Barbados

“ Any evidence of human interest is sternly suppressed in the staid and orderly gathering. They sit like automatons on their scattered chairs and benches, no one ever committing the faux pas of speaking above a whisper. Woe betide the mere American who dares address himself to a stranger, for British snobbery reaches its zenith in Trinidad, and the open-handed hospitality of Barbados is painfully conspicuous by its absence. ”

“ And I saw Barbados, and Grenada, and all the isles that we ever sailed by; and La Guayra in Caracas, and the Silla, and the house beneath it where she lived. And I saw him walking with her on the barbecue, and he loved her then. I saw what I saw; and he loved her; and I say he loves her still.
“Then I saw the cliffs beneath me, and the Gull-rock, and the Shutter, and the Ledge; I saw them, William Cary, and the weeds beneath the merry blue sea. And I saw the grand old galleon, Will; she has righted with the sweeping of the tide. ”

“ Happily for the Barbadians every inch of it will produce canes; and, to the credit of the Barbadians, every inch of it does so. A Barbadian has a right to be proud of this, but it does not make the island interesting. It is the waste land of the world that makes it picturesque. But there is not a rood of waste land in Barbados. It certainly is not the country for a gipsy immigration. ”

“ Barbados is made of coral, but t’other islands are volcanoes, and they’ve a nasty way of going off when you least count upon it. From Carlisle Bay you can see white houses under wooden tiles all scorched grey by the sun heat, and in the streets a great crowd goes up and down in the blazing air and shining dust. ”

“ It may not perhaps be fair to adduce the prosperity of Barbados, and to compare it with the adversity of Jamaica, seeing that local circumstances were advantageous to Barbados at the times of emancipation and equalization of the sugar duties. Barbados was always able to command a plentiful supply of labour. But it is quite fair to compare Jamaica with Guiana or Trinidad. In both these colonies the negro was as well able to shirk his work as in Jamaica. ”

“ Hugh Winston had sailed up the coast every evening for a week, regardless of the wind or state of the sea. He obviously understood the shoreline of Barbados better than anyone on the island. That was one of the reasons she was here. "You sail out every day." ”

“ The great ambition of the Barbadian is to own land. The spirit of loyalty to the island is incredibly strong.
This dense population and intensive cultivation has made the struggle for existence keen in [Pg 146] Barbados. A job is a prize. This has made the Barbadian negro a race apart, hardworking and frugal. Until the building of the Panama Canal, few negroes left their island home. With the help of his newspaper friends, Stuart was able to send to his paper a fairly well-written article on the Barbadian negro. ”

“ It is difficult to see just what will happen to Barbados in the future unless some outlet is found for the Negro population. Already this minute island is the second most densely populated spot in the world—the first being a certain district of China—and there seems no other alternative than for it to populate itself into the sea. ”

“ Comparing the climate of Barbados with that of tropical India, the former has various advantages. To a certain extent it is bracing and exhilarating; the prevailing breeze, as it comes across the Savannah, pleasant to the sensations, so that officers and other persons ride out at all hours of the day, their faces ruddy, themselves to all appearance in robust health. ”

“ The patriotism of the inhabitants, both black and white, is proverbial all over the West Indies. There is no place in the world to equal Barbados—no colony but what has been conquered by the enemy at some time or other. "Little England" was said to have offered an asylum to King George the Third when Buonaparte intended to invade England, and no doubt if such an offer was ever made it was done in all sincerity. Barbadians are proud of their constitution, and jealous of its infringement in the slightest degree. ”

“ The West Indian, on the other hand, settled down permanently with his wife and family in the island of his choice. Barbados and Jamaica are the only two tropical countries under the British flag where there was a resident white gentry born and bred in the country, with country places handed down from father to son. ”

