234 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



fortably ; two cents per day, I have heard it stated, 

 will keep them in fish — the only article the poorest 

 of them buy- In the mountains they have their pro- 

 vision-grounds, where they cultivate yams, plantains, 

 sweet potatoes, cassava, and bananas, and to which 

 they devote every Saturday. Sunday, with them, is 

 a day of recreation. Thus the estates get from their 

 laborers but five half-worked days in a week. To the 

 staple article of salt fish there should be added another 

 which they purchase when impossible to be obtained 

 otherwise — the native rum of the island, which is 

 their stay and strength. 



The Coolies are even more frugal than the negroes, 

 and soon acquire money enough to purchase goats and 

 cattle, which they pasture in some obscure corner of 

 the estate. Upon the expiration of their indentures, 

 they flock at once to the towns, where, like the 

 Portuguese, they set up small shops — proving in the 

 end rather a detriment to the island than a benefit. 

 Though by the terms of their contracts they are 

 obliged to work six days in the week, none of them 

 do, appropriating to themselves Saturday as a holiday. 



The labor question does not fall within the scope of 

 this book, and I fear I have trenched upon ground I 

 should not ; but these remarks were suggested by see- 

 ing my friend of Rutland Vale trying to persuade his 

 own hired laborers to go into the field. Even after 

 himself and his overseer had led the refractory Indian 

 to the field and placed a hoe in his hand, he refused 

 to work. It is between such fires as these that the 

 planter is placed ; and it is time some champion of 

 their interests should appear, to place them in a proper 

 light before the world. 



