully for +any master whom they personally knew and could rely upon, +and no Englishman coming to settle there need be afraid of +failing for want of labour, if he had sense and energy, and did +not prefer to lie down and groan. The blacks, my friends said, +were kindly hearted, respectful, and well-disposed, but they +were children; easily excited, easily tempted, easily misled, +and totally unfit for self-government. If we wished to ruin +them altogether, we should persevere in the course to which, +they were sorry to hear, we were so inclined. The real want +in the island was of intelligent Englishmen to employ and +direct them, and Englishmen were going away so fast that +they feared there would soon be none of them left. This +was the opinion of two moderate and excellent men, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +natural and professional prejudices were all on the black man's +side.</p> + +<p>It was confirmed both in its favourable and unfavourable +aspects by another impartial authority. My first American +acquaintances had gone, but their rooms were occupied by +another of their countrymen, a specimen of a class of whom +more will be heard in Jamaica if the fates are kind. The +English in the island cast in their lot with sugar, and if sugar +is depressed they lose heart. Americans keep their 'eyes +skinned,' as they call it, to look out for other openings. They +have discovered, as I said, 'that there are dollars in Jamaica,' +and one has come, and has set up a trade in plantains, in +which he is making a fortune; and this gentleman has perceived +that there were 'dollars in the bamboo,' and for +bamboos there was no place in the world like the West Indies. +He came to Jamaica, brought machines to clear the fibre, tried +to make ropes of it, to make canvas, paper, and I know not +what. I think he told me that he had spent a quarter of a +million dollars, instead of finding any, before he hit upon a +paying use for it. The bamboo fibre has certain elastic +incompressible properties in which it is without a rival. He +forms it into 'packing' for the boxes of the wheels of railway +carriages, where it holds oil like a sponge, never hardens, and +never wears out. He sends the packing over the world, and +the demand grows as it is tried. He has set up a factory, +thirty miles from Mandeville, in the valley of the Black River. +He has a large body of the negroes working for him who are +said to be so unmanageable. He, like Dr. Nicholls in +Dominica, does not find them unmanageable at all. They +never leave him; they work for him from year to year as +regularly as if they were slaves. They have their small +faults, but he does not magnify them into vices. They are +attached to him with the old-fashioned affection which good +labourers always feel for employers whom they respect, and +dismissal is dreaded as the severest of punishments. In +the course of time he thought that they might become +fit for political privileges. To confer such privileges on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +them at present would fling Jamaica back into absolute +barbarism.</p> + +<p>I said I wished that more of his countrymen would come +and settle in Jamaica as he had done and a few others already. +American energy would be like new blood in the veins of the +poor island. He answered that many would probably come +if they could be satisfied that there would be no more political +experimenting; but they would not risk their capital if there +was a chance of a black parliament.</p> + +<p>If we choose to make Jamaica into a Hayti, we need not +look for Americans down that way.</p> + +<p>Let us hope that enthusiasm for constitutions will for once +moderate its ardour. The black race has suffered enough at our +hands. They have been sacrificed to slavery; are they to be +sacrificed again to a dream or a doctrine? There has a new +creed risen, while the old creed is failing. It has its priests +and its prophets, its formulas and its articles of belief.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary +that he hold the Radical faith.</p> + +<p>And the Radical faith is this: all men are equal, and the +voice of one is as the voice of another.</p> + +<p>And whereas one man is wise and another foolish, and one +is upright and another crooked, yet in this suffrage none is +greater or less than another. The vote is equal, the dignity +co-eternal.</p> + +<p>Truth is one and right is one; yet right is right because the +majority so declare it, and justice is justice because the +majority so declare it.</p> + +<p>And if the majority affirm one thing to-day, that is right; +and if the majority affirm the opposite to-morrow, that is +right.</p> + +<p>Because the will of the majority is the ground of right and +there is no other, &c. &c. &c.</p> + +<p>This is the Radical faith, which, except every man do keep +whole and undefiled, he is a Tory and an enemy of the State, +and without doubt shall perish everlastingly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> + +<p>Once the Radical was a Liberal and went for toleration and +freedom of opinion. He has become a believer now. He is +right and you are wrong, and if you do not agree with him you +are a fool, and you are wicked besides. Voltaire says that +atheism and superstition are the two poles of intellectual +disease. Superstition he thinks the worse of the two. The +atheist is merely mistaken, and can be cured if you show him +that he is wrong. The fanatic can never be cured. Yet each +alike, if he prevails, will destroy human society. What would +Voltaire have expected for poor mankind had he seen both +the precious qualities combined in this new <i>Symbolum +Fidei</i>?</p> + +<p>A creed is not a reasoned judgment based upon experience +and insight. It is a child of imagination and passion. Like +an organised thing, it has its appointed period and then dies. +You cannot argue it out of existence. It works for good; it +works for evil; but work it will while the life is in it. Faith, +we are told, is not contradictory to reason, but is above reason. +Whether reason or faith sees truer, events will prove.</p> + +<p>One more observation this American gentleman made to me. +He was speaking of the want of spirit and of the despondency of +the West Indian whites. 'I never knew, sir,' he said, 'any +good come of desponding men. If you intend to strike a +mark, you had better believe that you can strike it. No one +ever hit anything if he thought that he was most likely to miss +it. You must take a cheerful view of things, or you will +have no success in this world.'</p> + +<p>'Tyne heart tyne a',' the Scotch proverb says. The Anglo-West +Indians are tyning heart, and that is the worst feature +about them. They can get no help except in themselves, and +they can help themselves after all if we allow them fair play. +The Americans will not touch them politically, but they will +trade with them; they will bring their capital and their skill +and knowledge among them, and make the islands richer and +more prosperous than ever they were—on one condition: +they will risk nothing in such enterprises as long as the shadow +hangs over them of a possible government by a black majority.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +Let it suffice to have created one Ireland without deliberately +manufacturing a second.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Jamaican hospitality—Cherry Garden—George William Gordon—The +Gordon riots—Governor Eyre—A dispute and its consequences—Jamaican +country-house society—Modern speculation—A Spanish +fable—Port Royal—The commodore—Naval theatricals—The modern +sailor.</p></div> + + +<p>The surviving representatives of the Jamaican gentry are as +hospitable as their fathers and grandfathers used to be. An +English visitor who wishes to see the island is not allowed +to take his chance at hotels—where, indeed, his chance would +be a bad one. A single acquaintance is enough to start with. +He is sent on with letters of introduction from one house to +another, and is assured of a favourable reception. I was +treated as kindly as any stranger would be, and that was as +kindly as possible. But friends do not ask us to stay with +them that their portraits may be drawn in the traveller's +journals; and I mention no one who was thus good to me, unless +some general interest attaches either to himself or his +residence. Such interest does, however, attach to a spot +where, after leaving Mandeville, I passed a few days. The +present owner of it was the chief manager of the Kingston +branch of the Colonial Bank: a clever accomplished man of +business, who understood the financial condition of the West +Indies better perhaps than any other man living. He was a +botanist besides; he had a fine collection of curious plants +which were famous in the island; and was otherwise a gentleman +of the highest standing and reputation. His lady was +one of the old island aristocracy—high-bred, cultivated, an accomplished +artist; a person who would have shone anywhere +and in any circle, and was, therefore, contented to be herself, +and indifferent whether she shone or not. A visit in such +a family was likely to be instructive, and was sure to be agree<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>able; +and on these grounds alone I should have accepted +gratefully the opportunity of knowing them better which they +kindly made for me by an invitation to stay with them. But +their place, which was called Cherry Garden, and which I had +seen from the grounds at Government House, had a further +importance of its own in having been the home of the unfortunate +George William Gordon.</p> + +<p>The disturbances with which Mr. Gordon was connected, +and for his share in which he was executed, are so recent and +so notorious that I need give no detailed account of them, +though, of course, I looked into the history again and listened +to all that I could hear about it. Though I had taken no +part in Mr. Eyre's defence, I was one of those who thought +from the first that Mr. Eyre had been unworthily sacrificed to +public clamour. Had the agitation in Jamaica spread, and +taken the form which it easily might have taken, he would +have been blamed as keenly by one half the world if he had +done nothing to check it as he was blamed, in fact, by the +other for too much energy. Carlyle used to say that it was as +if, when a ship had been on fire, and the captain by skill and +promptitude had put the fire out, his owner were to say to +him, 'Sir, you poured too much water down the hold and +damaged the cargo.' The captain would answer, 'Yes, sir, +but I have saved your ship.' This was the view which I carried +with me to Jamaica, and I have brought it back with me +the same in essentials, though qualified by clearer perceptions +of the real nature of the situation.</p> + +<p>Something of a very similar kind had happened in Natal +just before I visited that colony in 1874. I had seen the +whites there hardly recovering from a panic in which a +common police case had been magnified by fear into the +beginning of an insurrection. Langalibalele, a Caffre chief +within the British dominions, had been insubordinate. He +had been sent for to Maritzberg, and had invented excuses +for disobedience to a lawful order. The whites believed at +once that there was to be a general Caffre rebellion in which +they would all be murdered. They resolved to be beforehand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +with it. They carried fire and sword through two considerable +tribes. At first they thought that they had covered themselves +with glory; calmer reflection taught many of them that +perhaps they had been too hasty, and that Langalibalele had +never intended to rebel at all. The Jamaican disturbance +was of a similar kind. Mr. Gordon had given less provocation +than the Caffre chief, but the circumstances were +analogous, and the actual danger was probably greater. +Jamaica had then constitutional, though not what is called +responsible, government. The executive power remained +with the Crown. There had been differences of opinion +between the governor and the Assembly. Gordon, a man of +colour, was a prominent member of the opposition. He had +called public meetings of the blacks in a distant part of +the island, and was endeavouring to bring the pressure of +public opinion on the opposition side. Imprudent as such a +step might have been among an ignorant and excitable population, +where whites and blacks were so unequal in numbers, +and where they knew so little of each other, Mr. Gordon +was not going beyond what in constitutional theory he was +legally entitled to do; nor was his language on the platform, +though violent and inflammatory, any more so than what +we listen to patiently at home. Under a popular constitution +the people are sovereign; the members of the assemblies +are popular delegates; and when there is a diversion of +opinion any man has a right to call the constituencies to +express their sentiments. If stones were thrown at the police +and seditious cries were raised, it was no more than might +be reasonably expected.</p> + +<p>We at home can be calm on such occasions because we +know that there is no real danger, and that the law is strong +enough to assert itself. In Jamaica a few thousand white +people were living in the middle of negroes forty times their +number—once their slaves, now raised to be their political +equals—each regarding the other on the least provocation +with resentment and suspicion. In England the massacre +in Hayti is a half-forgotten story. Not one person in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +thousand of those who clamoured for the prosecution of +Governor Eyre had probably ever heard of it. In Jamaica it is +ever present in the minds of the Europeans as a frightful +evidence of what the negroes are capable when roused to +frenzy. The French planters had done nothing particularly +cruel to deserve their animosity, and were as well regarded +by their slaves as ever we had been in the English islands. +Yet in a fever of political excitement, and as a reward for the +decree of the Paris Revolutionary Government, which declared +them free, they allowed the liberty which was to have +elevated them to the white man's level to turn them into +devils; and they massacred the whole of the French inhabitants. +It was inevitable that when the volcano in Jamaica began +to show symptoms of similar activity the whites residing +there should be unable to look on with the calmness which we, +from thousands of miles away, unreasonably expected of +them. They imagined their houses in flames, and themselves +and their families at the mercy of a furious mob. No +personal relation between the two races has grown up to take +the place of slavery. The white gentry have blacks for +labourers, blacks for domestic servants, yet as a rule (though, +of course, there are exceptions) they have no interest in each +other, no esteem nor confidence: therefore any symptom of +agitation is certain to produce a panic, and panic is always +violent.</p> + +<p>The blacks who attended Gordon's meetings came armed +with guns and cutlasses; a party of white volunteers went in +consequence to watch them, and to keep order if they showed +signs of meaning insurrection. Stones were thrown; the Riot +Act was read, more stones followed, and then the volunteers +fired, and several persons were killed. Of course there was +fury. The black mob then actually did rise. They marched +about that particular district destroying plantations and burning +houses. That they did so little, and that the flame did not +spread, was a proof that there was no premeditation of rebellion, +no prepared plan of action, no previous communication +between the different parts of the island with a view to any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +common movement. There was no proof, and there was no +reason to suppose, that Gordon had intended an armed outbreak. +He would have been a fool if he had, when constitutional +agitation and the weight of numbers at his back would +have secured him all that he wanted. When inflammable materials +are brought together, and sparks are flying, you cannot +equitably distribute the blame or the punishment. Eyre +was responsible for the safety of the island. He was not a +Jamaican. The rule in the colonial service is that a governor +remains in any colony only long enough to begin to understand +it. He is then removed to another of which he knows +nothing. He is therefore absolutely dependent in any difficulty +upon local advice. When the riots began every white +man in Jamaica was of one opinion, that unless the fire was +stamped out promptly they would all be murdered. Being +without experience himself, it was very difficult for Mr. Eyre +to disregard so complete a unanimity. I suppose that a perfectly +calm and determined man would have seen in the +unanimity itself the evidence of alarm and imagination. He +ought perhaps to have relied entirely on the police and the +regular troops, and to have called in the volunteers. But here +again was a difficulty; for the police were black, and the +West India regiments were black, and the Sepoy rebellion +was fresh in everybody's memory. He had no time +to deliberate. He had to act, and to act promptly; and +if, relying on his own judgment, he had disregarded what +everyone round him insisted upon, and if mischief had afterwards +come of it, the censure which would have fallen upon +him would have been as severe as it would have been deserved. +He assumed that the English colonists were right and that a +general rebellion had begun. They all armed. They formed +into companies. The disturbed district was placed under +martial law, and these extemporised regiments, too few in +number to be merciful, saw safety only in striking terror into +the poor wretches. It was in Jamaica as it was in Natal afterwards; +but we must allow for human nature and not be hasty +to blame. If the rising at Morant Bay was but the boiling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> +over of a pot from the orator of an excited patriot, there was +deplorable cruelty and violence. But, again, it was all too +natural. Men do not bear easily to see their late servants on +their way to become their political masters, and they believe +the worst of them because they are afraid. A model governor +would have rather restrained their ardour than encouraged it; +but all that can be said against Mr. Eyre (so far as regarded +the general suppression of the insurgents) is that he acted as +nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand would +have acted in his place, and more ought not to be expected of +average colonial governors.</p> + +<p>His treatment of Gordon, the original cause of the disturbance, +was more questionable. Gordon had returned to his +own house, the house where I was going, within sight of Eyre's +windows. It would have been fair, and perhaps right, to +arrest him, and right also to bring him to trial, if he had committed +any offence for which he could be legally punished. +So strong was the feeling against him that, if every white man +in Kingston had been empannelled, there would have been a +unanimous verdict, and they would not have looked too closely +into niceties of legal construction. Unfortunately it was +doubtful whether Gordon had done anything which could be +construed into a capital crime. He had a right to call public +meetings together. He had a right to appeal to political passions, +and to indulge as freely as he pleased in the patriotic +commonplaces of platforms, provided he did not himself +advise or encourage a breach of the peace, and this it could +not be easily proved that he had done. He was, however, the +leader of the opposition to the Government. The opposition +had broken into a riot, and Gordon was guilty of having excited +the feelings which led to it. The leader could not be +allowed to escape unpunished while his followers were being +shot and flogged. The Kingston district where he resided +was under the ordinary law. Eyre sent him into the district +which was under martial law, tried him by a military court and +hanged him.</p> + +<p>The Cabinet at home at first thanked their representative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +for having saved the island. A clamour rose, and they sent +out a commission to examine into what had happened. The +commission reported unfavourably, and Eyre was dismissed +and ruined. In Jamaica I never heard anyone express a +doubt on the full propriety of his action. He carried away +with him the affection and esteem of the whole of the English +colonists, who believe that he saved them from destruction. +In my own opinion the fault was not in Mr. Eyre, and was +not in the unfortunate Gordon, but in those who had insisted +on applying a constitutional form of government to a country +where the population is so unfavourably divided. If the +numbers of white and black were more nearly equal, the +objection would be less, for the natural superiority of the white +would then assert itself without difficulty, and there would be +no panics. Where the disproportion is so enormous as it is in +Jamaica, where intelligence and property are in a miserable +minority, and a half-reclaimed race of savages, cannibals not +long ago, and capable, as the state of Hayti shows, of reverting +to cannibalism again, are living beside them as their +political equals, such panics arise from the nature of things, +and will themselves cause the catastrophe from the dread of +which they spring. Mutual fear and mistrust can lead to +nothing in the end but violent collisions. The theory of constitutional +government is that the majority shall rule the +minority, and as long as the qualities, moral and mental, of +the parties are not grossly dissimilar, such an arrangement +forms a tolerable <i>modus vivendi</i>. Where in character, in +mental force, in energy, in cultivation, there is no equality at +all, but an inequality which has existed for thousands of years, +and is as plain to-day as it was in the Egypt of the Pharaohs, +to expect that the intelligent few will submit to the unintelligent +many is to expect what has never been found and what +never ought to be found. The whites cannot be trusted to +rule the blacks, but for the blacks to rule the whites is a yet +grosser anomaly. Were England out of the way, there would +be a war of extermination between them. England prohibits +it, and holds the balance in forced equality. England, there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>fore, +so long as the West Indies are English, must herself rule, +and rule impartially, and so acquit herself of her self-chosen +responsibilities. Let the colonies which are occupied by our +own race rule themselves as we rule ourselves. The English +constituencies have no rights over the constituencies of +Canada and Australia, for the Canadians and Australians are +as well able to manage their own affairs as we are to manage +ours. If they prefer even to elect governors of their own, let +them do as they please. The link between us is community +of blood and interest, and will not part over details of administration. +But in these other colonies which are our own we +must accept the facts as they are. Those who will not recognise +realities are always beaten in the end.</p> + +<p>The train from Porus brought us back to Kingston an hour +before sunset. The evening was lovely, even for Jamaica. +The sea breeze had fallen. The land breeze had not risen, +and the dust lay harmless on road and hedge. Cherry Garden, +to which I was bound, was but seven miles distant by the +direct road, so I calculated on a delightful drive which would +bring me to my destination before dark. So I calculated; +but alas! for human expectation. I engaged a 'buggy' at +the station, with a decent-looking conductor, who assured me +that he knew the way to Cherry Garden as well as to his own +door. His horse looked starved and miserable. He insisted +that there was not another in Kingston that was more than a +match for it. We set out, and for the first two or three miles +we went on well enough, conversing amicably upon things in +general. But it so happened that it was again market day. +The road was thronged as before with women plodding along +with their baskets on their heads, a single male on a donkey +to each detachment of them, carrying nothing, like an officer +with a company of soldiers. Foolish indignation rose in me, +and I asked my friend if he was not ashamed of seeing the +poor creatures toiling so cruelly, while their lords and masters +amused themselves. I appealed to his feelings as a man, as +if it was likely that he had got any. The wretch only laughed. +'Ah, massa,' he said, with his tongue in his cheek, 'women do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +women's work, men do men's work—all right.' 'And what is +men's work?' I asked. Instead of answering he went on, +'Look at they women, massa—how they laugh—how happy +they be! Nobody more happy than black woman, massa.' +I would not let him off. I pricked into him, till he got excited +too, and we argued and contradicted each other, till at last the +horse, finding he was not attended to, went his own way and +that was a wrong one. Between Kingston and our destination +there is a deep sandy flat, overgrown with bush and penetrated +in all directions with labyrinthine lanes. Into this we had +wandered in our quarrels, and neither of us knew where we +were. The sand was loose; our miserable beast was above his +fetlocks in it, and was visibly dropping under his efforts to +drag us along even at a walk. The sun went down. The +tropic twilight is short. The evening star shone out in the +west, and the crescent moon over our heads. My man said this +and said that; every word was a lie, for he had lost his way and +would not allow it. We saw a light through some trees. I +sent him to inquire. We were directed one way and another +way, every way except the right one. We emerged at last +upon a hard road of some kind. The stars told me the +general direction. We came to cottages where the name of +Cherry Garden was known, and we were told that it was two +miles off; but alas! again there were two roads to it; a short +and good one, and a long and bad one, and they sent us by +the last. There was a steep hill to climb, for the house is 800 +feet above the sea. The horse could hardly crawl, and my +'nigger' went to work to flog him to let off his own ill humour. +I had to stop that by force, and at last, as it grew too dark to +see the road under the trees, I got out and walked, leaving +him to follow at a foot's pace. The night was lovely. I began +to think that we should have to camp out after all, and that it +would be no great hardship.</p> + +<p>It was like the gloaming of a June night in England, the +daylight in the open spots not entirely gone, and mixing softly +with the light of moon and planet and the flashing of the +fireflies. I plodded on mile after mile, and Cherry Garden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +still receded to one mile farther. We came to a gate of some +consequence. The outline of a large mansion was visible with +gardens round it. I concluded that we had arrived, and was +feeling for the latch when the forms of a lady and gentleman +appeared against the sky who were strolling in the grounds. +They directed me still upwards, with the mile which never +diminished still to be travelled. Like myself, our weary +animal had gathered hopes from the sight of the gate. He +had again to drag on as he could. His owner was subdued +and silent, and obeyed whatever order I gave him. The trees +now closed over us so thick that I could see nothing. Vainly +I repented of my unnecessary philanthropy which had been +the cause of the mischief; what had I to do with black +women, or white either for that matter? I had to feel the +way with my feet and a stick. I came to a place where the +lane again divided. I tried the nearest turn. I found a +trench across it three feet deep, which had been cut by a +torrent. This was altogether beyond the capacity of our +unfortunate animal, so I took the other boldly, prepared if it +proved wrong to bivouac till morning with my 'nigger,' and +go on with my argument. Happily there was no need; we +came again on a gate which led into a field. There was a +drive across it and wire fences. Finally lights began to +glimmer and dogs to bark: we were at the real Cherry Garden +at last, and found the whole household alarmed for what had +become of us. I could not punish my misleader by stinting +his fare, for I knew that I had only myself to blame. He was +an honest fellow after all. In the disturbance of my mind +I left a rather valuable umbrella in his buggy. He discovered +it after he had gone, and had grace enough to see that it was +returned to me.</p> + +<p>My entertainers were much amused at the cause of the misadventure, +perhaps unique of its kind; to address homilies to +the black people on the treatment of their wives not being the +fashion in these parts.