“ An uncouth nurse of a turbulent democracy was Albemarle.
Cape Fear, far down the deeply frayed coast, seemed a proper place to which to send a colony. The intrusive Massachusetts men were gone. But "gentlemen and merchants" of Barbados were interested. It is a far cry from Barbados to the Carolina shore, but so is it a far cry from England. Many royalists had fled to Barbados during the old troubles, so that its English population was considerable. A number may have welcomed the chance to leave their small island for the immense continent ”

“ The first opportunity was from Barbados, from which island I knew I could readily get a passage to St. Vincent. I left Dominica in a small colonial schooner, the Johanna, commanded by a mulatto and manned exclusively by negroes. Our captain knew nothing of navigation, but was in the habit of making this voyage successfully by taking his departure from Point des Salines, in Martinique, and steering direct east, against the trade winds, for a day or two, to clear the islands, and then due south, with a man at the mast-head to look out for Barbados, which is a very high land. ”

“ She was gratified and showed it so in every line of her expressive face that I was more than repaid for my decision.
"You are quite willing?" she said, interrogatively.
"Entirely. Where would you suggest that we stop, Barbados? That is the next port where there is a fairly good hotel."
After a little discussion we settled upon Barbados and began the labor of packing. I sent a boy off to the steamer with a request to the purser to give me [Pg 220] a berth in some other stateroom than the one I previously had, and to reserve Miss May's room for her. ”

“ Let us say what we will, self-respect is a fine quality, and the Barbadians certainly enjoy that. It is a very fine quality, and generally leads to respect from others. They who have nothing to say for themselves will seldom find others to say much for them. I therefore repeat what I said at first. Barbados is a very respectable little island, and considering the limited extent of its acreage, it does make a great deal of sugar.
CHAPTER XIV. TRINIDAD.
No scenery can be more picturesque than that afforded by the entrance to Port of Spain, the chief town in the island of Trinidad. ”

“ Here, as elsewhere through the West Indies, one meets with unbounded hospitality. A man who dines out on Monday will receive probably three invitations for Tuesday, and six for Wednesday. And they entertain very well. That haunch of mutton and turkey which are now the bugbear of the English dinner-giver do not seem to trouble the minds or haunt the tables of West Indian hosts.
And after all, Barbados—little England as it delights to call itself—is and should be respected among islands. It owes no man anything, pays its own way, and never makes a poor mouth. ”

“ ST. VINCENT AND GUADELOUPE Life in Barbados—I am appointed acting-paymaster—President of a court-martial—Deputy judge-advocate—At St. Vincent—Expedition to Guadeloupe—Appointed deputy-assistant quartermaster-general and sent to Guadeloupe
WE had no more mishaps during that voyage, and got safely to Barbados on December 14, 1814. We landed on the following morning, and occupied St. Anne’s barracks, and the same evening dined with the officers of the 80th West India Regiment. None of us had been in the West Indies before, so that everything was new to us. ”

“ In 1854 the withdrawal of imperial troops from the smaller islands caused some apprehension, but the peace of the islands was not really disturbed. He seems to have left a very good impression on the people of Barbados. ”

“ This Iland is famous, for excellent Salt, and for Horses, which in one property, excell all that ever I have seene; their hooves being to that degree of hardnesse, and toughnesse, that we ride them at the Barbados, downe sharp and steepie Rocks, without shooes; and no Goates goe surer upon the sides of Rockes and Hills then they; and many of them very strong and clean limb’d. ”

“ Whether or no my informant was right in saying that the population of Barbados is more dense than that of China, I cannot say; but undoubtedly it is very great; and hence, as the negroes cannot get their living without working, has come the prosperity of the island. The inhabitants are, I believe, very nearly 150,000 in number. This is a greater population than that of the whole of Guiana. The consequence is, that the cane-pieces are cultivated very closely, and that all is done that manual labour can do. ”

