English Island of Barbadoes.--Bridgetown the Capital.--The
Manufacture of Rum.--A Geographical Expert.--Very
English.--A Pest of Ants.--Exports.--The Ice House.--A Dense
Population.--Educational.--Marine Hotel.--Habits of
Gambling.--Hurricanes.--Curious Antiquities.--The Barbadoes
Leg.--Wakeful Dreams.--Absence of Twilight.--Departure from
the Island.
Bridgetown is the capital of Barbadoes, an English island which, unlike
St. Thomas, is a highly cultivated sugar plantation from shore to shore.
In natural beauty, however, it will not compare with Martinique. It is
by no means picturesquely beautiful, like most of the West Indian
islands, being quite devoid of their thick tropical verdure. Nature is
here absolutely beaten out of the field by excessive cultivation. Thirty
thousand acres of sugar-cane are cut annually, yielding, according to
late statistics, about seventy thousand hogsheads of sugar. We are sorry
to add that there are twenty-three rum distilleries on the island, which
do pecuniarily a thriving business. "The poorest molasses makes the best
rum," said an experienced manager to us. He might well have added that
it is also the poorest use to which it could be put. This spirit, like
all produced in the West Indies, is called Jamaica rum, and though a
certain amount of it is still shipped to the coast of Africa, the return
cargoes no longer consist of kidnapped negroes. The article known as New
England rum, still manufactured in the neighborhood of Boston, has
always disputed the African market, so to speak, with the product of
these islands. Rum is the bane of Africa, just as opium is of China, the
former thrust upon the native races by Americans, the latter upon the
Chinese by English merchants, backed by the British government. Events
follow each other so swiftly in modern times as to become half forgotten
by contemporary people, but there are those among us who remember when
China as a nation tried to stop the importation of the deadly drug
yielded by the poppy fields of India, whereupon England forced the
article upon her at the point of the bayonet.
Bridgetown is situated at the west end of the island on the open
roadstead of Carlisle Bay, and has a population of over twenty-five
thousand. Barbadoes lies about eighty miles to the windward of St.
Vincent, its nearest neighbor, and is separated from Europe by four
thousand miles of the Atlantic Ocean. It is comparatively removed from
the chain formed by the Windward Isles, its situation being so isolated
that it remained almost unnoticed until a century had passed after
Columbus's first discovery in these waters. The area of the British
possessions in the West Indies is about one seventh of the islands. It
is often stated that Barbadoes is nearly as large as the Isle of Wight,
but the fact is, it exceeds that island in superficial area, being a
little over fifty-five miles in circumference. The reader will perhaps
remember that it was here Addison laid the scene of his touching story
of "Inkle and Yarico," published so many years ago in the "Spectator."
Though it is not particularly well laid out, Bridgetown makes a very
pleasing picture, as a whole, when seen from the harbor. Here and there
a busy windmill is mixed with tall and verdant tropical trees, backed by
far-reaching fields of yellow sugar-cane, together with low, sloping
hills. The buildings are mostly of stone, or coral rock, and the town
follows the graceful curve of the bay. The streets are macadamized and
lighted with gas, but are far too narrow for business purposes. The
island is about twenty-one miles long and between fourteen and fifteen
broad, the shores being nearly inclosed in a cordon of coral reefs, some
of which extend for two or three miles seaward, demanding of navigators
the greatest care on seeking a landing, though the course into the roads
to a suitable anchorage is carefully buoyed.
Barbadoes was originally settled by the Portuguese, who here found the
branches of a certain forest tree covered with hair-like hanging moss,
from whence its somewhat peculiar name, Barbadoes, or the "bearded
place," is supposed to have been derived. Probably this was the Indian
fig-tree, still found here, and which lives for many centuries, growing
to enormous proportions. In India, Ceylon, and elsewhere in Asia, it is
held sacred. The author has seen one of these trees at Kandy, in the
island of Ceylon, under which sacred rites have taken place constantly
for a thousand years or more, and whose widespread branches could
shelter five hundred people from the heat of the sun. It stands close by
the famous old Buddhist temple wherein is preserved the tooth of the
prophet, and before which devout Indians prostrate themselves daily,
coming from long distances to do so. Indeed, Kandy is the Mecca of
Ceylon.
