3ist January, A. D. 1895. 



ESSAY 



BY 



Mrs. a. E. HENDERSON, Worcester, Mass. 

 Theme : — Incidents of Foreign Travel* 



While our fair land is wrapped in the white blanket of winter, and 

 our rivers are silent beneath their icy sheets, let us turn our faces 

 southward to a land of perpetual fruit and flowers. 



Amid a world of waters, the beautiful island of Barbadoes appears, 

 green with the growiug sugar-cane and dotted with windmills. 



How lovely it appears to our eyes which so long have looked upon 

 ice and snow ! We sweep into the harbor of Bridgetown and anchor 

 amid a fleet of whaling-ships which chance to be lying here. Imme- 

 diately we are surrounded by small boats, whose black occupants 

 clamber on board in such numbers that I retreat into the cabin and 

 gaze through the windows, astonished at such audacity. When ordered 

 to leave by the officers, they express their determination to remain. 

 There being ten to one of the crew, it was useless to make any dis- 

 turbance with them. Each one was clamorous for the chance of car- 

 rying some one ashore in his boat. As in the case of certain adver- 

 tisements for help, the supply was more than equal to the demand. 

 We were told afterwards that they actually drowned one poor passen- 

 ger. He wished to go on shore and got into one of their boats, but 

 another boatman claimed him and pulled him into his boat, and still 

 another claimed him, until the poor man lost his life. Before I went 

 to Barbadoes, I was a strong abolitionist, but I found myself waver- 

 ing somewhat when the black natives took possession of our floating 

 home, and disregarded all authority. Finally the harbor-police boat 

 appeared in sight, together with the crew from one of the whale-ships, 

 and we got rid of our unpleasant visitors. 



It is only the newly arrived ship that is troubled with them. Bar- 

 badoes is one of the most important of the British possessions in the 



* A. D. 1869—70. 



