figures lose
their solidity and look as if they were creatures of air also.

Sir Charles Lees and his lady were all that was polite and hospitable.
They invited me to make their house my home during my stay, and more
charming host and hostess it would have been impossible to find or wish
for. There was not the state which Labat described, but there was the
perfection of courtesy, a courtesy which must have belonged to their
natures, or it would have been overstrained long since by the demands
made upon it. Those who have looked on at a skating ring will have
observed an orange or some such object in the centre round which the
evolutions are described, the ice artist sweeping out from it in long
curves to the extreme circumference, returning on interior arcs till he
gains the orange again, and then off once more on a fresh departure.
Barbadoes to the West Indian steam navigation is like the skater's
orange. All mails, all passengers from Europe, arrive at Barbadoes
first. There the subsidiary steamers catch them up, bear them north or
south to the Windward or Leeward Isles, and on their return bring them
back to Carlisle Bay. Every vessel brings some person or persons to whom
the Governor is called on to show hospitality. He must give dinners to
the officials and gentry of the island, he must give balls and concerts
for their ladies, he must entertain the officers of the garrison. When
the West Indian squadron or the training squadron drop into the
roadstead, admirals, commodores, captains must all be invited. Foreign
ships of war go and come continually, Americans, French, Spaniards, or
Portuguese. Presidents of South American republics, engineers from
Darien, all sorts and conditions of men who go to Europe in the English
mail vessels, take their departure from Carlisle Bay, and if they are
neglected regard it as a national affront. Cataracts of champagne must
flow if the British name is not to be discredited. The expense is
unavoidable and is enormous, while the Governor's very moderate salary
is found too large by economic politicians, and there is a cry for
reduction of it.

I was of course most grateful for Sir Charles's invitation to myself.
From him, better perhaps than from anyone, I could learn how far the
passionate complaints which I had heard about the state of the islands
were to be listened to as accounts of actual fact. I found, however,
that I must postpone both this particular pleasure and my stay in