A good share of even the reading public of England would be puzzled to
tell an inquirer exactly where Barbadoes is situated, while most of
those who have any idea about it have gained such knowledge as they
possess from Captain Marryat's clever novel of "Peter Simple," where the
account is, to be sure, meagre enough. Still later, those who have read
Anthony Trollope's "West Indies and the Spanish Main" have got from the
flippant pages of that book some idea of the island, though it is a very
disagreeable example of Trollope's pedantic style.
"Barbadoes? Barbadoes?" said a society man to the writer of these pages,
in all seriousness, just as he was about to sail from New York, "that's
on the coast of Africa, is it not?"
"Oh, no," was the reply, "it is one of the islands of the Lesser
Antilles."
"Where are the Antilles, pray?"
"You must surely know."
"But I do not, nevertheless; haven't the remotest idea. Fact is,
geography never was one of my strong points."
With which remark we silently agreed, and yet our friend is reckoned to
be a fairly educated, cultured person, as these expressions are commonly
used. Probably he represents the average geographical knowledge of one
half the people to be met with in miscellaneous society.
This is the first English possession where the sugarcane was planted,
and is one of the most ancient colonies of Great Britain. It bears no
resemblance to the other islands in these waters, that is,
topographically, nor, indeed, in the character of its population, being
entirely English. The place might be a bit taken out of any shire town
of the British home island, were it only a little more cleanly and less
unsavory; still it is more English than West Indian. The manners and
customs are all similar to those of the people of that nationality; the
negroes, and their descendants of mixed blood, speak the same tongue as
the denizens of St. Giles, London. The island has often been called
"Little England." There is no reliable history of Barbadoes before the
period when Great Britain took possession of it, some two hundred and
sixty years ago. Government House is a rather plain but pretentious
dwelling, where the governor has his official and domestic residence. In
its rear there is a garden, often spoken of by visitors, which is
beautified by some of the choicest trees and shrubs of this latitude. It
is really surprising how much a refined taste and skillful gardening can
accomplish in so circumscribed a space.
Barbadoes is somewhat remarkable as producing a variety of minerals;
among which are coal, manganese, iron, kaolin, and yellow ochre. There
are also one or two localities on the island where a flow of petroleum
is found, of which some use is made. It is called Barbadoes tar, and
were the supply sufficient to warrant the use of refining machinery, it
would undoubtedly produce a good burning fluid. There is a "burning
well," situated in what is known as the Scotland District, where the
water emerging from the earth forms a pool, which is kept in a state of
ebullition from the inflammable air or gas which passes through it. This
gas, when lighted by a match, burns freely until extinguished by
artificial means, not rising in large enough quantities to make a great
flame, but still sufficient to create the effect of burning water, and
forming quite a curiosity.
There are no mountains on the island, but the land is undulating, and
broken into hills and dales; one elevation, known as Mount Hillaby,
reaches a thousand feet and more above the level of tide waters.
One of the most serious pests ever known at Barbadoes was the
introduction of ants, by slave-ships from Africa. No expedient of human
ingenuity served to rid the place of their destructive presence, and it
was at one time seriously proposed to abandon the island on this
account. After a certain period nature came to the rescue. She does all
things royally, and the hurricane of 1780 completely annihilated the
vermin. Verily, it was appropriate to call Barbadoes in those days the
Antilles! It appears that there is no affliction quite unmixed with
good, and that we must put a certain degree of faith in the law of
compensation, however great the seeming evil under which we suffer. To
our limited power of comprehension, a destructive hurricane does seem an
extreme resort by which to crush out an insect pest. The query might
even arise, with some minds, whether the cure was not worse than the
disorder.
The exports from the island consist almost wholly of molasses, sugar,
and rum, products of the cane, which grows all over the place, in every
nook and corner, from hilltop to water's edge. The annual export, as
already intimated, is considerably over sixty thousand hogsheads. Sugar
cannot, however, be called king of any one section, since half of the
amount manufactured in the whole world is the product of the beet root,
the growth of which is liberally subsidized by more than one European
government, in order to foster local industry. Like St. Thomas, this
island has been almost denuded of its forest growth, and is occasionally
liable, as we have seen, to destructive hurricanes.
