314 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



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

 which must evidently have been composed 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 very 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 

 Demerara, had evidently caused the gloom. The abolition 

 of slavery is a question full of benevolence and fine 

 feelings, difficulties and danger : 



" Tautura ne noceas, dum vis prodesse videto." 



It requires consummate prudence, and a vast fund of true 

 information, in order to draw just conclusions on this 

 important subject. Phaeton, by awkward driving, set the 

 world on fire : " Sylvye cum montibus ardent." Daedalus 

 gave his son a pair of wings without considering the con- 

 sequence ; the boy flew out of all bounds, lost his wings, 

 and tumbled into the sea : 



"Icarus, Icariis nomina fecit aquis." 



When the old man saw what had happened, he damned his 

 own handicraft in wing-making ; " devovitque suas artes." 

 Prudence is a cardinal virtue : 



" Omnia consulta mente gerenda tegens." 



Foresight is half the battle. " Hombre apercebido, medio 

 combatido," says Don Quixote, or Sancho, I do not 



