CHAPTER II.

The Schooner and her passengers-Paul, his encounter with the huckster-The Missionary, his observations on Barbados in reference to the labouring population, and to the altered and present state of society there-West Coast of Barbados described-Tumble Dick's gully-Paul's story— Speights.

Two days after what had occurred, and is mentioned in the foregoing chapter, I bade adieu to the brig; and the hour of 3 o'clock, P. M., found me seated in the stern sheets of one of the droghers that run daily from Speights-town to the capital, with my portmanteau and the gun, which Compasses had urged should accompany me on my visit to his master. The little schooner, worked by black hands, floated buoyantly out of the Carenage, for she was returning without any other load, save the passengers she conveyed. These, besides a missionary preacher and myself, consisted of eight or ten huckster women, who with their empty bags and baskets, the contents of which they had disposed of

during the morning, formed, as they squatted down or lay at their length in the bottom of the boat, an odd and singular-looking group

their fat persons, greasy laughing faces, and the loud jibbering lingo of these ladies incessantly ringing on one's tympanum, exhibiting, certainly, a spectacle I had rarely met with.

"Set still, and kip yer tongues inside yer teeth," bawled out one of the crew, as the little vessel was in the act of rounding the reef before she hauled her wind for home; and such a shout of jibes and invective followed this exhortation to their ladyships, as perfectly to astonish me and scandalize the worthy preacher. The man, who so unceremoniously had called upon them to do a thing that seemed totally out of their nature entirely to comply with—that of holding their tongues-was a smart, dapper, roguish looking fellow, and appeared to act, independently of his ordinary duty as seaman, in the threefold character of a steward, wag, and receiver of fare. He was in no way disconcerted at the torrent of words he had brought upon himself, but taking up a rope's end, threatened in a joking manner to "make it bite some of their backs." At that moment, a woman,

who was leaning over the aftermost thwart, engaged in a tête-a-tête with one of her companions, shewed so seductive a posture to the mischievous imagination of Master Paul, for the practical illustration of his threat, that winking his eye at the others, he unhesitatingly suited the action to the word, and applied somewhat smartly the instrument of castigation to a prominent feature of the lady's person. Thus saluted, she quickly turned on her assailant, and immediately there commenced a battle, half earnest and half in joke on the part of the assaulted damsel, amidst a roar of laughter and vociferation.

"That's it, Nanny, gee it him well, gal, for taking de exbantage of you," cried a voice from the women. "At her, Paul! now's your time, lad," shouted the men as the schooner made a lurch, and occasioned Nanny to lose her equilibrium; while her more practised antagonist taking advantage of the moment, put an end to the combat by securing Nanny's arms, and forcibly seating her on the flooring of the boat, imprinting gallantly at the same time, by way of an armistice, a sounding smack on the thick and pouting lips of the half exhausted huckster.

Peace and harmony being shortly after restored, there ensued between the missionary and myself a conversation originating from some inquiries I made of him as to the prospects of Barbados since the altered condition of the negro population by the recent and voluntary act of the Island Legislature, which had surrendered to them the remaining period of their apprenticeship. My informant, a man of about fifty years of age, of unassuming manners, and with a slightly foreign accent, was an intelligent and shrewd observer of the times, apparently divested of the prejudices common to men of his profession, and completely versed on all points relating to the topic on which he spoke. His remarks, given with every demonstration of diligent enquiry and deep reflection, so coincide in many particulars with my own after-observation, that I do not hesitate to introduce them to the notice of such of my readers as may be interested in the affairs and fate of the West India colonies.

"Barbados," said the missionary, "as a productive sugar plantation, may, I think, do well, probably better, than her sister colonies, because every inch of land that is not a bare

and barren rock is already cultivated, and in the possession of private individuals. There are here no wilds, no virgin and unoccupied lands, to which, as is the case in many other parts of the West Indies, the emancipated people can resort to, in their desire for unconditional liberty. They must therefore necessarily be dependent on labour and on their own manual exertions for support; consequently the working and cultivation of the estates will follow, although for a time disturbed and rendered irregular by the new and altered condition of a race of people merging from slavery into freedom, and intoxicated with unenlightened and narrow ideas of liberty, which many of them viewed as an entire cessation from all employment. Nor am I apprehensive of voluntary emigration, that is, emigration not forced by calamitous circumstances, or by utter privation of the necessaries of life, acting detrimentally here; for the negro is very much attached to the place in which he is bred and born, and generally averse to change his services even from one estate to another; and the fact of the very few labourers having as yet emigrated from the island in spite of the inducements