ranger was not to be allowed. Soldiers who have distinguished
themselves are, next to lawyers, the most agreeable people to be met
with, and when I was convinced that I should really be welcome, I had no
other objection. An aide-de-camp, I was told, would call for me in the
afternoon. Meanwhile the secretary stayed with me for an hour or two,
and I was able to learn something authentic from him as to the general
condition of things. I had not given entire credit to the
representations of my planter friend of the evening before. Mr. Walker
took a more cheerful view, and, although the prospects were not as
bright as they might be, he saw no reason for despondency. Sugar was
down of course. The public debt had increased, and taxation was heavy.
Many gentlemen in Jamaica, as in the Antilles, were selling, or trying
to sell, their estates and go out of it. On the other hand, expenses of
government were being reduced, and the revenue showed a surplus. The
fruit trade with the United States was growing, and promised to grow
still further. American capitalists had come into the island, and were
experimenting on various industries. The sugar treaty with America would
naturally have been welcome; but Jamaica was less dependent on its sugar
crop, and the action of the British Government was less keenly resented.
In the Antilles, the Colonial Secretary admitted, there might be a
desire for annexation to the United States, and Jamaican landowners had
certainly expressed the same wish to myself. Mr. Walker, however,
assured me that, while the blacks would oppose it unanimously, the
feeling, if it existed at all among the whites, was confined as yet to a
very few persons. They had been English for 230 years, and the large
majority of them wished to remain English. There had been suffering
among them; but there had been suffering in other places besides
Jamaica. Better times might perhaps be coming with the opening of the
Darien canal, when Kingston might hope to become again the centre of a
trade. Of the negroes, both men and women, Mr. Walker spoke extremely
favourably. They were far less indolent than they were supposed to be;
they were settling on the waste lands, acquiring property, growing yams
and oranges, and harming no one; they had no grievance left; they knew
it, and were perfectly contented.

As Mr. Walker was an official, I did not ask him about the working of
the recent changes in the constitution; nor could he have proper