they have acquired the means of removing to a more temperate climate, and naturally feel less solicitous to dispose of their money in objects of unprofitable and temporary concern. And a third cause, which operates most powerfully to give the West India towns an air of poverty and filth, is the great proportion of houses with which they are crowded, belonging to people of colour and emancipated slaves, whose means will rarely enable them to build any thing better than a shed; and who are happy to take possession of and patch up the wrecks of houses that other wise would be deserted." The surrounding scenery, however, is beautiful, not from any grand features of nature, but from the richness of tropical plants and the costume of the cultivated landscape, so novel to an Euro pean eye. “Along the shore to the north of Bridge Town I found the road extremely picturesque. It leads through a long avenue of shady cocoa-nut trees, over-arched by their palmated and spacious leaves, and fenced on each side by prickly pears, or the blades of aloes. In occasional openings, or through the stems of the trees, you behold the mas ter's dwelling-houses with the negro-huts adjoining; and over a rich vale, abounding with cotton-shrubs and maize, the hills at a small distance spotted with wind-mills, sugar works, and a few lofty cabbage trees, or cocoa-nuts. At times the road approaches the sea and leads along the beach, frequently overspread by cedars or manchineel. It then wiads into the plantations, where the cultiparterres of cotton and tropical plants are often relieved by groups of cocoa-nuts and plaintains, the leaves of which in the form of squares or quadrangular figures, have a singular effect in the landscape. vated "It is not an unusual thing to see a team of as many as sixteen or even twenty diminutive oxen labouring with a small load, and three or four lusty negroes occupied in a work that one man with a single horse and cart could perform with ease in England. The same debility pervades all ranks. You meet in the roads and avenues of the town riders in loose linen dresses and broad-brimmed umbrella hats, their horses gently ambling or pacing; a black running footman perhaps with his hand twisted in the horse's tail, following; and a distance of twelve or fourteen miles is a journey of no inconsiderable exertion for the day." When Grainger wrote his poem of the Sugar-Cane, he celebrated Barbadoes as its favourite soil. The soil must then have been more fertile than at present; for this and some other of the Carib bean islands are supposed to be sensibly on the decline. The fact is, the new set tlements offer a new soil, whereas in the old ones the planters have to manure an exhausted one. "The most agreeable situations in the country are certainly those to windward (which is a term universally used in the West Indies to denote the east, from whence the wind generally blows), and the spots commonly chosen for building are those which are highest and most exposed to the draught of air. Some of the country houses are well contrived for all the purposes of comfort and coolness. But the mode of build ing generally practised might be greatly improved upon; nor should I apprehend one need go further for a perfect example than that of the native Indians in the construction of their dwellings. I was shown a model of a house with all their domestic conveniences imported from South America. boo canes, and the roof a tight thatch, I beThe sides represented a wicker work of bamlieve of palmeto leaves; thus admitting the breeze horizontally in every direction, and excluding the rain at top. Their beds were a loose elastic net-work, like the hammocks of the Charaibs, who made them of cotton, and of a texture remarkably neat and durable. The only objection I found to the model of the house was, that it did not provide against an admission of rain, or the sun's rays, in an done by substituting the moveable latticeoblique direction (which might easily be work resembling Venetian blinds, now particularly in use); nor of the damps affecting always the lower parts of the West India houses, and which ought necessarily to be constructed of more solid materials. No doubt the aborigines, advancing towards civilization, as these beginnings evidently show, had become studious of those comforts and conveniences which soften the rigour of the tropical sun, and which their experience would have gradually discovered much more effectually than the knowledge of the Europeans, whose inveterate habits and ideas cannot easily assimilate with the climate.” The plough, it is observed, is certainly a great relief to negroes where it has been introduced; yet all its operations are necessarily slothful and expensive. Mr. M'Kinnen speaks of these unhappy peo. ple like a man whose natural good sense and good feelings are continually counteracted by a recollection of the personal civilities which he himself has experienced from the planters. He witnessed the arrival of a Guinea