</p> + +<p>If there are no more Aaron Bangs in Jamaica, there are very +charming people; as I found when I turned this new leaf in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +my West Indian experience. Mr. M—— could not have +taken more pains with me if I had been his earliest friend. +The chief luxury which he allowed himself in his simple life +was a good supply of excellent horses. His business took him +every day to Kingston, but he left me in charge of his family, +and I had 'a good time,' as the Americans say. The house +was large, with fine airy rooms, a draught so constantly blowing +through it that the candles had to be covered with bell glasses; +but the draughts in these countries are the very breath of life. +It had been too dark when I arrived to see anything of the +surroundings, and the next morning I strolled out to see what +the place was like. It lies just at the foot of the Blue Mountains, +where the gradual slope from the sea begins to become +steep. The plain of Kingston lay stretched before me, with +its woods and cornfields and villas, the long straggling town, +the ships at anchor in the harbour, the steamers passing in and +out with their long trails of smoke, the sand-spit like a thin grey +line lying upon the water, as the natural breakwater by which +the harbour is formed, and beyond it the broad blue expanse +of the Caribbean Sea. The foreground was like an English +park, studded over with handsome forest trees and broken by +the rains into picturesque ravines. Some acres were planted +with oranges of the choicer sorts, as an experiment to show +what Jamaica could do, but they were as yet young and had +not come into bearing. Round the house were gardens where +the treasures of our hot-houses were carelessly and lavishly +scattered. Stephanotis trailed along the railing or climbed +over the trellis. Oleanders white and pink waved over marble +basins, and were sprinkled by the spray from spouting fountains. +Crotons stood about in tubs, not small plants as we know +them, but large shrubs; great purple or parti-coloured bushes. +They have a fancy for crotons in the West Indies; I suppose +as a change from the monotony of green. I cannot share it. +A red leaf, except in autumn before it falls, is a kind of +monster, and I am glad that Nature has made so few of them. +In the shade of the trees behind the house was a collection of +orchids, the most perfect, I believe, in the island.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/image0008.jpg" alt="KINGSTON AND HARBOUR FROM CHERRY GARDEN." title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption">KINGSTON AND HARBOUR FROM CHERRY GARDEN.</span> +</div> + +<p>And here Gordon had lived. Here he had been arrested +and carried away to his death; his crime being that he had +dreamt of regenerating the negro race by baptising them in +the Jordan of English Radicalism. He would have brought +about nothing but confusion, and have precipitated Jamaica +prematurely into the black anarchy into which perhaps it +is still destined to fall. But to hang him was an extreme +measure, and, in the present state of public opinion, a +dangerous one.</p> + +<p>One does not associate the sons of darkness with keen +perceptions of the beautiful. Yet no mortal ever selected a +lovelier spot for a residence than did Gordon in choosing +Cherry Garden. How often had his round dark eyes wandered +over the scenes at which I was gazing, watched the +early rays of the sun slanting upwards to the high peaks of +the Blue Mountains, or the last as he sank in gold and +crimson behind the hills at Mandeville; watched the great +steamers entering or leaving Port Royal, and at night the +gleam of the lighthouse from among the palm trees on the +spit. Poor fellow! one felt very sorry for him, and sorry +for Mr. Eyre, too. The only good that came of it all was +the surrender of the constitution and the return to Crown +government, and this our wonderful statesmen are beginning +to undo.</p> + +<p>No one understood better than Mr. M—— the troubles +and dangers of the colony, but he was inclined, perhaps by +temperament, perhaps by knowledge, to take a cheerful view +of things. For the present at least he did not think that +there was anything serious to be feared. The finances, of +which he had the best means of judging, were in tolerable +condition. The debt was considerable, but more than half +of it was represented by a railway. If sugar was languishing, +the fruit trade with the United States was growing with the +liveliest rapidity. Planters and merchants were not making +fortunes, but business went on. The shares in the Colonial +Bank were not at a high quotation, but the securities were +sound, the shareholders got good dividends, and eight and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +ten per cent. was the interest charged on loans. High +interest might be a good sign or a bad one. Anyway Mr. +M—— could not see that there was much to be afraid of +in Jamaica. There had been bad times before, and they +had survived notwithstanding. He was a man of business, +and talked himself little about politics. As it had been, so it +would be again.</p> + +<p>In his absence at his work I found friends in the neighbourhood +who were all attention and politeness. One took +me to see my acquaintances at the camp again. Another +drove me about, showed me the house where Scott had +lived, the author of 'Tom Cringle.' One round in particular +left a distinct impression. It was through a forest which +had once been a flourishing sugar estate. Deep among the +trees were the ruins of an aqueduct which had brought water +to the mill, now overgrown and crumbling. The time had +not been long as we count time in the history of nations, but +there had been enough for the arches to fall in, the stream to +return to its native bed, the tropical vegetation to spring up in +its wild luxuriance and bury in shade the ruins of a past +civilisation.</p> + +<p>I fell in with interesting persons who talked metaphysics +and theology with me, though one would not have expected +it in Jamaica. In this strange age of ours the spiritual +atmosphere is more confused than at any period during the +last eighteen hundred years. Men's hearts are failing them +for fear, not knowing any longer where to rest. We look this +way and that way, and catch at one another like drowning +men. Go where you will, you find the same phenomena. +Science grows, and observers are adding daily to our knowledge +of the nature and structure of the material universe, +but they tell us nothing, and can tell us nothing, of what we +most want to know. They cannot tell us what our own +nature is. They cannot tell us what God is, or what duty is. +We had a belief once, in which, as in a boat, we floated safely +on the unknown ocean; but the philosophers and critics +have been boring holes in the timbers to examine the texture<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +of the wood, and now it leaks at every one of them. We +have to help ourselves in the best way that we can. Some +strike out new ideas for themselves, others go back to the +seven sages, and lay again for themselves the old eggs, which, +after laborious incubation, will be addled as they were addled +before. To my metaphysical friends in Jamaica the 'Light +of Asia' had been shining amidst German dreams, and the +moonlight of the Vedas had been illuminating the pessimism +of Schopenhauer. So it is all round. Mr. —— goes to +Mount Carmel to listen for communications from Elijah; +fashionable countesses to the shrine of Our Lady at Lourdes. +'Are you a Buddhist?' lisps the young lady in Mayfair to +the partner with whom she is sitting out at a ball. 'It is so +nice,' said a gentleman to me who has been since promoted +to high office in an unfortunate colony, 'it is so nice to talk +of such things to pretty girls, and it always ends in one way, +you know.' Conversations on theology, at least between +persons of opposite sex, ought to be interdicted by law for +everyone under forty. But there are questions on which old +people may be permitted to ask one another what they think, +if it only be for mutual comfort in the general vacancy. We +are born alone, we pass alone into the great darkness. When +the curtain falls is the play over? or is a new act to commence? +Are we to start again in a new sphere, carrying +with us what we have gained in the discipline of our earthly +trials? Are we to become again as we were before we came +into this world, when eternity had not yet splintered into +time, or the universal being dissolved into individual existences? +For myself, I have long ceased to speculate on these +subjects, being convinced that they have no bottom which +can be reasoned out by the intellect. We are in a world +where much can be learnt which affects our own and others' +earthly welfare, and we had better leave the rest alone. Yet +one listens and cannot choose but sympathise when anxious +souls open out to you what is going on within them. A +Spanish legend, showing with whom these inquiries began and +with what result, is not without its value.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> + +<p>Jupiter, having made the world, proceeded to make animals +to live in it. The ass was the earliest created. He looked +about him. He looked at himself; and, as the habit of asses +is, he asked himself what it all meant; what it was to be an +ass, where did he come from, and what he was for? Not +being able to discover, he applied to his maker. Jupiter told +him that he was made to be the slave of another animal to be +called Man. He was to carry men on his back, drag loads +for them, and be their drudge. He was to live on thistles +and straw, and to be beaten continually with sticks and ropes'-ends. +The ass complained. He said that he had done +nothing to deserve so hard a fate. He had not asked to be +born, and he would rather not have been born. He inquired +how long this life, or whatever it was, had to continue. +Jupiter said it had to last thirty years. The poor ass was in +consternation. If Jupiter would reduce the thirty to ten he +undertook to be patient, to be a good servant, and to do his +work patiently. Jupiter reflected and consented, and the ass +retired grateful and happy.</p> + +<p>The dog, who had been born meanwhile, heard what had +passed. He, too, went to Jupiter with the same question. +He learnt that he also was a slave to men. In the day he was +to catch their game for them, but was not to eat it himself. +At night he was to be chained by a ring and to lie awake to +guard their houses. His food was to be bones and refuse. +Like the ass he was to have had thirty years of it, but on petition +they were similarly exchanged for ten.</p> + +<p>The monkey came next. His function, he was told, was +to mimic humanity, to be led about by a string, and +grimace and dance for men's amusement. He also +remonstrated at the length of time, and obtained the same +favour.</p> + +<p>Last came the man himself. Conscious of boundless desires +and, as he imagined, of boundless capabilities, he did not +inquire what he was, or what he was to do. Those questions +had been already answered by his vanity. He did not come +to ask for anything, but to thank Jupiter for having created so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +glorious a being and to ascertain for how many ages he might +expect to endure. The god replied that thirty years was the +term allotted to all personal existences.</p> + +<p>'Only thirty years!' he exclaimed. 'Only thirty years for +such capacities as mine. Thirty years will be gone like a dream. +Extend them! oh, extend them, gracious Jupiter, that I may +have leisure to use the intellect which thou hast given me, +search into the secrets of nature, do great and glorious actions, +and serve and praise thee, O my creator! longer and more +worthily.'</p> + +<p>The lip of the god curled lightly, and again he acquiesced. +'I have some spare years to dispose of,' he said, 'of which +others of my creatures have begged to be relieved. You shall +have thirty years of your own. From thirty to fifty you shall +have the ass's years, and labour and sweat for your support. +From fifty to seventy you shall have the dog's years, and take +care of the stuff, and snarl and growl at what younger men are +doing. From seventy to ninety you shall have the monkey's +years, and smirk and grin and make yourself ridiculous. After +that you may depart.'</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I was going on to Cuba. The commodore had insisted on +my spending my last days with him at Port Royal. He undertook +to see me on board the steamer as it passed out of the +harbour. I have already described his quarters. The naval +station has no colonial character except the climate, and is +English entirely. The officers are the servants of the +Admiralty, not of the colonial government. Their interests +are in their profession. They look to promotion in other +parts of the world, and their functions are on the ocean and +not on the land. The commodore is captain of the guardship; +but he has a commander under him and he resides on shore. +Everyone employed in the dockyard, even down to his own +household, is rated on the ship's books, consequently they are all +men. There is not a woman servant about the place, save his +lady's ladies'-maid. His daughters learn to take care of themselves, +and are not brought up to find everything done for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +them. His boys are about the world in active service growing +into useful and honourable manhood.</p> + +<p>Thus the whole life tastes of the element to which it belongs, +and is salt and healthy as the ocean itself. It was not without +its entertainments. The officers of the garrison were to give +a ball. The young ladies of Kingston are not afraid of the +water, cross the harbour in the steam launches, dance till the +small hours, return in the dark, drive their eight or ten miles +home, and think nothing of it. In that climate, night is +pleasanter to be abroad in than day. I could not stay to be +present, but I was in the midst of the preparations, and one +afternoon there was a prospect of a brilliant addition to the +party. A yacht steamed inside the Point—long, narrow, +and swift as a torpedo boat. She carried American colours, +and we heard that she was the famous vessel of the yet more +famous Mr. Vanderbilt, who was on board with his family. +Here was an excitement! The commodore was ordered to +call the instant that she was anchored. Invitations were prepared—all +was eagerness. Alas! she did not anchor at all. +She learnt from the pilot that, the small-pox being in Jamaica, +if any of her people landed there she would be quarantined in +the other islands, and to the disappointment of everyone, even +of myself, who would gladly have seen the great millionaire, +she turned about and went off again to sea.</p> + +<p>I was very happy at the commodore's—low spirits not being +allowed in that wholesome element. Decks were washed every +morning as if at sea, i.e. every floor was scrubbed and scoured. +It was an eternal washing day, lines of linen flying in the brisk +sea breeze. The commodore was always busy making work if +none had been found for him. He took me one day to see +the rock spring where Rodney watered his fleet, as the great +admiral describes in one of his letters, and from which Port +Royal now draws its supply. The spring itself bursts full and +clear out of the limestone rock close to the shore, four or five +miles from Kingston. There is a natural basin, slightly +improved by art, from which the old conduit pipes carry the +stream to the sea. The tug comes daily, fills its tanks, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +returns. The commodore has tidied up the place, planted +shrubs, and cleared away the bush; but half the water at least, +is still allowed to leak away, and turns the hollow below into an +unwholesome swamp. It may be a necessity, but it is also a +misfortune, that the officers at distant stations hold their +appointments for so short a term. By the time that they have +learnt what can or ought to be done, they are sent elsewhere, +and their successor has to begin over again. The water in this +spring, part of which is now worse than wasted and the rest +carried laboriously in a vessel to Port Royal to be sold by +measure to the people there, might be all conducted thither by +pipes at small cost and trouble, were the commodore to remain +a few years longer at the Jamaica Station.</p> + +<p>He is his own boatman, and we had some fine sails +about the lagoon—the breeze always fresh and the surface +always smooth. The shallow bays swarm with small fish, and +it was a pretty thing to watch the pelicans devouring them. +They gather in flocks, sweep and wheel in the air, and when +they plunge they strike the water with a violence which one +would expect would break their wings. They do not dive, +but seize their prey with their long, broad bills, and seem +never to miss.</p> + +<p>Between the ships and the barracks, there are many single +men in Port Royal, for whom amusement has to be found if +they are to be kept from drink. A canteen is provided for +them, with bowling alley, tennis court, beer in moderation, and +a reading room, for such as like it, with reviews and magazines +and newspapers They can fish if they want sport, and there +are sharks in plenty a cable's length from shore; but the +schoolmaster has been abroad, and tastes run in more refined +directions. The blacks of Tobago acted 'The Merchant of +Venice' before Governor S——. The ships' companies of the +gunboats at Port Royal gave a concert while I was there. The +officers took no part, and left the men to manage it as they +pleased. The commodore brought his party; the garrison, +the crews of the other ships, and stray visitors came, and the +large room at the canteen was completely full. The taste of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +the audience was curious. Dibdin was off the boards altogether, +and favour was divided between the London popular comic song +and the sentimental—no longer with any flavour of salt about it, +but the sentimental spoony and sickly. 'She wore a wreath of +roses' called out the highest enthusiasm. One of the performers +recited a long poem of his own about Mary Stuart, +'the lovely and unfortunate.' Then followed the buffoonery; +and this was at least genuine rough and tumble if there was +little wit in it. A lad capered about on a tournament horse +which flung him every other moment. Various persons pretended +to be drunk, and talked and staggered as drunken men +do. Then there was a farce, how conceived and by what kind +of author I was puzzled to make out. A connoisseur of art +is looking for Greek antiques. He has heard that a statue +has recently been discovered of 'Ajax quarrelling with his +mother-in-law.' What Ajax was quarrelling about or who his +mother-in-law might be does not appear. A couple of rogues, +each unknown to the other, practise on the connoisseur's +credulity. Each promises him the statue; each dresses up a +confederate on a pedestal with a modern soldier's helmet and +a blanket to represent a Greek hero. The two figures are +shown to him. One of them, I forget how, contrived to pass +as Ajax; the other had turned into Hercules doing something +to the Stymphalides. At last they get tired of standing to be +looked at, jump down, and together knock over the connoisseur. +Ajax then turns on Hercules, who, of course, is ready for a +row. They fight till they are tired, and then make it up over +a whisky bottle.</p> + +<p>So entirely new an aspect of the British tar took me by +surprise, and I speculated whether the inventors and performers +of this astonishing drama were an advance on the +Ben Bunting type. I was, of course, inclined to say no, but +my tendency is to dislike changes, and I allow for it. The +commodore said that in certain respects there really was an +advance. The seamen fell into few scrapes, and they did not +get drunk so often. This was a hardy assertion of the commodore, +as a good many of them were drunk at that moment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +I could see myself that they were better educated. If Ben +Bunting had been asked who Ajax and Hercules were, he +would have taken them to be three-deckers which were so +named, and his knowledge would have gone no farther. +Whether these tars of the new era are better sailors and braver +and truer men is another question. They understand their +rights much better, if that does any good to them. The +officers used to be treated with respect at all times and +seasons. This is now qualified. When they are on duty, the +men are as respectful as they used to be; when they are off +duty, the commodore himself is only old H——.</p> + +<p>We returned to the dockyard in a boat under a full moon, +the guardship gleaming white in the blue midnight and the +phosphorescent water flashing under the oars. The 'Dee,' +which was to take me to Havana, was off Port Royal on +the following morning. The commodore put me on board +in his gig, with the white ensign floating over the stern. I +took leave of him with warm thanks for his own and his family's +hospitable entertainment of me. The screw went round—we +steamed away out of the harbour, and Jamaica and the kind +friends whom I had found there faded out of sight. Jamaica +was the last of the English West India Islands which I visited. +I was to see it again, but I will here set down the impressions +which had been left upon me by what I had seen there and +seen in the Antilles.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Present state of Jamaica—Test of progress—Resources of the island—Political +alternatives—Black supremacy and probable consequences—The +West Indian problem.</p></div> + + +<p>As I was stepping into the boat at Port Royal, a pamphlet +was thrust into my hand, which I was entreated to read at my +leisure. It was by some discontented white of the island—no +rare phenomenon, and the subject of it was the precipitate +decline in the value of property there. The writer, unlike the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +planters, insisted that the people were taxed in proportion +to their industry. There were taxes on mules, on carts, on +donkeys, all bearing on the small black proprietors, whose +ability to cultivate was thus checked, and who were thus +deliberately encouraged in idleness. He might have added, +although he did not, that while both in Jamaica and Trinidad +everyone is clamouring against the beetroot bounty which +artificially lowers the price of sugar, the local councils in these +two islands try to counteract the effect and artificially raise +the price of sugar by an export duty on their own produce—a +singular method of doing it which, I presume, admits of +explanation. My pamphleteer was persuaded that all the +world were fools, and that he and his friends were the only +wise ones: again a not uncommon occurrence in pamphleteers. +He demanded the suppression of absenteeism; he demanded +free trade. In exchange for the customs duties, which were +to be abolished, he demanded a land tax—the very mention +of which, I had been told by others, drove the black proprietors +whom he wished to benefit into madness. He wanted Home +Rule. He wanted fifty things besides which I have forgotten, +but his grand want of all was a new currency. Mankind, he +thought, had been very mad at all periods of their history. +The most significant illustration of their madness had been +the selection of gold and silver as the medium of exchange. +The true base of the currency was the land. The Government +of Jamaica was to lend to every freeholder up to the +mortgage value of his land in paper notes, at 5 per cent. +interest, the current rate being at present 8 per cent. The +notes so issued, having the land as their security, would be in +no danger of depreciation, and they would flow over the sugar +estates like an irrigating stream. On the produce of sugar the +fate of the island depended.</p> + +<p>On the produce of sugar? And why not on the produce of +a fine race of men? The prospects of Jamaica, the prospects +of all countries, depend not on sugar or on any form or degree +of material wealth, but on the characters of the men and +women whom they are breeding and rearing. Where there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +are men and women of a noble nature, the rest will go well of +itself; where these are not, there will be no true prosperity +though the sugar hogsheads be raised from thousands into +millions. The colonies are interesting only as offering homes +where English people can increase and multiply; English of +the old type with simple habits, who do not need imported +luxuries. There is room even in the West Indies for hundreds +of thousands of them if they can be contented to lead +human lives, and do not go there to make fortunes which they +are to carry home with them. The time may not be far off +when men will be sick of making fortunes, sick of being ground +to pattern in the commonplace mill-wheel of modern society; +sick of a state of things which blights and kills simple and +original feeling, which makes us think and speak and act +under the tyranny of general opinion, which masquerades as +liberty and means only submission to the newspapers. I can +conceive some modern men may weary of all this, and retire +from it like the old ascetics, not as they did into the wilderness, +but behind their own walls and hedges, shutting out the +world and its noises, to inquire whether after all they have +really immortal souls, and, if they have, what ought to be done +about them. The West India Islands, with their inimitable +climate and soil and prickly pears <i>ad libitum</i> to make fences +with, would be fine places for such recluses. Failing these +ideal personages, there is work enough of the common sort to +create wholesome prosperity. There are oranges to be grown, +and pines and plantains, and coffee and cocoa, and rice and +indigo and tobacco, not to speak of the dollars which my +American friend found in the bamboos, and of the further +dollars which other Americans will find in the untested qualities +of thousands of other productions. Here are opportunities for +innocent industrious families, where children can be brought +up to be manly and simple and true and brave as their fathers +were brought up, or as their fathers expressed it 'in the nurture +and admonition of the Lord;' while such neighbours as their +dark brothers-in-law might have a chance of a rise in life, in +the only sense in which a 'rise' can be of real benefit to them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +These are the objects which statesmen who have the care and +conduct of a nation's welfare ought to set before themselves, +and unfortunately they are the last which are remembered in +countries which are popularly governed. There is a clamour +for education in such countries, but education means to them +only the sharpening of the faculties for the competitive race +which is called progress. In democracies no one man is his +brother's keeper. Each lives and struggles to make his own +way and his own position. All that is insisted on is that there +shall be a fair stage and that every lad shall learn the use of +the weapons which will enable him to fight his own way. +<span class="greek">Ἀρετὴ</span>, 'manliness,' the most essential of all acquisitions and +the hardest to cultivate, as Aristotle observed long ago, is +assumed in democracies as a matter of course. Of <span class="greek">ἀρετὴ</span> a +moderate quantity (<span class="greek">ὁποσονοῦν</span>) would do, and in Aristotle's +opinion this was the rock on which the Greek republics +foundered. Their <span class="greek">ἀρετὴ</span> did not come as a matter of course, +and they lost it, and the Macedonians and the Romans ate +them up.</p> + +<p>From this point of view political problems, and the West +Indian among them, present unusual aspects. Looking to the +West Indies only, we took possession of those islands when +they were of supreme importance in our great wrestle with +Spain and France. We were fighting then for the liberties of +the human race. The Spaniards had destroyed the original Carib +and Indian inhabitants. We induced thousands of our own +fellow-countrymen to venture life and fortune in the occupation +of our then vital conquests. For two centuries we furnished +them with black servants whom we purchased on the African +coast and carried over and sold there, making our own profits +out of the trade, and the colonists prospered themselves and +poured wealth and strength into the empire of which they +were then an integral part. A change passed over the spirit +of the age. Liberty assumed a new dress. We found slavery +to be a crime; we released our bondmen; we broke their +chains as we proudly described it to ourselves; we compensated +the owners, so far as money could compensate, for the entire<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> +dislocation of a state of society which we had ourselves +created; and we trusted to the enchantment of liberty to +create a better in its place. We had delivered our own souls; +we had other colonies to take our emigrants. Other lands +under our open trade would supply us with the commodities +for which we had hitherto been dependent on the West Indies. +They ceased to be of commercial, they ceased to be of political, +moment to us, and we left them to their own resources. The +modern English idea is that everyone must take care of himself. +Individuals or aggregates of individuals have the world +before them, to open the oyster or fail to open it according to +their capabilities. The State is not to help them; the State +is not to interfere with them unless for political or party +reasons it happens to be convenient. As we treat ourselves +we treat our colonies. Those who have gone thither have +gone of their own free will, and must take the consequences of +their own actions. We allow them no executional privileges +which we do not claim for ourselves. They must stand, if +they are to stand, by their own strength. If they cannot stand +they must fall. This is our notion of education in 'manliness,' +and for immediate purposes answers well enough. Individual +enterprise, unendowed but unfettered, built the main buttresses +of the British colonial empire. Australians and New Zealanders +are English and Scotchmen who have settled at the antipodes +where there is more room for them than at home. They are +the same people as we are, and they have the same privileges +as we have. They are parts of one and the same organic body +as branches from the original trunk. The branch does not +part from the trunk, but it discharges its own vital functions +by its own energy, and we no more desire to interfere than +London desires to interfere with Manchester.