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diff --git a/32728.txt b/32728.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f10ba0 --- /dev/null +++ b/32728.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11722 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** 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 + + + + + + +[Illustration: MOUNTAIN CRATER, DOMINICA.] + + + + +THE ENGLISH + +IN + +THE WEST INDIES + +OR + +THE BOW OF ULYSSES + +BY + +JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS ENGRAVED ON WOOD BY G. PEARSON +AFTER DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR + + +[Illustration] + + +NEW EDITION + + +LONDON + +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + +1888 + +_All rights reserved_ + + Fuersten praegen so oft auf kaum versilbertes Kupfer + Ihr bedeutendes Bild: lange betruegt sich das Volk + Schwaermer praegen den Stempel des Geist's auf Luegen und Unsinn: + Wem der Probirstein fehlt, haelt sie fuer redliches Gold. + + GOETHE. + + + + +PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + J.A.F. + + ONSLOW GARDENS: _November 15, 1887_. + + +[Illustration] + + + + +CONTENTS. + + CHAPTER I. + + PAGE + + 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 1 + + + CHAPTER II. + + In the train for Southampton--Morning papers--The new 'Locksley + Hall'--Past and present--The 'Moselle'--Heavy weather--The + Petrel--The Azores 10 + + + CHAPTER III. + + 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 20 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + First sight of Barbadoes--Origin of the name--Pere 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 32 + + + CHAPTER V. + + 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 41 + + + CHAPTER VI. + + Charles Kingsley at Trinidad--'Lay of the Last Buccaneer'--A + French _forban_--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 51 + + + CHAPTER VII. + + 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 66 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + 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 75 + + + CHAPTER IX. + + 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 88 + + + CHAPTER X. + + Leeward and Windward Islands--The Caribs of Dominica--Visit of + Pere 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 113 + + + CHAPTER XI. + + 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 132 + + + CHAPTER XII. + + 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 155 + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + 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 180 + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + 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 195 + + + CHAPTER XV. + + 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 208 + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + 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 224 + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + Present state of Jamaica--Test of progress--Resources of the + island--Political alternatives--Black supremacy and probable + consequences--The West Indian problem 243 + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + 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 253 + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + Hotels in Havana--Sights in the city--Cigar manufactories--West + Indian industries--The Captain-General--The Jesuit college--Father + Vinez--Clubs in Havana--Spanish aristocracy--Sea + lodging house 272 + + + CHAPTER XX. + + 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 291 + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + 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 308 + + CHAPTER XXII. + + 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 318 + + * * * * * + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + Mountain Crater, Dominica _Frontispiece_ + Silk Cotton Tree, Jamaica _Title page_ + Blue Basin, Trinidad _To face page_ 72 + Morning Walk, Dominica 136 + Port Royal, Jamaica 171 + Valley in the Blue Mountains, Jamaica 194 + Kingston and Harbour, from Cherry Gardens 234 + Havana, from the Quarries 258 + Port au Prince, Hayti 288 + + + + +THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST INDIES. + +CHAPTER I. + + 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. + + +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. + +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. 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. + +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 unnecessary 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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? + +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 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. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + In the train for Southampton--Morning papers--The new 'Locksley + Hall'--Past and present--The 'Moselle'--Heavy weather--The + petrel--The Azores. + + +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 Tennyson 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. + +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? + +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 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. + +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 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 +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. + +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; 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 [Greek: +theioi andres] 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 [Greek: theioi andres] 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.'[1] Old men at any rate like to think so. + +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--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 feted 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. + +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 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. + +'Se suplica a los senores pasajeros de no escupir sobre la cubierta de +popa.' + +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. + +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. + + Singula de nobis anni praedantur euntes: + Eripuere jocos, Venerem, convivia, ludum-- + +But the flying years had not stolen from me the delight of finding +myself once more upon the sea; the sea which is eternally young, and +gives one back one's own youth and buoyancy. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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.[2] 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] [Greek: ho teknon ouch hapanta tho gera kaka + he empeiria + echei ti lexai thon neon sophoteron.] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + 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. + + +Another two days and we were in the tropics. The north-east trade blew +behind us, and our own speed being taken off 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! [Greek: thalassa klyzei +panta tanthropon kaka], 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. + +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 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 _Obed_ might have been +something like him, had not _Obed's_ evil genius driven him into more +dangerous ways. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 disallowed it. How, under such treatment, could we +expect them to be loyal to the British connection? + +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 _sugar_--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 Nunez, +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 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. + +To the Spaniards, Drake and his comrades were _corsarios_, 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.' + +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 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 Espanola, 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. + +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 _forbans_ or unlicensed rovers, but still connived +at in Martinique. + +Adventurers, buccaneers, pirates pass across the stage--the curtain +falls on them, and rises on a more glorious scene. Jamaica had become +the depot 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. + +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 +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. + +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 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 manoeuvred 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 +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] This is the explanation of the name which is given by Dampier. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + First sight of Barbadoes--Origin of the name--Pere 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. + + +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 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. + +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 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. Pere 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, 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. + +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.[3] In the French and 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. + +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 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. + +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 insignificant, and for some extraordinary reason they +have painted it a bright pea-green. + +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 quarrelling; 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] 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. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + 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. + + +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 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 deg., 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. + +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. + +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 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 +_married_ as they call it, but not _parsoned_. 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. + +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 themselves 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. + +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 decreases, and will continue to +decrease while the expenditure increases and will increase. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Pere Labat, to whose countrymen it belonged at the time 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, '_paisans aisez_', 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. + +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 _carenage_, 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. + +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; 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.[4] + +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. + +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 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; 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. + +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. + +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 Pere Labat, the +island was all that man could desire. 'En un mot, la vie y est +delicieuse.' + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Charles Kingsley at Trinidad--'Lay of the Last Buccaneer'--A French + _forban_--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. + + +I might spare myself a description of Trinidad, for the natural features +of the place, its forests and gardens, its 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. + +THE LAY OF THE LAST BUCCANEER. + + Oh! England is a pleasant place for them that's rich and high, + But England is a cruel place for such poor folks as I; + And such a port for mariners I'll never see again + As the pleasant Isle of Aves beside the Spanish main. + + There were forty craft in Aves that were both swift and stout, + All furnished well with small arms and cannon all about; + And a thousand men in Aves made laws so fair and free + To choose their valiant captains and obey them loyally. + + Then we sailed against the Spaniard with his hoards of plate and gold, + Which he wrung with cruel tortures from Indian folks of old; + Likewise the merchant captains, with hearts as hard as stone, + Who flog men and keelhaul them and starve them to the bone. + + Oh! palms grew high in Aves, and fruits that shone like gold, + And the colibris and parrots they were gorgeous to behold, + And the negro maids to Aves from bondage fast did flee + To welcome gallant sailors a sweeping in from sea. + + Oh! sweet it was in Aves to hear the landward breeze, + A swing with good tobacco in a net between the trees, + With a negro lass to fan you while you listened to the roar + Of the breakers on the reef outside which never touched the shore. + + But Scripture saith an ending to all fine things must be, + So the king's ships sailed on Aves and quite put down were we. + All day we fought like bull dogs, but they burnt the booms at night, + And I fled in a piragua sore wounded from the fight. + + Nine days I floated starving, and a negro lass beside, + Till for all I tried to cheer her the poor young thing she died. + But as I lay a gasping a Bristol sail came by, + And brought me home to England here to beg until I die. + + And now I'm old and going: I'm sure I can't tell where. + One comfort is, this world's so hard I can't be worse off there. + If I might but be a sea dove, I'd fly across the main + To the pleasant Isle of Aves to look at it once again. + +By the side of this imaginative picture of a poor English sea rover, let +me place another, an authentic one, of a French _forban_ 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. Pere 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 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 _Exaudiat_, at the _Elevation_, at the +_Benediction_, and a fifth at the prayer for the king. The service was +wound up by a _Vive le Roi_! A single small accident only had disturbed +the ceremony. One of the pirates, at the _Elevation_, 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 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. + +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. + +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 _bocas_ 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 depot one day of an enormous trade. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 deg.. 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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +For myself I could but reply to the gentlemen who had sent 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _shrubs_ 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 _Amherstia +nobilis_, at a distance 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +Large sugar estates, of course, there still are, and as the owners have +not succeeded in bringing the negroes to work regularly for them,[5] +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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] 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. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 suppose that we smiled, for our curiosity was +resented, and we found it prudent to withdraw. + +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. + +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 deg., 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 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. + +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. 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.[6] + +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 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. + +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. + +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 economical than barbarity, +and Englishmen in the West Indies were rarely inhuman. Lord Rodney says: + +'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.' + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: BLUE BASIN, TRINIDAD.] + +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. + +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 _mullet_, 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? + +He put his tackle together, tied up a cast of trout flies, and +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. + +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,' _ecrevisse_, eight inches long, +formed regularly with the thick powerful tail, the sharp serrated snout, +the long antennae, and the spider-like legs of the lobster tribe. As in a +crayfish, the claws were represented by the correctly shaped but +diminutive substitutes. