night, not being able to succeed, bethought himself of calling on Jesus, when he was immediately answered, and struck up a good fire, notwithstanding the rain.

"Every account that has been given of the Bosjesmans tends to confirm the opinion of their being among the most miserable of the human race, and in their present condition wholly incapable of profiting by the doctrines of Christianity. Their number is, however, very inconsiderable. In travelling through the heart of the desert occupied by them, the present party did not in the whole journey see fifty persons, and of course had but little opportunity of making and comparing their observations on their character and condition. Of the few they saw it was remarked that several had attained a very considerable age; that the oldest had not lost a single tooth, but that in many in

stances they were worn down in a remarkable manner to mere stumps, that out of the number seen at least half-a-dozen were blind in one eye, which they pretended to have been occasioned while young by accidents from fire; that the greater part wanted the first joint of the little finger, which they said had been taken off as a charm against misfortunes, or to stop an incipient disorder; that the sting of a scor pion, which to Europeans or colo nists is always attended with dangerous consequences, and by which one of the present party suffered severely, has no ill effect on this people, which they endeavoured to explain by saying that while children being accustomed to be stung by these insects, the poison in time ceases to have any effect on them, as the small-pox virus loses its action on a person who has had the disease."

pearance of having been, before,

dia Islands; and is in that division of them known by the appellation of Charibbee Islands-a name they have obtained from one of the nations of Indians, who formerly inhabited them.

"It is about twenty-one miles in length, by fourteen in breadth; ly ing in latitude 13° North, longitude 59° West. The English have occupied it nearly two centuries, having taken possession of it in the reign of James I. At the time of being settled by our countrymen, it was covered with wood, and had no ap

pears under a very different aspect,

the destructive axe having converted its deep and heavy forests into even characteristic nakedness.

"West Indians regard it as of low and level surface: but this can be only comparatively speaking,and in reference to the neighbouring islands whose bold summits pierce the skies: for Barbadoes has all the pleasant variety afforded by hills and broken land, and, and in some parts, is even mountainous, though less so than Grenada, St. Vincent, or St. Lucie.

"It is considered as an old island, and, from having been long in cultivation, is said to be much exhausted, and wearing to decay. Those concerned in the culture of more recent, and now more prolific colonies, seem to compassionate Barbadoes as the venerable and decrepit parent of the race; while its inhabitants pride themselves upon its antiquity, and, like the feudal lords of still more ancient states, assume a consequence, I might al most say claim hereditary rank and privilege from priority of establishment. This sense of distinction is strongly manifested in the sentiment conveyed by the vulgar expression so common in the island-"neither Charib, nor Creole, but true Barbadian," and which is participated even by the slaves, who proudly arrogate a superiority above the negrocs of the other islands! Ask one of them if he was imported, or is a Creole, and he immediately replies Me neder Chrab, nor Creole, Massa!-me troo Barbadian born.'

"Perhaps the late decline of this island may be still less the effect of exhaustion of the soil, than of the extensive emigration, and the diversion of commerce consequent on the cultivation of new islands and colonies. In the early period of its culture Barbadoes yielded a produce, and gave rise to an extent of commerce, not known in any other island, and its population increased to a degree, perhaps unprecedented in any part of the globe. Within the first fifty years the trade of the island had become sufficient to employ four hundred sail of shipping; and the number of inhabitants amounted to no less than one hundred and fifty thousand, being upwards of five hundred to every square mile.

"To enable the land to continue the bountiful produce it now afforded required much labour, and a great and expensive supply of manure, therefore as new colonies were settled, and new land brought into cultivation, which was capable of yielding equal returns with less labour, and less of artificial supply, it became an object to individuals to emigrate from the neighbouring island of Barbadoes, and engage in the culture of the more recent, and less exhausted settlements; and thus, with the population, the commerce, which before had been confined to the parent island, was necessarily diverted into new and various channels.

"At this day the Dutch colonies of Guiana, and the captured island of Martinique, are a continual drain upon the population of Barbadoes. But notwithstanding its decline from what it once was, it is still the most populous, and one of the most important of our West India possessions. From situation, and from its fine bay for shipping, even independent of its produce, it must ever be valuable to us, and indeed may be considered as the key of the West Indies. Some of the Creoles of the island, not barely sensible of this, commit the excess of attaching to itadegree of importance beyond even England itself.