</p> + +<p>So it stands with us where the colonists are of our race, with +the same character and the same objects; and, as I said, the +system answers. Under no other relations could we continue +a united people. But it does not answer—it has failed wherever +we have tried it—when the majority of the inhabitants of +countries of which for one or other reason we have possessed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +ourselves, and of which we keep possession, are not united to +us by any of these natural bonds, where they have been +annexed by violence or otherwise been forced under our flag. +It has failed conspicuously in Ireland. We know that it would +fail in the East Indies if we were rash enough to venture the +experiment. Self-government in connection with the British +Empire implies a desire or a willingness in those who are so +left to themselves that the connection shall continue. We +have been so sanguine as to believe that the privilege of being +British subjects is itself sufficient to secure their allegiance; +that the liberties which we concede will not be used for purposes +which we are unable to tolerate; that, being left to +govern themselves, they will govern in harmony with English +interests and according to English principles. The privilege is not +estimated so highly. They go their own way and not our way, +and therefore we must look facts in the face as they are, and +not as we wish them to be. If we extend to Ireland the +independence which only links us closer to Australia, Ireland +will use it to break away from us. If we extend it to Bengal +and Madras and Bombay, we shall fling them into anarchy +and bring our empire to an end. We cannot for our +safety's sake part with Ireland. We do not mean to part with +our Asiatic dominions. The reality of the relation in both +cases is the superior force of England, and we must rely upon +it and need not try to conceal that we do, till by the excellence +of our administration we have converted submission into +respect and respect into willingness for union. This may be a +long process and a difficult one. If we choose to maintain our +empire, however, we must pay the price for empire, and it is +wiser, better, safer, in all cases to admit the truth and act upon +it. Yet Englishmen so love liberty that they struggle against +confessing what is disagreeable to them. Many of us would +give Ireland, would give India Home Rule, and run the risk +of what would happen, and only a probability, which reaches +certainty, of the consequences to be expected to follow prevents +us from unanimously agreeing. About the West Indies we +do not care very earnestly. Nothing seriously alarming can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +happen there. So much, therefore, for the general policy of +leaving them to help themselves out of their difficulties we +have adopted completely. The corollary that they must govern +themselves also on their own responsibilities we hesitate as yet +to admit completely; but we do not recognise that any +responsibility for their failing condition rests on us; and the +inclination certainly, and perhaps the purpose, is to throw +them entirely upon themselves at the earliest moment. Cuba +sends representatives to the Cortes at Madrid, Martinique and +Guadaloupe to the Assembly at Paris. In the English islands, +being unwilling to govern without some semblance of a constitution, +we try tentatively varieties of local boards and local +councils, admitting the elective principle but not daring to +trust it fully; creating hybrid constitutions, so contrived as +to provoke ill feeling where none would exist without them, +and to make impossible any tolerable government which could +actively benefit the people. We cannot intend that arrangements +the effects of which are visible so plainly in the sinking +fortunes of our own kindred there, are to continue for ever. +We suppose that we cannot go back in these cases. It is to +be presumed, therefore, that we mean to go forward, and in +doing so I venture to think myself that we shall be doing equal +injustice both to our own race and to the blacks, and we shall +bring the islands into a condition which will be a reproach and +scandal to the empire of which they will remain a dishonoured +part. The slave trade was an imperial monopoly, extorted by +force, guaranteed by treaties, and our white West Indian +interest was built up in connection with and in reliance upon +it. We had a right to set the slaves free; but the payment of +the indemnity was no full acquittance of our obligations for +the condition of a society which we had ourselves created. +We have no more right to make the emancipated slave his +master's master in virtue of his numbers than we have a right +to lay under the heel of the Catholics of Ireland the Protestant +minority whom we planted there to assist us in controlling +them.</p> + +<p>It may be said that we have no intention of doing anything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +of the kind, that no one at present dreams of giving a full +colonial constitution to the West Indian Islands. They are +allowed such freedom as they are capable of using; they can +be allowed more as they are better educated and more fit for +it, &c. &c.</p> + +<p>One knows all that, and one knows what it is worth in the +half-elected, half-nominated councils. Either the nominated +members are introduced merely as a drag upon the wheel, and +are instructed to yield in the end to the demands of the +representative members, or they are themselves the representatives +of the white minority. If the first, the majority rule +already; if the second, such constitutions are contrived ingeniously +to create the largest amount of irritation, and to +make impossible, as long as they last, any form of effective +and useful government. Therefore they cannot last, and are +not meant to last. A principle once conceded develops with +the same certainty with which a seed grows when it is sown. +In the English world, as it now stands, there is no middle +alternative between self-government and government by the +Crown, and the cause of our reluctance to undertake direct +charge of the West Indies is because such undertaking carries +responsibility along with it. If they are brought so close to +us we shall be obliged to exert ourselves, and to rescue them +from a condition which would be a reproach to us.</p> + +<p>The English of those islands are melting away. That is a +fact to which it is idle to try to shut our eyes. Families who +have been for generations on the soil are selling their estates +everywhere and are going off. Lands once under high cultivation +are lapsing into jungle. Professional men of ability +and ambition carry their talents to countries where they are +more sure of reward. Every year the census renews its +warning. The rate may vary; sometimes for a year or two +there may seem to be a pause in the movement, but it begins +again and is always in the same direction. The white is +relatively disappearing, the black is growing; that is the fact +with which we have to deal.</p> + +<p>We may say if we please, 'Be it so then; we do not want<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> +those islands; let the blacks have them, poor devils. They +have had wrongs enough in this world; let them take their +turn and have a good time now.' This I imagine is the +answer which will rise to the lips of most of us, yet it will be +an answer which will not be for our honour, nor in the long +run for our interest. Our stronger colonies will scarcely +attach more value to their connection with us if they hear us +declare impatiently that because part of our possessions have +ceased to be of money value to us, we will not or we cannot +take the trouble to provide them with a decent government, +and therefore cast them off. Nor in the long run will it +benefit the blacks either. The islands will not be allowed to +run wild again, and if we leave them some one else will take +them who will be less tender of his coloured brother's sensibilities. +We may think that it would not come to that. The +islands will still be ours; the English flag will still float over +the forts; the government, whatever it be, will be administered +in the Queen's name. Were it worth while, one might draw a +picture of the position of an English governor, with a black +parliament and a black ministry, recommending by advice of +his constitutional ministers some measure like the Haytian +Land Law.</p> + +<p>No Englishman, not even a bankrupt peer, would consent +to occupy such a position; the blacks themselves would +despise him if he did; and if the governor is to be one of +their own race and colour, how long could such a connection +endure?</p> + +<p>No one I presume would advise that the whites of the +island should govern. The relations between the two populations +are too embittered, and equality once established by +law, the exclusive privilege of colour over colour cannot be +restored. While slavery continued the whites ruled effectively +and economically; the blacks are now free as they; there are +two classes in the community; their interests are opposite as +they are now understood, and one cannot be trusted with +control over the other. As little can the present order of +things continue. The West India Islands, once the pride of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> +our empire, the scene of our most brilliant achievements, are +passing away out of our hands; the remnant of our own countrymen, +weary of an unavailing struggle, are more and more eager +to withdraw from the scene, because they find no sympathy and +no encouragement from home, and are forbidden to accept +help from America when help is offered them, while under +their eyes their quondam slaves are multiplying, thriving, +occupying, growing strong, and every day more conscious of +the changed order of things. One does not grudge the black +man his prosperity, his freedom, his opportunities of advancing +himself; one would wish to see him as free and prosperous +as the fates and his own exertions can make him, with more +and more means of raising himself to the white man's level. +But left to himself, and without the white man to lead him, he +can never reach it, and if we are not to lose the islands +altogether, or if they are not to remain with us to discredit +our capacity to rule them, it is left to us only to take the same +course which we have taken in the East Indies with such +magnificent success, and to govern whites and blacks alike on +the Indian system. The circumstances are precisely analogous. +We have a population to deal with, the enormous majority of +whom are of an inferior race. Inferior, I am obliged to call +them, because as yet, and as a body, they have shown no +capacity to rise above the condition of their ancestors except +under European laws, European education, and European +authority, to keep them from making war on one another. +They are docile, good-tempered, excellent and faithful servants +when they are kindly treated; but their notions of right and +wrong are scarcely even elementary; their education, such as +it may be, is but skin deep, and the old African superstitions +lie undisturbed at the bottom of their souls. Give them +independence, and in a few generations they will peel off such +civilisation as they have learnt as easily and as willingly as +their coats and trousers.</p> + +<p>Govern them as we govern India, with the same conscientious +care, with the same sense of responsibility, with the same +impartiality, the same disinterested attention to the well-being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +of our subjects in its highest and most honourable sense, and +we shall give the world one more evidence that while Englishmen +can cover the waste places of it with free communities of +their own blood, they can exert an influence no less beneficent +as the guides and rulers of those who need their assistance, +and whom fate and circumstances have assigned to their care. +Our kindred far away will be more than ever proud to form +part of a nation which has done more for freedom than any +other nation ever did, yet is not a slave to formulas, and can +adapt its actions to the demands of each community which +belongs to it. The most timid among us may take courage, +for it would cost us nothing save the sacrifice of a few official +traditions, and an abstinence for the future from doubtful uses +of colonial patronage. The blacks will be perfectly happy +when they are satisfied that they have nothing to fear for their +persons or their properties. To the whites it would be the +opening of a new era of hope. Should they be rash enough to +murmur, they might then be justly left to the consequences of +their own folly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Passage to Cuba—A Canadian commissioner—Havana—The Moro—The +city and harbour—Cuban money—American visitors—The cathedral—Tomb +of Columbus—New friends—The late rebellion—Slave emancipation—Spain +and progress—A bull fight.</p></div> + + +<p>I had gone to the West Indies to see our own colonies, but I +could not leave those famous seas which were the scene of our +ocean duels with the Spaniards without a visit to the last of +the great possessions of Philip II. which remained to his successors. +I ought not to say the last, for Puerto Rico is Spanish +also, but this small island is insignificant and has no important +memories connected with it. Puerto Rico I had no leisure to +look at and did not care about, and to see Cuba as it ought to +be seen required more time than I could afford; but Havana +was so interesting, both from its associations and its present +condition, that I could not be within reach of it and pass it by.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> +The body of Columbus lies there for one thing, unless a trick +was played when the remains which were said to be his were +removed from St. Domingo, and I wished to pay my orisons +at his tomb. I wished also to see the race of men who have +shared the New World with the Anglo-Saxons, and have given +a language and a religion to half the American continent, in +the oldest and most celebrated of their Transatlantic cities.</p> + +<p>Cuba also had an immediate and present interest. Before +the American civil war it was on the point of being absorbed +into the United States. The Spanish Cubans had afterwards +a civil war of their own, of which only confused accounts had +reached us at home. We knew that it had lasted ten years, +but who had been the parties and what their objects had been +was very much a mystery. No sooner was it over than, without +reservation or compensation, the slaves had been emancipated. +How a country was prospering which had undergone +such a succession of shocks, and how the Spaniards were +dealing with the trials which were bearing so hard on our own +islands, were inquiries worth making. But beyond these it was +the land of romance. Columbus and Las Casas, Cortez and +Pizarro, are the demigods and heroes of the New World. +Their names will be familiar to the end of time as the founders +of a new era, and although the modern Spaniards sink to the +level of the modern Greeks, their illustrious men will hold their +place for ever in imagination and memory.</p> + +<p>Our own Antilles had, as I have said, in their terror of small-pox, +placed Jamaica under an interdict. The Spaniards at +Cuba were more generous or more careless. Havana is on the +north side of the island, facing towards Florida; thus, in going +to it from Port Royal, we had to round the westernmost cape, +and had four days of sea before us. We slid along the coast +of Jamaica in smooth water, the air, while day lasted, intensely +hot, but the breeze after nightfall blowing cool from off the +mountains. We had a polite captain, polite officers, and agreeable +fellow-passengers, two or three Cubans among them, +swarthy, dark-eyed, thick-set men—<i>Americanos</i>; Spaniards +with a difference—with whom I cultivated a kind of intimacy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> +In a cabin it was reported that there were again Spanish ladies +on their way to the demonic gaieties at Darien, but they did +not show.</p> + +<p>Among the rest of the party was a Canadian gentleman, a +Mr. ——, exceptionally well-informed and intelligent. Their +American treaty having been disallowed, the West Indies had +proposed to negotiate a similar one with the Canadian Dominion. +The authorities at Ottawa had sent Mr. M—— to +see if anything could be done, and Mr. M—— was now on his +way home, not in the best of humours with our poor relations. +'The Jamaicans did not know what they wanted,' he said. +'They were without spirit to help themselves; they cried out +to others to help them, and if all they asked could not be +granted they clamoured as if the whole world was combining to +hurt them. There was not the least occasion for these passionate +appeals to the universe; they could not at this moment +perhaps "go ahead" as fast as some countries, but there was no +necessity to be always going ahead. They had a fine country, +soil and climate all that could be desired, they had all that was +required for a quiet and easy life, why could they not be contented +and make the best of things?' Unfortunate Jamaicans! +The old mother at home acts like an unnatural parent, and +will neither help them nor let their Cousin Jonathan help +them. They turn for comfort to their big brother in the north, +and the big brother being himself robust and healthy, gives +them wholesome advice.</p> + +<p>Adventures do occasionally happen at sea even in this age of +steam engines. Ships catch fire or run into each other, or go +on rocks in fogs, or are caught in hurricanes, and Nature can +still assume her old terrors if she pleases. Shelley describes a +wreck on the coast of Cornwall, and the treacherous waters of the +ocean in the English Channel, now wild in fury, now smiling</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>As on the morn +When the exulting elements in scorn +Satiated with destroyed destruction lay +Sleeping in beauty on their mangled prey, +As panthers sleep.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p> + +<p>The wildest gale which ever blew on British shores was a mere +summer breeze compared to a West Indian tornado. Behind +all that beauty there lies the temper and caprice, not of a +panther, but of a woman. But no tornadoes fell in our way, +nor anything else worth mentioning, not even a buccaneer or +a pirate. We saw the islands which these gentry haunted, and +the headlands made memorable by their desperate deeds, but +they are gone, even to the remembrance of them. What they +were and what they did lies buried away in book mausoleums +like Egyptian mummies, all as clean forgotten as if they had +been honest men, they and all the wild scenes which these +green estuaries have witnessed.</p> + +<p>Havana figures much in English naval history. Drake tried +to take it and failed; Penn and Venables failed. We stormed +the forts in 1760, and held them and held the city till the +Seven Years' War was over. I had read descriptions of the +place, but they had given me no clear conception of what it +would be like, certainly none at all of what it was like. Kingston +is the best of our West Indian towns, and Kingston has +not one fine building in it. Havana is a city of palaces, a city +of streets and plazas, of colonnades, and towers, and churches +and monasteries. We English have built in those islands as if +we were but passing visitors, wanting only tenements to be +occupied for a time. The Spaniards built as they built in Castile; +built with the same material, the white limestone which +they found in the New World as in the Old. The palaces of +the nobles in Havana, the residence of the governor, the convents, +the cathedral, are a reproduction of Burgos or Valladolid, +as if by some Aladdin's lamp a Castilian city had been +taken up and set down again unaltered on the shore of the +Caribbean Sea. And they carried with them their laws, their +habits, their institutions and their creed, their religious orders, +their bishops, and their Inquisition. Even now in her day of +eclipse, when her genius is clouded by the modern spirit +against which she fought so long and so desperately, the sons +of Spain still build as they used to build, and the modern +squares and market places, the castles and fortresses, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +have risen in and round the ancient Havana, are constructed +on the old massive model, and on the same lines. However +it may be with us, and whatever the eventual fate of Cuba, +the Spanish race has taken root there, and is visibly destined +to remain. They have poured their own people into it. In +Cuba alone there are ten times as many Spaniards as there +are English and Scotch in all our West Indies together, +and Havana is ten times the size of the largest of our West +Indian cities. Refugees have flocked thither from the revolutions +in the Peninsula. The Canary Islands overflow into it. +You know the people from Teneriffe by their stature; they are +the finest surviving specimens of the old conquering breed. +The political future is dark; the government is unimaginably +corrupt—so corrupt that change is inevitable, though what +change it would be idle to prophesy. The Americans looked +at the island which lay so temptingly near them, but they were +wise in their generation. They reflected that to introduce into +an Anglo-Saxon republic so insoluble an element as a million +Spanish Roman Catholics alien in blood and creed, with half +a million blacks to swell the dusky flood which runs too full +among them already, would be to invite an indigestion of +serious consequence. A few years since the Cubans born +were on the eve of achieving their independence like their +brothers in Mexico and South America. Perhaps they will yet +succeed. Spanish, at any rate, they are to the bone and marrow, +and Spanish they will continue. The magnitude of +Havana, and the fullness of life which was going on there, +entirely surprised me. I had thought of Cuba as a decrepit +state, bankrupt or finance-exhausted by civil wars, and on the +edge of social dissolution, and I found Havana at least a grand +imposing city—a city which might compare for beauty with +any in the world. The sanitary condition is as bad as negligence +can make it—so bad that a Spanish gentleman told me +that if it were not for the natural purity of the air they would +have been all dead like flies long ago. The tideless harbour is +foul with the accumulations of three hundred years. The administration +is more good-for-nothing than in Spain itself. If,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +in spite of this, Havana still sits like a queen upon the waters, +there are some qualities to be found among her people which +belonged to the countrymen and subjects of Ferdinand the +Catholic.</p> + +<p>The coast line from Cape Tubiron has none of the grand +aspects of the Antilles or Jamaica. Instead of mountains and +forests you see a series of undulating hills, cultivated with +tolerable care, and sprinkled with farmhouses. All the more +imposing, therefore, from the absence of marked natural forms, +are the walls and towers of the great Moro, the fortress +which defends the entrance of the harbour. Ten miles off it +was already a striking object. As we ran nearer it rose above +us stern, proud, and defiant, upon a rock right above the +water, with high frowning bastions, the lighthouse at an angle +of it, and the Spanish banner floating proudly from a turret +which overlooked the whole. The Moro as a fortification is, +I am told, indefensible against modern artillery, presenting too +much surface as a target; but it is all the grander to look at. +It is a fine specimen of the Vauban period, and is probably +equal to any demands which will be made upon it. The harbour +is something like Port Royal, a deep lagoon with a narrow +entrance and a long natural breakwater between the lagoon +and the ocean; but what at Port Royal is a sand-spit eight +miles long, is at Havana a rocky peninsula on which the city +itself is built. The opening from the sea is half a mile wide. +On the city side there are low semicircular batteries which +sweep completely the approaches and the passage itself. The +Moro rises opposite at the extreme point of the entrance, and +next to it, farther in towards the harbour on the same side, on +the crest and slopes of a range of hills, stands the old Moro, +the original castle which beat off Drake and Oliver's sea-generals, +and which was captured by the English in the last +century. The lines were probably weaker than they are at +present, and less adequately manned. A monument is erected +there to the officers and men who fell in the defence.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/image0009.jpg" alt="HAVANA, FROM THE QUARRIES" title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption">HAVANA, FROM THE QUARRIES</span> +</div> + +<p>The city as we steamed by looked singularly beautiful, with +its domes and steeples and marble palaces, and glimpses of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>long boulevards and trees and handsome mansions and cool +arcades. Inside we found ourselves in a basin, perhaps of +three miles diameter, full of shipping of all sorts and nationalities. +The water, which outside is pure as sapphire, has +become filthy with the pollutions of a dozen generations. The +tide, which even at the springs has but a rise and fall of a +couple of feet, is totally ineffective to clear it, and as long as +they have the Virgin Mary to pray to, the pious Spaniards will +not drive their sewage into the ocean. The hot sun rays +stream down into the thick black liquid. Horrible smells are +let loose from it when it is set in motion by screw or paddle, +and ships bring up at mooring buoys lest their anchors should +disturb the compost which lies at the bottom. Yet one forgot +the disagreeables in the novelty and striking character of the +scene. A hundred boats were plying to and fro among the +various vessels, with their white sails and white awnings. +Flags of all countries were blowing out at stern or from masthead; +among them, of course, the stars and stripes flying +jauntily on some splendid schooner which stood there like a +cock upon a dunghill that might be his own if he chose to crow +for it.</p> + +<p>As soon as we had brought up we were boarded by the inevitable +hotel touters, custom-house officers, porters, and boatmen. +Interpreters offered their services in the confusion of +languages. Gradually there emerged out of the general noise +two facts of importance. First, that I ought to have had a +passport, and if I had not brought one that I was likely +to be fined at the discretion of Spanish officials. Secondly, +that if I trusted to my own powers of self-defence, I should be +the victim of indefinite other extortions. Passport I had +none—such things are not required any longer in Spain, and it +had not occurred to me that they might still be in demand +in a Spanish colony. As to being cheated, no one could +or would tell me what I was to pay for anything, for there +were American dollars, Spanish dollars, Mexican dollars, +and Cuban dollars, all different. And there were multiples +of dollars in gold, and single dollars in silver, and last and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +most important of all there was the Cuban paper dollar, which +was 230 per cent. below the Cuban gold dollar. And in this +last the smaller transactions of common life were carried on, +the practical part of it to a stranger being that when you had +to receive you received in paper, and when you had to pay +you paid in specie.</p> + +<p>I escaped for the time the penalty which would have been +inflicted on me about the passport. I had a letter of introduction +to the Captain-General of the island, and the Captain-General—so +the viceroy is called—was so formidable a person +that the officials did not venture to meddle with me. For the +rest I was told that as soon as I had chosen my hotel, the +agent, who was on board, would see me through all obstructions, +and would not allow me to be plundered by anyone but +himself. To this I had to submit. I named an hotel at +random; a polite gentleman in a few moments had a boat +alongside for me; I had stept into it when the fair damsels +bound for Darien, who had been concealed all this time in +their cabin, slipped down the ladder and took their places at +my side, to the no small entertainment of the friends whom I +had left on board and who were watching us from the deck.</p> + +<p>At the wharf I was able to shake off my companions, and I +soon forgot the misadventure, for I found myself in Old +Castile once more, amidst Spanish faces, Spanish voices, +Spanish smells, and Spanish scenes. On the very wharf itself +was a church grim and stern, and so massive that it would +stand, barring earthquakes, for a thousand years. Church, +indeed, it was no longer; it had been turned into a custom-house. +But this was because it had been desecrated when we +were in Havana by having an English service performed in it. +They had churches enough without it, and they preferred to +leave this one with a mark upon it of the anger of the +Almighty. Of churches, indeed, there was no lack; churches +thick as public-houses in a Welsh town. Church beyond +church, palace beyond palace, the narrow streets where neighbours +on either side might shake hands out of the upper +stories, the deep colonnades, the private houses with the win<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>dows +grated towards the street, with glimpses through the +street door into the court and garden within, with its cloisters, +its palm trees, and its fountains; the massiveness of the stonework, +the curious old-fashioned bookstalls, the dirt, the smell, +the carriages, the swearing drivers, the black-robed priest +gliding along the footway—it was Toledo or Valladolid again +with the sign manual on it of Spain herself in friendly and +familiar form. Every face that I saw was Spanish. In +Kingston or Port of Spain you meet fifty blacks for one +European; all the manual work is done by them. In Havana +the proportion is reversed, you hardly see a coloured man at +all. Boatmen, porters, cab-drivers or cart-drivers, every one +of whom are negroes in our islands, are there Spaniards, either +Cuban born or emigrants from home. A few black beggars +there were—permitted, as objects of charity to pious Catholics +and as a sign of their inferiority of race. Of poverty among +the whites, real poverty that could be felt, I saw no sign at all.