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] Traen las cabezas atadas con unos panuelos labrados hermosos que +parecen de lejos de seda y almazarrones. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + 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. + + +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 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 _fiasco_, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _East_ Indies, a success so unique +and so extraordinary that it seems the last from which we are willing +to take example. + +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. + +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. +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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?' + +'Write away, old fellow,' said Nicholas to Kriloff. + +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? + +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 +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.[7] + +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. + +One duty remained to me before I left the island. The 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. + +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. + + When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain, + And they breathe truth who breathe their words in pain. + +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 under the universal solvent, and had ceased to be a faith which +could be believed in as a guide to conduct. + +He no more than any one could tell what it was now wisest or even +possible to do. He spoke like some ancient _seer_, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] 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. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + 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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 Pere 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 +peremptory 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. + +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, 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 Caesar 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. + +In the Antilles the plantations broke up as I had seen in 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 _natural_ competitors; and on the +back of these came the _unnatural_ 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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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 deg., 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. + +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 Pere Labat saw a display of splendour +which reminded him of Paris and London, you now find only _stores_ 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 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 _hall_ 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. + +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 be something to retire upon when +parliamentary oratory has finished its work of disintegration. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +At the porch was an ancient slab on which was a coat of arms, a crest +with a hand and sword, and a motto, '_Sic nos, sic nostra tuemur._' 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 French, +should they take a fancy to land a force in the island. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Another morning excursion showed me the rest of the country, and +introduced me to scenes and persons still more interesting. Sir Graham +Briggs[8] 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. + +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 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. + +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; 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 Pere 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +West Indian cookery was famous over the world. Pere 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 medicinal 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 _consule Planco_, 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. + +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. + +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. 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.[9] 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 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. + +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. + +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 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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 accusation was itself evidence. I was +prepared to find these stories of child murder in Hayti were bred +similarly of anti-negro prejudice. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] 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. + +[9] It was on this ground alone that slavery was permitted in the French +islands. Labat says: + +C'est une loi tres-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 memoire, aussi pieux qu'il etoit sage, +eut toutes les peines du monde a 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'etoit un moyen infaillible et l'unique +qu'il y eut pour inspirer le culte du vrai Dieu aux Africains, les +retirer de l'idolatrie, et les faire perseverer jusqu'a la mort dans la +religion chretienne qu'on leur feroit embrasser.--Vol. iv. p. 14. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Leeward and Windward Islands--The Caribs of Dominica--Visit of Pere + 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. + + +Beyond all the West Indian Islands I had been curious to see +Dominica.[10] 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. + +The island lies between Martinique and Guadaloupe, and is one of the +group now called Leeward Islands, as distinguished 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 Pere was a clever, curious man, with a genial human +sympathy about him, 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. + +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. + +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 _Banari_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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 _cane_. + +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. + +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 is to follow. +There was real work actively going on, a rare and perhaps unexampled +phenomenon in the English West Indies. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _Pax Dei_ 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 _feu de joie_ 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 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. + +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. + +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 were easy; +neither party could score.' 'We had been equally hard on them about +Alaska.' + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +Martinique has two fine harbours. Dominica has none. At the north end of +the island there is a bay, named after Prince 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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? + +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. 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. + +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. + +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_l._ 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, 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. + +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 introduced +and taught, and they have a distinct influence which we ourselves have +not tried to rival. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 Bouille, 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. + +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 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 abbe 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + 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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. 