526 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[May, 



Cumana, with their summits lost in the clouds ; on 

 the left the immense precipices of Trinidad covered 

 to the extremest height with gigantic trees which 

 seemed to swim in the middle ether; the margin 

 fringed with the evergreen mangroves, which were 

 hanging with their branches bathed in the water, 

 and they themselves rising out of the midst of 

 the soft waves ; behind us the four mouths of the 

 Dragon of Columbus, with the verdant craggy isles 

 between them ; before us the Port of Spain with its 

 beautiful churches, the great Savana, and the 

 closing hills of Montserrat. Meanwhile the Eden 

 gracefully bent beneath the freshening wind (no 

 other ship should ever sail on this lake of Paradise) ; 

 the long dark canoes glanced by us with their white 

 sails almost kissing the sea ; and enormous whales 

 ever and anon lifted their monstrous bodies quite 

 out of the water in strange gambols, aud falling 

 down created* tempest around them, and shot up 

 columns of siver foam. 



There are some dozens of descriptions 

 similar, and most of tliem carefully com- 

 posed ; though we suspect that tlie author 

 wishes his readers to think tliera written 

 currents calamo. 



Our author left England with the hope 

 of leaving behind him, in a state of fusion, 

 " rheumatism proper, rheumatic gout, gout 

 proper, and (or) an affection of the spinous 

 process:" — in this he succeeded so com- 

 pletely, that we seriously recommend a 

 trip across the Atlantic, and a course of 

 fusion in the Antilles, for all diseases of a 

 similar nature. It might certiiinly be " kill 

 or cure ;" but who wishes to live with the 

 rheumatics sticking to him as close as the 

 man of the sea did to poor Sinbad? 



The remarks on " planters and slaves" 

 are very acute, manly, and sensible; and 

 though the author does not expect by the 

 remarks to gain the favour of cither party, 

 we think he will not by any means lose 

 the esteem of the considerate and liberal 

 minded. 



The following quotation cannot fail to 

 please. 



I would not sell my birthright for a mess of 

 pottage, yet if my birthright were taken from me, 

 I would fain have the pottage left. So I scorn with 

 an English scorn the Creole thought that the West- 

 Indian slaves are better off than the poor peasantry 

 of Britain; they are not better off, nothing like it; 

 an English labourer with one shirt is worth, body 

 anrl soul, ten negro slaves, choose them where you 

 will. But it is nevertheless a certain truth that the 

 slaves in general do labour much less, do eat and 

 drink much more, have much more ready money, 

 dress much more gaily, and are treated with more 

 kindness and attention, when sick, than nine-tenths 

 of all the people of Great Britain under the con- 

 dition of tradesmen, farmers, and domestic servants. 

 It does not enter into my h"Ad to speak of these 

 things as constituting an eqaivalent, much less a 

 pomt of superiority, to the hardest shape of English 

 freedom ; but it seems to me that, where English 

 freedom is not and cannot be, these things may 

 amount to a very consolatory substitute for it. I 

 suspect that if it were generally known that 

 the slaves ate, drank, and slept well, and were be- 

 yond all comparison a gayer, smarter, and more 

 familiar race than the poor of this kmgdom, the 



circumstances of their labour being compulsory, 

 and In some measure of their receiving no wages for 

 It, would not very painfully affect the sympathies of 

 the ladies and gentlemen of the African Institution 

 and the Anti-Slavery Society. I say, in some mea- 

 sure the slaves receive no wages, because no money 

 is paid to them on that score, but they possess ad- 

 vantages which the ordinary wages of labour In 

 England doubled could not purch.%se. The slaves 

 are so well aware of the comforts which they enjoy 

 under a master's purveyance, that they not unfre- 

 quently forego freedom rather than be deprived of 

 them. A slave beyond the prime of life will hesitate 

 to accept manumission. Many negroes in Barba- 

 does, Grenada, and Antigua have refused freedom 

 when offered to them ; " What for me want free i 

 Me have good massa, good country, plenty to eat, 

 and when me sick, massa's doctor physic me; me no 

 want free, no not at all." 



The rheumatic irritations which are now 

 and then very obvious in some of the chap- 

 ters ; the goutw'ith which the gastronomies are 

 treated; and the whimsical, but very harm- 

 less observations on all he meets in so- 

 cieties — from the able governor of Trinidad 

 to the owner of the "topsail schooner;" 

 render this a very amusing publication, ex- 

 cepting to those who like historical mag- 

 niloquence in a diary, or expect the gravity 

 of a bishop in his facetious and youthful 

 relative. 



Miscellaneous Pieces in Rhyme. By Ju- 

 nius. — Mr. Junius in his advertisement 

 says — 



Of the opinion of the critic (unless as it may 

 affect the circulation) I am careless. I once thought 

 dymg without a name to be indeed " doubly dying." 

 But I thank God it is now my desire that no human 

 record should be burthened with mine. 



We think the author quite right in being 

 careless of a critic's opinion, unless he sup- 

 ports his praise or blame by quotations 

 whichleave no room for doubt in the reader's 

 mind. Criticism written with gentlemanly 

 feelings is always worthy of an author's no- 

 tice. His friends are seldom candid enough, 

 if they are capable, to tell him of his errors; 

 his enemies, or rather those who tlo not 

 like him, condemn without consideration ; 

 and the mass of readers are much more 

 ready to join in the cry of condemnation 

 than in that of praise ; it is only from the 

 disinterested and unknowii critic that truth 

 is likely to be heard — we condemn its being 

 told in harsh terms when the writer intends 

 no evil. The remainder of this advertise- 

 ment is hardly intelligible to us, and seems to 

 pronounce an anathema on all those who do 

 not pass a favourable opinion of the work. 

 We shall be among the latter number, for 

 we condemn the poetry from the first page 

 to the last, and are quite certain that the 

 writer's wish will be fulfilled of " no hu- 

 man record being burthened with his name," 

 if it depends on this production ; he will 

 never be able to say " Stat nominis um- 

 bra." . - ' 



Let the reader judge from the following j 

 extracts: — i 