</p> + +<p>After driving for about a mile we emerged out of the old +town into a large square and thence into a wide Alameda or +boulevard with double avenues of trees, statues, fountains, +theatres, clubhouses, and all the various equipments of modern +luxuriousness and so-called civilised life. Beyond the Alameda +was another still larger square, one side of which was a railway +station and terminus. In a colonnade at right angles was the +hotel to which I had been recommended; spacious, handsome, +in style half Parisian half Spanish, like the Fondas in the +Puerto del Sol at Madrid.</p> + +<p>Spanish was the language generally spoken; but there were +interpreters and waiters more or less accomplished in other +tongues, especially in English, of which they heard enough, +for I found Havana to be the winter resort of our American +cousins, who go, generally, to Cuba, as we go to the Riviera, +to escape the ice and winds of the eastern and middle States. +This particular hotel was a favourite resort, and was full to +overflowing with them. It was large, with an interior quadrangular +garden, into which looked tiers of windows; and +wings had been thrown out with terraced roofs, suites of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +rooms opening out upon them; each floor being provided +with airy sitting rooms and music rooms. Here were to be +heard at least a hundred American voices discussing the +experiences and plans of their owners. The men lounged in +the hall or at the bar, or sat smoking on the rows of leather +chairs under the colonnade, or were under the hands of barbers +or haircutters in an airy open saloon devoted to these uses. +When I retreated upstairs to collect myself, a lady was making +the corridors ring close by as she screamed at a piano in the +middle of an admiring and criticising crowd. Dear as the +Americans are to me, and welcome in most places as is the +sound of those same sweet voices, one had not come to +Havana for this. It was necessary to escape somewhere, and +promptly, from the discord of noises which I hoped might be +due to some momentary accident. The mail company's agent, +Mr. R——, lived in the hotel. He kindly found me out, +initiated me in the mysteries of Cuban paper money, and +giving me a tariff of the fares, found me a cab, and sent me +out to look about me.</p> + +<p>My first object was the cathedral and the tomb of Columbus. +In Catholic cities in Europe churches stand always open; the +passer-by can enter when he pleases, fall on his knees and say +his silent prayers to his Master whom he sees on the altar. In +Havana I discovered afterward that, except at special hours, +and those as few as might be, the doors were kept locked and +could only be opened by a golden key. It was carnival time, +however; there were functions going on of various kinds, and +I found the cathedral happily accessible. It was a vast building, +little ornamented, but the general forms severe and impressive, +in the style of the time of Philip II., when Gothic +art had gone out in Spain and there had come in the place of +it the implacable sternness which expresses the very genius of +the Inquisition. A broad flight of stone steps led up to the +great door. The afternoon was extremely hot; the curtains +were thrown back to admit as much air as possible. There +was some function proceeding of a peculiar kind. I know +not what it was; something certainly in which the public had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +no interest, for there was not a stranger present but myself. +But the great cathedral officials were busy at work, and liked +to be at their ease. On the wall as you entered a box invited +contributions, as <i>limosna por el Santo Padre</i>. The service was +I know not what. In the middle of the nave stood twelve +large chairs arranged in a semicircle; on these chairs sat +twelve canons, like a row of mandarins, each with his little +white patch like a silver dollar on the crown of his black head. +Five or six minor dignitaries, deacons, precentors, or something +of that sort, were droning out monotonous recitations +like the buzzing of so many humble-bees in the warm summer +air. The dean or provost sat in the central biggest chair of +all. His face was rosy, and he wiped it from time to time +with a red handkerchief; his chin was double or perhaps +treble; he had evidently dined, and would or might have +slept but for a pile of snuff on his chair arm, with continual +refreshments from which he kept his faculties alive. I sat +patiently till it was over, and the twelve holy men rose and +went their way. I could then stroll about at leisure. The +pictures were of the usual paltry kind. On the chancel arch +stood the royal arms of Spain, as the lion and the unicorn +used to stand in our parish churches till the High Church +clergy mistook them for Erastian wild beasts. At the right +side of the altar was the monument which I had come in +search of; a marble tablet fixed against the wall, and on it a +poorly executed figure in high relief, with a ruff about its neck +and features which might be meant for anyone and for no one +in particular. Somewhere near me there were lying I believed +and could hope the mortal remains of the discoverer of the +New World. An inscription said so. There was written:</p> + +<p style="margin-left:4em"> +O Restos y Imagen del grande Colon<br /> +Mil siglos durad guardados en la Urna<br /> +Y en remembranza de nuestra Nacion.<br /> +</p> + +<p>The court poet, or whoever wrote the lines, was as poor an +artist in verse as the sculptor in stone. The image of the +grande Colon is certainly not 'guarded in the urn,' since you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +see it on the wall before your eyes. The urn, if urn there be, +with the 'relics' in it, must be under the floor. Columbus +and his brother Diego were originally buried to the right and +left of the altar in the cathedral of St. Domingo. When +St. Domingo was abandoned, a commission was appointed to +remove the body of Christophe to Havana. They did remove +<i>a</i> body, but St. Domingo insists that it was Diego that was +taken away, that Christophe remains where he was, and that +if Spain wants him Spain must pay for him. I followed the +canons into the sacristy where they were unrobing. I did not +venture to address either of themselves, but I asked an acolyte +if he could throw any light upon the matter. He assured me +that there neither was nor could have been any mistake. They +had the right body and were in no doubt about it. In more +pious ages disputes of this sort were settled by an appeal to +miracles. Rival pretenders for the possession of the same +bones came, however, at last to be able to produce authentic +proofs of miracles which had been worked at more than one +of the pretended shrines; so that it was concluded that saints' +relics were like the loaves and fishes, capable of multiplication +without losing their identity, and of having the property of +being in several places at the same moment. The same thing +has been alleged of the Holy Coat of Trèves and of the wood +of the true cross. Havana and St. Domingo may perhaps +eventually find a similar solution of their disagreement over +the resting place of Columbus.</p> + +<p>I walked back to my hotel up a narrow shady street like a +long arcade. Here were the principal shops; several libraries +among them, into which I strayed to gossip and to look over +the shelves. That so many persons could get a living by +bookselling implied a reading population, but the books themselves +did not indicate any present literary productiveness. +They were chiefly old, and from the Old World, and belonged +probably to persons who had been concerned in the late +rebellion and whose property had been confiscated. They +were absurdly cheap; I bought a copy of Guzman de Alfarache +for a few pence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p> + +<p>I had brought letters of introduction to several distinguished +people in Havana; to one especially, Don G——, a member +of a noble Peninsular family, once an officer in the Spanish +navy, now chairman of a railway company and head of an +important commercial house. His elder brother, the Marques +de ——, called on me on the evening of the day of my +arrival; a distinguished-looking man of forty or thereabouts, +with courteous high-bred manners, rapid, prompt, and incisive, +with the air of a soldier, which in early life he had been. He +had travelled, spoke various languages, and spoke to me in +admirable English. Don G——, who might be a year or two +younger, came later and stayed an hour and a half with me. +Let me acknowledge here, and in as warm language as I can +express it, the obligations under which I stand to him, not for +the personal attentions only which he showed me during my +stay in Havana, but for giving me an opportunity of becoming +acquainted with a real specimen of Plato's superior men, who +were now and then, so Plato said, to be met with in foreign +travel. It is to him that I owe any knowledge which I +brought away with me of the present state of Cuba. He had +seen much, thought much, read much. He was on a level +with the latest phases of philosophical and spiritual speculation, +could talk of Darwin and Spencer, of Schopenhauer, of +Strauss, and of Renan, aware of what they had done, aware of +the inconvenient truths which they had forced into light, but +aware also that they had left the most important questions +pretty much where they found them. He had taken no part +in the political troubles of the late years in Cuba, but he had +observed everything. No one knew better the defects of the +present system of government; no one was less ready to rush +into hasty schemes for violently mending it.</p> + +<p>The ten years' rebellion, of which I had heard so much +and knew so little, he first made intelligible to me. Cuba had +been governed as a province of Spain, and Spain, like other +mother countries, had thought more of drawing a revenue out +of it for herself than of the interests of the colony. Spanish +officials had been avaricious, and Spanish fiscal policy oppres<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>sive +and ruinous. The resources of the island in metals, in +minerals, in agriculture were as yet hardly scratched, yet every +attempt to develop them was paralysed by fresh taxation. +The rebellion had been an effort of the Cuban Spaniards, +precisely analogous to the revolt of our own North American +colonies, to shake off the authority of the court of Madrid and +to make themselves independent. They had fought desperately +and had for several years been masters of half the +island. They had counted on help from the United States, +and at one time they seemed likely to get it. But the +Americans could not see their way to admitting Cuba into +the Union, and without such a prospect did not care to quarrel +with Spain on their account. Finding that they were to be +left to themselves, the insurgents came to terms and Spanish +authority was re-established. Families had been divided, sons +taking one side and fathers the other, as in our English Wars +of the Roses, perhaps for the same reason, to save the family +estates whichever side came out victorious. The blacks had +been indifferent, the rebellion having no interest for them at +all. They had remained by their masters, and they had been +rewarded after the peace by complete emancipation. There +was not a slave now in Cuba. No indemnity had been granted +to their owners, nor had any been asked for, and the business +on the plantations had gone on without interruption. Those +who had been slaves continued to work at the same locations, +receiving wages instead of food and maintenance; all were +satisfied at the change, and this remarkable revolution had +been carried out with an ease and completeness which found +no parallel in any other slave-owning country.</p> + +<p>In spite of rebellion, in spite of the breaking up and reconstruction +of the social system, in spite of the indifferent +administration of justice, in spite of taxation, and the inexplicable +appropriation of the revenue, Cuba was still moderately +prosperous, and that it could flourish at all after trials so severe +was the best evidence of the greatness of its natural wealth. +The party of insurrection was dissolved, and would revive +again only under the unlikely contingency of encouragement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +from the United States. There was a party, however, which +desired for Cuba a constitution like the Canadian—Home +Rule and the management of its own affairs—and as the black +element was far outnumbered and under control, such a constitution +would not be politically dangerous.</p> + +<p>If the Spanish Government does not mend its ways, +concessions of this kind may eventually have to be made, +though the improvement to be expected from it is doubtful. +Official corruption is engrained in the character and habits +of the Spanish people. Judges allowed their decisions to +be 'influenced' under Philip III. as much as to-day in the +colonies of Queen Christina; and when a fault is the habit of +a people, it survives political reforms and any number of +turnings of the kaleidoscope.</p> + +<p>The encouraging feature is the success of emancipation. +There is no jealousy, no race animosity, no supercilious +contempt of whites for 'niggers.' The Spaniards have inherited +a tinge of colour themselves from their African +ancestors, and thus they are all friends together. The +liberated slave can acquire and own land if he wishes for it, +but as a rule he prefers to work for wages. These happy +conditions arise in part from the Spanish temperament, but +chiefly from the numerical preponderance of the white +element, which, as in the United States, is too secure to be +uneasy. The black is not encouraged in insubordination by +a sense that he could win in a contest of strength, and the +aspect of things is far more promising for the future than in +our own islands. The Spaniards, however inferior we may +think them to ourselves, have filled their colonies with their +own people and are reaping the reward of it. We have so +contrived that such English as had settled in the West Indies +on their own account are leaving them.</p> + +<p>Spain, four centuries ago, was the greatest of European +nations, the first in art, or second only to Italy, the first in +arms, the first in the men whom she produced. She has +been swept along in the current of time. She fought against +the stream of tendency, and the stream proved too strong for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +her, great as she was. The modern spirit, which she would +not have when it came in the shape of the Reformation, has +flowed over her borders as revolution, not to her benefit, for +she is unable to assimilate the new ideas. The old Spain of +the Inquisition is gone; the Spain of to-day is divided +between Liberalism and Catholic belief. She is sick in the +process of the change, and neither she nor her colonies stand +any longer in the front lines in the race of civilisation; yet +the print of her foot is stamped on the New World in +characters which will not be effaced, and may be found to +be as enduring as our own.</p> + +<p>The colony is perhaps in advance of the mother country. +The Catholic Church, Don G—— said, has little influence +in Cuba; 'she has had no rival,' he explained, 'and so has +grown lazy.' I judged the same from my own observations. +The churches on Sundays were thinly attended, and men +smiled when I asked them about 'confession.' I inquired +about famous preachers. I was told that there was no +preaching in Havana, famous or otherwise. I might if I +was lucky and chose to go there in the early morning, hear +a sermon in the church of the Jesuits; that was all. I went; +I heard my Jesuit, who was fluent, eloquent, and gesticulating, +but he was pouring out his passionate rhetoric to about fifty +women with scarcely a man amongst them. It was piteous +to look at him. The Catholic Church, whether it be for want +of rivals, or merely from force of time, has fallen from its +high estate. It can burn no more heretics, for it has lost the +art to raise conviction to sufficient intensity. The power to +burn was the measure of the real belief, which people had in +the Church and its doctrines. The power has departed with +the waning of faith; and religion in Havana, as in Madrid, is +but 'use and wont;' not 'belief' but opinion, and opinion +which is half insincere. Nothing else can take its place. +The day is too late for Protestantism, which has developed +into wider forms, and in the matter of satisfied and complete +religious conviction Protestants are hardly better off than +Catholics.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p> + +<p>Don G—— had been much in Spain; he was acquainted +with many of the descendants of the old aristocracy, who +lingered there in faded grandeur. He had studied the history +of his own country. He compared the Spain and England +of the sixteenth century with the Spain and England of +the present; and, like most of us, he knew where the yoke +galled his own neck. But economical and political prosperity +is no exhaustive measure of human progress. The +Rome of Trajan was immeasurably more splendid than the +Rome of the Scipios; yet the progress had been downwards +nevertheless. If the object of our existence on this planet +is the development of character, if the culminating point in +any nation's history be that at which it produces its noblest +and bravest men, facts do not tend to assure us that the +triumphant march of the last hundred years is accomplishing +much in that direction. I found myself arguing with Don +G—— that if Charles V. and Philip II. were to come back to +this world, and to see whither the movement had brought us +of which they had worked so hard to suppress the beginning, +they would still say that they had done right in trying to +strangle it. The Reformation called itself a protest against +lies, and the advocates of it imagined that when the lies, or +what they called such, were cleared away, the pure metal of +Christianity would remain unsullied. The great men who +fought against the movement, Charles V. in his cabinet and +Erasmus in his closet, had seen that it could not rest there; +that it was the cradle of a revolution in which the whole +spiritual and political organisation of Europe would be flung +into the crucible. Under that organisation human nature +had ascended to altitudes of chivalry, of self-sacrifice, which +it had never before reached. The sixteenth century was the +blossoming time of the Old World, and no such men had +appeared since as then came to the front, either in Spain or +Italy, or Germany or France or England. The actual leaders +of the Reformation had been bred in the system which they +destroyed. Puritanism and Calvinism produced men of +powerful character, but they were limited and incapable of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +continuance; and now the liberty which was demanded had +become what the instinct of the great Emperor had told him +from the first must be the final shape of it, a revolution +which would tolerate no inequalities of culture or position, +which insisted that no man was better than another, which +was to exalt the low and bring down the high till all mankind +should stand upon a common level—a level, not of baseness +or badness, but a level of good-humoured, smart, vulgar and +vulgarising mediocrity, with melodrama for tragedy, farce for +comedy, sounding speech for statesmanlike wisdom; and for +a creed, when our fathers thought that we had been made a +little lower than the angels, the more modest knowledge that +we were only a little higher than the apes. This was the +aspect in which the world of the nineteenth century would +appear to Sir Thomas More or the Duke of Alva. From the +Grand Captain to Señor Castelar, from Lord Burghley to +Mr. Gladstone, from Leonardo da Vinci or Velasquez to +Gustave Doré, from Cervantes and Shakespeare to 'Pickwick' +and the 'Innocents at Home;' from the faith which built +the cathedrals to evolution and the survival of the fittest; +from the carving and architecture of the Middle Ages to the +workmanship of the modern contractor; the change in the +spiritual department of things had been the same along the +whole line. Charles V. after seeing all that has been +achieved, the railways, the steam engines, the telegraphs, +the Yankee and his United States, which are the embodiment +of the highest aspirations of the modern era, after +attending a session of the British Association itself, and +seeing the bishops holding out their hands to science which +had done such great things for them, might fairly claim that +it was a doubtful point whether the change had been really +for the better.</p> + +<p>It may be answered, and answered truly, that the old thing +was dead. The Catholic faith, where it was left standing and +where it still stands, produces now nothing higher, nothing +better than the Protestant. Human systems grow as trees +grow. The seed shoots up, the trunk forms, the branches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> +spread; leaves and flowers and fruit come out year after year +as if they were able to renew themselves for ever. But that +which has a beginning has an end, that which has +life must die when the vital force is exhausted. The +faith of More, as well as the faith of Ken or Wilson, were +elevating and ennobling as long as they were sincerely believed, +but the time came when they became clouded with uncertainty; +and confused, perplexed, and honestly anxious, humanity +struggles on as well as it can, all things considered, respectably +enough, in its chrysalis condition, the old wings gone, the new +wings that are to be (if we are ever to have another set) as yet +imprisoned in their sheath.</p> + +<p>The same Sunday morning when I went in search of +my sermon, the hotel was alive as bees at swarming time. +There was to be a bull fight in honour of the carnival, and such +a bull fight as had never been seen in Havana. Placards on +the wall announced that a lady from Spain, Gloriana they +called her, was to meet and slay a bull in single combat, and +everyone must go and see the wonderful sight. I myself, +having seen the real thing in Madrid many years ago, felt no +more curiosity, and that a woman should be an actress in such +a scene did not revive it. To those who went the performance +was a disappointment. The bull provided turned out to be a +calf of tender years. The spectators insisted that they would +have a mature beast of strength and ferocity, and Gloriana +when brought to the point declined the adventure.</p> + +<p>There was a prettier scene in the evening. In the cool +after nightfall the beauty and fashion of Havana turns out +to stroll in the illuminated Alameda. As it was now a high +festival the band was to play, and the crowd was as dense +as on Exhibition nights at South Kensington. The music +was equally good, and the women as graceful and well dressed. +I sat for an hour or two listening under the statue of poor +Queen Isabella. The image of her still stands where it was +placed, though revolution has long shaken her from her throne. +All is forgotten now except that she was once a Spanish sovereign, +and time and distance have deodorised her memory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Hotels in Havana—Sights in the city—Cigar manufactories—West Indian +industries—The Captain-General—The Jesuit college—Father Viñez—Clubs +in Havana—Spanish aristocracy—Sea lodging house.</p></div> + + +<p>There was much to be seen in Havana, and much to think +about. I regretted only that I had not been better advised in +my choice of an hotel The dining saloon rang with American +voices in their shrillest tones. Every table was occupied by +groups of them, nor was there a sound in the room of any +language but theirs. In the whole company I had not a single +acquaintance. I have liked well almost every individual +American that I have fallen in with and come to know. They +are frank, friendly, open, and absolutely unaffected, and, like +my friend at Miss Roy's in Jamaica, they take cheerful views +of life, which is the highest of all recommendations. The +distinctness and sharpness of utterance is tolerable and even +agreeable in conversation with a single person. When a large +number of them are together, all talking in a high tone, it tries +the nerves and sets the teeth on edge. Nor could I escape +from them in any part of the building. The gentlemen were +talking politics in the hall, or lounging under the colonnade. +One of them, an absolute stranger, who perhaps knew who I +was, asked me abruptly for my opinion of Cardinal Newman. +The ladies filled the sitting rooms; their pianos and their duets +pierced the walls of my bedroom, and only ceased an hour after +midnight. At five in the morning the engines began to scream +at the adjoining railway station. The church bells woke at the +same hour with their superfluous summons to matins which no +one attended. Sleep was next to an impossibility under these +hard conditions, and I wanted more and not less of it when I +had the duties upon me of sightseeing. Sleep or no sleep, +however, I determined that I would see what I could as long +as I could keep going.</p> + +<p>A few hundred yards off was one of the most famous of the +Havana cigar manufactories. A courteous message from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> +manager, Señor Bances, had informed me that he would be +happy to show me over it on any morning before the sun was +above the roofs of the houses. I found the señor a handsome +elderly gentleman, tall and lean, with Castilian dignity of +manner, free and frank in all his communications, with no +reserve, concealments, or insincerities. I told him that in my +experience cigars were not what they had been, that the last good +one which I had smoked I had bought twenty years ago from a +<i>contrabandista</i> at Madrid. I had come to Havana to see +whether I could find another equally good at the fountain head. +He said that he was not at all surprised. It was the same story +as at Jamaica; the consumption of cigars had increased with +extreme rapidity; the area on which the finest tobacco had been +grown was limited, and the expense of growing it was very +great. Only a small quantity of the best cigars was now made +for the market. In general the plants were heavily manured, +and the flavour suffered. Leaf of coarse fibre was used for the +core of the cigars, with only a fold or two wrapped round it of +more delicate quality. He took me into the different rooms +where the manufacture was going on. In the first were perhaps +a hundred or a hundred and fifty sallow-faced young men +engaged in rolling. They were all Cubans or Spaniards with +the exception of a single negro; and all, I should think, under +thirty. On each of the tables was one of the names with which +we have grown familiar in modern cigar shops, Reynas, +Regalias, Principes, and I know not how many else. The +difference of material could not be great, but there was a real +difference in the fineness of the make, and in the quality of the +exterior leaf. The workmen were of unequal capacity and were +unequally paid. The señor employed in all about 1,400; at +least so I understood him.</p> + +<p>The black field hands had eighteenpence a day. The +rollers were paid by quality and quantity; a good workman +doing his best could earn sixty dollars a week, an idle and +indifferent one about twelve. They smoked as they rolled, +and there was no check upon the consumption, the loss in +this way being estimated at 40,000 dollars a year. The pay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> +was high; but there was another side to it—the occupation +was dangerous. If there were no boys in the room, there were +no old men. Those who undertook it died often in two or +three years. Doubtless with precaution the mortality might +be diminished; but, like the needle and the scissor grinders +in England, the men themselves do not wish it to be diminished. +The risk enters into the wages, and they prefer a +short life and a merry one.</p> + +<p>The cigarettes, of which the varieties are as many as there +are of cigars, were made exclusively by Chinese. The second +room which we entered was full of them, their curious yellow +faces mildly bending over their tobacco heaps. Of these there +may have been a hundred. Of the general expenses of the +establishment I do not venture to say anything, bewildered as +I was in the labyrinthine complication of the currency, but it +must certainly be enormous, and this house, the Partagas, was +but one of many equally extensive in Havana alone.</p> + +<p>The señor was most liberal. He filled my pockets with +packets of excellent cigarettes; he gave me a bundle of cigars. +I cannot say whether they were equal to what I bought from +my <i>contrabandista</i>, for these may have been idealised by a +grateful memory, but they were so incomparably better than +any which I have been able to get in London that I was +tempted to deal with him, and so far I have had no reason to +repent. The boxes with which he provided me bettered the +sample, and the price, duty at home included, was a third +below what I should have paid in London for an article which +I would rather leave unconsumed. A broker whom I fell in +with insisted to me that the best cigars all went to London, +that my preference for what I got from my señor was mere +fancy and vanity, and that I could buy better in any shop in +Regent Street. I said that he might but I couldn't, and so +we left it.</p> + +<p>I tell all this, not with the affectation of supposing that +tobacco or my own taste about it can have any interest, but +as an illustration of what can be done in the West Indies, and +to show how immense a form of industry waits to be de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>veloped +in our own islands, if people with capital and +knowledge choose to set about it. Tobacco as good as the +best in Cuba has been grown and can be grown in Jamaica, in +St. Domingo, and probably in every one of the Antilles. +'There are dollars in those islands,' as my Yankee said, and +many a buried treasure will be brought to light there when +capitalists can feel assured that they will not be at the mercy +of black constitutional governments.