'July.] 



ST. NICHOLAS. 



261 



During my interior excursion I strolled into the very heart of the 

 country, where I saw the wretched negroes watching the plantations 

 of their unfeeling oppressors, and tending a few cows and sheep. 

 They received me with a civility bordering on servility, and in return 

 I bought some fruit and vegetables of them, with part of their poultry 

 and all the eggs they had to dispose of. Their huts are of very simple 

 construction, and still more simply furnished. The females of the 

 household have a recess for their use, enclosed with the branches of 

 the date-tree. Their bedsteads are constructed by driving four up- 

 right stakes into the clay floor, to which are attached transverse sticks 

 for the bottom, the whole covered with a mat or blanket. A large 

 wooden box also serves the double purpose of a table and couch. 

 The rest of the furniture consists of a wooden mortar to pound their 

 Indian corn, a clay pot to boil it in, some gourds for holding milk and 

 water, and a few wooden spoons. This is a complete inventory of 

 their domestic utensils. 



Every domicil, however, can boast of at least two musical instru- 

 ments, a fact that would be quoted as a strong symptom of luxury in 

 the family of a New-England farmer. Music, it seems, can alleviate 

 even the pangs caused by the galling fetters of slavery. The discordant 

 clanking of their chains can be occasionally lost in the animating roll 

 of the " doubling drum," accompanied by the lively tones of the guitar. 

 Each of these instruments is found in the hut of every slave. The 

 former is made of a hollow log, covered with a kind of parchment of 

 their own make ; and the latter is a rude sort of lyre with only three 

 strings. But rude as these instruments are, they possess the magical 

 power of charming the sable hearer into a total forgetfulness of his 

 degradation and his sorrows. In dancing to their animating sounds 

 he forgets that he is a slave, and is happier far than the heartless op- 

 pressor who lives in idleness by the sweat of the negro's face. It is 

 thus that " Heaven tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," and pours 

 consolation into the bitterest cup of human misery. 



From the little opportunity I had of making observations and inqui- 

 ries, I should infer that the island of St. Nicholas is not over-abundantly 

 supplied with birds, either as to species or numbers. We saw several 

 large birds of prey, one of which was a fishing eagle common to all 

 these islands ; another was ash-coloured, of a large size, seen only on 

 shore ; and a third, which I shot on shore, nearly resembled the spar- 

 row-hawk. The small birds, of which I shot specimens, were the 

 following : a fine kingfisher, a common quail, a sparrow nearly resem- 

 bling the American, a bird similar to the English lark, and a small 

 singing-bird of unknown species. I also saw guinea-fowl, but they 

 were too wild to be shot. 



The waters in the bays on every side of this island abound with 

 fish, which may be caught with seines in almost " miraculous draughts." 

 I saw nine species of fish that are common at this island, viz. black- 

 fish, gray mullet, skipjacks, bonatoes, porgy, the young white shark, 

 a kind of rock cod, and a fish that is not common in this country, of a 

 large size, between the drum-fish and the streaked bass. Although the 

 inhabitants are the most rigid Catholics, they seem to make fish a very 