What would poor old England do,' say they, were Barbadoes to forsake her? This adage you will believe expresses only the veneration of the illiterate; but will admit that it arises from a very natural feeling: for those who have seen but one spot readily fancy that to be of the first importance! And there are multitudes in Barbadoes who never saw any other soil, and who, no doubt, from the same laudable sentiment which we SQ honor

I 4

honor in Britons, regard their native isle as pre-eminent above all others. "Barbadoes contains a numerous class of inhabitants, between the great planters, and the people of colour, a circumstance which forms a striking difference between this island and the more recent colonies. Of these, many are descended from the original settlers, and have no precise knowledge of the period when their ancestors first arrived. Through several generations they have been born, and have constantly lived upon the island. They regard it as their native, and only abode, and do not, like their more wealthy neighbours, look to England as another and a better home. Of some of these old families I may, perhaps, speak more particularly in

another letter.

"If in point of produce Barbadoes now yields to other settlementsif its population and commerce have decreased-if its thick woods have fallen before the rueful axe-and if its mountains are less aspiring than the towering summits of some of the neighbouring islands; still its trade and produce continue to be important; its population great; and the picturesque scenery of its surface, perhaps, unrivalled. Nor are these its only advantages; for, in consequence of being more cleared, and more generally cultivated, than the other islands, its temperature is more equable, and its air more salubrious. Damp woods do not interrupt, nor stagnant morasses empoison the breeze.Every part is exposed to the full perflation of the trade-wind; by the coolness and salubrity of which, this is rendered the most healthful of the islands; insomuch that it is common, in sickness, to make a voyage from the other colonies to Barbadoes, as the Montpelier of

the West Indies. Being situated to windward of the other islands, it receives the uninterrupted breeze, brought to it in all its purity im mediately from a wide extent of ocean, unimpregnated by the septic exhalations of stagnant waters, or polluted soils.-Its temperature has been far less inconvenient than we had expected. We have felt but little oppression from heat; and have continued our habits of exercise without interruption. In the harbour, and placed in the shade, the thermometer has seldom been higher than 84, and at no time has exceeded 86 degrees.

"Yet blessed as the island is in its exemption from excessive heat, from noxious miasmata, and from great and general sickness, it has its peculiar ills; being visited with an endemial affliction, so much its own as to have obtained the ap pellation of the Barbadoes disease. It appears in form of the elephantiasis, or what is here termed the glandular disease,'--and is a most unsightly and distressful malady.

"Bridge-town is the capital of the island, and is situated on the S. W. bank of Carlisle bay, which is one of the finest harbours, for shipping, in the West Indies; but is not considered to be secure during the hurricane season. It derives its name from the circumstance of à royal grant of the island having formerly been made to the earl of Carlisle. The other towns are Speights-town, Austin-town, and Hole-town, all of which are much inferior to Bridge-town.

"Both the scenery and the popu lation of the island are more indebted to the number and variety of mansions, cottages, and huts, thickly spotted over its surface, than to its towns; which, as is too commonly the case in all countries,

аге

are built with less regard to general appearance, and the health of the inhabitants, than to the convenience of trade, and the profit of individuals.

"On all quarters of the island are seen numbers of wind-mills, store-houses, and other buildings for sugar, coffee and cotton, houses of planters, the smaller dwellings of cottagers, and the huts of negroes, all of which improve the scenery, while they convey the idea of extensive population, and delight the mind with images of. rural enjoyment, and of generally diffused comfort and tranquillity. The numerous buildings, together with their protecting shades about them-the luxuriant tropical vege tation-the constant verdure of the fields the evergreen foliage of the trees-the broken irregular hills, lofty mountains, and cultivated rich-yielding plains-all surr unded with extensive views of shipping and the open sea, create an effect more varied and affecting than is often to be met with, and contribute to render Barbadoes a most pleasant and picturesque island; and from this, added to the examples I have given you of the hospitality, and friendly urbanity of its inhabitants, you will discover how highly it is calculated to call forth the attention, interest the 'eelings, and secure the attachment of those who visit it.

