strange shapes by rain and waves
they are covered--that at least on which we landed--almost
exclusively by Matapalos, which seem to have stranded the original
trees and established themselves in every cranny of the rocks,
sending out arms, legs, fingers, ropes, pillars, and what not, of
live holdfasts over every rock and over each other till little but
the ubiquitous Seguine {95a} and Pinguins {95b} find room or
sustenance among them. The island on which we landed is used, from
time to time, as a depot for coolie immigrants when first landed.
There they remain to rest after the voyage till they can be
apportioned by the Government officers to the estates which need
them. Of this admirable system of satisfying the great need of the
West Indies, free labourers, I may be allowed to say a little here.

'Immigrants' are brought over from Hindostan at the expense of the
colony. The Indian Government jealously watches the emigration, and
through agents of its own rigidly tests the bona-fide 'voluntary'
character of the engagement. That they are well treated on the
voyage is sufficiently proved, that on 2264 souls imported last year
the death-rate during the voyage was only 2.7 per cent, although
cholera attacked the crew of one of the ships before it left the
Hooghly. During the last three years ships with over 300 emigrants
have arrived several times in Trinidad without a single death. On
their arrival in Trinidad, those who are sick are sent at once to
the hospital; those unfit for immediate labour are sent to the
depot. The healthy are 'indentured'--in plain English, apprenticed-
-for five years, and distributed among the estates which have
applied for them. Husbands and wives are not allowed to be
separated, nor are children under fifteen parted from their parents
or natural protectors. They are expected by the law to work for 280
days in the year, nine hours a day; and receive the same wages as
the free labourers: but for this system task-work is by consent
universally substituted; and (as in the case of an English
apprentice) the law, by various provisions, at once punishes them
for wilful idleness, and protects them from tyranny or fraud on the
part of their employers. Till the last two years the newcomers
received their wages entirely in money. But it was found better to
give them for the first year (and now for the two first years) part
payment in daily rations: a poun