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 _patois_, 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. + +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. _Mandez_ this, she said, and _mandez_ that, till she +bore her antagonist down and sent her flying. The audience then melted +away, and I left the conqueror standing alone 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. + +[Illustration: MORNING WALK, DOMINICA.] + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +I have known the fishing boys of the English Channel all 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +I had an opportunity of seeing what can really be done in 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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.' + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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 deg.. 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. + +There was no need for haste now. We return slowly to 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. + +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 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. + +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, 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. + + Woman! no mortal o'er the widespread earth + Can find a fault in thee; thy good report + Doth reach the widespread heaven, as of some prince + Who, in the likeness of a god, doth rule + O'er subjects stout of heart and strong of hand; + And men speak greatly of him, and his land + Bears wheat and rye, his orchards bend with fruit, + His flocks breed surely, the sea yields her fish, + Because he guides his folk with wisdom. + In grace and manly virtue.[11] + +Because 'He guides with wisdom.' That is the whole secret. The +leading of the wise few, the willing obedience of 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] [Greek: o gynai ouk an tis se broton ep' apeirona gaian + neikeoi; e gar seu kleos ouranon euryn hikanei; + hoste teu e basileost amymonos, hoste theoudes + andrasin en polloisi kai iphthimoisin anasson, + eudikias anechesi; pheresi de gaia melaina + purous kai krithas, brithesi de dendrea karpoi + tiktei de empeda mela, thalassa de parechei ichthys, + ex euegesies; aretosi de laoi hupo autou.--_Odyssey_, + xix. 107.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 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.[12] 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +Hayti, as everyone knows who has studied the black problem, is the +western portion of Columbus's Espanola, 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 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. + +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 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. + +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; 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. + +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. + +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. + +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, 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 Ellememe 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 '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. + +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. + +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 +unendurable. 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. + +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. + +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 a 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. +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. + +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_l._ 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 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. + +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 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. + +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. There is a saying in Hayti that the white man has no +rights which the blacks are bound to recognise. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: PORT ROYAL, JAMAICA.] + +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. + +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 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. + +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. 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.' + +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. + +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. + +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. 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 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. + +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. + +Hearing that I was in search of quarters, a Miss Burton, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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.' + +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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 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. +They even ask you with wide eyes what else you would expect? + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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 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. + +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 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_l._ 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. + +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 _not_ to be a bore, the one sin for +which there is no forgiveness. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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.' + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +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 genius of the age, and must be +content with such other blessings as it has been pleased to bring with +it. + + Why should I murmur thus and vainly moan? + The Gods will have it so--their will be done.[13] + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +[ILLUSTRATION: VALLEY IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS, JAMAICA.] + +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 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[13] Euripides. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + 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. + + +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. 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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 +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. + +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. 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 deg. nor sinks +often below 60 deg.. 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _go-a-headism_ 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-government. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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 +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. + +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. + +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 _per se_ 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 _servi_, servants in the old meaning of the +word, prisoners of war, or else criminals, _servati_ 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 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 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. + +Accordingly early on the following morning we set off; two 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. + +We reached Castleton at last. It was in a hot damp valley, 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 _Amherstia +nobilis_. 