« Changes on Sugar Estates." 215 



The villagers suffered very much, and I have known it 

 easier to get a glass of beer in a manager's or overseers' 

 house than a glass of water. Estates often could not 

 grind unless they tapped the admiral, that is, took in salt 

 water in their navigable trenches, and I very much doubt 

 if those estates that had to do it ever recovered from the 

 evil effe6ls caused by it. How changed this is now ! 

 The letters in the newspapers from the late Mr. RusSELL, 

 and Mr. Robert Smith of the Ogle, may well be re- 

 membered, leading to such results as they did, and the 

 Sugar King, with his characteristic pluck, started on his 

 own hook to give the estates in his charge on the West 

 Coast a water supply. This was taken up by others in 

 charge of the other estates on the Coast, inclusive of 

 Versailles, and it seems as if a good Providence be- 

 friended them, for in 1885 we had such a drought that 

 estates' authorities were only too glad to get work for 

 their people to do ; and the West Coast Water Supply 

 became an accomplished fa6l. I shall never forget the 

 morning that the stop-off at the mouth of the Service 

 Canal was cut. Hague was one of the first estates that 

 got a proper run, and we let it down to the very front 

 of the estate, to allow the villagers to get water to 

 drink ; our punts up to then were engaged in bringing 

 water from up the river, for the people on the estate to 

 cook with and to drink. Mr. PiTMAN, who was riding 

 with me, and whose usual liberality had assisted as far 

 as practicable in giving the villagers some of this water, 

 was equally amused with me at a scene that occurred. 

 As the water ran down the trenches, thousands of the 

 villagers flocked to get it, and many were the blessings 

 we received. A mule was on the dam, and as we passed, 



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