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highly interesting and picturesque scenery;----it comprizes all the little huts, intermixed with, and more or less concealed by the variety of shrubs and fruit trees, which kindly lend their shade; likewise the many small patches of garden ground around them, and the different species of stock, some appearing in pens, some tied by the leg, or the neck, and some running at large; and if it be evening, you have also the crowd of negroes, male and female, as they chance to be seen, at rest, or moving in busy occupation, some passing from hut to hut, some dancing to their favourite music, some sitting at the door with the pipe in their mouths, and others smoking their loved segar under the broad leaf of the plantain. The picture is also further enlivened by the groups of little black children; ---some running and skipping about, some seated, playing before the doors in Nature's ebon dress, and some, unable to walk, attempting little pedestrian excursions upon their hands and feet. Perhaps within so small a space, few scenes could offer so much interest to a contemplative mind; or to aid the pencil of a painter of the picturesque.

Independent of their own provisions, either raised or purchased, each negro has his weekly allowance issued to him, every Sunday, from the estate; and hence they are at liberty to take the whole of their own private stock to market, and to procure whatever additional comforts they prefer with the money it produces; and perhaps it will seem strange to you when I tell you that the markets of the island depend almost wholly upon this mode of supply. They are all held weekly, and upon the Sunday; that being the day when the negroes are free from labour, and have leisure to attend.'

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In another excursion,' says our author, we saw great numbers of mountain-cabbage trees, which were said to be of a peculiar kind, and different from all others in the island.--This magnificent palm is unquestionably the finest tree that grows. From words, or drawings, you can only collect an imperfect idea of it. To comprehend the fine symmetry, its grandeur, and majestic loftiness, it must be seen. Its trunk is very smooth, and almost regularly cylindrical, rising into a

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superb and stately pillar, resembling a well-hewn column of stone. At the base its circumference is somewhat greater than other part, yet lessening so gradually upwards, as to preserve the most just and accurate proportion. Not a single branch, nor even the slightest twig, interrupts the general harmony of the trunk, which often rises, in a correct perpendicular, to the height of from 60 to 100 feet, and then spreads its palmated foliage into a wide and beautifully radiated cirele. Branches it has none, but the fine expansive leaves, shooting immediately from the summit of the stately trunk, extend around it, crowning, and, as it were, protecting the massy column, in form of a full expanded umbrella.

'It will perhaps occur to you that our noble English oak, with all its rude and crooked limbs, must be a more pictur-. esque object. So it is, and so is likewise the wide-spreading silk-cotton but the loftiness, the stately grandeur, the exact proportion, and the deep-shading foliage of the mountain-cabbage are unequalled, and, in their happy combination, crown this tree the king of the forest--the most exalted of the vege table world.

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• When planted in avenues it forms a grand and imposing approach to a dwelling, conveying an air of greatness to the mansion it adorns. It grows free from decay to a very old age, but cannot be converted to the useful purposes of timber. It is a tree of state, calculated to enrich and augment the magnificence of a palace: nor let it detract from its majestic qualities to know that, after all, it is but a cabbage tree! Its loftiest summit is a spiral succulent shoot, the sides of which, by gradually and successively unfolding, form the fine wide-spreading foliage. Before this opens to expand itself around, it is a congeries of young and tender leaves, and is often boiled and brought to table as a cabbage, of which it is the very best kind I ever remember to have tasted. It is also used, without boiling, by way of sallad, and is then eaten with oil and vinegar; and so highly is it esteemed for these culinary purposes, that too often a very fine tree has been devoted to the axe, merely because no other means could be found of obtaining from its towering summit this most excellent cabbage.'

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Our author pays a just tribute of praise to the Barbadian gentlemen, who attended them during this excursion. Never,' says he, was hospitality evinced with more friendly urbanity. No attention was forgotten to render every thing comfortable and agreeable to us: no care was omitted to promote or forward our gratification. It seemed the object of all to offer us every possible accommodation, and to bring us ac quainted, in the happiest manner, with the country and its inhabitants. We felt infinitely less of fatigue than might have been expected, from the great distance we had journied, and from the length of time we were exposed to the heat and exerercise; and the only alloy which in any degree interrupted our enjoyment throughout this grateful day, was a sense of suffering of which we could not wholly divest ourselves concerning the poor slaves, who had to support on foot the very same journey which in us was regarded as a surprizing exertion on horseback.

