e, with a terrible scream, which I shall
never forget, fell to the ground in strong convulsions.

'We succeeded in getting him outside. But he never spoke again; and
died two hours afterwards, his body having swollen up like that of a
drowned man.

'In those days there were no inquests; and but little interest was
created by the affair. Martin himself soon after died.'

But enough of these abominations, of which I am forced to omit the
worst.

That day--to go on with my own story--I left the rest of the party
to go down to the court-house, while I stayed at the camp, sorry to
lose so curious a scene, but too tired to face a crowded tropic
court, and an atmosphere of perspiration and perjury.

Moreover, that had befallen me which might never befall me again--I
had a chance of being alone in the forests; and into them I would
wander, and meditate on them in silence.

So, when all had departed, I lounged awhile in the rocking-chair,
watching two Negroes astride on the roof of a shed, on which they
were nailing shingles. Their heads were bare; the sun was intense;
the roof on which they sat must have been of the temperature of an
average frying-pan on an English fire: but the good fellows worked
on, steadily and carefully, though not fast, chattering and singing,
evidently enjoying the very act of living, and fattening in the
genial heat. Lucky dogs: who had probably never known hunger,
certainly never known cold; never known, possibly, a single animal
want which they could not satisfy. I could not but compare their
lot with that of an average English artisan. Ah, well: there is no
use in fruitless comparisons; and it is no reason that one should
grudge the Negro what he has, because others, who deserve it
certainly as much as he, have it not. After all, the ancestors of
these Negroes have been, for centuries past, so hard-worked, ill-
fed, ill-used too--sometimes worse than ill-used--that it is hard if
the descendants may not have a holiday, and take the world easy for
a generation or two.

The perpetual Saturnalia in which the Negro, in Trinidad at least,
lives, will surely give physical strength and health to the body,
and something of cheerfulness, self-help, independence to the
spirit. If the Saturnalia be prolonged too far, and run, as they
seem inclined to run, into brutality and licence, those stern laws
of Nature which men call political economy will pull the Negro