BARBADOS-ANTIGUA EXPEDITION 131 
other islands. It strikes a stranger that, in spite of this (pos- 
sibly because of it), there is a good deal of contentment and 
little actual want. 
Nearly all are poor according to our standards, but they have 
an air of self-reliance not usually encountered in the other 
islands. Many of them look one straight in the eye and there 
is little cringing to the white man. They have the reputation of 
being better workers than the people in the rest of the West 
Indies, and they have to be that to live. 
It seems strange to see women at work repairing the streets 
of Bridgetown and on the plantations; but they look strong, are 
often buxom and full breasted. The universal habit of carrying 
things on their heads has made them straight, well balanced 
and graceful in their carriage. They bear not only heavy loads 
in this way, but even small things that with us would be carried 
in the hands. For instance, one often sees a woman carrying 
a bottle balanced on her head, but I never saw anything fall. 
One of these women would never think of carrying a bucket of © 
water in any other way than on the head, and ordinarily the 
hands are not used to steady the load. Little children are often 
seen with full buckets on their heads much too heavy for them 
to lift into position. This is done by someone else and then 
they trot along quite contentedly. All of the women wear a 
turban or some kind of head-cloth, whether they are carrying 
anything or not. We hardly saw an uncovered head out of 
doors during our stay. 
The people constantly talk and often seem to be quarreling, 
but we had difficulty in understanding them when conversing 
with each other. When they spoke to us, however, their lan- 
guage was well chosen and much better English than we ordi- 
narily hear among the negroes of the southern states. Although 
wages are pitifully low according to our ideas, these people are 
seldom badly treated by the whites, so far as we could see... In- 
deed, we were given to understand that it is a serious offence 
to strike a black man and sure to be punished severely. This 
may account for their fearless demeanor. As before indicated, 
even the servants have servants; and they seem to be in a more 
unfortunate position than the servants of white people, for they 
can be and are whipped apparently ad libitum. 