</p> + +<p>My letter of introduction to the Captain-General was still +undelivered, and as I had made use of it on landing I thought +it right at least to pay my respects to the great man. The +Marques M—— kindly consented to go with me and help me +through the interview, being of course acquainted with him. +He was at his country house, a mile out of the town. The +buildings are all good in Havana. It was what it called itself, +not a palace but a handsome country residence in the middle +of a large well-kept garden. The viceroyalty has a fair but +not extravagant income attached to it. The Captain-General +receives about 8,000<i>l.</i> a year besides allowances. Were the +balls and dinners expected of him which our poor governors +are obliged to entertain their subjects with, he would not be +able to make much out of it. The large fortunes which used +to be brought back by the fortunate Captains-General who +could connive at the slave trade were no longer attainable; +those good days are gone. Public opinion therefore permits +them to save their incomes. The Spaniards are not a hospitable +people, or rather their notion of hospitality differs in form +from ours. They are ready to dine with you themselves as +often as you will ask them. Nothing in the shape of dinners is +looked for from the Captain-General, and when I as a stranger +suggested the possibility of such a thing as an invitation happening +to me, my companion assured me that I need not be in the +least alarmed. We were introduced into a well-proportioned +hall, with a few marble busts in it and casts of Greek and +Roman statues. Aides-de-camp and general officers were +lounging about, with whom we exchanged distant civilities. +After waiting for a quarter of an hour we were summoned by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> +an official into an adjoining room and found ourselves in his +Excellency's presence. He was a small gentlemanlike-looking +man, out of uniform, in plain morning dress with a silk sash. +He received us with natural politeness; cordiality was uncalled +for, but he was perfectly gracious. He expressed his pleasure +at seeing me in the island; he hoped that I should enjoy +myself, and on his part would do everything in his power to +make my stay agreeable. He spoke of the emancipation of +the slaves and of the social state of the island with pardonable +satisfaction, enquired about our own West Indies, &c., and +finally asked me to tell him in what way he could be of +service to me. I told him that I had found such kind friends +in Havana already, that I could think of little. One thing +only he could do if he pleased. I had omitted to bring a +passport with me, not knowing that it would be required. My +position was irregular and might be inconvenient. I was +indebted to my letter of introduction to his Excellency for +admission into his dominions. Perhaps he would write a few +words which would enable me to remain in them and go out +of them when my visit was over. His Excellency said that he +would instruct the Gobierno Civil to see to it, an instruction +the meaning of which I too sadly understood. I was not to +be allowed to escape the fine. A fresh shower followed of +polite words, and with these we took ourselves away.</p> + +<p>The afternoon was spent more instructively, perhaps more +agreeably, in a different scene. The Marques M—— had +been a pupil of the Jesuits. He had personal friends in the +Jesuit college at Havana, especially one, Father Viñez, whose +name is familiar to students of meteorological science, and +who has supplemented and corrected the accepted law of +storms by careful observation of West Indian hurricanes. +The Jesuits were as well spoken of in Havana as the Moravians +in Jamaica. Everyone had a good word for them. They +alone, as I have said, took the trouble to provide the good +people there with a sermon on Sundays. They alone among +the Catholic clergy, though they live poorly and have no +endowment, exert themselves to provide a tolerable education<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +for the middle and upper classes. The Marques undertook +that if we called we should be graciously received, and I was +curious and interested. Their college had been an enormous +monastery. Wherever the Spaniards went they took an army +of monks with them of all the orders. The monks contrived +always to house themselves handsomely. While soldiers +fought and settlers planted, the monks' duty was to pray. In +process of time it came to be doubted whether the monks' +prayers were worth what they cost, or whether, in fact, they +had ever had much effect of any kind. They have been suppressed +in Spain; they have been clipped short in all the +Spanish dominions, and in Havana there are now left only a +handful of Dominicans, a few nuns, and these Jesuits, who +have taken possession of the largest of the convents, much as +a soldier-crab becomes the vigorous tenant of the shell of +some lazy sea-snail. They have a college there where there are +four hundred lads and young men who pay for their +education; some hundreds more are taken out of charity. +The Jesuits conduct the whole, and do it all unaided, on their +own resources. And this is far from all that they do. They +keep on a level with the age; they are men of learning; they +are men of science; they are the Royal Society of Cuba. +They have an observatory in the college, and the Father Viñez +of whom I have spoken is in charge of it. Father Viñez was +our particular object. The porter's lodge opened into a +courtyard like the quadrangle of a college at Oxford. From +the courtyard we turned into a narrow staircase, up which we +climbed till we reached the roof, on and under which the +Father had his lodgings and his observing machinery. We +entered a small room, plainly furnished with a table and a few +uncushioned chairs; tables and chairs, all save the Father's, +littered with books and papers. Cases stood round the wall, +containing self-registering instruments of the most advanced +modern type, each with its paper barrel unrolling slowly under +clockwork, while a pencil noted upon it the temperature of +the air, the atmospheric pressure, the degree of moisture, the +ozone, the electricity. In the middle, surrounded by his tools<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> +and his ticking clocks, sat the Father, middle-aged, lean and +dry, with shrivelled skin and brown threadbare frock. He +received my companion with a warm affectionate smile. The +Marques told him that I was an Englishman who was curious +about the work in which he was engaged, and he spoke to me +at once with the politeness of a man of sense. After a few +questions asked and answered, he took us out to a shed among +the roof-tiles, where he kept his large telescope, his equatorial, +and his transit instruments—not on the great scale of State-supported +observatories, but with everything which was really +essential. He had a laboratory, too, and a workshop, with all +the recent appliances. He was a practical optician and +mechanic. He managed and repaired his own machinery, +observed, made his notes, and wrote his reports to the +societies with which he was in correspondence, all by himself. +The outfit of such an establishment, even on a moderate scale, +is expensive. I said I supposed that the Government gave +him a grant. 'So far from it,' he said, 'that we have to pay +a duty on every instrument which we import.' 'Who, then, pays +for it all?' I asked. 'The order,' he answered, quite simply.</p> + +<p>The house, I believe, <i>was</i> a gift, though it cost the State +nothing, having been simply seized when the monks were +expelled. The order now maintains it, and more than repays +the Government for their single act of generosity. At my +companion's suggestion Father Viñez gave me a copy of his +book on hurricanes. It contains a record of laborious journeys +which he made to the scene of the devastations of +the last ten years. The scientific value of the Father's work +is recognised by the highest authorities, though I cannot venture +even to attempt to explain what he has done. He +then conducted us over the building, and showed us the +libraries, dormitories, playgrounds, and the other arrangements +which were made for the students. Of these we saw none, +they were all out, but the long tables in the refectory +were laid for afternoon tea. There was a cup of milk for +each lad, with a plate of honey and a roll of bread; and +supper would follow in the evening. The sleeping gallery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> +was divided into cells, open at the top for ventilation, with +bed, table, chest of drawers, and washing apparatus—all +scrupulously clean. So far as I could judge, the Fathers +cared more for the boys' comfort than for their own. Through +an open door our conductor faintly indicated the apartment +which belonged to himself. Four bare walls, a bare tiled +floor, a plain pallet, with a crucifix above the pillow, was all +that it contained. There was no parade of ecclesiasticism. +The libraries were well furnished, but the books were chiefly +secular and scientific. The chapel was unornamented; there +were a few pictures, but they were simple and inoffensive. +Everything was good of its kind, down to the gymnastic +courts and swimming bath. The holiness was kept in the +back ground. It was in the spirit and not in the body. The +cost of the whole establishment was defrayed out of the payments +of the richer students managed economically for the +benefit of the rest, with complete indifference on the part +of the Fathers to indulgence and pleasures of their own. As +we took leave the Marques kissed his old master's brown +hand. I rather envied him the privilege.</p> + +<p>Something I saw of Havana society in the received sense of +the word. There are many clubs there, and high play in most +of them, for the Cubans are given to the roulette tables. The +Union club which is the most distinguished among them, invites +occasional strangers staying in the city to temporary membership +as we do at the Athenæum. Here you meet Spanish +<i>grandes</i>, who have come to Cuba to be out of reach of revolution, +proud as ever and not as poor as you might expect; +and when you ask who they are you hear the great familiar +names of Spanish history. I was introduced to the president—young, +handsome, and accomplished. I was startled to +learn that he was the head of the old house of Sandoval. +The house of Columbus ought to be there also, for there is +still a Christophe Colon, the direct linear representative of the +discoverer, disguised under the title of the Duque de Veragua. +A perpetual pension of 20,000 dollars a year was granted to +the great Christophe and his heirs for ever as a charge on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +the Cuban revenue. It has been paid to the family through +all changes of dynasty and forms of government, and is paid +to them still. But the Duque resides in Spain, and the +present occupation of him, I was informed, is the breeding and +raising bulls for the Plaza de Toros at Seville.</p> + +<p>Thus, every way, my stay was made agreeable to me. +There were breakfasts and dinners and introductions. Don +G—— and his brother were not fine gentlemen only, but +were men of business and deeply engaged in the active life of +the place. The American consul was a conspicuous figure +at these entertainments. America may not find it her +interest to annex these islands, but since she ordered the +French out of Mexico, and the French obeyed, she is universally +felt on that side of the Atlantic to be the supreme +arbiter of all their fates. Her consuls are thus persons of +consequence. The Cubans like the Americans well. The +commercial treaty which was offered to our islands by the +United States would have been accepted eagerly by the +Spaniards. To them, the Americans have, as yet, not been +equally liberal, but an arrangement will soon be completed. +They say that they have hills of solid iron in the island and +mountains of copper with fifty per cent. of virgin ore in +them waiting for the Americans to develop. The present administration +would swallow up in taxation the profits of the +most promising enterprise that ever was undertaken, but the +metals are there, and will come one day into working. The +consul was a swift peremptory man who knew his own mind at +any rate. Between his 'Yes, sir,' and his 'No, sir,' you were +at no loss for his meaning. He told me a story of a 'nigger' +officer with whom he had once got into conversation at Hayti. +He had inquired why they let so fine an island run to waste? +Why did they not cultivate it? The dusky soldier laid his +hand upon his breast and waved his hand. 'Ah,' he said, +'that might do for English or Germans or Americans; we of +the Latin race have higher things to occupy us.'</p> + +<p>I liked the consul well. I could not say as much for his +countrymen and countrywomen at my hotel. Individually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> +I dare say they would have been charming; collectively they +drove me to distraction. Space and time had no existence +for them; they and their voices were heard in all places and +at all hours. The midnight bravuras at the pianos mixed +wildly in my broken dreams. The Marques M—— wished to +take me with him to his country seat and show me his sugar +plantations. Nothing could have been more delightful, but with +want of sleep and the constant racket I found myself becoming +unwell. In youth and strength one can defy the foul +fiend and bid him do his worst; in age one finds it wiser to +get out of the way.</p> + +<p>On the sea, seven miles from Havana, and connected with +it by a convenient railway, at a place called Vedado, I found +a lodging house kept by a Frenchman (the best cook in Cuba) +with a German wife. The situation was so attractive, and the +owners of it so attentive, that quiet people went often into +'retreat' there. There were delicious rooms, airy and solitary +as I could wish. The sea washed the coral rock under the +windows. There were walks wild as if there was no city within +a thousand miles—up the banks of lonely rivers, over open +moors, or among inclosures where there were large farming +establishments with cattle and horses and extensive stables +and sheds. There was a village and a harbour where fishing +people kept their boats and went out daily with their nets and +lines—blacks and whites living and working side by side. I +could go where I pleased without fear of interference or +question. Only I was warned to be careful of the dogs, large +and dangerous, descendants of the famous Cuban bloodhounds, +which are kept everywhere to guard the yards and houses. +These beasts were really dangerous, and had to be avoided. +The shore was of inexhaustible interest. It was a level shelf of +coral rock extending for many miles and littered over with +shells and coral branches which had been flung up by the surf. +I had hoped for bathing. In the open water it is not to be +thought of on account of the sharks, but baths have been cut +in the rock all along that part of the coast at intervals of half +a mile; deep square basins with tunnels connecting them with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +the sea, up which the waves run clear and foaming. They are +within inclosures, roofed over to keep out the sun, and with +attendants regularly present. Art and nature combined never +made more charming pools; the water clear as sapphire, +aerated by the constant inrush of the foaming breakers, and +so warm that you could lie in it without a chill for hours. +Alas! that I could but look at them and execrate the precious +Government which forbade me their use. So severe a tax is +laid on these bathing establishments that the owners can only +afford to keep them open during the three hottest months in +the year, when the demand is greatest.</p> + +<p>In the evenings people from Havana would occasionally +come down to dine as we go to Greenwich, being attracted +partly by the air and partly by my host's reputation. There +was a long verandah under which tables were laid out, and +there were few nights on which one or more parties were not +to be seen there. Thus I encountered several curious specimens +of Cuban humanity, and on one of my runs up to Havana +I met again the cigar broker who had so roughly challenged +my judgment. He was an original and rather diverting man; +I should think a Jew. Whatever he was he fell upon me again +and asked me scornfully whether I supposed that the cigars +which I had bought of Señor Bances were anything out of the +way. I said that they suited my taste and that was enough. +'Ah,' he replied, '<i>Cada loco con su tema.</i> Every fool had his +opinion.' 'I am the <i>loco</i> (idiot), then,' said I, 'but that again +is matter of opinion.' He spoke of Cuba and professed to +know all about it. 'Can you tell me, then,' said I, 'why the +Cubans hate the Spaniards?' 'Why do the Irish hate the +English?' he answered. I said it was not an analogous case. +Cubans and Spaniards were of the same breed and of the same +creed. 'That is nothing,' he replied; 'the Americans will +have both Cuba and Ireland before long.' I said I thought +the Americans were too wise to meddle with either. If they +did, however, I imagined that on our own side of the Atlantic +we should have something to say on the subject before Ireland +was taken from us. He laughed good-humouredly. 'Is it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> +possible, sir,' he said, 'that you live in England and are so +absolutely ignorant?' I laughed too. He was a strange +creature, and would have made an excellent character in a +novel.</p> + +<p>Don G—— or his brother came down occasionally to see +how I was getting on and to talk philosophy and history. +Other gentlemen came, and the favourite subject of conversation +was Spanish administration. One of them told me this +story as an illustration of it. His father was the chief partner +in a bank; a clerk absconded, taking 50,000 dollars with +him; he had been himself sent in pursuit of the man, overtook +him with the money still in his possession, and recovered +it. With this he ought to have been contented, but he tried +to have the offender punished. The clerk replied to the +criminal charge by a counter-charge against the house. It +was absurd in itself, but he found that a suit would grow out +of it which would swallow more than the 50,000 dollars, and +finally he bribed the judge to allow him to drop the prosecution. +<i>Cosas de España</i>; it lies in the breed. Guzman de +Alfarache was robbed of his baggage by a friend. The facts +were clear, the thief was caught with Guzman's clothes on his +back; but he had influential friends—he was acquitted. He +prosecuted Guzman for a false accusation, got a judgment and +ruined him.</p> + +<p>The question was, whether if the Cubans could make themselves +independent there would be much improvement. The +want in Cuba just now, as in a good many other places, is the +want of some practical religion which insists on moral duty. +A learned English judge was trying a case one day, when there +seemed some doubt about the religious condition of one of +the witnesses. The clerk of the court retired with him to ascertain +what it really was, and returned radiant almost immediately, +saying, 'All right, my lord. Knows he'll be damned—competent +witness—knows he'll be damned.' That is really +the whole of the matter. If a man is convinced that if he +does wrong he will infallibly be punished for it he has then 'a +saving faith.' This, unfortunately, is precisely the conviction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> +which modern forms of religion produce hardly anywhere. +The Cubans are Catholics, and hear mass and go to confession; +but confession and the mass between them are enough +for the consciences of most of them, and those who think are +under the influence of the modern spirit, to which all things +are doubtful. Some find comfort in Mr. Herbert Spencer. +Some regard Christianity as a myth or poem, which had passed +in unconscious good faith into the mind of mankind, and there +might have remained undisturbed as a beneficent superstition +had not Protestantism sprung up and insisted on flinging away +everything which was not literal and historical fact. Historical +fact had really no more to do with it than with the stories of +Prometheus or the siege of Troy. The end was that no +bottom of fact could be found, and we were all set drifting.</p> + +<p>Notably too I observed among serious people there, what +I have observed in other places, the visible relief with which +they begin to look forward to extinction after death. When +the authority is shaken on which the belief in a future life +rests, the question inevitably recurs. Men used to pretend +that the idea of annihilation was horrible to them; now they +regard the probability of it with calmness, if not with actual +satisfaction. One very interesting Cuban gentleman said to me +that life would be very tolerable if one was certain that death +would be the end of it. The theological alternatives were +equally unattractive; Tartarus was an eternity of misery, and +the Elysian Fields an eternity of ennui.</p> + +<p>There is affectation in the talk of men, and one never knows +from what they say exactly what is in their mind. I have +often thought that the real character of a people shows itself +nowhere with more unconscious completeness than in their +cemeteries. Philosophise as we may, few of us are deliberately +insincere in the presence of death; and in the arrangements +which we make for the reception of those who have been dear +to us, and in the lines which we inscribe upon their monuments, +we show what we are in ourselves perhaps more than +what they were whom we commemorate. The parish churchyard +is an emblem and epitome of English country life;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +London reflects itself in Brompton and Kensal Green, and +Paris in Père la Chaise. One day as I was walking I found +myself at the gate of the great suburban cemetery of Havana. +It was enclosed within high walls; the gateway was a vast arch +of brown marble, beautiful and elaborately carved. Within +there was a garden simply and gracefully laid out with trees +and shrubs and flowers in borders. The whole space inclosed +may have been ten acres, of which half was assigned to those +who were contented with a mere mound of earth to mark +where they lay; the rest was divided into family vaults +covered with large white marble slabs, separate headstones +marking individuals for whom a particular record was required, +and each group bearing the name of the family the members +of which were sleeping there. The peculiarity of the place +was the absence of inscriptions. There was a name and date, +with E.P.D.—'en paz descansa'<a name="FNanchor_1_14" id="FNanchor_1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_14" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>—or E.G.E.—'en gracia +está'<a name="FNanchor_2_15" id="FNanchor_2_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_15" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>—and that seemed all that was needed. The virtues of +the departed and the grief of the survivors were taken for +granted in all but two instances. There may have been more, +but I could find only these.</p> + +<p>One was in Latin:</p> + +<p class="center"> +AD COELITES EVOCATÆ UXORI EXIMÆ IGNATIUS.<br /> +<i>Ignatius to his admirable wife who has been called up to heaven.</i><br /> +</p> + +<p>The other was in Spanish verse, and struck me as a graceful +imitation of the old manner of Cervantes and Lope de Vega. +The design on the monument was of a girl hanging an +immortelle upon a cross. The tomb was of a Caridad del +Monte, and the lines were:</p> + +<p style="margin-left:4em"> +Bendita Caridad, las que piadosa<br /> +Su mano vierte en la funérea losa<br /> +Son flores recogidas en el suelo,<br /> +Mas con su olor perfumaián el cielo.<br /> +</p> + + +<p>It is dangerous for anyone to whom a language is only +moderately familiar to attempt an appreciation of elegiac poetry, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>the effect of which, like the fragrance of a violet, must rather +be perceived than accounted for. He may imagine what is +not there, for a single word ill placed or ill chosen may spoil +the charm, and of this a foreigner can never entirely judge. +He may know what each word means, but he cannot know the +associations of it. Here, however, is a translation in which +the sense is preserved, though the aroma is gone.</p> + +<p style="margin-left:4em"> +The flowers which thou, oh Blessed Charity,<br /> +With pious hand hast twined in funeral wreath,<br /> +Although on earthly soil they gathered be,<br /> +Will sweeten heaven with their perfumed breath.<br /> +</p> + +<p>The flowers, I suppose, were the actions of Caridad's own +innocent life, which she was offering on the cross of Christ; +but one never can be sure that one has caught the exact sentiment +of emotional verse in a foreign language. The beauty lies +in an undefinable sweetness which rises from the melody of +the words, and in a translation disappears altogether. Who or +what Caridad del Monte was, whether a young girl whom somebody +had loved, or an allegoric and emblematic figure, I had +no one to tell me.</p> + +<p>I must not omit one acquaintance which I was fortunate +enough to make while staying at my seaside lodging. There +appeared there one day, driven out of Havana like myself by +the noise, an American ecclesiastic with a friend who addressed +him as 'My lord.' By the ring and purple, as well as by the +title, I perceived that he was a bishop. His friend was his +chaplain, and from their voices I gathered that they were both +by extraction Irish. The bishop had what is called a 'clergy-man's +throat,' and had come from the States in search of a +warmer climate. They kept entirely to themselves, but from +the laughter and good-humour they were evidently excellent +company for one another, and wanted no other. I rather +wished than hoped that accident might introduce me to them. +Even in Cuba the weather is uncertain. One day there came +a high wind from the sea; the waves roared superbly upon the +rocks, flying over them in rolling cataracts. I never saw foam<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> +so purely white or waves so transparent. As a spectacle it was +beautiful, and the shore became a museum of coralline curiosities. +Indoors the effect was less agreeable. Windows rattled +and shutters broke from their fastenings and flew to and fro. +The weathercock on the house-top creaked as he was whirled +about, and the verandahs had to be closed, and the noise was +like a prolonged thunder peal. The second day the wind +became a cyclone, and chilly as if it came from the pole. +None of us could stir out. The bishop suffered even more +than I did; he walked up and down on the sheltered side of +the house wrapped in a huge episcopalian cloak. I think he +saw that I was sorry for him, as I really was. He spoke to me; +he said he had felt the cold less in America when the thermometer +marked 25° below zero. It was not much, but the +silence was broken. Common suffering made a kind of link +between us. After this he dropped an occasional gracious +word as he passed, and one morning he came and sat by me +and began to talk on subjects of extreme interest. Chiefly he +insisted on the rights of conscience and the tenderness for +liberty of thought which had always been shown by the Church +of Rome. He had been led to speak of it by the education +question which has now become a burning one in the American +Union. The Church, he said, never had interfered, and never +could or would interfere, with any man's conscientious scruples. +Its own scruples, therefore, ought to be respected. The +American State schools were irreligious, and Catholic parents +were unwilling to allow their children to attend them. They +had established schools of their own, and they supported them +by subscriptions among themselves. In these schools the boys +and girls learnt everything which they could learn in the State +schools, and they learnt to be virtuous besides. They were +thus discharging to the full every duty which the State could +claim of them, and the State had no right to tax them in +addition for the maintenance of institutions of which they +made no use, and of the principles of which they disapproved. +There were now eight millions of Catholics in the Union. In +more than one state they had an actual majority; and they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> +intended to insist that as long as their children came up to +the present educational standard, they should no longer be +compelled to pay a second education tax to the Government. +The struggle, he admitted, would be a severe one, but the +Catholics had justice on their side, and would fight on till they +won.</p> + +<p>In democracies the majority is to prevail, and if the control +of education falls within the province of each separate state +government, it is not easy to see on what ground the Americans +will be able to resist, or how there can be a struggle at all where +the Catholic vote is really the largest. The presence of the +Catholic Church in a democracy is the real anomaly. The +principle of the Church is authority resting on a divine commission; +the principle of democracy is the will of the people; +and the Church in the long run will have as hard a battle to +fight with the divine right of the majority of numbers as she +had with the divine right of the Hohenstauffens and the Plantagenets. +She is adroit in adapting herself to circumstances, +and, like her emblem the fish, she changes her colour with +that of the element in which she swims. No doubt she has a +strong position in this demand and will know how to use it.