282 DOTTING S ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. XVII.— B.p, 
King, I am bound to say that.our welcome was not 
a whit less hearty. First we visited the schoolroom, 
which was a model of cleanliness, order, and discipline, 
and yet I did not notice the stocks with which one is 
so familiar in Spanish-American republics, nor remark 
any coercive mode of treatment whatever; the manner 
of instilling education seemed to be rather by means 
of a general loving-kindness on the part of the teachers. 
The education imparted hardly soared above that 
learned at a dame school in England, but it was ad¬ 
mirably adapted to the capacity of its recipients; the 
aim of the teacher was to fill the mental gap of each 
youthful aspirant, and nothing more; hence the pupils 
as a body did great credit, not only to themselves, but 
to their masters,—the stupid youth and the clever one 
alike may be compared to a tank supplied with a self¬ 
acting stopcock, neither the one nor the other can 
overrun. All the children are taught English as their 
mother-tongue, and this is the only point upon which 
any fault can be found, the fact being that the teachers 
themselves—all Germans—were by no means profi¬ 
cient; indeed, only learners themselves. 
The attendance was good, and included grown-up 
and young people of both sexes, but females largely 
predominated, and, indeed, excelled the other sex in 
proficiency; all the polite letter-writing at Blewfields 
is done by the ladies. 
From the schoolroom we were summoned away by 
the church bell, and it was a most pleasing sight to 
see the inhabitants flocking from all quarters, neatly 
dressed, and making the best of their way, in a most 
