96 TlMEHRI. 
of the working bees of the Island. He was to see what 
could really be done in Dominica by an English gentle- 
man who had gone the right way to work there (p. 164). 
Dr. ALFORD NlCHOLLS, a gentleman who does not trust 
to the local Council to grow his crops, or to the Colonial 
Office to give him good prices, sent Mr. FROUDE "an iri- 
" vitation to call on him and see what he was about." 
It is observable that Mr. FROUDE, who came out to study 
the condition of men and things in the West Indies, did 
not seek this opportunity — it was thrust upon him. He 
says, however, that he was delighted to avail himself of 
it. He found a small plantation in a high state of culti- 
vation, producing mainly limes and Liberian coffee. Dr. 
NlCHOLLS had every hope of profit from the produce. Mr. 
FROUDE thus records the experience of Dr. NlCHOLLS on 
the labour question : — 
" In apparent contradiction to the general West Indian 
" experience, he told me that he had never found a diffi- 
" culty about it. He paid them fair wages, and paid 
" them regularly without the overseer's fines and draw- 
" backs. He knew one from the other personally, could 
" call each by his name, remembered where he came from, 
" where he lived, and how, and could joke with him about 
" his wife or mistress. They in consequence clung to 
" him with an innocent affection, stayed with him all the 
" week without asking for holidays, and worked with 
" interest and good-will. Four years only had elapsed 
" since Dr. NlCHOLLS commenced his undertakings, and 
" he already saw his way to clearing a thousand pounds 
" a year on that one small patch of acres. I may mention 
" that, being the only man in the island of really superior 
11 attainments, he had tried in vain to win one of the seats 