</p> + +<p>But I was surprised to hear even a Catholic bishop insist +that his Church had always paid so much respect to the rights +of conscience. I had been taught to believe that in the days +of its power the Church had not been particularly tender +towards differences of opinion. Fire and sword had been +used freely enough as long as fire and sword were available. +I hinted my astonishment. The bishop said the Church had +been slandered; the Church had never in a single instance +punished any man merely for conscientious error. Protestants +had falsified history. Protestants read their histories, Catholics +read theirs, and the Catholic version was the true one. The +separate governments of Europe had no doubt been cruel. In +France, Spain, the Low Countries, even in England, heretics +had been harshly dealt with, but it was the governments that +had burnt and massacred all those people, not the Church. +The governments were afraid of heresy because it led to revo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>lution. +The Church had never shed any blood at all; the +Church could not, for she was forbidden to do so by her own +canons. If she found a man obstinate in unbelief, she cut him +off from the communion and handed him over to the secular +arm. If the secular arm thought fit to kill him, the Church's +hands were clear of it.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/image0010.jpg" alt="PORT AU PRINCE, HAYTI." title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption">PORT AU PRINCE, HAYTI.</span> +</div> + +<p>So Pilate washed his hands; so the judge might say he +never hanged a murderer; the execution was the work of the +hangman. The bishop defied me to produce an instance in +which in Rome, when the temporal power was with the pope +and the civil magistrates were churchmen, there had ever +been an execution for heresy. I mentioned Giordano Bruno, +whom the bishop had forgotten; but we agreed not to quarrel, +and I could not admire sufficiently the hardihood and the +ingenuity of his argument. The English bishops and abbots +passed through parliament the Act <i>de hæretico comburendo</i>, +but they were acting as politicians, not as churchmen. The +Spanish Inquisition burnt freely and successfully. The inquisitors +were archbishops and bishops, but the Holy Office was a +function of the State. When Gregory XIII. struck his medal +in commemoration of the massacre of St. Bartholomew he was +then only the secular ruler of Rome, and therefore fallible and +subject to sin like other mortals. The Church has many parts +to play; her stage wardrobe is well furnished, and her actors +so well instructed in their parts that they believe themselves +in all that they say. The bishop was speaking no more than +his exact conviction. He told me that in the Middle Ages +secular princes were bound by their coronation oath to accept +the pope as the arbiter of all quarrels between them. I asked +where this oath was, or what were the terms of it? The +words, he said, were unimportant. The fact was certain, and +down to the fatal schism of the sixteenth century the pope +had always been allowed to arbitrate, and quarrels had been +prevented. I could but listen and wonder. He admitted +that he had read one set of books and I another, as it was +clear that he must have done.</p> + +<p>In the midst of our differences we found we had many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> +points of agreement. We agreed that the breaking down of +Church authority at the Reformation had been a fatal disaster; +that without a sense of responsibility to a supernatural power, +human beings would sink into ingenious apes, that human +society would become no more than a congregation of apes, +and that with differences of opinion and belief, that sense was +becoming more and more obscured. So long as all serious +men held the same convictions, and those convictions were +embodied in the law, religion could speak with authority. +The authority being denied or shaken, the fact itself became +uncertain. The notion that everybody had a right to think as +he pleased was felt to be absurd in common things. In every +practical art or science the ignorant submitted to be guided +by those who were better instructed than themselves. Why +should they be left to their private judgment on subjects +where to go wrong was the more dangerous. All this was plain +sailing. The corollary that if it is to retain its influence the +Church must not teach doctrines which outrage the common +sense of mankind as Luther led half Europe to believe that +the Church was doing in the sixteenth century, we agreed that +we would not dispute about. But I was interested to see that +the leopard had not changed its spots, that it merely readjusted +its attitudes to suit the modern taste, and that if it ever recovered +its power it would claw and scratch in the old way. +Rome, like Pilate, may protest its innocence of the blood +which was spilt in its name and in its interests. Did that +tender and merciful court ever suggest to those prelates who +passed the Act in England for the burning of heretics that +they were transgressing the sacred rights of conscience? Did +it reprove the Inquisition or send a mild remonstrance to +Philip II.? The eyes of those who are willing to be blinded +will see only what they desire to see.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_14" id="Footnote_1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_14"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> +He rests in peace.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_15" id="Footnote_2_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_15"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> +He is now in grace.</p></div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Return to Havana—The Spaniards in Cuba—Prospects—American influence—Future +of the West Indies—English rumours—Leave Cuba—The +harbour at night—The Bahama Channel—Hayti—Port au Prince—The +black republic—West Indian history.</p></div> + + +<p>The air and quiet of Vedado (so my retreat was called) soon +set me up again, and I was able to face once more my hotel +and its Americans. I did not attempt to travel in Cuba, nor +was it necessary for my purpose. I stayed a few days longer +at Havana. I went to operas and churches; I sailed about +the harbour in boats, the boatmen, all of them, not negroes, as +in the Antilles, but emigrants from the old country, chiefly +Gallicians. I met people of all sorts, among the rest a Spanish +officer—a major of engineers—who, if he lives, may come to +something. Major D—— took me over the fortifications, +showed me the interior lines of the Moro, and their latest +specimens of modern artillery. The garrison are, of course, +Spanish regiments made of home-bred Castilians, as I could +not fail to recognise when I heard any of them speak. There +are certain words of common use in Spain powerful as the +magic formulas of enchanters over the souls of men. You hear +them everywhere in the Peninsula; at cafe's, at tables d'hôte, +and in private conversation. They are a part of the national +intellectual equipment. Either from prudery or because they +are superior to old-world superstitions, the Cubans have washed +these expressions out of their language; but the national +characteristics are preserved in the army, and the spell does +not lose its efficacy because the islanders disbelieve in it. I +have known a closed post office in Madrid, where the clerk +was deaf to polite entreaty, blown open by an oath as by a +bomb shell. A squad of recruits in the Moro, who were lying +in the shade under a tree, neglected to rise as an officer went +by. 'Saludad, C——o!' he thundered out, and they bounded +to their feet as if electrified.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p> + +<p>On the whole Havana was something to have seen. It is +the focus and epitome of Spanish dominion in those seas, and +I was forced to conclude that it was well for Cuba that the +English attempts to take possession of it had failed. Be the +faults of their administration as heavy as they are alleged to be, +the Spaniards have done more to Europeanise their islands +than we have done with ours. They have made Cuba Spanish—Trinidad, +Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada have never been +English at all, and Jamaica and Barbadoes are ceasing to be +English. Cuba is a second home to the Spaniards, a permanent +addition to their soil. We are as birds of passage, temporary +residents for transient purposes, with no home in our +islands at all. Once we thought them worth fighting for, and +as long as it was a question of ships and cannon we made ourselves +supreme rulers of the Caribbean Sea; yet the French +and Spaniards will probably outlive us there. They will remain +perhaps as satellites of the United States, or in some other +confederacy, or in recovered strength of their own; we, in a +generation or two, if the causes now in operation continue to +work as they are now working, shall have disappeared from +the scene. In Cuba there is a great Spanish population; +Martinique and Guadaloupe are parts of France; to us it +seems a matter of indifference whether we keep our islands or +abandon them, and we leave the remnants of our once precious +settlements to float or drown as they can. Australia and +Canada take care of themselves; we expect our West Indies +to do the same, careless of the difference of circumstance. +We no longer talk of cutting our colonies adrift; the tone of +public opinion is changed, and no one dares to advocate openly +the desertion of the least important of them. But the neglect +and indifference continue. We will not govern them effectively +ourselves: our policy, so far as we have any policy, is to extend +among them the principles of self-government, and +self-government can only precipitate our extinction there as +completely as we know that it would do in India if we were +wild enough to venture the plunge. There is no enchantment +in self-government which will make people love each other when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> +they are indifferent or estranged. It can only force them into +sharper collision.</p> + +<p>The opinion in Cuba was, and is, that America is the residuary +legatee of all the islands, Spanish and English equally, and +that she will be forced to take charge of them in the end +whether she likes it or not. Spain governs unjustly and +corruptly; the Cubans will not rest till they are free from her, +and if once independent they will throw themselves on +American protection.</p> + +<p>We will not govern our islands at all, but leave them to drift. +Jamaica and the Antilles, given over to the negro majorities, +can only become like Hayti and St. Domingo; and the nature +of things will hardly permit so fair a part of the earth which +has been once civilised and under white control to fall back +into barbarism.</p> + +<p>To England the loss of the West Indies would not itself be +serious; but in the life of nations discreditable failures are not +measured by their immediate material consequences. To +allow a group of colonies to slide out of our hands because we +could not or would not provide them with a tolerable government +would be nothing less than a public disgrace. It would +be an intimation to all the world that we were unable to maintain +any longer the position which our fathers had made for +us; and when the unravelling of the knitted fabric of the +Empire has once begun the process will be a rapid one.</p> + +<p>'But what would you do?' I am asked impatiently. 'We +send out peers or gentlemen against whose character no direct +objection can be raised; we assist them with local councils +partly chosen by the people themselves. We send out bishops, +we send out missionaries, we open schools. What can we do +more? We cannot alter the climate, we cannot make planters +prosper when sugar will not pay, we cannot convert black men +into whites, we cannot force the blacks to work for the whites +when they do not wish to work for them. "Governing," as +you call it, will not change the natural conditions of things. +You can suggest no remedy, and mere fault-finding is foolish +and mischievous.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p> + +<p>I might answer a good many things. Government cannot +do everything, but it can do something, and there is a difference +between governors against whom there is nothing to object +and men of special and marked capacity. There is a difference +between governors whose hands are tied by local councils +and whose feet are tied by instructions from home, and a +governor with a free hand and a wise head left to take his own +measures on the spot. I presume that no one can seriously +expect that an orderly organised nation can be made out of the +blacks, when, in spite of your schools and missionaries, sixty +per cent. of the children now born among them are illegitimate. +You can do for the West Indies, I repeat over and over again, +what you do for the East; you can establish a firm authoritative +government which will protect the blacks in their civil +rights and protect the whites in theirs. You cannot alter the +climate, it is true, or make the soil more fertile. Already it is +fertile as any in the earth, and the climate is admirable for the +purposes for which it is needed. But you can restore confidence +in the stability of your tenure, you can give courage to +the whites who are on the spot to remain there, and you can +tempt capital and enterprise to venture there which now seek +investments elsewhere. By keeping the rule in your own +hands you will restore the white population to their legitimate +influence; the blacks will again look up to them and respect +them as they ought to do. This you can do, and it will cost +you nothing save a little more pains in the selection of the +persons whom you are to trust with powers analogous to those +which you grant to your provincial governors in the Indian +peninsula.</p> + +<p>A preliminary condition of this, as of all other real improvements, +is one, however, which will hardly be fulfilled. +Before a beginning can be made, a conviction is wanted that +life has other objects besides present interest and convenience; +and very few of us indeed have at the bottom of our hearts any +such conviction at all. We can talk about it in fine language—no +age ever talked more or better—but we don't believe in +it; we believe only in professing to believe, which soothes our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> +vanity and does not interfere with our actions. From fine +words no harvests grow. The negroes are well disposed to +follow and obey any white who will be kind and just to them, +and in such following and obedience their only hope of improvement +lies. The problem is to create a state of things +under which Englishmen of vigour and character will make +their homes among them. Annexation to the United States +would lead probably to their extermination at no very distant +time. The Antilles are small, and the fate of the negroes there +might be no better than the fate of the Caribs. The Americans +are not a people who can be trifled with; no one knows +it better than the negroes. They fear them. They prefer infinitely +the mild rule of England, and under such a government +as we might provide if we cared to try, the whole of our +islands might become like the Moravian settlement in Jamaica, +and the black nature, which has rather degenerated than improved +in these late days of licence, might be put again in the +way of regeneration. The process would be slow—your seedlings +in a plantation hang stationary year after year, but they +do move at last. We cannot disown our responsibility for these +poor adopted brothers of ours. We send missionaries into +Africa to convert them to a better form of religion; why +should the attempt seem chimerical to convert them practically +to a higher purpose in our own colonies?</p> + +<p>The reader will be weary of a sermon the points of which +have been reiterated so often. I might say that he requires to +have the lesson impressed upon him—that it is for his good +that I insist upon it, and not for my own. But this is the +common language of all preachers, and it is not found to make +the hearers more attentive. I will not promise to say no more +upon the subject, for it was forced upon me at every moment +and point of my journey. I am arriving near the end, however, +and if he has followed so far, he will perhaps go on with me +to the conclusion. I had three weeks to give to Havana; +they were fast running out, and it was time for me to be going. +Strange stories, too, came from England, which made me uneasy +till I knew how they were set in circulation. One day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> +Mr. Gladstone was said to have gone mad, and the Queen the +next. The Russians were about to annex Afghanistan. Our +troops had been cut to pieces in Burmah. Something was +going wrong with us every day in one corner of the world or +another. I found at last that the telegraphic intelligence was +supplied to the Cuban newspapers from New York, that the +telegraph clerks there were generally Irish, and their facts were +the creation of their wishes. I was to return to Jamaica in +the same vessel which had brought me from it. She had been +down to the isthmus, and was to call at Havana on her way +back. The captain's most English face was a welcome sight +to me when he appeared one evening at dinner. He had come +to tell me that he was to sail early on the following morning, +and I arranged to go on board with him the same night. The +Captain-General had not forgotten to instruct the Gobierno +Civil to grant me an <i>exeat regno</i>. I do not know that I +gained much by his intercession, for without it I should hardly +have been detained indefinitely, and as it was I had to pay +more dollars than I liked to part with. The necessary documents, +however, had been sent through the British consul, and +I was free to leave when I pleased. I paid my bill at the +hotel, which was not after all an extravagant one, cleared my +pocket-book of the remainder of the soiled and tattered paper +which is called money, and does duty for it down to a half-penny, +and with my distinguished friend Don G——, the real +acquisition which I had made in coming to his country, and +who would not leave me till I was in the boat, I drove away to +the wharf.</p> + +<p>It was a still, lovely, starlight night. The moon had risen +over the hills, and was shining brightly on the roofs and towers +of the city, and on the masts and spars of the vessels which +were riding in the harbour. There was not a ripple on the +water, and stars and city, towers and ships, stood inverted on +the surface pointing downward as into a second infinity. The +charm was unfortunately interfered with by odours worse than +Coleridge found at Cologne and cursed in rhyme. The drains +of Havana, like orange blossom, give off their most fragrant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> +vapours in the dark hours. I could well believe Don G——'s +saying, that but for the natural healthiness of the place, they +would all die of it like poisoned flies. We had to cut our +adieus short, for the mouth of some horrid sewer was close to +us. In the boat I did not escape; the water smelt horribly as +it was stirred by the oars, charged as it was with three centuries +of pollution, and the phosphorescent light shone with a sickly, +sulphur-like brilliance. One could have fancied that one was +in Charon's boat and was crossing Acheron. When I reached +the steamer I watched from the deck the same ghost-like phenomenon +which is described by Tom Cringle. A fathom deep, +in the ship's shadow, some shark or other monster sailed slowly +by in an envelope of spectral lustre. When he stopped his +figure disappeared, when he moved on again it was like the +movement of a streak of blue flame. Such a creature did not +seem as if it could belong to our familiar sunlit ocean.</p> + +<p>The state of the harbour is not creditable to the Spanish +Government, and I suppose will not be improved till there is +some change of dynasty. All that can be said for it is that it +is not the worst in these seas. Our ship had just come from +the Canal, and had brought the latest news from thence.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>But the miscalculations of the work to be done and of the expense +of doing it are now notorious to all the world. The +alternatives are to abandon an enterprise so splendid in +conception, so disastrous in the execution, or to raise and +spend fresh tens of millions to follow those that are gone with +no certain prospect of success after all. The saddest part of +the story will be soonest forgotten—the frightful consumption +of human life in those damp and pestilential jungles. M. +Lesseps having made his name immortal at Suez, aspired at +eclipsing his first achievement, by a second yet more splendidly +ambitious, at a time of life when common men are content to +retire upon their laurels. He deserves and will receive an unstinted +admiration for his energy and his enthusiasm. But his +countrymen who have so zealously supported him will be +rewarded with no dividend upon their shares, even if the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> +two oceans are eventually united, and no final success can be +looked for in the bold projector's life time.</p> + +<p>At dawn we swept out under the Moro, and away once more +into the free fresh open sea. We had come down on the south +side of the island, we returned by the north up the old Bahama +Channel where Drake died on his way home from his last unsuccessful +expedition—Lope de Vega singing a pæan over the +end of the great 'dragon.' Fresh passengers brought fresh +talk. There was a clever young Jamaican on board returning +from a holiday; he had the spirits of youth about him, and +would have pleased my American who never knew good come +of despondency. He had hopes for his country, but they +rested, like those of every sensible man that I met, on an +inability to believe that there would be further advances in the +direction of political liberty. A revised constitution, he said, +could issue only in fresh Gordon riots and fresh calamities. +He had been travelling in the Southern States. He had seen +the state of Mississippi deserted by the whites, and falling back +into a black wilderness. He had seen South Carolina, which +had narrowly escaped ruin under a black and carpet-bagger +legislature, and had recovered itself under the steady determination +of the Americans that the civil war was not to mean the +domination of negro over white. The danger was greater in +the English islands than in either of these states, from the +enormous disproportion of numbers. The experiment could be +ventured only under a high census and a restricted franchise. +But the experience of all countries showed that these limited +franchises were invidious and could not be maintained, the +end was involved in the beginning, and he trusted that prudent +counsels would prevail. We had gone too far already.</p> + +<p>On board also there was a traveller from a Manchester house +of business, who gave me a more flourishing account than I +expected of the state of our trade, not so much with the +English islands as with the Spaniards in Cuba and on the +mainland. His own house, he said, had a large business with +Havana; twenty firms in the north of England were competing +there, and all were doing well. The Spanish Americans<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> +on the west side of the continent were good customers, with +the exception of the Mexicans, who were energetic and industrious, +and manufactured for their own consumption. These +modern Aztecs were skilful workmen, nimble-fingered and inventive. +Wages were low, but they were contented with them. +Mexico, I was surprised to hear from him, was rising fast into +prosperity. Whether human life was any safer then than it +was a few years ago, he did not tell me.</p> + +<p>Amidst talk and chess and occasional whist after nightfall +when reading became difficult, we ran along with smooth seas, +land sometimes in sight, with shoals on either side of us.</p> + +<p>We were to have one more glimpse of Hayti; we were to +touch at Port au Prince, the seat of government of the successors +of Toussaint. If beauty of situation could mould +human character, the inhabitants of Port au Prince might +claim to be the first of mankind. St. Domingo or Española, +of which Hayti is the largest division, was the earliest island +discovered by Columbus and the finest in the Caribbean Ocean. +It remained Spanish, as I have already said, for 200 years, when +Hayti was taken by the French buccaneers, and made over by +them to Louis XIV. The French kept it till the Revolution. +They built towns; they laid out farms and sugar fields; they +planted coffee all over the island, where it now grows wild.' +Vast herds of cattle roamed over the mountains; splendid +houses rose over the rich savannahs. The French Church put +out its strength; there were churches and priests in every +parish; there were monasteries and nunneries for the religious +orders. So firm was the hold that they had gained that Hayti, +like Cuba, seemed to have been made a part of the old world, +and as civilised as France itself. But French civilisation became +itself electric. The Revolution came, and the reign of +Liberty. The blacks took arms; they surprised the plantations; +they made a clean sweep of the whole French population. +Yellow fever swept away the armies which were sent to avenge +the massacre, and France being engaged in annexing Europe +had no leisure to despatch more. The island being thus +derelict, Spain and England both tried their hand to recover<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> +it, but failed from the same cause, and a black nation, with a +republican constitution and a population perhaps of about a +million and a half of pure-blood negroes, has since been in +unchallenged possession, and has arrived at the condition +which has been described to us by Sir Spenser St. John. Republics +which begin with murder and plunder do not come to +much good in this world. Hayti has passed through many +revolutions, and is no nearer than at first to stability. The +present president, M. Salomon, who was long a refugee in +Jamaica, came into power a few years back by a turn of the +wheel. He was described to me as a peremptory gentleman +who made quick work with his political opponents. His term +of office having nearly expired, he had re-elected himself +shortly before for another seven years and was prepared to +maintain his right by any measures which he might think expedient. +He had a few regiments of soldiers, who, I was +told, were devoted to him, and a fleet consisting of two gunboats +commanded by an American officer, to whom he chiefly +owed his security.</p> + +<p>We had steamed along the Hayti coast all one afternoon, +underneath a high range of hills which used to be the hunting +ground of the buccaneers. We had passed their famous +Tortugas<a name="FNanchor_1_16" id="FNanchor_1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_16" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> without seeing them. Towards evening we entered +the long channel between Gonaive island and the mainland, +going slowly that we might not arrive at Port au Prince before +daylight. It was six in the morning when the anchor rattled +down, and I went on deck to look about me. We were at the +head of a fiord rather broader than those in Norway, but very +like them—wooded mountains rising on either side of us, an +open valley in front, and on the rich level soil washed down by +the rains and deposited along the shore, the old French and +now President Salomon's capital. Palms and oranges and +other trees were growing everywhere among the houses giving +the impression of graceful civilisation. Directly before us were +three or four wooded islets which form a natural breakwater, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>and above them were seen the masts of the vessels which were +lying in the harbour behind. Close to where we were brought +up lay the 'Canada,' an English frigate, and about a quarter +of a mile from her an American frigate of about the same size, +with the stars and stripes conspicuously flying. We have had +some differences of late with the Hayti authorities, and the +satisfaction which we asked for having been refused or delayed, +a man-of-war had been sent to ask redress in more peremptory +terms. The town lay under her guns; the president's ships, +which she might perhaps have seized as a security, had been +taken out of sight into shallow water, where she could not +follow them. The Americans have no particular rights in +Hayti, and are as little liked as we are, but they are feared, +and they do not allow any business of a serious kind to go on +in those waters without knowing what it is about. Perhaps +the president's admiral of the station being an American may +have had something to do with their presence. Anyway, there +the two ships were lying when I came up from below, their +hulks and spars outlined picturesquely against the steep wooded +shores. The air was hot and steamy; fishing vessels with +white sails were drifting slowly about the glassy water. Except +for the heat and a black officer of the customs in uniform, and +his boat and black crew alongside, I could have believed myself +off Mölde or some similar Norwegian town, so like everything +seemed, even to the colour of the houses.</p> + +<p>We were to stay some hours. After breakfast we landed. +I had seen Jacmel, and therefore thought myself prepared for +the worst which I should find. Jacmel was an outlying symptom; +Port au Prince was the central ulcer. Long before we +came to shore there came off whiffs, not of drains as at Havana, +but of active dirt fermenting in the sunlight. Calling our +handkerchiefs to our help and looking to our feet carefully, +we stepped up upon the quay and walked forward as judiciously +as we could. With the help of stones we crossed a shallow +ditch, where rotten fish, vegetables, and other articles were +lying about promiscuously, and we came on what did duty for +a grand parade.