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. + +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 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.' + +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 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 employes +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 _middies_ +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? + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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.' + +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 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 antennae, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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 natural and +professional prejudices were all on the black man's side. + +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 +them at present would fling Jamaica back into absolute barbarism. + +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. + +If we choose to make Jamaica into a Hayti, we need not look for +Americans down that way. + +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. + + * * * * * + +Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold +the Radical faith. + +And the Radical faith is this: all men are equal, and the voice of one +is as the voice of another. + +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. + +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. + +And if the majority affirm one thing to-day, that is right; and if the +majority affirm the opposite to-morrow, that is right. + +Because the will of the majority is the ground of right and there is no +other, &c. &c. &c. + +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. + +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 _Symbolum Fidei_? + +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. + +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.' + +'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. Let it suffice to have created one +Ireland without deliberately manufacturing a second. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + 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. + + +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 agreeable; 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +The Cabinet at home at first thanked their representative 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 _modus vivendi_. 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, therefore, 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +If there are no more Aaron Bangs in Jamaica, there are very charming +people; as I found when I turned this new leaf in 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. + +[Illustration: KINGSTON AND HARBOUR FROM CHERRY GARDEN.] + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +'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.' + +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.' + + * * * * * + +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 them. His boys are about the +world in active service growing into useful and honourable manhood. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. 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----. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Present state of Jamaica--Test of progress--Resources of the + island--Political alternatives--Black supremacy and probable + consequences--The West Indian problem. + + +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 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. + +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 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 _ad libitum_ 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. 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. [Greek: +Arete],'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 [Greek: arete] a moderate +quantity [Greek: hoposonoun] would do, and in Aristotle's opinion this +was the rock on which the Greek republics foundered. Their [Greek: +arete] did not come as a matter of course, and they lost it, and the +Macedonians and the Romans ate them up. + +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 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. + +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 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 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. + +It may be said that we have no intention of doing anything 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. + +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. + +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. + +We may say if we please, 'Be it so then; we do not want 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. + +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? + +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 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. + +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 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + 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. + + +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. 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. + +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. + +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--_Americanos_; Spaniards with a difference--with whom I +cultivated a kind of intimacy. 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. + +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. + +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 + + 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. + +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. + +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 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, 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: HAVANA, FROM THE QUARRIES] + +The city as we steamed by looked singularly beautiful, with its domes +and steeples and marble palaces, and glimpses of 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 windows 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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 _limosna por el Santo Padre_. 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: + + O Restos y Imagen del grande Colon + Mil siglos durad guardados en la Urna + Y en remembranza de nuestra Nacion. + +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 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 _a_ 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 +Treves 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 oppressive 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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 Senor Castelar, from Lord Burghley to +Mr. Gladstone, from Leonardo da Vinci or Velasquez to Gustave Dore, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Hotels in Havana--Sights in the city--Cigar manufactories--West + Indian industries--The Captain-General--The Jesuit college--Father + Vinez--Clubs in Havana--Spanish aristocracy--Sea lodging house. + + +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. + +A few hundred yards off was one of the most famous of the Havana cigar +manufactories. A courteous message from the manager, Senor 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 senor 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 _contrabandista_ 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 senor employed in all about 1,400; at least so I understood +him. + +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 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. + +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. + +The senor 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 _contrabandista_, 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 senor 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. + +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 developed 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. + +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_l._ 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 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. + +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 Vinez, 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 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 +Vinez of whom I have spoken is in charge of it. Father Vinez 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 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. + +The house, I believe, _was_ 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 Vinez 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 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. + +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 Athenaeum. Here you meet +Spanish _grandes_, 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 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. + +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.' + +I liked the consul well. I could not say as much for his countrymen and +countrywomen at my hotel. Individually 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. + +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 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. + +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 Senor Bances were anything out of the way. I said +that they suited my taste and that was enough. 