l of
the hotels by the liberality of her Majesty's representative in the
colony. Captain Churchill, the administrator of the island, had heard
that I was coming there, and I was met on the landing stage by a message
from him inviting me to be his guest during my stay. Two tall handsome
black girls seized my bags, tossed them on their heads, and strode off
with a light step in front of me, cutting jokes with their friends; I
following, and my mind misgiving me that I was myself the object of
their wit.

I was anxious to see Captain Churchill, for I had heard much of him. The
warmest affection had been expressed for him personally, and concern for
the position in which he was placed. Notwithstanding 'the latest
discoveries of political science,' the constitution was still imperfect.
The administrator, to begin with, is allowed a salary of only 500_l._ a
year. That is not much for the chief of such an army of officials; and
the hospitalities and social civilities which smooth the way in such
situations are beyond his means. His business is to preside at the
council, where, the official and the elected members being equally
balanced and almost invariably dividing one against the other, his duty
is to give the casting vote. He cannot give it against his own officers,
and thus the machine is contrived to create the largest amount of
friction, and to insure the highest amount of unpopularity to the
administrator. His situation is the more difficult because the European
element in Roseau, small as it is at best, is more French than English.
The priests, the sisterhoods, are French or French-speaking. A French
patois is the language of the blacks. They are almost to a man
Catholics, and to the French they look as their natural leaders. England
has done nothing, absolutely nothing, to introduce her own civilisation;
and thus Dominica is English only in name. Should war come, a boatload
of soldiers from Martinique would suffice to recover it. Not a black in
the whole island would draw a trigger in defence of English authority,
and, except the Crown officials, not half a dozen Europeans. The
administrator can do nothing to improve this state of things. He is too
poor to open Government House to the Roseau shopkeepers and to bid for
social popularity. He is no one. He goes in and out unnoticed, and flits
about like a bat in the twilight. He can do no good, and from the nature
of the system on the construction of which so much care w