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p> + +<p>We were in a Paris of the gutter, with boulevards and +<i>places</i>, <i>fiacres</i> and crimson parasols. The boulevards were +littered with the refuse of the houses and were foul as pigsties, +and the ladies under the parasols were picking their +way along them in Parisian boots and silk dresses. I saw a +<i>fiacre</i> broken down in a black pool out of which a blacker +ladyship was scrambling. Fever breeds so prodigally in that +pestilential squalor that 40,000 people were estimated to have +died of it in a single year. There were shops and stores and +streets, men and women in tawdry European costume, and +officers on horseback with a tatter of lace and gilding. We +passed up the principal avenue, which opened on the market +place. Above the market was the cathedral, more hideous +than even the Mormon temple at Salt Lake. It was full +of ladies; the rank, beauty, and fashion of Port au Prince were +at their morning mass, for they are Catholics with African +beliefs underneath. They have a French clergy, an archbishop +and bishop, paid miserably but still subsisting; subsisting +not as objects of reverence at all, as they are at Dominica, +but as the humble servants and ministers of black society. +We English are in bad favour just now; no wonder, with the +guns of the 'Canada' pointed at the city; but the chief complaint +is on account of Sir Spenser St. John's book, which they +cry out against with a degree of anger which is the surest +evidence of its truth. It would be unfair even to hint at the +names or stations of various persons who gave me information +about the condition of the place and people. Enough that +those who knew well what they were speaking about assured +me that Hayti was the most ridiculous caricature of civilisation +in the whole world. Doubtless the whites there are not +disinterested witnesses; for they are treated as they once +treated the blacks. They can own no freehold property, and +exist only on tolerance. They are called 'white trash.' Black +dukes and marquises drive over them in the street and swear +at them, and they consider it an invasion of the natural order +of things. If this was the worst, or even if the dirt and the +disease was the worst, it might be borne with, for the whites<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> +might go away if they pleased, and they pay the penalty themselves +for choosing to be there. But this is not the worst. +Immorality is so universal that it almost ceases to be a fault, +for a fault implies an exception, and in Hayti it is the rule. +Young people make experiment of one another before they +will enter into any closer connection. So far they are no +worse than in our own English islands, where the custom is +equally general; but behind the immorality, behind the religiosity, +there lies active and alive the horrible revival of the +West African superstitions; the serpent worship, and the child +sacrifice, and the cannibalism. There is no room to doubt it. +A missionary assured me that an instance of it occurred only +a year ago within his own personal knowledge. The facts are +notorious; a full account was published in one of the local +newspapers, and the only result was that the president imprisoned +the editor for exposing his country. A few years ago +persons guilty of these infamies were tried and punished; now +they are left alone, because to prosecute and convict them +would be to acknowledge the truth of the indictment.</p> + +<p>In this, as in all other communities, there is a better side as +well as a worse. The better part is ashamed of the condition +into which the country has fallen; rational and well-disposed +Haytians would welcome back the French but for an impression, +whether well founded or ill I know not, that the +Americans would not suffer any European nation to reacquire +or recover any new territory on their side of the Atlantic. +They make the most they can of their French connection. +They send their children to Paris to be educated, and many +of them go thither themselves. There is money among them, +though industry there is none. The Hayti coffee which bears +so high a reputation is simply gathered under the bushes which +the French planters left behind them, and is half as excellent +as it ought to be because it is so carelessly cleaned. Yet so rich +is the island in these and other natural productions that they +cannot entirely ruin it. They have a revenue from their +customs of 5,000,000 dollars to be the prey of political +schemers. They have a constitution, of course, with a legis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>lature—two +houses of a legislature—universal suffrage, &c., +but it does not save them from revolutions, which recurred +every two or three years till the time of the present president. +He being of stronger metal than the rest, takes care that the +votes are given as he pleases, shoots down recusants, and +knows how to make himself feared. He is a giant, they say—I +did not see him—six feet some inches in height and broad +in proportion. When in Jamaica he was a friend of Gordon, +and the intimacy between them is worth noting, as throwing +light on Gordon's political aspirations.</p> + +<p>I stayed no longer than the ship's business detained the +captain, and I breathed more freely when I had left that +miserable cross-birth of ferocity and philanthropic sentiment. +No one can foretell the future fate of the black republic, but +the present order of things cannot last in an island so close +under the American shores. If the Americans forbid any +other power to interfere, they will have to interfere themselves. +If they find Mormonism an intolerable blot upon +their escutcheon, they will have to put a stop in some way or +other to cannibalism and devil-worship. Meanwhile, the +ninety years of negro self-government have had their use in +showing what it really means, and if English statesmen, either +to save themselves trouble or to please the prevailing uninstructed +sentiment, insist on extending it, they will be found +when the accounts are made up to have been no better +friends to the unlucky negro than their slave-trading forefathers.</p> + +<p>From the head of the bay on which Port au Prince stands +there reaches out on the west the long arm or peninsula which +is so peculiar a feature in the geography of the island. The +arm bone is a continuous ridge of mountains rising to a height +of 8,000 feet and stretching for 160 miles. At the back +towards the ocean is Jacmel, on the other side is the bight of +Leogane, over which and along the land our course lay after +leaving President Salomon's city. The day was unusually +hot, and we sat under an awning on deck watching the +changes in the landscape as ravines opened and closed again,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> +and tall peaks changed their shapes and angles. Clouds came +down upon the mountain tops and passed off again, whole +galleries of pictures swept by, and nature never made more +lovely ones. The peculiarity of tropical mountain scenery is +that the high summits are clothed with trees. The outlines +are thus softened and rounded, save where the rock is broken +into precipices. Along the sea and for several miles inland +are the Basses Terres as they used to be called, level alluvial +plains, cut and watered at intervals by rivers, once covered +with thriving plantations and now a jungle. There are no +wild beasts there save an occasional man, few snakes, and +those not dangerous. The acres of richest soil which are +waiting there till reasonable beings can return and cultivate +them, must be hundreds of thousands. In the valleys and on +the slopes there are all gradations of climate, abundant water, +grass lands that might be black with cattle, or on the loftier +ranges white with sheep.</p> + +<p>It is strange to think how chequered a history these islands +have had, how far they are even yet from any condition which +promises permanence. Not one of them has arrived at any +stable independence. Spaniards, English and French, Dutch +and Danes scrambled for them, fought for them, occupied +them more or less with their own people, but it was not to +found new nations, but to get gold or get something which +could be changed for gold. Only occasionally, and as it were +by accident, they became the theatre of any grander game. +The war of the Reformation was carried thither, and heroic +deeds were done there, but it was by adventurers who were in +search of plunder for themselves. France and England fought +among the Antilles, and their names are connected with many +a gallant action; but they fought for the sovereignty of the +seas, not for the rights and liberties of the French or English +inhabitants of the islands. Instead of occupying them with +free inhabitants, the European nations filled them with slave +gangs. They were valued only for the wealth which they +yielded, and society there has never assumed any particularly +noble aspect. There has been splendour and luxurious living,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> +and there have been crimes and horrors, and revolts and +massacres. There has been romance, but it has been the +romance of pirates and outlaws. The natural graces of human +life do not show themselves under such conditions. There has +been no saint in the West Indies since Las Casas, no hero, +unless philonegro enthusiasm can make one out of Toussaint. +There are no people there in the true sense of the word, with +a character and purpose of their own, unless to some extent +in Cuba, and therefore when the wind has changed and the +wealth for which the islands were alone desired is no longer to +be made among them, and slavery is no longer possible and +would not pay if it were, there is nothing to fall back upon. +The palaces of the English planters and merchants fall to +decay; their wines and their furniture, their books and their +pictures, are sold or dispersed. Their existence is a struggle +to keep afloat, and one by one they go under in the waves.</p> + +<p>The blacks as long as they were slaves were docile and +partially civilised. They have behaved on the whole well in +our islands since their emancipation, for though they were +personally free the whites were still their rulers, and they looked +up to them with respect. They have acquired land and notions +of property, some of them can read, many of them are tolerable +workmen and some excellent, but in character the movement +is backwards, not forwards. Even in Hayti, after the +first outburst of ferocity, a tolerable government was possible +for a generation or two. Orderly habits are not immediately +lost, but the effect of leaving the negro nature to itself is +apparent at last. In the English islands they are innocently +happy in the unconsciousness of the obligations of morality. +They eat, drink, sleep, and smoke, and do the least in the way +of work that they can. They have no ideas of duty, and +therefore are not made uneasy by neglecting it. One or other +of them occasionally rises in the legal or other profession, but +there is no sign, not the slightest, that the generality of the +race are improving either in intelligence or moral habits; all +the evidence is the other way. No Uncle Tom, no Aunt Chloe +need be looked for in a negro's cabin in the West Indies. If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> +such specimens of black humanity are to be found anywhere, +it will be where they have continued under the old influences +as servants in white men's houses. The generality are mere +good-natured animals, who in service had learnt certain accomplishments, +and had developed certain qualities of a higher +kind. Left to themselves they fall back upon the superstitions +and habits of their ancestors. The key to the character of any +people is to be found in the local customs which have spontaneously +grown or are growing among them. The customs +of Dahomey have not yet shown themselves in the English +West Indies and never can while the English authority is +maintained; but no custom of any kind will be found in a negro +hut or village from which his most sanguine friend can derive +a hope that he is on the way to mending himself.</p> + +<p>Roses do not grow on thorn trees, nor figs on thistles. A +healthy human civilisation was not perhaps to be looked for in +countries which have been alternately the prey of avarice, +ambition, and sentimentalism. We visit foreign countries to +see varieties of life and character, to learn languages that we +may gain an insight into various literatures, to see manners +unlike our own springing naturally out of different soils and +climates, to see beautiful works of art, to see places associated +with great men and great actions, and subsidiary to these, to +see lakes and mountains, and strange skies and seas. But the +localities of great events and the homes of the actors in them +are only saddening when the spiritual results are disappointing, +and scenery loses its charm unless the grace of humanity is in +the heart of it. To the man of science the West Indies may +be delightful and instructive. Rocks and trees and flowers +remain as they always were, and Nature is constant to herself. +But the traveller whose heart is with his kind, and who cares +only to see his brother mortals making their corner of this +planet into an orderly and rational home, had better choose +some other object for his pilgrimage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_16" id="Footnote_1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_16"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Tortoise Islands; the buccaneers' head quarters.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Return to Jamaica—Cherry Garden again—Black servants—Social conditions—Sir +Henry Norman—King's House once more—Negro suffrage—The +will of the people—The Irish python—Conditions of colonial union—Oratory +and statesmanship.</p></div> + + +<p>I had to return to Jamaica from Cuba to meet the mail to +England. My second stay could be but brief. For the short +time that was allowed me I went back to my hospitable +friends at Cherry Garden, which is an oasis in the wilderness. +In the heads of the family there was cultivation and simplicity +and sense. There was a home life with its quiet occupations +and enjoyments—serious when seriousness was needed, light +and bright in the ordinary routine of existence. The black +domestics, far unlike the children of liberty whom I had left +at Port au Prince, had caught their tone from their master and +mistress, and were low-voiced, humorous, and pleasant to talk +with. So perfect were they in their several capacities, that, +like the girls at Government House at Dominica, I would have +liked to pack them in my portmanteau and carry them home. +The black butler received me on my arrival as an old friend. +He brought me a pair of boots which I had left behind me on +my first visit; he told me 'the female' had found them. The +lady of the house took me out for a drive with her. The coachman +half-upset us into a ditch, and we narrowly escaped being +pitched into a ravine. The dusky creature insisted pathetically +that it was not his fault, nor the horse's fault. His ebony wife +had left him for a week's visit to a friend, and his wits had +gone after her. Of course he was forgiven. Cherry Garden +was a genuine homestead, a very menagerie of domestic animals +of all sorts and breeds. Horses loitered under the shade of +the mangoes; cows, asses, dogs, turkeys, cocks and hens, geese, +guinea fowl and pea fowl lounged and strutted about the paddocks. +In the grey of the morning they held their concerts; the asses +brayed, the dogs barked, the turkeys gobbled, and the pea fowl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> +screamed. It was enough to waken the seven sleepers, but +the noises seemed so home-like and natural that they mixed +pleasantly in one's dreams. One morning, after they had been +holding a special jubilee, the butler apologised for them when +he came to call me, and laughed as at the best of jokes when +I said they did not mean any harm. The great feature of the +day was five cats, with blue eyes and spotlessly white, who +walked in regularly at breakfast, ranged themselves on their +tails round their mistress's chair, and ate their porridge and +milk like reasonable creatures. Within and without all was +orderly. The gardens were in perfect condition; fields were +being inclosed and planted; the work of the place went on of +itself, with the eye of the mistress on it, and her voice, +if necessary, heard in command; but black and white were all +friends together. What could man ask for, more than to live +all his days in such a climate and with such surroundings? +Why should a realised ideal like this pass away? Why may it +not extend itself till it has transformed the features of all our +West Indian possessions? Thousand of English families might +be living in similar scenes, happy in themselves and spreading +round them a happy, wholesome English atmosphere. Why +not indeed? Only because we are enchanted. Because in +Jamaica and Barbadoes the white planters had a constitution +granted them two hundred years ago, therefore their emancipated +slaves must now have a constitution also. Wonderful +logic of formulas, powerful as a witches' cauldron for mischief +as long as it is believed in. The colonies and the Empire! If +the colonies were part indeed of the Empire, if they were taken +into partnership as the Americans take theirs, and were +members of an organised body, if an injury to each single limb +would be felt as an injury to the whole, we should not be playing +with their vital interests to catch votes at home. Alas! +at home we are split in two, and party is more than the nation, +and famous statesmen, thinly disguising their motives under a +mask of policy, condemn to-day what they approved of yesterday, +and catch at power by projects which they would be the first +to denounce if suggested by their adversaries. Till this tyranny<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> +be overpast, to bring into one the scattered portions of the +Empire is the idlest of dreams, and the most that is to be hoped +for is to arrest any active mischief. Happy Americans, +who have a Supreme Court with a code of fundamental laws +to control the vagaries of politicians and check the passions of +fluctuating electoral majorities! What the Supreme Court is +to them, the Crown ought to be for us; but the Crown is +powerless and must remain powerless, and therefore we are as +we are, and our national existence is made the shuttlecock of +party contention.</p> + +<p>Time passed so pleasantly with me in these concluding +days that I could have wished it to be the nothing which +metaphysicians say that it is, and that when one was happy +it would leave one alone. We wandered in the shade in the +mornings, we made expeditions in the evenings, called at +friends' houses, and listened to the gossip of the island. It +turned usually on the one absorbing subject—black servants +and the difficulty of dealing with them. An American lady +from Pennsylvania declared emphatically as her opinion that +emancipation had been a piece of folly, and that things would +never mend till they were slaves again.</p> + +<p>One of my own chief hopes in going originally to Jamaica +had been to see and learn the views of the distinguished +Governor there. Sir Henry Norman had been one of the +most eminent of the soldier civilians in India. He had +brought with him a brilliant reputation; he had won the +confidence in the West Indies of all classes and all colours. +He, if anyone, would understand the problem, and from the +high vantage ground of experience would know what could or +could not be done to restore the influence of England and +the prosperity of the colonies. Unfortunately, Sir Henry had +been called to London, as I mentioned before, on a question +of the conduct of some official, and I was afraid that I should +miss him altogether. He returned, however, the day before +I was to sail. He was kind enough to ask me to spend an +evening with him, and I was again on my last night a guest at +King's House.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p> + +<p>A dinner party offers small opportunity for serious conversation, +nor, indeed, could I expect a great person in Sir +Henry's position to enter upon subjects of consequence with +a stranger like myself. I could see, however, that I had +nothing to correct in the impression of his character which +his reputation had led me to form about him, and I wished +more than ever that the system of government of which he +had been so admirable a servant in India could be applied to +his present position, and that he or such as he could have the +administration of it. We had common friends in the Indian +service to talk about; one especially, Reynell Taylor, now +dead, who had been the earliest of my boy companions. +Taylor had been one of the handful of English who held the +Punjaub in the first revolt of the Sikhs. With a woman's +modesty he had the spirit of a knight-errant. Sir Henry +described him as the 'very soul of chivalry,' and seemed +himself to be a man of the same pure and noble nature, +perhaps liable, from the generosity of his temperament, to +believe more than I could do in modern notions and in +modern political heroes, but certainly not inclining of his own +will to recommend any rash innovations. I perceived that +like myself he felt no regret that so much of the soil of +Jamaica was passing to peasant black proprietors. He thought +well of their natural disposition; he believed them capable of +improvement. He thought that the possession of land of +their own would bring them into voluntary industry, and +lead them gradually to the adoption of civilised habits. He +spoke with reserve, and perhaps I may not have understood +him fully, but he did not seem to me to think much of their +political capacity. The local boards which have been established +as an education for higher functions have not been a +success. They had been described to me in all parts of the +island as inflammable centres of peculation and mismanagement. +Sir Henry said nothing from which I could gather +his own opinion. I inferred, however (he will pardon me if +I misrepresent him), that he had no great belief in a federation +of the islands, in 'responsible government,' and such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> +like, as within the bounds of present possibilities. Nor did +he think that responsible statesmen at home had any such +arrangement in view.</p> + +<p>That such an arrangement was in contemplation a few +years ago, I knew from competent authority. Perhaps the +unexpected interest which the English people have lately +shown in the colonies has modified opinion in those high +circles, and has taught politicians that they must advance +more cautiously. But the wind still sits in the old quarter. +Three years ago, the self-suppressed constitution in Jamaica +was partially re-established. A franchise was conceded both +there and in Barbadoes which gave every black householder +a vote. Even in poor Dominica, an extended suffrage was +hung out as a remedy for its wretchedness. If nothing +further is intended, these concessions have been gratuitously +mischievous. It has roused the hopes of political agitators, +not in Jamaica only, but all over the Antilles. It has taught +the people, who have no grievances at all, who in their +present state are better protected than any peasantry in the +world except the Irish, to look to political changes as a road +to an impossible millennium. It has rekindled hopes which +had been long extinguished, that, like their brothers in Hayti, +they were on the way to have the islands to themselves. It +has alienated the English colonists, filled them with the worst +apprehensions, and taught them to look wistfully from their +own country to a union with America. A few elected +members in a council where they may be counterbalanced by +an equal number of official members seems a small thing in +itself. So long as the equality was maintained, my Yankee +friend was still willing to risk his capital in Jamaican enterprises. +But the principle has been allowed. The existing +arrangement is a half-measure which satisfies none and irritates +all, and collisions between the representatives of the people +and the nominees of the Government are only avoided by +leaving a sufficient number of official seats unfilled. To +have re-entered upon a road where you cannot stand still, +where retreat is impossible, and where to go forward can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> +only be recommended on the hypothesis that to give a man a +vote will itself qualify him for the use of it, has been one of +the minor achievements of the last Government of Mr. +Gladstone, and is likely to be as successful as his larger +exploits nearer home have as yet proved to be. A supreme +court, were we happy enough to possess such a thing, would +forbid these venturous experiments of sanguine statesmen +who may happen, for a moment, to command a trifling +majority in the House of Commons.</p> + +<p>I could not say what I felt completely to Sir Henry, who, +perhaps, had been in personal relations with Mr. Gladstone's +Government. Perhaps, too, he was one of those numerous +persons of tried ability and intelligence who have only a faint +belief that the connection between Great Britain and the +colonies can be of long continuance. The public may amuse +themselves with the vision of an imperial union; practical +statesmen who are aware of the tendencies of self-governed +communities to follow lines of their own in which the mother +country cannot support them may believe that they know it to +be impossible.</p> + +<p>As to the West Indies there are but two genuine alternatives: +one to leave them to themselves to shape their own +destinies, as we leave Australia; the other to govern them as +if they were a part of Great Britain with the same scrupulous +care of the people and their interests with which we govern +Bengal, Madras, and Bombay. England is responsible +for the social condition of those islands. She filled them +with negroes when it was her interest to maintain slavery, she +emancipated those negroes when popular opinion at home demanded +that slavery should end. It appears to me that +England ought to bear the consequences of her own actions, +and assume to herself the responsibilities of a state of things +which she has herself created. We are partly unwilling to +take the trouble, partly we cling to the popular belief that to +trust all countries with the care of their own concerns is the +way to raise the character of the inhabitants and to make +them happy and contented. We dimly perceive that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> +population of the West Indies is not a natural growth of +internal tendencies and circumstances, and we therefore hesitate +before we plunge completely and entirely into the downward +course; but we play with it, we drift towards it, we advance +as far as we dare, giving them the evils of both systems +and the advantages of neither. At the same moment we +extend the suffrage to the blacks with one hand, while with +the other we refuse to our own people the benefit of a treaty +which would have rescued them from imminent ruin and +brought them into relations with their powerful kindred close +at hand—relations which might save them from the most +dangerous consequences of a negro political supremacy—and +the result is that the English in those islands are melting +away and will soon be crowded out, or will have departed of +themselves in disgust. A policy so far-reaching, and affecting +so seriously the condition of the oldest of our colonial possessions, +ought not to have been adopted on their own +authority, by doctrinaire statesmen in a cabinet, without fully +and frankly consulting the English nation; and no further step +ought to be taken in that direction until the nation has had the +circumstances of the islands laid before it, and has pronounced +one way or the other its own sovereign pleasure. Does +or does not England desire that her own people shall be +enabled to live and thrive in the West Indies? If she decides +that her hands are too full, that she is over-empired and cannot +attend to them—<i>caditquæstio</i>—there is no more to be said. But +if this is her resolution the hands of the West Indians ought +to be untied. They ought to be allowed to make their sugar +treaties, to make any treaties, to enter into the closest relations +with America which the Americans will accept, as the +only chance which will be left them.</p> + +<p>Such abandonment, however, will bring us no honour. It +will not further that federation of the British Empire which so +many of us now profess to desire. If we wish Australia +and Canada to draw into closer union with us, it will not be +by showing that we are unable to manage a group of colonies +which are almost at our doors. Englishmen all round the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> +globe have rejoiced together in this year which is passing by +us over the greatness of their inheritance, and have celebrated +with enthusiasm the half-century during which our lady-mistress +has reigned over the English world. Unity and federation +are on our lips, and we have our leagues and our institutes, and +in the eagerness of our wishes we dream that we see the fulfilment +of them. Neither the kingdom of heaven nor any +other kingdom 'comes with observation.' It comes not with +after-dinner speeches however eloquent, or with flowing sentiments +however for the moment sincere. The spirit which +made the Empire can alone hold it together. The American +Union was not saved by oratory. It was saved by the determination +of the bravest of the people; it was cemented by +the blood which dyed the slopes of Gettysburg. The union +of the British Empire, if it is to be more than a dream, +can continue only while the attracting force of the primary +commands the willing attendance of the distant satellites. +Let the magnet lose its power, let the confidence of the +colonies in the strength and resolution of their central orb be +once shaken, and the centrifugal force will sweep them away +into orbits of their own.