7 6 



and, like the feudal lords of ftill more ancient; 

 ftates, aiTume a confequence, I might aimed 

 fay claim hereditary rank and privilege from 

 priority of eftabliihment. This fenfe of dif- 

 tin&ion is flrongly rnanifefted in the fenti- 

 ment conveyed by the vulgar expreffion fo 

 common in the ifland— " neither Charib, nor 

 Creole, but true Barbadian," and which is 

 participated even by the flaves, who proudly 

 arrogate a fuperiority above the negroes of 

 the other iflands ! Alk one of them if he was 

 imported, or is a Creole, and he immediately 

 replies — " Me neder Chrab, nor Creole, Maffa f 

 —me troo Barbadian born" 



Perhaps the late decline of this ifland 

 may be ftili lefs the efFe£i of exhauftion of the 

 foil, than of the extenfive emigration, and the 

 diverfion of commerce confequent on the cul- 

 tivation of new iflands and colonies, In the 

 early period of its culture Barbadoes yield- 

 ed a produce, and gave rife to an extent of 

 commerce, not known in any other ifland, and 

 its population increafed to a degree, perhaps 

 unprecedented in any part of the globe. With- 

 in the firft fifty years the trade of the ifland 

 had become fufficient to employ four hundred 



