SETTLEMENTS ON" THE DEMERARY, &C. 43 



of tliese cruizing players : such simple compositions would better 

 suit tlie rude state of their dramatic system, than the complex 

 works of English art and refinement. In the French islands, 

 negro performers have been enlisted to take parts in the mari- 

 time companies ; but there are few Moorish characters on our 

 stage, except Othello, Juba, and Oronoko, which they could 

 personate with propriety. In an illiterate community, which 

 can only learn through the ear, the drama is an important en- 

 gine of instruction, and might be rendered essentially condu- 

 cive to historic and moral information, and even to the civili- 

 zation of the vulgar and undisciplined. 



When an European arrives in the West Indies, and gets set- 

 tled or set down for any length of time, he finds it necessary 

 to provide himself with a housekeeper, or mistress. The 

 choice he has an opportunity of making is various, a black, a 

 tawney, a mulatto, or a mestee ; one of which can be pur?, 

 chased for lOOl. or 150l. sterling, fully competent to fulfil all 

 the duties of her station : some of them are so much edu- 

 cated as to be able to read and write. They are tasty and 

 extravagant in their dress; but when once an attachment 

 takes place it is inviolable. The strictest scrutiny of their 

 conduct in general cannot glean one particle of impropriety, 

 by which their fidelity or constancy can be brought into 

 question. They embrace all the duties of a wife, except pre- 

 siding at table; so far decorum is maintained, and a distinc- 



G 2 