“ Barbados, and then we as gradually had obtained the Trade to Northward of the East, running 150 Leagues with it, that is, to Barbados.
Secondly, The reason of Calms, and Rains met in Latitudes between 4°° and 11°° N. (with a little Variation, as the Sun is of this or that side the Equinoctial) is probably from a Contest between the N E. and S E. Trade; but whether the passing them be more favourable far to the Eastward or Westward, I am uncertain. ”

“ The Island Barbados, which was Planted by the English, Anno 1627. lies between thirteen and fourteen Degrees, and hath twenty five Leagues in circumference, and somewhat more in length than breadth, and is supply’d with a fresh-Water River, and several Pools. The Ground being fruitful in the producing of Tobacco, Cotton, Ginger, and especially Sugar, invited many People to Settle there, insomuch that in a short time it could shew twenty thousand Inhabitants besides Negro Slaves.
The Trees which grow on this Island, are not onely delightful, but profitable ”

“ In the early part of the eighteenth century a French missionary, one Father Labat, visited Barbados and gave the most glowing account of it to his countrymen. According to him the island was brimful of wealth, and the jewellers' and silversmiths' shops in Bridgetown rivalled those of Paris. I should be inclined to question Father Labat's strict veracity. This worthy priest declared that the planters lived in sumptuous houses, superbly furnished, that their dinners lasted four hours, and their tables were crowded with gold and silver plate. ”

“ I think the quicker you start for Barbados the better. And as soon as you arrive do your best to locate the rascals and have the authorities arrest them. And above all things, keep your eyes open for the jewels, for we need them much more than we need to catch Merwell and Jasniff. To catch the rascals and miss the gems will do us no good. ”

“ After the failures on the South American coast, the English grasped these outposts of the tropics and, side by side with the French, were soon firmly established across one of the principal highways of Spanish commerce. In 1623 St. Christopher was temporarily occupied and was actually settled in 1625. The same year (1625) Sir William Courten started the first colony in Barbados. In 1627 Lord Carlisle received a grant which covered the Caribbees, and the following year the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery also obtained rights to Trinidad. Tobago, and Barbados. ”

“ The main point, however, on which he laid stress, and which seems to have caused the trouble, was the advantage to the Barbadians of having the other islands so close as to become virtually like their own parishes, so that the surplus population would be able to take up lands that were then useless, and lying waste.
Barbados is densely populated. All the lands are occupied, and it is very difficult to procure even a small lot—this makes the people all the more eager to get possession of a little freehold. ”

“ Sugar is the principal product of the little island of Barbados, and, to grind it, the people have
A windmill used in grinding sugar-cane. built many big windmills, closely resembling those used in Holland. Barbados is near the north coast of South America, and far to the east of all the other islands of the West Indies, where the strong trade-winds sweep in from the Atlantic Ocean, and for many months blow constantly in one direction. The people use these steady winds, and, with many windmills, have harnessed them to do the work of the island. ”

“ A per capita income of $5,250 gives Barbados the highest standard of living of all the small island states of the eastern Caribbean. Historically, the economy was based on the cultivation of sugarcane and related activities. ”

“ On 27 May 1873 he was made governor of the Bahamas, came home on leave on 22 June 1874, and never returned.
In 1875 he received the more important government of the Windward Islands, the seat of which at that time was Barbados. In January 1876 he laid before the legislature his first proposals for an amended administration, tending in the direction of ‘federation’ of the Windward Islands. The Barbadians, always fearful of any tampering with their ancient constitution, formed the Barbados Defence Association, and the planters were soon avowedly hostile to Pope-Hennessy. ”

“ There is no places after Rain more fruitful than the Savannas.
Where the Roots of Trees do not hinder, trial has been made of the Plow, and it has done well for Sugar-Canes, &c. to be planted in.
The Inhabitants of Jamaica are for the most part Europeans, some Creolians, born and bred in the Island Barbados, the Windward Islands, or Surinam, who are the Masters, and Indians, Negros, Mulatos, Alcatrazes, Mestises, Quarterons, &c. who are the Slaves. ”