ich it steals from real superiority. The object of it is not
truth, but anything which it can make appear truth; anything which it
can persuade people to believe by calling in their passions to obscure
their intelligence.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] This is the explanation of the name which is given by Dampier.

CHAPTER IV.

First sight of Barbadoes--Origin of the name--Pere Labat--Bridgetown
two hundred years ago--Slavery and Christianity--Economic
crisis--Sugar bounties--Aspect of the streets--Government House and
its occupants--Duties of a governor of Barbadoes.

England was covered with snow when we left it on December 30. At sunrise
on January 12 we were anchored in the roadstead at Bridgetown, and the
island of Barbadoes lay before us shining in the haze of a hot summer
morning. It is about the size of the Isle of Wight, cultivated so far as
eye could see with the completeness of a garden; no mountains in it,
scarcely even high hills, but a surface pleasantly undulating, the
prevailing colour a vivid green from the cane fields; houses in town and
country white from the coral rock of which they are built, but the glare
from them relieved by heavy clumps of trees. What the trees were I had
yet to discover. You could see at a glance that the island was as
thickly peopled as an ant-hill. Not an inch of soil seemed to be allowed
to run to waste. Two hundred thousand is, I believe, the present number
of Barbadians, of whom nine-tenths are blacks. They refuse to emigrate.
They cling to their home with innocent vanity as though it was the
finest country in the world, and multiply at a rate so rapid that no one
likes to think about it. Labour at any rate is abundant and cheap. In
Barbadoes the negro is willing enough to work, for he has no other means
of living. Little land is here allowed him to grow his yams upon. Almost
the whole of it is still held by the whites in large estates, cultivated
by labourers on the old system, and, it is to be admitted, cultivated
most admirably. If the West Indies are going to ruin, Barbadoes, at any
rate, is being ruined with a smiling face. The roadstead was crowded
with shipping--large barques, steamers, and brigs, schooners of all
shapes and sorts. The training squadron had come into the bay for a day
or two on their way to Trinidad, four fine ships, conspicuous by their
white ensigns, a squareness of yards, and generally imposing presence.
Boats were flying to and fr