Bridgetown is a place of considerable progress, having several
benevolent and educational institutions; it also possesses railway,
telephone, and telegraphic service. Its export trade aggregates over
seven million dollars per annum, to accommodate which amount of commerce
causes a busy scene nearly all the time in the harbor. The steam railway
referred to connects the capital with the Parish of St. Andrews,
twenty-one miles away on the other side of the island, its terminus
being at the thrifty little town of Bathsheba, a popular resort, which
is noted for its fine beach and excellent sea bathing.
The cathedral is consecrated to the established religion of the Church
of England, and is a picturesque, time-worn building, surrounded, after
the style of rural England, by a quaint old graveyard, the monuments and
slabs of which are gray and moss-grown, some of them bearing dates of
the earlier portion of the sixteenth century. This spot forms a very
lovely, peaceful picture, where the graves are shaded by tree-ferns and
stately palms. Somehow one cannot but miss the tall, slim cypress, which
to the European and American eye seems so especially appropriate to such
a spot. There were clusters of low-growing mignonette, which gave out a
faint perfume exactly suited to the solemn shades which prevailed, and
here and there bits of ground enameled with blue-eyed violets. The walls
of the inside of the church are covered with memorial tablets, and there
is an organ of great power and sweetness of tone.
The "Ice House," so called, at Bridgetown is a popular resort, which
everybody visits who comes to Barbadoes. Here one can find files of all
the latest American and European papers, an excellent cafe, with drinks
and refreshments of every conceivable character, and can purchase almost
any desired article from a toothpick to a set of parlor furniture. It is
a public library, an exchange, a "Bon Marche," and an artificial ice
manufactory, all combined. Strangers naturally make it a place of
rendezvous. It seemed to command rather more of the average citizen's
attention than did legitimate business, and one is forced to admit that
although the drinks which were so generously dispensed were cool and
appetizing, they were also very potent. It was observed that some
individuals, who came into the hospitable doors rather sober and
dejected in expression of features, were apt to go out just a little
jolly.
The Ice House is an institution of these islands, to be found at St.
Thomas, Demerara, and Trinidad, as well as at Barbadoes. Havana has a
similar retreat, but calls it a cafe, situated on the Paseo, near the
Tacon Theatre.
The population of the island amounts to about one hundred and
seventy-two thousand,--the census of 1881 showed it to be a trifle less
than this,--giving the remarkable density of one thousand and more
persons to the square mile, thus forming an immense human beehive. It is
the only one of the West Indian islands from which a certain amount of
emigration is necessary annually. The large negro population makes labor
almost incredibly cheap, field-hands on the plantations being paid only
one shilling per day; and yet, so ardent is their love of home--and the
island is home to them--that only a few can be induced to leave it in
search of better wages. When it is remembered that the State of
Massachusetts, which is considered to be one of the most thickly
populated sections of the United States, contains but two hundred and
twenty persons to the square mile, the fact that this West Indian island
supports over one thousand inhabitants in the same average space will be
more fully appreciated. Notwithstanding this crowded state of the
population, we were intelligently informed that while petty offenses are
common, there is a marked absence of serious crimes.
One sees few if any signs of poverty here. It is a land of sugar-cane,
yams, and sweet potatoes, very prolific, and very easily tilled. Some of
the most prosperous men on the island are colored planters, who own
their large establishments, though born slaves, perhaps on the very
ground they now own. They have by strict economy and industry saved
money enough to make a fair beginning, and in the course of years have
gradually acquired wealth. One plantation, owned by a colored man, born
of slave parents, was pointed out to us, with the information that it
was worth twenty thousand pounds sterling, and that its last year's crop
yielded over three hundred hogsheads of sugar, besides a considerable
quantity of molasses.
