s before not Grenada only, but all the
English West Indies--either an English administration pure and simple,
like the East Indian, or a falling eventually into a state like that of
Hayti, where they eat the babies, and no white man can own a yard of
land.

It was dark night when we drove back to the port. The houses along the
road, which had looked so miserable on the outside, were now lighted
with paraffin lamps. I could see into them, and was astonished to
observe signs of comfort and even signs of taste--arm-chairs, sofas,
sideboards with cut glass upon them, engravings and coloured prints upon
the walls. The old state of things is gone, but a new state of things is
rising which may have a worth of its own. The plant of civilisation as
yet has taken but feeble root, and is only beginning to grow. It may
thrive yet if those who have troubled all the earth will consent for
another century to take their industry elsewhere.

The ship's galley was waiting at the wharf when we reached it. The
captain also had been dining with a friend on shore, and we had to wait
for him. The off-shore night breeze had not yet risen. The harbour was
smooth as a looking glass, and the stars shone double in the sky and on
the water. The silence was only broken by the whistle of the lizards or
the cry of some far-off marsh frog. The air was warmer than we ever feel
it in the depth of an English summer, yet pure and delicious and charged
with the perfume of a thousand flowers. One felt it strange that with so
beautiful a possession lying at our doors, we should have allowed it to
slide out of our hands. I could say for myself, like Pere Labat, the
island was all that man could desire. 'En un mot, la vie y est
delicieuse.'

The anchor was got up immediately that we were on board. In the morning
we were to find ourselves at Port of Spain. Mr. S----, the Windward
Island governor, who had joined us at St. Vincent, was, as I said, going
to Tobago. De Foe took the human part of his Robinson Crusoe from the
story of Juan Fernandez. The locality is supposed to have been Tobago,
and Trinidad the island from which the cannibal savages came. We are
continually shuffling the cards, in a hope that a better game may be
played with them. Tobago is now-annexed to Trinidad. Last year it was a
part of Mr. S----'s dominions which he periodically visited. I fell in
with him again on his return, and he told us an incident which befell
him there, illustrating t