</p> + +<p>The race of men who now inhabit this island of ours show +no signs of degeneracy. The bow of Ulysses is sound as +ever; moths and worms have not injured either cord or horn; +but it is unstrung, and the arrows which are shot from it +drop feebly to the ground. The Irish python rises again out +of its swamp, and Phœbus Apollo launches no shaft +against the scaly sides of it. Phœbus Apollo attempts +the milder methods of concession and persuasion. 'Python,' +he says, 'in days when I was ignorant and unjust I struck +you down and bound you. I left officers and men with you +of my own race to watch you, to teach you, to rule you; to +force you, if your own nature could not be changed, to +leave your venomous ways. You have refused to be +taught, you twist in your chains, you bite and tear, and +when you can you steal and murder. I see that I was +wrong from the first. Every creature has a right to live<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> +according to its own disposition. I was a tyrant, and you +did well to resist; I ask you to forgive and forget. I set you +free; I hand you over my own representatives as a pledge of +my goodwill, that you may devour them at your leisure. They +have been the instruments of my oppression; consume them, +destroy them, do what you will with them; and henceforward +I hope that we shall live together as friends, and that you will +show yourself worthy of my generosity and of the freedom +which you have so gloriously won.'</p> + +<p>A sun-god who thus addressed a disobedient satellite might +have the eloquence of a Demosthenes and the finest of the +fine intentions which pave the road to the wrong place, but he +would not be a divinity who would command the willing confidence +of a high-spirited kindred. Great Britain will make +the tie which holds the colonies to her a real one when she +shows them and shows the world that she is still equal to her +great place, that her arm is not shortened and her heart has +not grown faint.</p> + +<p>Men speak of the sacredness of liberty. They talk as if the +will of everyone ought to be his only guide, that allegiance is +due only to majorities, that allegiance of any other kind is +base and a relic of servitude. The Americans are the freest +people in the world; but in their freedom they have to obey +the fundamental laws of the Union. Again and again in the +West Indies Mr. Motley's words came back to me. To be +taken into the American Union is to be adopted into a partnership. +To belong as a Crown colony to the British Empire, as +things stand, is no partnership at all. It is to belong to a +power which sacrifices, as it has always sacrificed, the interest +of its dependencies to its own. The blood runs freely through +every vein and artery of the American body corporate. Every +single citizen feels his share in the life of his nation. Great +Britain leaves her Crown colonies to take care of themselves, +refuses what they ask, and forces on them what they had +rather be without. If I were a West Indian I should feel that +under the stars and stripes I should be safer than I was at +present from political experimenting. I should have a market<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> +in which to sell my produce where I should be treated as a +friend; I should have a power behind me and protecting me, +and I should have a future to which I could look forward with +confidence. America would restore me to home and life; +Great Britain allows me to sink, contenting herself with advising +me to be patient. Why should I continue loyal when my +loyalty was so contemptuously valued?</p> + +<p>But I will not believe that it will come to this. An Englishman +may be heavily tempted, but in evil fortune as in good +his heart is in the old place. The administration of our affairs +is taken for the present from prudent statesmen, and is made +over to those who know how best to flatter the people with +fine-sounding sentiments and idle adulation. All sovereigns +have been undone by flatterers. The people are sovereign +now, and, being new to power, listen to those who feed their +vanity. The popular orator has been the ruin of every +country which has trusted to him. He never speaks an unwelcome +truth, for his existence depends on pleasing, and he +cares only to tickle the ears of his audience. His element is +anarchy; his function is to undo what better men have done. +In wind he lives and moves and has his being. When the +gods are angry, he can raise it to a hurricane and lay waste +whole nations in ruin and revolution. It was said long ago, a +man full of words shall not prosper upon the earth. Times +have changed, for in these days no one prospers so well. Can +he make a speech? is the first question which the constituencies +ask when a candidate is offered to their suffrages. +When the Roman commonwealth developed from an aristocratic +republic into a democracy, and, as now with us, the +sovereignty was in the mass of the people, the oratorical +faculty came to the front in the same way. The finest speaker +was esteemed the fittest man to be made a consul or a prætor +of, and there were schools of rhetoric where aspirants for office +had to go to learn gesture and intonation before they could +present themselves at the hustings. The sovereign people and +their orators could do much, but they could not alter facts, +or make that which was not, to be, or that which was, not to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> +be. The orators could perorate and the people could decree, +but facts remained and facts proved the strongest, and the end +of that was that after a short supremacy the empire which they +had brought to the edge of ruin was saved at the last extremity; +the sovereign people lost their liberties, and the +tongues of political orators were silenced for centuries. Illusion +at last takes the form of broken heads, and the most +obstinate credulity is not proof against that form of argument.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Going home—Retrospect—Alternative courses—Future of the Empire—Sovereignty +of the sea—The Greeks—The rights of man—Plato—The +voice of the people—Imperial federation—Hereditary colonial policy—New +Irelands—Effects of party government.</p></div> + + +<p>Once more upon the sea on our homeward way, carrying, as +Emerson said, 'the bag of Æolus in the boiler of our boat,' +careless whether there be wind or calm. Our old naval heroes +passed and repassed upon the same waters under harder conditions. +They had to struggle against tempests, to fight with +enemy's cruisers, to battle for their lives with nature as with +man—and they were victorious over them all. They won for +Britannia the sceptre of the sea, and built up the Empire on +which the sun never sets. To us, their successors, they +handed down the splendid inheritance, and we in turn have +invented steam ships and telegraphs, and thrown bridges over +the ocean, and made our far-off possessions as easy of access +as the next parish. The attractive force of the primary ought +to have increased in the same ratio, but we do not find that it +has, and the centrifugal and the centripetal tendencies of our +satellites are year by year becoming more nicely balanced. +These beautiful West Indian Islands were intended to be +homes for the overflowing numbers of our own race, and the +few that have gone there are being crowded out by the blacks +from Jamaica and the Antilles. Our poor helots at home drag<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> +on their lives in the lanes and alleys of our choking cities, and +of those who gather heart to break off on their own account +and seek elsewhere for a land of promise, the large majority +are weary of the flag under which they have only known +suffering, and prefer America to the English colonies. They +are waking now to understand the opportunities which are +slipping through their hands. Has the awakening come too +late? We have ourselves mixed the cup; must we now drink +it the dregs?</p> + +<p>It is too late to enable us to make homes in the West +Indies for the swarms who are thrown off by our own towns +and villages. We might have done it. Englishmen would +have thriven as well in Jamaica and the Antilles as the +Spaniards have thriven in Cuba. But the islands are now +peopled by men of another colour. The whites there are as +units among hundreds, and the proportion cannot be altered. +But it is not too late to redeem our own responsibilities. We +brought the blacks there; we have as yet not done much for +their improvement, when their notions of morality are still so +elementary that more than half of their children are born out +of marriage. The English planters were encouraged to settle +there when it suited our convenience to maintain the islands +for Imperial purposes; like the landlords in Ireland, they +were our English garrison; and as with the landlords in +Ireland, when we imagine that they have served their purpose +and can be no longer of use to us, we calmly change the +conditions of society. We disclaim obligations to help +them in the confusion which we have introduced; we tell +them to help themselves, and they cannot help themselves +in such an element as that in which they are now struggling, +unless they know that they may count on the sympathy +and the support of their countrymen at home. Nothing +is demanded of the English exchequer; the resources of +the islands are practically boundless; there is a robust +population conscious at the bottom of their native inferiority, +and docile and willing to work if anyone will +direct them and set them to it. There will be capital enough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> +forthcoming, and energetic men enough and intelligence +enough, if we on our part will provide one thing, the easiest of +all if we really set our minds to it—an effective and authoritative +government. It is not safe even for ourselves to leave a +wound unattended to, though it be in the least significant part +of our bodies. The West Indies are a small limb in the great +body corporate of the British Empire, but there is no great +and no small in the life of nations. The avoidable decay of +the smallest member is an injury to the whole. Let it be +once known and felt that England regards the West Indies as +essentially one with herself, and the English in the islands will +resume their natural position, and respect and order will come +back, and those once thriving colonies will again advance with +the rest on the high road of civilisation and prosperity. Let +it be known that England considers only her immediate +interests and will not exert herself, and the other colonies will +know what they have to count upon, and the British Empire +will dwindle down before long into a single insignificant island +in the North Sea.</p> + +<p>So end the reflections which I formed there from what I +saw and what I heard. I have written as an outside observer +unconnected with practical politics, with no motive except a +loyal pride in the greatness of my own country, and a conviction, +which I will not believe to be a dream, that the destinies have +still in store for her a yet grander future. The units of us +come and go; the British Empire, the globe itself and all that +it inherits, will pass away as a vision.</p> + +<p style="margin-left:16em"> +<span class="greek">ἔσσεται ἠμαρ ὅταν ποτ᾽ ὀλώλη Ἵλιος ἱρὴ<br /> +καὶ Πρίαμος καὶ λαὸς ἐυμμελίω Πριάμοιο</span>.<br /> +<br /> +The day will be when Ilium's towers may fall,<br /> +And large-limbed<a name="FNanchor_1_17" id="FNanchor_1_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_17" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> Priam, and his people all.<br /> +</p> + +<p>But that day cannot be yet. Out of the now half-organic +fragments may yet be formed one living Imperial power, with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>a new era of beneficence and usefulness to mankind. The +English people are spread far and wide. The sea is their +dominion, and their land is the finest portion of the globe. +It is theirs now, it will be theirs for ages to come if they +remain themselves unchanged and keep the heart and temper +of their forefathers.</p> + +<p class="center"> +Naught shall make us rue,<br /> +If England to herself do rest but true.<br /> +</p> + +<p>The days pass, and our ship flies fast upon her way.</p> + +<p style="margin-left:18em"> +<span class="greek">γλαυκὸν ὑπὲρ οῖδμα κυανόχροά τε κυμάτων<br /> +ῥόθια πολιὰ θαλάσσας</span>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>How perfect the description! How exactly in those eight +words Euripides draws the picture of the ocean; the long +grey heaving swell, the darker steel-grey on the shadowed +slope of the surface waves, and the foam on their breaking +crests. Our thoughts flow back as we gaze to the times long +ago, when the earth belonged to other races as it now belongs +to us. The ocean is the same as it was. Their eyes saw it +as we see it:</p> + +<p class="center"> +Time writes no wrinkle on that azure brow.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Nor is the ocean alone the same. Human nature is still +vexed with the same problems, mocked with the same hopes, +wandering after the same illusions. The sea affected the +Greeks as it affects us, and was equally dear to them. It was +a Greek who said, 'The sea washes off all the ills of men;' the +'stainless one' as Æschylus called it—the eternally pure. +On long voyages I take Greeks as my best companions. I +had Plato with me on my way home from the West Indies. +He lived and wrote in an age like ours, when religion had +become a debatable subject on which every one had his +opinion, and democracy was master of the civilised world, and +the Mediterranean states were running wild after liberty, +preparatory to the bursting of the bubble. Looking out on +such a world Plato left thoughts behind him the very language<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> +of which is as full of application to our own larger world as if +it was written yesterday. It throws light on small things as +well as large, and interprets alike the condition of the islands +which I had left, the condition of England, the condition of +all civilised countries in this modern epoch.</p> + +<p>The chief characteristic of this age, as it was the chief +characteristic of Plato's, is the struggle for what we call the +'rights of man.' In other times the thing insisted on was +that men should do what was 'right' as something due to a +higher authority. Now the demand is for what is called their +'rights' as something due to themselves, and among these +rights is a right to liberty; liberty meaning the utmost possible +freedom of every man consistent with the freedom of others, +and the abolition of every kind of authority of one man over +another. It is with this view that we have introduced popular +suffrage, that we give everyone a vote, or aim at giving it, as +the highest political perfection.</p> + +<p>We turn to Plato and we find: 'In a healthy community +there ought to be some authority over every single man and +woman. No person—not one—ought to act on his or her +judgment alone even in the smallest trifle. The soldier on a +campaign obeys his commander in little things as well as +great. The safety of the army requires it. But it is in peace +as it is in war, and there is no difference. Every person +should be trained from childhood to rule and to be ruled. So +only can the life of man, and the life of all creatures dependent +on him, be delivered from anarchy.'</p> + +<p>It is worth while to observe how diametrically opposite to +our notions on this subject were the notions of a man of the +finest intellect, with the fullest opportunities of observation, +and every one of whose estimates of things was confirmed by +the event. Such a discipline as he recommends never existed +in any community of men except perhaps among the religious +orders in the enthusiasm of their first institution, nor would a +society be long tolerable in which it was tried. Communities, +however, have existed where people have thought more of their +obligations than of their 'rights,' more of the welfare of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> +country, or of the success of a cause to which they have +devoted themselves, than of their personal pleasure or interest—have +preferred the wise leading of superior men to their +own wills and wishes. Nay, perhaps no community has ever +continued long, or has made a mark in the world of serious +significance, where society has not been graduated in degrees, +and there have not been deeper and stronger bands of coherence +than the fluctuating votes of majorities.</p> + +<p>Times are changed we are told. We live in a new era, +when public opinion is king, and no other rule is possible; +public opinion, as expressed in the press and on the platform, +and by the deliberately chosen representatives of the people. +Every question can be discussed and argued, all sides of it +can be heard, and the nation makes up its mind. The collective +judgment of all is wiser than the wisest single man—<i>securus +judicat orbis</i>.</p> + +<p>Give the public time, and I believe this to be true; general +opinion does in the long run form a right estimate of most +persons and of most things. As surely its immediate impulses +are almost invariably in directions which it afterwards regrets +and repudiates, and therefore constitutions which have no +surer basis than the popular judgment, as it shifts from year +to year or parliament to parliament, are built on foundations +looser than sand.</p> + +<p>In concluding this book I have a few more words to say on +the subject, so ardently canvassed, of Imperial federation. +It seems so easy. You have only to form a new parliament +in which the colonies shall be represented according to +numbers, while each colony will retain its own for its own +local purposes. Local administration is demanded everywhere; +England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, can each have +theirs, and the vexed question of Home Rule can be disposed +of in the reconstruction of the whole. A central parliament +can then be formed in which the parts can all be represented +in proportion to their number; and a cabinet can be selected +out of this for the management of Imperial concerns. +Nothing more is necessary; the thing will be done.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p> + +<p>So in a hundred forms, but all on the same principle, +schemes of Imperial union have fallen under my eye. I +should myself judge from experience of what democratically +elected parliaments are growing into, that at the first session +of such a body the satellites would fly off into space, shattered +perhaps themselves in the process. We have parliaments +enough already, and if no better device can be found than by +adding another to the number, the rash spirit of innovation +has not yet gone far enough to fling our ancient constitution +into the crucible on so wild a chance.</p> + +<p>Imperial federation, as it is called, is far away, if ever it is +to be realised at all. If it is to come it will come of itself, +brought about by circumstances and silent impulses working +continuously through many years unseen and unspoken of. +It is conceivable that Great Britain and her scattered offspring, +under the pressure of danger from without, or +impelled by some general purpose, might agree to place +themselves for a time under a single administrative head. +It is conceivable that out of a combination so formed, if it +led to a successful immediate result, some union of a closer +kind might eventually emerge. It is not only conceivable, +but it is entirely certain, that attempts made when no such +occasion has arisen, by politicians ambitious of distinguishing +themselves, will fail, and in failing will make the object that +is aimed at more confessedly unattainable than it is now.</p> + +<p>The present relation between the mother country and her +self-governed colonies is partly that of parent and children +who have grown to maturity and are taking care of themselves, +partly of independent nations in friendly alliance, partly as +common subjects of the same sovereign, whose authority is +exercised in each by ministers of its own. Neither of these +analogies is exact, for the position alters from year to year. +So much the better. The relation which now exists cannot +be more than provisional; let us not try to shape it artificially, +after a closet-made pattern. The threads of interest and +kindred must be left to spin themselves in their own way. +Meanwhile we can work together heartily and with good will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> +where we need each other's co-operation. Difficulties will +rise, perhaps, from time to time, but we can meet them as +they come, and we need not anticipate them. If we are to +be politically one, the organic fibres which connect us are as +yet too immature to bear a strain. All that we can do, and +all that at present we ought to try, is to act generously whenever +our assistance can be of use. The disposition of English +statesmen to draw closer to the colonies is of recent growth. +They cannot tell, and we cannot tell, how far it indicates a +real change of attitude or is merely a passing mood. One +thing, however, we ought to bear in mind, that the colonies +sympathise one with another, and that wrong or neglect in +any part of the Empire does not escape notice. The larger +colonies desire to know what the recent professions of interest +are worth, and they look keenly at our treatment of their +younger brothers who are still in our power. They are +practical, they attend to results, they guard jealously their +own privileges, but they are not so enamoured of constitutional +theory that they will patiently see their fellow-countrymen +in less favoured situations swamped under the votes of +the coloured races. Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, +will not be found enthusiastic for the extension of self-government +in the West Indies, when they know that it means the +extinction of their own white brothers who have settled there. +The placing English colonists at the mercy of coloured majorities +they will resent as an injury to themselves; they will +not look upon it as an extension of a generous principle, but +as an act of airy virtue which costs us nothing, and at the +bottom is but carelessness and indifference.</p> + +<p>We imagine that we have seen the errors of our old +colonial policy, and that we are in no danger of repeating +them. Yet in the West Indies we are treading over again +the too familiar road. The Anglo-Irish colonists in 1705 +petitioned for a union with Great Britain. A union would +have involved a share in British trade; it was refused therefore, +and we gave them the penal laws instead. They set +up manufactures, built ships, and tried to raise a commerce<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> +of their own. We laid them under disabilities which ruined +their enterprises, and when they were resentful and became +troublesome we turned round to the native Irish and made +a virtue of protecting them against our own people whom we +had injured. When the penal laws ceased to be useful to +us, we did not allow them to be executed. We played off +Catholic against Protestant while we were sacrificing both +to our own jealousy. Having made the government of the +island impossible for those whom we had planted there to +govern it, we emancipate the governed, and to conciliate them +we allow them to appropriate the possessions of their late +masters. And we have not conciliated the native Irish; it +was impossible that we should; we have simply armed them +with the only weapons which enable them to revenge their +wrongs upon us.</p> + +<p>The history of the West Indies is a precise parallel. The +islands were necessary to our safety in our struggle with France +and Spain. The colonists held them chiefly for us as a +garrison, and we in turn gave the colonists their slaves. The +white settlers ruled as in Ireland, the slaves obeyed, and all +went swimmingly. Times changed at home. Slavery became +unpopular; it was abolished; and, with a generosity for which +we never ceased to applaud ourselves, we voted an indemnity +of twenty millions to the owners. We imagined that we had +acquitted our consciences, but such debts are not discharged +by payments of money. We had introduced the slaves into +the islands for our own advantage; in setting them free we +revolutionised society. We remained still responsible for the +social consequences, and we did not choose to remember it. +The planters were guilty only, like the Irish landlords, of +having ceased to be necessary to us. We practised our virtues +vicariously at their expense: we had the praise and honour, +they had the suffering. They begged that the emancipation +might be gradual; our impatience to clear our reputation +refused to wait. Their system of cultivation being deranged, +they petitioned for protection against the competition of +countries where slavery continued. The request was natural,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> +but could not be listened to because to grant it might raise +infinitesimally the cost of the British workman's breakfast. +They struggled on, and even when a new rival rose in the beetroot +sugar they refused to be beaten. The European powers, +to save their beetroot, went on to support it with a bounty. +Against the purse of foreign governments the sturdiest individuals +cannot compete. Defeated in a fight which had become +unfair, the planters looked, and looked in vain, to their own +government for help. Finding none, they turned to their +kindred in the United States; and there, at last, they found a +hand held out to them. The Americans were willing, though +at a loss of two millions and a half of revenue, to admit the +poor West Indians to their own market. But a commercial +treaty was necessary; and a treaty could not be made without +the sanction of the English Government. The English Government, +on some fine-drawn crotchet, refused to colonies which +were weak and helpless what they would have granted without +a word if demanded by Victoria or New South Wales, whose +resentment they feared. And when the West Indians, harassed, +desperate, and half ruined, cried out against the enormous injustice, +in the fear that their indignation might affect their +allegiance and lead them to seek admission into the American +Union, we extend the franchise among the blacks, on whose +hostility to such a measure we know that we can rely.</p> + +<p>There is no occasion to suspect responsible English politicians +of any sinister purpose in what they have done or not +done, or suspect them, indeed, of any purpose at all. They +act from day to day under the pressure of each exigency as it +rises, and they choose the course which is least directly +inconvenient. But the result is to have created in the Antilles +and Jamaica so many fresh Irelands, and I believe that British +colonists the world over will feel together in these questions. +They will not approve; rather they will combine to condemn +the betrayal of their own fellow-countrymen. If England +desires her colonies to rally round her, she must deserve their +affection and deserve their respect. She will find neither one +nor the other if she carelessly sacrifices her own people in any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> +part of the world to fear or convenience. The magnetism +which will bind them to her must be found in herself or nowhere.</p> + +<p>Perhaps nowhere! Perhaps if we look to the real origin of +all that has gone wrong with us, of the policy which has flung +Ireland back into anarchy, which has weakened our influence +abroad, which has ruined the oldest of our colonies, and has +made the continuance under our flag of the great communities +of our countrymen who are forming new nations in the Pacific +a question of doubt and uncertainty, we shall find it in our +own distractions, in the form of government which is fast +developing into a civil war under the semblance of peace, +where party is more than country, and a victory at the hustings +over a candidate of opposite principles more glorious than a +victory in the field over a foreign foe. Society in republican +Rome was so much interested in the faction fights of Clodius +and Milo that it could hear with apathy of the destruction of +Crassus and a Roman army. The senate would have sold +Cæsar to the Celtic chiefs in Gaul, and the modern English +enthusiast would disintegrate the British Islands to purchase +the Irish vote. Till we can rise into some nobler sphere of +thought and conduct we may lay aside the vision of a confederated +empire.</p> + +<p style="margin-left:14em"> +Oh, England, model to thy inward greatness,<br /> +Like little body with a mighty heart,<br /> +What might'st thou do that honour would thee do<br /> +Were all thy children kind and natural!<br /> +</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_17" id="Footnote_1_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_17"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> I believe this to be the true meaning of +ἐυμμελίης. It is usually +rendered, 'armed with a stout spear.'</p></div></div> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Kelly & Co.</span>, Printers, Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.; and Kingston-on-Thames.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The English in the West Indies, by +James Anthony Froude + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST INDIES *** + +***** This file should be named 32728-h.htm or 32728-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/7/2/32728/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jane Hyland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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