ship: the slaves crowded to look through the port-holes, and hailed the sight of land with a chorus of wild and joyful music, which, he says, was singularly affecting to persons who know how to sympathize with them in their emotions! A gang of sixty ne groes whom he saw at work appeared to be in good spirits, while the black drivers, with whips in their hands, stood over them directing and stimulating the work; and he takes care to inform us, that the drivers found no occasion to exercise their whips. He does not mention that when, in 1801, lord Seaforth recommended to the assembly of this island, that the murder of a slave should be made felony, the present punishment being only a fine of eleven pounds four shillings sterling, that christian assembly, at the motion of Robert James Haynes, esquire, returned for answer, that they understood their interests, and knew how to repel insult and assert their rights. Mr. M Kinnen doubtless conceived that it would be making an ill return for that generous hospitality which he experienced, to have noticed. this memorable answer, which stands upon record in our parliamentary reports. But Mr. Robert James Haynes and his worthy majority, who think proper to assert the right of murdering negroes at a fine of eleven pounds four shillings each, may be assured that their good dinners will not be allowed as a set off when their accounts come to be examined in the courts below. I have tried, says an Englishman of inquiring mind and truly English feel. ings, in a letter which lies before us; I have tried to enter into conversation with the negroes, in the hope of obtaining information respecting their own country, but always without success. If I ask, how long have you been in this country, the answer is always, long enough!-Have you left any family or friends behind you? yes, or no, and don't boder! has been all I could get. Unless I were to remain some time among them, could gain their good will, and conquer that habitual feeling of anger and dislike which I believe they feel for all white people, I despair of learning any thing. Perhaps anger and dislike may be improper words; but they seem to think you cannot ask them questions from any kind motive. If it were not for constantly meeting these slaves, so dressed and so marked” that you cannot help seeing and knowing they are such, I know no climate or spot in the world which I should prefer to the mountains close to us. Good God! if these islands were but peopled, as England is, by free and happy beings!-What a contrast to the tame and blunted feelings of Mr. M Kinnen! From Barbadoes Mr. M Kinnen proceeded, by St. Vincent's, St. Lucia and Martinique, to Dominica; he notices the small coffee plantations in this latter island, enclosed with high fences to protect the shrubs from the wind, and situated on the acclivities, and sometimes even on the mountain tops; they ap peared, he says, to great advantage from the sea. Had he approached nearer, he would have found the effect more singular than picturesque; for as the coffee is always planted either at right angles or diagonally, the sides and summits of mountains, apparently inaccessible, seem covered with a net work of dark green. The English in Dominica are confined to the coast, there being few or none who cultivate ten miles inland. Almost all the coffee from one to ten negroes; you see their houses is raised by the French, small planters with among the mountains appearing as if on the brows of the precipices; they never go to the town (Roseau) but to sell their produce, and then twenty or thirty join together, with as many negroes as they can muster among them, and bring it down upon their heads. The English planters there say, "We could not live in the way they do!" so much simpler and wiser is their way of life. Their climate is delightful, says a sailor, then suffering himself under a tropical summer; it is so cold that they are obliged to sleep in blaukets." Antigua, the next place which Mr. M'Kinnen visited, is the seat of government for the Leeward Islands. On this occasion the author makes the following remarks. It has been asked, indeed, Why may not the government of all our windward possessions, partaking so essentially of the same in the same individual legislative and execulaws, customs, and manners, be consolidated tive bodies? It must be confessed that a chain of islands of as great an extent in the British empire in the West Indies, is at present in that predicament, (viz. the Bahamas). There is also a British colony (Jamaica), in which the attendance of the remote member> at the seat of legislature is more inconvenient by land, than their attendance at a central On the one hand, it might be supposed that spot might be found in these colonies by sea. such a legislative body, in the ratio of the extent of country it embraced, would be * With hot irons. more respectable, liberal, and enlightened; that the administration of one would be less expensive than of several governments; while