England maintains at heavy expense a military depot here, from which to
draw under certain circumstances. There is no local necessity for
supporting such a force. Georgetown is a busy place. Being the most
seaward of the West Indies, it has become the chief port of call for
ships navigating these seas. The Caribbees are divided by geographers
into the Windward and Leeward islands, in accordance with the direction
in which they lie with regard to the prevailing winds. They are in very
deep water, the neighboring sea having a mean depth of fifteen hundred
fathoms. Being so far eastward, Barbadoes enjoys an exceptionally
equable climate, and it is claimed for it that it has a lower
thermometer than any other West Indian island. Its latitude is 13 deg. 4'
north, longitude 59 deg. 37' west, within eight hundred miles of the
equator. The prevailing wind blows from the northeast, over the broad,
unobstructed Atlantic, rendering the evenings almost always delightfully
cool, tempered by this grateful tonic breath of the ocean.
Trafalgar Square, Bridgetown, contains a handsome fountain, and a bronze
statue of Nelson which, as a work of art, is simply atrocious. From this
broad, open square the tramway cars start, and it also forms a general
business centre.
The home government supports, besides its other troops, a regiment of
negroes uniformed as Zouaves and officered by white men. The police of
Bridgetown are also colored men. Slavery was abolished here in 1833.
Everything is so thoroughly English, that only the temperature, together
with the vegetation, tells the story of latitude and longitude. The soil
has been so closely cultivated as to have become partially exhausted,
and this is the only West Indian island, if we are correctly informed,
where artificial enrichment is considered necessary to stimulate the
native soil, or where it has ever been freely used. "I question," said
an intelligent planter to us, "whether we should not be better off
to-day, if we had not so overstimulated, in fact, burned out, our land
with guano and phosphates." These are to the ground like intoxicants to
human beings,--if over-indulged in they are fatal, and even the partial
use is of questionable advantage. The Chinese and Japanese apply only
domestic refuse in their fields as a manure, and no people obtain such
grand results as they do in agriculture. They know nothing of patent
preparations employed for such purposes, and yet will render a spot of
ground profitable which a European would look upon as absolutely not
worth cultivating.
In any direction from Bridgetown going inland, miles upon miles of
plantations are seen bearing the bright green sugar-cane, turning to
yellow as it ripens, and giving splendid promise for the harvest. Here
and there are grouped a low cluster of cabins, which form the quarters
of the negroes attached to the plantation, while close at hand the tall
chimney of the sugar mill looms over the surrounding foliage. A little
one side, shaded by some palms, is the planter's neat and attractive
residence, painted snow white, in contrast to the deep greenery
surrounding it, and having a few flower beds in its front.
The Marine Hotel, which is admirably situated on a rocky point at
Hastings, three hundred feet above the beach, is about a league from the
city, and forms a favorite resort for the townspeople. The house is
capable of accommodating three hundred guests at a time. Its spacious
piazzas fronting the ocean are constantly fanned by the northeast trades
from October to March. Some New York families regard the place as a
choice winter resort, the thermometer rarely indicating over 80 deg. Fahr.,
or falling below 70 deg.. This suburb of Hastings is the location of the
army barracks, where a broad plain affords admirable space for drill and
military manoeuvres. There is a monument at Hastings, raised to the
memory of the victims of the hurricane of 1831, which seems to be rather
unpleasantly suggestive of future possibilities. Near at hand is a
well-arranged mile racecourse, a spot very dear to the army officers,
where during the racing season any amount of money is lost and won.
There seems to be something in this tropical climate which incites to
all sorts of gambling, and the habit among the people is so common as to
be looked upon with great leniency. Just so, at some of the summer
resorts of the south of France, Italy, and Germany, ladies or gentlemen
will frankly say, "I am going to the Casino for a little gambling, but
will be back again by and by."
The roads in the vicinity of Bridgetown are admirably kept, all being
macadamized, but the dust which rises from the pulverized coral rock is
nearly blinding, and together with the reflection caused by the sun on
the snow white roads proves very trying to the eyesight. The dust and
glare are serious drawbacks to the enjoyment of these environs.
As we have said, hurricanes have proved very fatal at Barbadoes. In
1780, four thousand persons were swept out of existence in a few hours
by the irresistible fury of a tornado. So late as 1831, the loss of life
by a similar visitation was over two thousand, while the loss of
property aggregated some two million pounds sterling. The experience has
not, however, been so severe here as at several of the other islands. At
the time of the hurricane just referred to, Barbadoes was covered with a
coat of sulphurous ashes nearly an inch thick, which was afterwards
found to have come from the island of St. Vincent, where what is called
Brimstone Mountain burst forth in flames and laid that island also in
ashes. It is interesting to note that there should have been such
intimate relationship shown between a great atmospheric disturbance like
a hurricane and an underground agitation as evinced by the eruption of a
volcano.
