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THE  TROPICAL  AORlCULTUK  IS'l'. 
[Oct.  I,  1895 
No  ! ud  in  which  to  eat  the  Lotos,  and  gatherfruit 
thai.  one  has  not  shown ; man  and  beast  must  there 
work  their  hardest,  the  struggle  for  existence  is  in  f\ill 
swing.  “ Little  England  ” is 
“ A land  of  settled  government, 
A land  of  just  and  old  renown 
Where  freedom  broadens  slowly  down 
From  precedent  to  precedent.” 
She  may  e’er  long  have  the  problem  before  her  that 
is  pressing  unpleasantly  clo.se  on  Old  England,  what  is 
to  be  done  with  a population  which,  should  industry 
cease  to  pay,  is  superabundant.  It  is  earnestly  to  be 
hoped  the  lea  ling  men  in  the  island  will  endeavour  to 
find  a solution  to  the  question  before  it  is  asked 
by  a starving  population  for  whom  no  work  can  be 
found. 
The  interior  of  the  island  is  decidedly  ugly  and 
monotonous.  In  all  directions  stretch  cane-pieces, 
with  here  and  there,  patches  of  sweet  potatoes,  yams 
or  guinea-corn.  There  are  no  fences ; occasionally 
come  small  clumps  of  mahogany  trees  of  no  great 
size,  or  a line  of  tall,  slender  cabbage-palms  by  a 
road-side,  looking  like  so  many  greeu-iieaded  mops. 
Hardly  a flower  is  to  be  seen,  every  weed  is  turned 
up  and  hoed  into  the  fields  as  manure.  In  one  cane- 
piece  we  saw  a white  overseer,  mounted  on  a sorry 
nag,  superintending  a gang  of  negroes.  He  wore  a 
mask  over  the  lower  part  of  his  face.  We  inquired 
the  reason,  and  were  informed  that  it  is  “ the 
custom  in  the  island,”  a custom  which  has  probably 
arisen  from  the  fact  that  when  white  people  work  in 
the  fields  exposed  to  the  sun,  their  lips  are  apt  to 
blister,  and  after  a time  to  fall  away  from  the  teeth, 
the  face  becoming  scarred  as  if  from  a burn.  The 
manual  labour  on  the  estates  is  all  done  by  negroes. 
They  are  divided  into  three  gangs.  The  first  coii.sist 
of  able  bodied  men  who  each  receive  lOd  a day  ; the 
second  gang  is  composed  of  women  who  are  paid  8d 
or  9d  a day;  in  the  third  gang  are  all  the  children 
who  do  light  work  such  as  weeding,  for  which  they 
are  paid  8d  to  Cd  a head.  These  wages  are  not 
— accordingly  to  ideas  in  England,  they  are 
ridiculously  low, — but  as  things  are  in  the  tropics, 
they  are  sufficient  to  enable  the  negroes  to  live,  to 
multiply  contentedly,  and  though  many  of  them 
would  gain  double  or  treble  if  they  would  emigrate 
to  the  other  islands,  their  devotion  to  Barbados  is 
like  that  of  the  Irish  to  Ireland  previous  to  1848, 
and  they  will  not  consent  to  seed;  work  elsewhere.  If 
the  life  of  the  labourer  in  Baibados  is  one  of  effort,  that 
of  the  animals  on  the  estate.s,  must  be  one  of  nearly 
constant  suffering,  for  all  we  saw  looked  more  than 
half-starved.  It  was  pitiful  to  see  the  small  stunted 
oxen,  looking  almost  like  anatomical  specimens,  toiling 
painfully,  many  of  them  lame,  dragging  their  heavy 
loads  through  the  cane-pieces.  When  the  weary  work 
is  over  there  are  no  refreshing  pastures  into  which  to 
turn  them,  only  pens  (in  the  English  not  the  Jamai- 
can sense)  in  ploughed  up  fields,  where  cane  tops  are 
flung  to  them  as  scanty  nourishment.  We  passed 
some  of  the  old  estate  “ Great  Houses,”  two  storied 
and  substantially  built.  They  had  no  gardens,  the 
canes  came  close  under  the  windows,  an  1 the  “ works  ” 
were  hard  by . 
It  was  not  till  we  reached  the  south.:;in  shore  that 
we  realized  that  Barbados  has  a claim  to  her  share 
of  the  heritage  of  beauty  that  is  the  birthright  of 
the  West  Indies.  The  coast-line  rose  so  as  to  form 
cliffs  of  a considerable  height,  the  d.izzling  white 
surf  beating  on  a creamy  coral  strand  at  their  feet, 
head-land  stretched  beyond  head-land  till  they  melted 
away  in  the  blue  hazy  distance.  The  glossy  foliage 
of  manchioneel  trees  growing  luxuriantly  on  the 
shore  • the  green  picturesque  forms  and  beautiful 
colour’s  of  the  sca-grapes  that  stretched  their  fine 
boughs  towards  the  waves,  as  if  to  invigorate  their 
copimr-coloured  and  red-veined  green  leaves  in  the 
refreshing  spray;  while  high  over  them  toweied  the 
coconut  palms,  giving  a tropical  look  to  the  scenery 
that  hitheito  has  been  absent.  An  oily  .substanec 
was  pointed  out  hi  us  floating  on  the  waves;  this 
was  iietiolcum.  ™io  rocks  along  the  coast  are  coated 
with  it,  as  it  trickles  down  the  cliffs.  The  hill  form- 
ing one  of  the  highest  of  these  clitfs  still  bears  the 
name  of  Burnt  Hill;  its  baked  red  earth  is  some- 
times brought  into  Bridgetown  and  used  for  making 
walks  and  paths.  This  hill  is  said  to  have  been 
found  burning  by  the  early  English  settlers,  and  so 
remained  till  it  burnt  itself  out.  The  tradition  is 
that  it  was  set  on  fire  by  the  Caribs,  possibly  by 
those  who  came  hog-hunting  from  St.  Vincent.  At 
present  no  attempt  is  made  to  work  the  petroleum, 
which  perhaps  may  ultimately  prove  a much-needed 
second  string  to  the  Barbadian  bow. 