the colonial establishments would derive that superiority of energy and power which a whole would possess over the aggregate of its parts taken individually. To this, however, it might fairly be objected, that, setting aside considerations of personal inconvenience in the attendance of the members, there would be a deficiency of local knowledge; and that many delays and inconveniences would result from distant communications, which are not felt in this species of domestic legislation. No doubt, if such a project were conceived, the vanity of those persons who figure in the present epitomes of parliamentary government, would be inclined to oppose a scheme to exclude themselves from any part of the drama. But the experience of the present age has too fatally proved the fallacy of speculations indulged by cabinet politicians; and demonstrated that practice differs as much from theory in matters of political science, as in agriculture, or objects of speculative experiment in the common pursuits of life. It may be alledged, that this is a sort of franchise which the inhabitants of these little islands have enjoyed, by charter, from their first settle ment, and in which they have as much right to protection by law, as any of the corporations of Great Britain in their municipal privileges. But above all, the delicate and heterogeneous structure of society in these communities renders it extremely dangerous and impolitic, upon the most plausible speculations, to hazard the fallible experiment of a change.-Paries ubi proximus àrdet." To these reasons may be added, the possible danger of uniting these islands by a general congress, particularly when the disposition of their late assemblies be considered. We must mention to the honour of the Antigua planters, that they have afforded the first example of a relaxation of their code in favour of the slaves, by extending to them the trial by jury in criminal cases. The Moravian missionaries have also been greatly encouraged here. This island, since Mr. M Kinnen's account was written, has suffered severely from the yellow fever. Our sailors, with their characteristic humour, in the midst of its ravages, have given the burying ground a name from the negro who attends there, and call it Pompey's Parlour! It is a circumstance peculiarly unfavourable both to health and comfort, that the principal towns in the West Indies are situated on the leeward coasts, for the convenience of the shipping. Our English towns indeed are greatly inferior to those which the French have built; for the French colonists generally consider themselves as settled for life, and wisely provide for their habitual comforts accordingly. Of Jamaica little is said. Mr. McKin nen's visit was too short to admit of any thing more than a superficial glance at some few interesting scenes, and he, therefore, with a commendable forbearance, abstains from offering any general remarks. The effect of heat there on our northern animals is remarkable. He saw a black horse in a friend's stable, which, in the course of a few months, has become perfectly brown; and many of the imported sheep, in the same gentleman's pen, were half stript of their wool, which becomes gradually converted into hair. The Turkey buzzard, or carrion crow of Jamaica, is esteemed of so much consequence in cleansing the country from putrifying animal substances, that its life is protected by a law of the island. this volume relates to the Bahamas, The greater and more novel part of islands which, from the intricacy of the navigation between them, and the unproductive nature of the soil, have attracted, perhaps, less notice than any other parts of the British empire. The greater islands, or rather groupes of islands, may be esteemed fourteen in number; the smaller, it has been computed, amount to at least seven hundred. bounding the Atlantic Ocean, on the north"These small oblong bodies of land, east of the large island of Cuba, and reaching over an extent of ocean commensurate with its length, rise almost perpendicularly from an immense depth of water, and seein to have been formed, if external appearances shells, or small calcareous grains of sand. may be trusted, from an accumulation of The land generally seems low, and its surface and figure throughout the islands is very nearly the same. At the utmost depths to which the inhabitants have penetrated, nothing has been found but calcareous rock, and sometimes an intermixture of shells. At a small distance from the shores, a reef of rocks in many of the islands is observed to follow the direction of the land, and form the boundary of the soundings: without this rampart the ocean is often immediately unof a beautiful white sand. or chequered with fathomable within it, the bottom is either heads (as they are termed) of rocks covered with sea-weed." Turks Islands, the first in the groupe, enumerating them in their longitudinal the pond into a gutter, from which the pan inclination from south-east to north-west, is conveniently