A LAZY MAN'S PARADISE. 233 



these islands as slaves. Their descendants still 

 form in great part the laboring classes. They <xre 

 a bocrish and rude set, and have profited little 

 from iheir admixture with the gentle and peace- 

 fill F/ench Creole population, except indeed where, 

 us is to a considerable extent the case, a fusion of 

 the two races has taken place. The whites art? 

 still the leading people, and have the commerce 

 of the islands in their hands. They take great 

 pride in the purity of their blood, and look down 

 with no little contempt upon mulattoes and quad- 

 roons, while these in turn despise the woolly- 

 headed descendants of the Madagassy. The 

 whites and those of mixed blood have all the 

 grace and liveliness peculiar to the French char- 

 acter, tempered with a gentleness which renders 

 the men almost feminine in their manners, and 

 makes the women very charming. 



The islands there are thirty in tho group 

 seemed to me the realization of a lazy man's idea 

 of paradise. The constant sea-breeze tempers the 

 heat of the sun, and makes the air slightly invig- 

 orating instead of enervating*. All kinds of trop- 

 ical fruits grow spontaneously, or with the least 

 possible degree of care, in a most generous soil. 

 Shelter is s "arcely needed, and clothing, beyond 

 what decency prescribes, is altogether superfluous. 

 It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if the peo- 

 ple are " doless," and live contentedly a quiet, 

 inactive existence. On many of the smaller 

 islands, so I was informed, bananas, bread-fruit and 