We  got  out  of  the  train — which  literally  drew  up 
at  the  door  of  a sea-side  lodge  cal'cd  “ Quamine’s.” 
Long  ago  an  old  freed  slave  called  Quamine  had 
built  a shanty  there,  and  his  name  is  kept  green 
by  the  present  comfortable  little  fishing  lodge.  The 
coast  abounds  in  fi.-h  of  all  sorts  and  hues.  There 
was  a stage  in  the  surf  on  which  a fi.sher  could  sit 
at  ease  and  fish  in  a deep  pool  beyo  d it  for  grunt, 
snapper,  parrot  fish,  mullet ; and  fish  of  unknown 
names,  wonderful  shapes  and  indescribably  vivid  and 
beautiful  colours.  Outside  the  coral  reef,  in  the  deep 
ocean,  is  where  the  flying-flsh  are  taken.  To  cap- 
ture these  the  sea  has  to  be  “scented”  with  the 
previous  day’s  catch,  then  a line  is  thrown  out  by 
a fisherman  and  as  soon  as  he  has  hooked  a flying- 
fish,  it  is  fastened  through  a small  aperture  in  the 
bottom  of  a shallow  net  some  throe  or  four  feet  in 
diameter.  This  is  placed  alongside  the  boat  and  in 
come  the  fish  rushing  headlong  after  their  companion, 
and  are  forthwith  ladled  into  the  boat.  Flying-fish 
are  rather  dry,  but  taste  somewhat  like  smelts,  the 
roes  fried  is  a favourite  dish  with  Barbadian  epi- 
cures. As  we  walked  down  to  the  beach  we  passed 
a group  of  copper-coloured  men  and  stopped  to  speak 
to  them.  They  belonged  to  the  class  known  in  the 
island  as  “ Red-legs.”  'Though  almost  resembling 
Red  Indians  in  coloui-,  they  arc  white  men  l)y  race 
and  have  not  mixed  with  the  coloured  population. 
The  fierce  sun  of  the  tropics  has  burnt  them  to 
the  hue  of  bricks,  but  the  young  children  are  quite 
fair-skinned.  'They  are  the  poorest  of  the  poor,  eking 
out  a scanty  livelihood  as  fishermen ; the  white 
race  cannot  do  hard  work  in  the  fields  and  survive 
long,  they  have  no  land  or  means  of  obtaining  any, 
consequently  their  only  resource  is  fishing.  The  name 
“ Red-legs”  is  said  to  have  originated  in  Cromwell’s 
time,  when  his  English  soldiers  seeing  northern  men 
advancing  against  them  clad  in  kilts,  called  out  in 
derision  “Here  come  the  Red-legs.”  * * » * 
The  possibilities  that  surround  the  ancestors  of 
the  “ Red-legs  ” invest  the  poor  people  with  a par- 
ticular interest,  though  of  course,  the  origin  of  many 
of  them  may  be  anything  but  romantic  as  now-a-days 
the  white  fishermen  arc  all  called  “ Red-legs.”  Those 
w’o  saw  had  Scotch  names  and  all  they  knew  of  their 
history  was  that  their  ancestors  had  come  from 
Scotland.  'They  wore  tall,  well-made  men,  but  they 
appeared  dull  and  spiritless,  and  I was  struck  l)y  the 
listless  and  cr.amped  expression  of  their  countenances. 
They  seemed  men  who  had  small  interest  ’’n  their 
surroundings,  and  little  hope  in  life. 
Our  day  in  Barbados  w-as  drawing  to  a close.  It 
was  time  to  return  to  catch  the  steamer,  so  wc  turned 
with  regret  from  a search  on  the  tempting  beach  for 
the  tiny  green  shells  found  there  sometimes  in  abun- 
dance and  took  our  places  in  the  funny  little  train, 
the  lines  of  which  curve  along  often  in  un[)leasantly 
close  proximity  to  the  edge  of  the  cliffs.  On  our 
way  back  we  noticed  a large  building  surrounded  by 
a wall.  It  was  the  prison.  'This  stands  in  a district 
called  St.  Michael’s,  most  probably  what  was  the 
St.  Michael’s  Town  of  former  days. 
Our  ship  was  just  ready  to  get  under  weigh,  as 
we  went  on  board.  'The  tropic  sun  was  sinking 
serenely  into  its  ocean  bed,  .and  as  we  steamed 
westwards  to  the  far  more  lovely  island  of  our  des- 
tination and  watched  “Little  England”  fading  away 
in  the  distance,  \ve  heartily  wished  it  “ good-hiek,” 
an  1 felt  wo  should  always  retain  n feeling  of  interest 
in  the  fortunes  for  “weal  or  woo”  of  the  i-iland 
whoso  soil  has  a certain  sacrodness  on  account  of 
the  suflcrings-  and  surviving  of  so  many  of  our 
countrymen  wlio  toiled  and  pined  and  died  in  “ Far 
Barbados  on  the  Western  Main.” 