It should be mentioned that these hurricanes have never been known to
pass a certain limit north or south, their ravages having always been
confined between the eleventh and twenty-first degrees of north
latitude.
It appears that some curious Carib implements were found not long since
just below the surface of the earth on the south shore of the bay, which
are to be forwarded to the British Museum, London. These were of hard
stone, and were thought by the finders to have been used by the
aborigines to fell trees. Some were thick shells, doubtless employed by
the Indians in the rude cultivation of maize, grown here four or five
hundred years ago. It was said that these stone implements resembled
those which have been found from time to time in Norway and Sweden. If
this is correct, it is an important fact for antiquarians to base a
theory upon. Some scientists believe that there was, in prehistoric
times, an intimate relationship between Scandinavia and the continent of
America.
Though there are several public schools in Bridgetown, both primary and
advanced, we were somehow impressed with the idea that education for the
common people was not fostered in a manner worthy of a British colony of
so long standing; but this is the impression of a casual observer only.
There is a college situated ten or twelve miles from the city, founded
by Sir Christopher Codrington, which has achieved a high reputation as
an educational institution in its chosen field of operation. It is a
large structure of white stone, well-arranged, and is, as we were told,
consistent with the spirit of the times. It has the dignity of ripened
experience, having been opened in 1744. The professors are from Europe.
A delicious fresh water spring rises to the surface of the land just
below the cliff, at Codrington College, a blessing which people who live
in the tropics know how to appreciate. There is also at Bridgetown what
is known as Harrison's College, which, however, is simply a high school
devoted exclusively to girls.
The island is not exempt from occasional prevalence of tropical fevers,
but may be considered a healthy resort upon the whole. Leprosy is not
unknown among the lower classes, and elephantiasis is frequently to be
met with. This disease is known in the West Indies as the "Barbadoes
Leg." Sometimes a native may be seen on the streets with one of his legs
swollen to the size of his body. There is no known cure for this disease
except the surgeon's knife, and the removal of the victim from the
region where it first developed itself. The author has seen terrible
cases of elephantiasis among the natives of the Samoan group of islands,
where this strange and unaccountable disease is thought to have reached
its most extreme and repulsive development. Foreigners are seldom if
ever afflicted with it, either in the West Indies or the South Pacific.
We are to sail to-night. A few passengers and a quantity of freight have
been landed, while some heavy merchandise has been received on board,
designed for continental ports to the southward. The afternoon shadows
lengthen upon the shore, and the sunset hour, so brief in this latitude,
approaches. The traveler who has learned to love the lingering twilight
of the north misses these most charming hours when in equatorial
regions, but as the goddess of night wraps her sombre mantle about her,
it is so superbly decked with diamond stars that the departed daylight
is hardly regretted. It is like the prompter's ringing up of the curtain
upon a complete theatrical scene; the glory of the tropical sky bursts
at once upon the vision in all its completeness, its burning
constellations, its solitaire brilliants, its depth of azure, and its
mysterious Milky Way.
While sitting under the awning upon deck, watching the gentle swaying
palms and tall fern-trees, listening to the low drone of busy life in
the town, and breathing the sweet exhalations of tropical fruits and
flowers, a trance-like sensation suffuses the brain. Is this the _dolce
far niente_ of the Italians, the sweet do-nothing of the tropics? To us,
however defined, it was a waking dream of sensuous delight, of entire
content. How far away sounds the noise of the steam-winch, the sharp
chafing of the iron pulleys, the prompt orders of the officer of the
deck, the swinging of the ponderous yards, the rattling of the anchor
chain as it comes in through the hawse hole, while the ship gradually
loses her hold upon the land. With half closed eyes we scarcely heard
these many significant sounds, but floated peacefully on in an Eden of
fancy, quietly leaving Carlisle Bay far behind.
Our course was to the southward, while everything, high and low, was
bathed in a flood of shimmering moonlight, the magic alchemy of the sky,
whose influence etherealizes all upon which it rests.