In the course of the day we repeatedly made compassionate appeals to the gentlemen of the island concerning them, but they as constantly assured us that our pity was misplaced, adding that they were accustomed to the exercise, and would suffer far less fatigue than ourselves. Still our European feelings forced upon us the wish that either they had been accommodated with mules, or we had dispensed with their attendance; and it will require a much longer residence, amidst this new order of things, before we shall be able to persuade ourselves that our sense of disquietude was only a misplaced humanity.

Barbadoes, February.

• WE still remain without any accurate intelligence respecting the great body of our convoy: and, having no tidings of the commander-in-chief, we continue in equal uncertainty when we may proceed to our original destination at St. Domingo. All here is suspense and anxiety. The solicitude of the mercantile world is not less than that of the military. No packet is arrived; the affairs of commerce are interrupted; we have no news of Europe or the war, and all seems shut in ig

norance, or absorded in painful uncertainty. Straggling ves sels of our disastrous fleet continue to arrive; and from these we catch with eagerness every report, but still without acquir ing any thing satisfactory. Some separated one day; some another; and some another: but with respect to the actual state of the convoy all is still enveloped in doubt and incertitude.

Unhappily the finest season is passing away--and before the whole army can have arrived, and be brought into action, the rainy period will be fast approaching; but, as many of the men already here are in a sickly state, we hope the delay may prove beneficial to them, by affording them an opportunity of recovering from the ills of the voyage, and of their long confinement on board, before they enter upon the fatigues of the campaign.

The captains of the Guineamen often relieve their ships' company from the duty of the boat, by training some of their black cargo to the use of the oar.-Indeed so useful do many of the negroes become, during the passage, and the time they are detained on board, that their assistance is of much service in working the vessel. We occasionally see the master of a slave ship rowed ashore by four of his naked Africans, who appear as dexterous in the management of the boat, as if they had been for years accustomed to it.

• Often we observe the captains parading the streets, accompanied by parties of their prime slaves---apparently with the intention of exhibiting them to the eye of the public, in sound state and good condition. This contributes, at the same time, to the health and amusement of these poor beings, who seem delighted at feeling their feet on shore, and, in due obedience to their captain, dance and frolic as they go along, either in real, or in well dissembled contentment and happiness.

We have an encampment of negroes formed near to Bridge Town, upon a spot called Constitution-hill. They are a fine body of men, who have been enlisted from the revolted French islands, or brought away on the evacuation of them by our troops. They are active and expert, and are training into a formidable corps to assist in our intended expe

ditions. About sixteen hundred of them bear arms; besides whom there are twelve hundred to be employed as pioneers. They have all the vivacity and levity of the French character about them; and it, occasionally, affords us amusement to observe the Barbadoes negroes regard them with evident amazement, gaping with wonder at their volatility and alertness. John Bull differs not more widely from a Parisian petit-maitre than many of the Barbadoes slaves from the sable fops of this sprightly corps.

Among the novelties which meet the eye of an European upon his arrival at Barbadoes, or probably in any of the West Indian islands, is the practice of carrying the children across the hip, instead of seating them upon the arm. The lower class of women in Barbadoes have adopted this custom, from the example of the negroes, among whom it seems to be the universal mode of nursing; and, perhaps, it would admit of argument, whether this method be not preferable to the European custom of carrying them upon the arm. Seated upon the hip, the infant soon learns to cling, and in a great measure to support itself; but, placed upon the arm, it must always remain a helpless or dead weight upon the mother, being without the power of assisting itself, or relieving its position. Further, it is so conveniently placed when upon the hip, that the mother can support it with much greater facility, for by only putting the arm behind it, the child can lie back, or rest and change its posture in various ways: thus the weight becomes less fatiguing to the mother, and perhaps less injurious to the infant; for at this tender age the long bones of the thigh, not being firmly ossified, are liable to yield, and a degree of deformity may be induced, from their being made to bear the whole weight of the body, at long and frequent periods, upon so

narrow a seat as the arm.

• Trivial as this subject might appear to some, it is worthy the serious consideration of British mothers and nurses. A deformed negro is a very rare object, and this may probably be attributed, in a great measure, to the manner of nursing them in their infancy; for, besides the better mode of carrying them, they have the further advantage of being allowed to crawl about VOL. I. 3 M

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