220 
DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap.XIII.-B.P. 
guessed “ she just would, as she had sot and sot till 
she’d nigh tuk root.” This lady replied with great 
dignity that she had not made up her mind. I con¬ 
fess myself considerably startled at this apparition 
of a haughty washerwoman ; but the lady mistaking, 
no doubt, the emotion which I could not but show on 
my countenance for a softer feeling, relented, and I 
was permitted to encircle her taper waist and join the 
giddy throng. Some feeling of resentment, however, 
seemed to linger in her mind; for resting a while, 
and venturing to make some polite remark, I received 
snubbing number two, in the following words : “I 
come here to dance, Sar; I no come to tark.” 
This was enough for me; and with a practical know¬ 
ledge of a real live Jamaica “Dignity,” I sallied out 
into the open air, and wended my way on board, fully 
convinced that I should be proof against sea-sickness 
for some time to come, and that, however easy it might 
be to turn my heart, it would be impossible to turn 
my stomach. 
Good-bye, Jamaica! You are indeed a lovely is¬ 
land, possessing a fertile soil, splendid scenery, and 
a climate either tropical or temperate, according 
to taste: but you are under a curse. The minds of 
your leading men are lying fallow, and fast stagnat¬ 
ing, caused by the undeserved ruin brought upon 
them. Your body corporate is rotten to the core, 
whilst your thews and sinew's, the negroes, are worse 
than useless: the men ignorant, brutal, and slothful; 
the women degraded to an extent unequalled in any 
part of the world, except in the neighbouring island 