'Ah,' he replied, '_Cada +loco con su tema._ Every fool had his opinion.' 'I am the _loco_ +(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 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. + +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. _Cosas de +Espana_; 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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; London reflects itself in Brompton and Kensal Green, and +Paris in Pere 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'[14]--or E.G.E.--'en gracia esta'[15]--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. + +One was in Latin: + + AD COELITES EVOCATAE UXORI EXIMAE IGNATIUS. + _Ignatius to his admirable wife who has been called up to heaven._ + +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: + + Bendita Caridad, las que piadosa + Su mano vierte en la funerea losa + Son flores recogidas en el suelo, + Mas con su olor perfumaian el cielo. + +It is dangerous for anyone to whom a language is only moderately +familiar to attempt an appreciation of elegiac poetry, 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. + + The flowers which thou, oh Blessed Charity, + With pious hand hast twined in funeral wreath, + Although on earthly soil they gathered be, + Will sweeten heaven with their perfumed breath. + +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. + +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 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 deg. 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 +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. + +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. + +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 +revolution. 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. + +[Illustration: PORT AU PRINCE, HAYTI.] + +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 _de +haeretico comburendo_, 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. + +In the midst of our differences we found we had many 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] He rests in peace. + +[15] He is now in grace. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + 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. + + +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'hote, 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. + +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 they are indifferent or estranged. It can +only force them into sharper collision. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +'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.' + +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. + +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 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? + +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 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 _exeat regno_. 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. + +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 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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 two oceans +are eventually united, and no final success can be looked for in the +bold projector's life time. + +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 +paean 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 Espanola, +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 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. + +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[16] 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, 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 Moelde or some similar +Norwegian town, so like everything seemed, even to the colour of the +houses. + +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. + +We were in a Paris of the gutter, with boulevards and _places_, _fiacres_ +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 _fiacre_ 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 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. + +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 legislature--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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] Tortoise Islands; the buccaneers' head quarters. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + 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. + + +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 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +like, as within the bounds of present possibilities. Nor did he think +that responsible statesmen at home had any such arrangement in view. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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--_caditquaestio_--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. + +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 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. + +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 Phoebus Apollo launches no shaft against +the scaly sides of it. Phoebus 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 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.' + +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. + +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 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? + +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 +praetor 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 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + 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. + + +Once more upon the sea on our homeward way, carrying, as Emerson said, +'the bag of AEolus 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 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? + +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 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. + +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. + + [Greek: essetai emar hotan pot' ololei Hilios hire, + kai Priamos kai laos eummelio Priamoio.] + + The day will be when Ilium's towers may fall, + And large-limbed[17] Priam, and his people all. + +But that day cannot be yet. Out of the now half-organic fragments may +yet be formed one living Imperial power, with 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. + + Naught shall make us rue, + If England to herself do rest but true. + +The days pass, and our ship flies fast upon her way. + + [Greek: glaukon huper oidma kuanochroa te kumaton + rhothia polia thalassas.] + +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: + + Time writes no wrinkle on that azure brow. + +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 AEschylus 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 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. + +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. + +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.' + +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 +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. + +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--_securus judicat orbis_. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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, 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. + +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 part of the world to fear or convenience. The +magnetism which will bind them to her must be found in herself or +nowhere. + +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 Caesar 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. + + Oh, England, model to thy inward greatness, + Like little body with a mighty heart, + What might'st thou do that honour would thee do + Were all thy children kind and natural! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] I believe this to be the true meaning of [Greek: eummelies]. It is +usually rendered, 'armed with a stout spear.' + + +KELLY & CO., Printers, Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.; and +Kingston-on-Thames. + + + + + +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.txt or 32728.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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