whole, that there are few whose lives are wasted in that insipid round of fashionable frivolity and dissipation, which is the delight of the females of rank of more polished societies. In short, the West India ladies are in many respects very amiable, and a number are as lovely in person, as they are winning by their agreeable manners and friendly disposition. They are in general modest and decorous in their behaviour, sprightly and agreeable when occasion requires it-they are tender, generous, and hospitable (the two latter virtues may indeed be said to be proverbial of the Creoles of both sexes), and above all, they have the reputation of leading the most correct and virtuous lives. In short, they are formed to become faithful and affectionate wives, and tender and indulgent mothers. Pity it is then that so many of them are devoted to the solitary unsocial state of cold virginity, who, if they had had the opportunity, would have so well employed the conjugal and maternal virtues!

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness in the desert air!"

In paying this tribute to the West India fair, the author speaks from expérience. He has had the happiness of being acquainted with individuals among them, who would have done honour to any country; and in the different parts of the world he has traversed, he can truly say, that

never was kindness more freely shown him than those hospitable and generous attentions he has experienced from his female friends of this quarter of the world. Kindness and generosity are indeed possessed by the sex in a more eminent degree than by the proud "lords of the creation." There is a charm in whatever they do, which enhances the value of their every act of kindness, of civility, and benevolence; and though we may sometimes meet with such as are haughty, conceited, and supercilious, yet, to console us for the disappointment, we much oftener meet with the truly sensible, friendly, polite, and amiable woman. How many happy moments do we pass in their sweet society! When satiated with the frivolity, the ignorance, the rudeness, and vulgarity of many of our own sex, how gladly do we fly for relief to the company of the sensible and agreeable of the other! often do we forget our cares, our troubles, and vexations, while conversing with them-we feel our bosoms enlivened with pleasure by their smiles, and animated with unwonted gaiety by their bewitching presence! We never enter but with gladness into their company-we never leave it with other sadness than the regret of so soon parting!

This eulogium on the sex, so justly due, cannot be better concluded than by that beautiful and sentimental one of Ledyard's the traveller, "I have always remarked," says he, "that wo

men in all countries are civil, obliging, tender, and humane that they are inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest; and that 'they do not hesitate, like men, to perform a generous action. Not haughty, nor arrogant, nor supercilious; they are full of courtesy, and fond of society; more liable to error than man; but in general, also, more virtuous, and performing more good actions than he. To a woman, whether civilized or savage, I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. With man it has often been otherwise. In wandering through the barren plains of inhospitable Denmark, through honest Sweden, and frozen Lapland, rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the wide-spread regions of the wandering Tartar, if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, the women have ever been friendly to me; and to add to this virtue (so worthy of the appellation of benevolence) their actions have been performed in so free, and so kind a manner, that if I was dry, I drank the sweetest draught; and, if hungry, I eat the coarsest morsel with a double relish,"

But although there are few females that are more susceptible of a refined and delicate sensibility than those of the West Indies, yet it unfortunately happens, that their domestic education, or rather habits, and the scenes that are

per

petually passing in review before them, have the effect, by giving a peculiar turn to their ideas, of rendering many less amiable and elegant than they would otherwise be. It is remarked, that the very manners and barbarous dialect of the negroes are apt to produce, through the force of early habit, an involuntary imitation on the part of the natives of this country, educated and brought up at home; and that there is often, in consequence, an aukward and ungraceful sort of affectation in their language and manner, which strongly indicates ignorance and untutored simplicity; or, to use an expression in common use here, many of them (who have not had the advantage of a judicious education, and introduction into polite company) exhibit much of the Quashiba. This remark is perhaps too true, particularly among the lower classes; and the evil which it notices should be carefully guarded against by parents, &c. It also sometimes happens, that they contract domineering and harsh ideas with respect to their slaves-ideas ill suited to the native softness and humanity of the female mind; so that the severe and arbitrary mistress will not infrequently be combined with the affectionate wife, the tender mother, the dear friend, and agreeable companion; such is the force and effect of early habits and accustomed prejudices, which suffers qualities so anomalous to exist together in the same breast! While yet a child,

perhaps a little negress of her own age is pointed out to the young Creolian as her future waitingmaid; her infant mind cannot conceive the harm of a little vexatious tyranny over this sable being, who is her own property; and thus are such ideas gradually nurtured in the tender uninformed mind. The growth of this unamiable propensity should be carefully guarded against and corrected by parents, particularly in their female infants; it is their fault if such an one appears in them. It must indeed, in justice, be remarked, that examples of unfeeling severity are now very rare among the females of Jamaica; and the author can with truth say, that he has known some who were as kind, attentive, and indulgent to their slaves, as even a parent could be towards his children. Formerly (and sometimes even at the present day, in some of the families of the middling and lower classes of the natives) the children were too often made witnesses of a most

improper spectacle for them-the punishment of the slaves. Perhaps the chastisement may have been justly due; but why should the tender and pliant mind of unhacknied youth be early hardened and contaminated by a sight of such scenes? Such inflictions may in time be viewed with a sort of savage gratification. In the males it may produce brutality of mind; and, in the females, to say the mildest of it, a sort of insensibility to human misery, and a cold contemplation of its dis

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