290 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



From St. Lucie, I proceeded to Barbadoes in 

 quest of a conveyance to the island of Trinidad. 



Near Bridgetown, the capital of Barbadoes, I 

 saw the metallic cuckoo, already alluded to. 



Barbadoes is no longer the merry island it was 

 when I visited it some years ago : — 



"Infelix habitum, temporis hujus habet. " 



There is an old song, to the tune of La Belle 

 Catharine, which must evidently have been com- 

 posed in brighter times: — 



"Come let us dance and sing, 

 While Barbadoes bells do ring; 

 Quashi scrapes the fiddle-string, 

 And Venus plays the lute." 



Quashi 's fiddle was silent; and mute was the 

 lute of Venus during my stay in Barbadoes. The 

 difference betwixt the French and British islands 

 was Yerj striking. The first appeared happy and 

 content ; the second were filled with murmurs and 

 complaints. The late proceedings in England, 

 concerning slavery, and the insurrection in Dem- 

 erara, had evidently caused the gloom. The abo- 

 lition of slavery is a question full of benevolence 

 and fine feelings, difficulties and danger: — 



"Tantum ne noceas, dum vis prodesse videto. '* 



It requires consummate prudence, and a vast fund 

 of true information, in order to draw just conclu- 

 sions on this important subject. Phaeton, by awk- 

 ward driving, set the world on fire: "Sylvae cum 

 montibus ardent." Daedalus gave his son a pair 



