52 TRINIDAD. 



7,000,000 of African-descended slaves. Past experience, how- 

 ever, has proved that negro emancipation has failed, whenever 

 abandoned to its own working, and unaided by the interference 

 of the white man. 



The fate of the white and the black man is intimately con- 

 nected, and in these colonies where slavery no longer exists 

 they must rise or fall together. Highly mistaken are those who 

 think that the emancipated Africans are able to carve out their 

 onward destinies by their own unaided efforts, and that the presence 

 of the white man on the same spot with them is an obstacle to 

 their own advancement. Even were the African far superior to 

 the European, he could never progress, if once left to his own 

 lax energies ; it would be to him an utter impossibility, simply 

 because, possessing but the vis inertice, he absolutely requires an 

 external impetus. 



The Greeks one of the most intellectual branches of the 

 Caucasian race have been liberated from Turkish bondage for 

 the last twenty years ; they are everywhere pressed on by 

 civilisation, and encouraged by the recollection of past glory ; 

 and yet they are advancing but tardily in the march of im- 

 provement. 



The States are not, however, the only source from whence we may 

 obtain a supply of labour. The vast and overcrowded peninsula of 

 India teems with an intelligent, mild, and industrious population ; 

 but that population is crushed under the tyranny of castes, and is, in 

 its native condition, most miserable. The Hindoo race is a branch of 

 the great Caucasian stock ; and the coolies, who have been brought 

 to the Mauritius, Trinidad, and Demerara, have been instru- 

 mental in saving those valuable possessions from ruin : they have 

 proved a steady, intelligent, and industrious class ; and, so far as 

 my personal opinion is concerned, I would say they are preferable 

 to all other immigrants inasmuch as they have little to learn, and 

 nothing to forget or forgive. It is, however, impossible that the 

 system adopted with regard to Indian immigration should be per- 

 severed in : we cannot any longer afford to send back the immi- 

 grant to his country after five, or even seven years of industrial 

 residence. Once transferred to this Archipelago, he must either 

 remain therein, or take his return passage at his own expense : let 

 him understand this clearly before embarking from his native 

 shores. Why that condition was imposed upon us I am at a loss 

 to understand. Is it because the coolie is better off in his own 

 country ? No reliable reports speak to the contrary. Is it that 

 his labour is more profitable there than it can be rendered here ? 

 But here a coolie produces, in the shape of sugar, much more 

 than he can produce in India. And are there not millions of 

 people in his own country who are kept under such servile and 

 galling degradation, through the prejudices of caste, as absolutely 