"In speaking to you of the situation of Barbadoes, it occurs to me to notice the confusion which has arisen in the minds of individuals, from the term commonly employed to distinguish the two grand divisions of our expedition. To discriminate what is literally the windward army from that intended for St. Domingo, we hear it depominated the Leeward Island'

division, than which it had been difficult to have found a term more pointedly incorrect. If the distinction be intended with regard to the course of the trade-wind, it should have been directly the reverse, for the islands, occupied by the troops of what is called the 'Leeward Island' armament, happen with respect to St. Domingo to be every one very far to wind word! If the term regard only the common nautical division of the Charibbee islands themselves, it is still inappropriate, for the windward, no less than the leeward of these islands, are possessed by what is termed the leward army.

"Any person consulting a map of the West Indies must discover St. Domingo to be among the most leeward of the islands, and would necessarily be led to conclude that the Leeward Island division, was the St. Domingo division, ie, that they were synonymous, for no one could imagine that the troops occupying Barbadoes, and the more immediately neighbouring islands, could belong to an army designated Leeward,' in contradistinction to the army of St. Domingo. Perhaps the terms Chaibbee Island division, and St. Domingo division had been more accurate.

6

Led by this circumstance we have taken some pains to inform ourselves, which are the islands known under the term 'Leeward,' according to the common acceptation: but we find this to be a question difficult of solution, almost every one dividing them differently. Scarcely any two persons, from whom we have sought intelligence, have given the same reply; nor does it seem to be accurately known where the line should be drawn. Some regard the distinction as respecting only the direction of the trade

wind; some derive it from the course taken by the ships from Spain to Carthagena; and others, from various other sources and circumstances; yet all agree that Barbadoes is the most to windward; and all allow that the Charibbee islands are less to leeward than St. Domingo.

"But to return to my notes concerning Barbadoes! I have before remarked to you the principal variations of its soil:-near Bridgetown it is of rich black earth, mostly spread on a base of calcareous rock, formed of madripores, and other marine concretions: in some districts it is of a red earth, of greater depth, but less rich: in others the soil is of a light whiteish earth, broken into a grey-looking mould, or hardened into lumps resembling chalk-but actually consisting of indurated argille, bleached by exposure to the weather.

"From this variety in the soil, together with that which attaches to situation, as being flat, or mountainous,-protected, or exposed, it will necessarily happen, that the produce will differ in different parts of the island: and as the whole has been long under cultivation, it is manifest that if a supply of manure, proportionate to the crops obtained, cannot be procured, a degree of exhaustion, bearing a certain ratio to the deficiency, must result.

"It is established, from the mode of agriculture adopted in some counties of England, that, by an adequate supply of manure, land may be continued in a constant round of cultivation, yielding as prolific crops as upon its earliest culture: and this is now found to be no less certain, than that if the land be subjected to continued tillage, without such supply, it will be so exhausted,

in the course of a few years, as not to give sufficient produce to compensate the labour and expence of cultivation.

"The same facts equally apply to Barbadoes, where, if the antificial supply be not commensurate with the produce removed from the land, a gradual diminution of the crops will succeed, or, in order to have these in their usual abundance, the acres in cultivation must be reduced to such a number as the island shall be capable of furnishing with an adequate quantity of manure; and we accordingly find that great herds of a small species of cattle, mostly steers, are kept upon the plantations, for the purpose of supplying this indispensable addition to the soil. These are employed instead of horses in the heavy labour of the estate, and we often see from twelve to twentyfour of them yoked in a waggon, drawing a single hogshead of sugar, or some other small load, such as in London would be conveyed with facility by two horses in a cart.

"At night the cattle are penned upon a bed of trash, collected from the refuse of the canes and other waste materials of the estate, by treading upon which, and mixing it with their own dung, they trample the whole into an useful compost for the fields.

"It necessarily follows from such numbers of these cattle being required, for the purpose of manuring the land, that a greater supply of beef and veal is raised for the markets, and that fresh provisions are more plentiful than in most of the other colonies. Of the custom of buying the veal in live quarters for the pot I have already spoken

and I may now remark that the beef is too commonly killed very young-forming neither beef nor