One leaves Martinique with regret, even after so brief a stay: the old
colonial life itself, not less than the revelation of tropic nature,
having in this island a quality of uniqueness, a special charm, unlike
anything previously seen.... We steam directly for Barbadoes;--the
vessel will touch at the intervening islands only on her homeward route.
... Against a hot wind south,--under a sky always deepening in beauty.
Towards evening dark clouds begin to rise before us; and by nightfall
they spread into one pitch-blackness over all the sky. Then comes a wind
in immense sweeps, lifting the water,--but a wind that is still
strangely warm. The ship rolls heavily in the dark for an hour or
more;--then torrents of tepid rain make the sea smooth again; the clouds
pass, and the violet transparency of tropical night reappears,--ablaze
with stars.
At early morning a long low land appears on the horizon,--totally unlike
the others we have seen; it has no visible volcanic forms. That is
Barbadoes,--a level burning coral coast,--a streak of green,
white-edged, on the verge of the sea. But hours pass before the green
line begins to show outlines of foliage.
... As we approach the harbor an overhanging black cloud suddenly bursts
down in illuminated rain,--through which the shapes of moored ships seem
magnified as through a golden fog. It ceases as suddenly as it began;
the cloud vanishes utterly; and the azure is revealed unflecked,
dazzling, wondrous.... It is a sight worth the whole journey,--the
splendor of this noon sky at Barbadoes;--the horizon glow is almost
blinding, the sea-line sharp as a razor-edge; and motionless upon the
sapphire water nearly a hundred ships lie,--masts, spars, booms,
cordage, cutting against the amazing magnificence of blue.... Meanwhile
the island coast has clearly brought out all its beauties: first you
note the long white winding thread-line of beach--coral and bright
sand;--then the deep green fringe of vegetation through which roofs and
spires project here and there, and quivering feathery heads of palms
with white trunks. The general tone of this verdure is sombre green,
though it is full of lustre: there is a glimmer in it as of metal.
Beyond all this coast-front long undulations of misty pale green are
visible,--far slopes of low hill and plain; the highest curving line,
the ridge of the island, bears a row of cocoa-palms. They are so far
that their stems diminish almost to invisibility: only the crests are
clearly distinguishable,--like spiders hanging between land and sky. But
there are no forests: the land is a naked unshadowed green far as the
eye can reach beyond the coast-line. There is no waste space in
Barbadoes: it is perhaps one of the most densely-peopled places on the
globe--(one thousand and thirty-five inhabitants to the square
mile);--and it sends black laborers by thousands to the other British
colonies every year,--the surplus of its population.
[Illustration: THE QUAY, BRIDGETOWN
_The bustling, busy air of Barba does is in marked contrast
to the sleepy indifference of the other islands._]
... The city of Bridgetown disappoints the stranger who expects to find
any exotic features of architecture or custom,--disappoints more,
perhaps, than any other tropical port in this respect. Its principal
streets give you the impression of walking through an English town,--not
an old-time town, but a new one, plain almost to commonplaceness, in
spite of Nelson's monument. Even the palms are powerless to lend the
place a redly tropical look;--the streets are narrow without being
picturesque, white as lime roads and full of glare;--the manners, the
costumes, the style of living, the system of business are thoroughly
English;--the population lacks visible originality; and its
extraordinary activity, so oddly at variance with the quiet indolence of
other West Indian peoples, seems almost unnatural. Pressure of numbers
has largely contributed to this characteristic; but Barbadoes would be
in any event, by reason of position alone, a busy colony. As the most
windward of the West Indies it has naturally become not only the chief
port, but also the chief emporium of the Antilles. It has railroads,
telephones, street-cars, fire and life insurance companies, good hotels,
libraries and reading-rooms, and excellent public schools. Its annual
export trade figures for nearly $6,000,000.
The fact which seems most curious to the stranger, on his first
acquaintance with the city, is that most of this business activity is
represented by black men--black merchants, shopkeepers, clerks. Indeed,
the Barbadian population, as a mass, strikes one as the darkest in the
West Indies. Black regiments march through the street to the sound of
English music,--uniformed as Zouaves; black police, in white helmets and
white duck uniforms, maintain order; black postmen distribute the mails;
black cabmen wait for customers at a shilling an hour. It is by no means
an attractive population, physically,--rather the reverse, and frankly
brutal as well--different as possible from the colored race of
Martinique; but it has immense energy, and speaks excellent English. One
is almost startled on hearing Barbadian negroes speaking English with a
strong Old Country accent. Without seeing the speaker, you could
scarcely believe such English uttered by black lips; and the commonest
negro laborer about the port pronounces as well as a Londoner. The
purity of Barbadian English is partly due, no doubt, to the fact that,
unlike most of the other islands, Barbadoes has always remained in the
possession of Great Britain. Even as far back as 1676 Barbadoes was in a
very different condition of prosperity from that of the other colonies,
and offered a totally different social aspect--having a white population
of 50,000. At that time the island could muster 20,000 infantry and
3,000 horse; there were 80,000 slaves; there were 1500 houses in
Bridgetown and an immense number of shops; and not less than two hundred
ships were required to export the annual sugar crop alone.
[Illustration: BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOES
_A picture of lights and shadows, the glare of coral
roads relieved by the green palms and the blue and
violet and yellow houses._]
But Barbadoes differs also from most of the Antilles geologically; and
there can be no question that the nature of its soil has considerably
influenced the physical character of its inhabitants. Although Barbadoes
is now known to be also of volcanic origin,--a fact which its low
undulating surface could enable no unscientific observer to suppose,--it
is superficially a calcareous formation; and the remarkable effect of
limestone soil upon the bodily development of a people is not less
marked in this latitude than elsewhere. In most of the Antilles the
white race degenerates and dwarfs under the influence of climate and
environment; but the Barbadian creole--tall, muscular, large of
bone--preserves and perpetuates in the tropics the strength and
sturdiness of his English forefathers.