and readily supplied." take their name from a dwarfish species of the cactus, vulgarly called the Turk's head, from its resemblance to a turban. Some years ago an English postmaster sent off a letter, which was directed to these islands, to Constantinople. Though small, they are of some consequence from the quantity of salt produced there. The calcareous rock, of which the land is composed, lies generally in horizontal layers; from the violent action of the sea, which has evidently, and perhaps recently, beaten over them, the surface appears every where worn, fretted, and broken into holes, or often deep excavations: hence the sea water finds a passage, and his formed in many parts of the interior extensive salinas, or saltponds. As the hot and dry season commences, the salt begins to crystallize and subside in solid cakes; it remains then only to break the crystals, and rake the salt on shore; and by this easy mode a single labourer may rake from forty to sixty bushels in a day. The principal pond is considerably more than a mile in length, but the process is facilitated by making small pans. "The resident inhabitants are few in number. Before the American war they amounted to about eighteen white heads of families, and forty slaves; since which period there probably has been little increase. I mention the resident inhabitants; for in the early part of the year, when the salt begins to make, a number of periodical visit ants, from the Bermudas, come over for the purpose of raking it. All those who are present on the tenth of February being enumerated, allotments of the ponds are made, and staked off to each person, in proportion to the number of hands given in to be employed in raking salt for the ensuing season. The amount of these annual visitors cannot be calculated with precision. Early this year two hundred had arrived; and I was informed they sometimes numbered between one and two thousand. The pans which the salt-rakers generally lay out are not all of equal dimensions, but depend on each individual's judgment or experience. I saw, elsewhere, some nearly sixty feet square; from whence it was calculated, I do not know with what exactness, that at least five hundred bushels of salt might be raked in a good season. But in Turks Islands the pans are generally smaller they are filled with the brine about six inches deep, or so as to cover a man's ancles, and a moveable machine, like the wheel of a water mill, but turned by a handle, throws the water from The Americans are the principal customers; they carry away the salt in their own bottoms, paying a duty of 2s. 6d. Bahama currency, per ton, to the crown, and the receipts of the last year amounted to 22301. sterling. The colonial government has imposed a farther tax, which the inhabitants resist, insisting that, from their situation, they more conveniently belong to the colony of the Bermudas; and that his majesty has sanctioned in them a sort of palatinate government, by appointing an agent of the crown to reside there. in a very frequented and dangerous part The Heneagas and Hogsties, though of the sea, have never as yet been correctly surveyed. Some persons called wreckers, who are liccused by "They are minutely known only to those the governor of the Bahamas, and cruise amongst those islands for the benefit of salvage, which they receive on all property they may chance to rescue from the waves. cocoa-nut trees have lately been planted on one of these keys, as a warning to mariners; but it is doubted whether the wreckers, whose business it is to prey on the disasters of the unwary, will suffer them to grow up, even should the soil permit. "Happening, in the course of one of my passages through the Bahamas, to fall in with a wrecker, I held as long a conversation with him as his haste would permit, and was inquisitive on the subject of his occupation. I will set down the dialogue as it took place. 2. From whence came you? "A. (as it caught my ear) From Providence last from Philimingo Bay in Icumey, (a familiar way of pronouncing Flamingo Bay, in Exuma). "Q. Where are you bound to? "A. On a racking voyage to Quby (Cuba) and the westward. Q. Are there many of you in this quar "A. Morgan, I, and Phinander (Fernandez):-parted company awhile ago. Q. What success in cruising? "A. Middling, but middling. Q. We have seen very few wreckers to the eastward-are there many to the westward? "A. We lay with forty sail four months along Floriday shore. "Q. Forty sail! Then certainly you must have had many opportunities of being essentially serviceable to vessels passing the gulf stream, by directing them to keep off from places of danger, with which you made it your business to become acquainted? "A. Not much of that-they went on generally in the night. Q. But then you might have afforded them timely notice, by making beacons on shore, or showing your lights? A. No, no (laughing): we always put them out for a better chance by night." "Q. But would there not have been more humanity in showing