34 
TEIXIDAD. 
waifs who have sunk very low in their lives before- 
they liiid tlieir way into the hands of the shipping agent. 
Some of these, however, make very good house servants, 
as hutlers and cooks, and some of them turn out good 
grooms. One would have thought beforehand, from 
hearing the Bengali and the Tamil spoken, that the 
former Avould show much greater aptness in learning 
English than the latter, but it is not so. The Tamil- 
speaking Coolies speak l^nglish very readily, and con- 
sidering all things, very correctly. The Bengalis, on the- 
other hand, seldom attempt to speak English, except by 
translating into their own idiom, and using their own 
syntax. Ghora lahi is “ Horse bring him,” and “ Horse 
bring him,” accordingly we say in speaking to a Bengali. 
In reference to immigration, much might be said ; a 
few Avords, however, is all I think it necessary to say in 
these pages. Immigration, however it may be regarded, 
Avas simply a necessity to Trinidad and some other cane- 
growing, sugar-making countries. Without imj)orted 
labour, Trinidad must have been given up to the groAvth 
of its OAA'ii luxuriant climate. Had not indented labourers 
been brought into the island under agreement, to AA’ork 
for a stated time, for a stated and moderate sum, the 
estates iiiust haA'e been abandoned ; for depending upon 
the labour of tlie emancipated classes, the estates Avere, 
it is true, making sugar, but at a ruinous cost, from the 
high rate of A\’ages Avhich it Awas necessary to pay for 
labour, as othenvise none could be obtained. Immigra- 
tion Avas a Avise, and the only plan that could be re- 
sorted to under the circumstances. And well Avas it for 
the West Indies that the East Indies teemed Avith an. 
OA'erlloAving population. 
Hoav, though immigrant labour is cheaper than AA-as the 
labour obtained before its introduction, yet it is not a very 
cheap kind of labour : not that it might not have been 
so from the first, and not that it may not become so in 
the end, but because partly of extravagance on the part 
of those Avho Avere employed to carry it out, and partly 