them their danger? "A. I did not go there for humanity: I went racking." Providence, and the pavement of its streets, in some parts, is the solid surface of a stone quarry. The inhabitants prospered during the late war, and are, their town by public buildings; and an with becoming liberality, ornamenting agricultural society has been recently established under the patronage of the legislature. In 1801 this town contained 1599 white inhabitants, 752 free people of colour, and 3861 slaves, a fearful In Crooked Island Mr. M Kinnen majority on the side of the oppressed! describes a beautiful cavern. "At the base of a cliff facing the shore, the rock, which is of a loose friable texture, appears to have been exposed to the violent action of the breakers, and the cavities have been shaped in grotesque figures, and embossed or wrought into holes, every where smoothed by the lambent water. The principal cave is at some few paces from this beautiful grotto, with which it has apparently no communication, and you are obliged to enter it by descending from an aperture in the rock above. Within this cave the devastation of the water, evident in various places throughout the island, has left more remarkable traces. In some spots the top appears as if completely demolished; in others it is worn and fretted into regular cavities and shapes, giving it an air of Gothic ceiling, and the stalactites and incrustations en the side walls (if they may be so called) have a damp and mouldy appearance, tinged with occasional hues of green and light blue. In various parts the wild fig trees, which are particularly fond of moisture, have penetrated into the recesses, and shot their bearded roots like clusters of columns on the sides, or through the holes in the roof, which admit the light, and in some places the sun's rays. It extends, in a variety of capricious and romantic figures, to a distance which has never been yet traced; and the imagination, prone to the marvellous, has led soine persons to believe that it runs nearly across the island. The bottom was covered with a concretion, many feet deep, of some elastic substance resembling mould, but which is not posessed of any vegetative power. A philosophic gentleman conceived it was an accumulation, for many ages, of the dung of the bats which swarm in the dark recesses of this singular cave. Perhaps it might be going too far back for a cause, to ascribe it to a deposit of marine substances at some very remote period by the sea." Another grotto of the same character, from the semblance of arched ceiling in rains, and the cluster of columns in relef on the sides, has been called the Abbey. Nassau, the seat of government for the Bahamas, is in the island of New This was the head quarters of the pirates at the beginning of the last century. A the famous Black Beard, who was some curious account is given of John Teach, time master, or emperor, of this island. "In person, as well as disposition, this desperado, who was a native of England, seems to have been qualified for the chief of a gang of thieves. The effect of his beard, which gave a natural ferocity to his countenance, he was always solicitous to heighten, by suffering it to grow to an immoderate length, and twisting it about in small tails, like a Ramillies wig; whence he derived the name of Black Beard. His portrait in time of action is described as that of a complete fury; with three brace of pistols in holsters, slung over his shoulders like bandeliers, and lighted matches under his hat, sticking out over each of his cars. All authority, as well as admiration, amongst the pirates was conferred on those who, committing every outrage on humanity, displayed the greatest audacity and extravagance. Black Beard's pretensions to an elevated rank in the estima tion of his associates, may be conceived from the character of his jokes. Having often exbited himself before them as a dæmon, he determined once to show them a hell of his own creation. For this purpose he collected a quantity of sulphur and combustible materials between the decks of his vessel; when, kindling a flame and shutting down the hatches upon his crew, he involved himself with them literally in fire and brimstone. With oaths and frantic gestures he then acted the part of the devil, as little affected by the smoke as if he had been born in the infernal regions; till his companions, nearly sufiocated and fainting, compelled him to release them. His convivial humour was of a simi lar cast. In one of his extasies, whilst heated with liquor and sitting in his cabin, he took a pistol in each hand; then, cocking them under the table, blew out the candles, and, crossing his hands, fired on each side at his companions: one of them received a shot which maimed him for life. His gallantry of humour. He had fourteen wives, if they also was of the same complexion as his vein be so called. But his conduct towards may one of them appears to have been too unfeeling and unmanly to admit of description. |