contrary, the population was so dense that the
freedman must either work or starve. There were no waste lands and few
absentee proprietors, nor were any of the estates abandoned. Labour was
plentiful and cheap; it followed, therefore, that the island soon
recovered from the check and went on prospering. The compulsion of the
whip gave way to the force of circumstances, and the struggle for
existence which ensued has made the Barbadian negro the most industrious
in the West Indies. Not only is he this, but he is, like his former
masters, intensely loyal to Great Britain and "Little England." All the
black, coloured, and white people in the other islands call themselves
Creoles, but he is "neither Crab (Carib) nor Creole, but true Barbadian
born."

In the French, Danish, and Dutch colonies labour laws were enforced
after emancipation, and generally with good results. They felt the
change, but not to such an extent as their neighbours, and recovered all
the sooner. Then they were not utterly disheartened by the unhealthy
competition of slave-grown products like the English. Possibly, however,
the British freedman would not have borne coercion, for even the Danes
resented it.

We have seen already that the negroes of the island of St. Croix were by
no means willing to submit to what they considered injustice, and how
they forced on their own emancipation. However, down to 1878 they were
bound to the soil as it were under annual engagements, from which they
were not released without proper notice, even after the term had
expired. They had houses, provision grounds, allowances, and very low
wages, and were bound to work five days a week. The engagement expired
annually on the 1st of October, and on that day those who did not renew
their contract assembled in the two towns of the island for a
jollification, where something like the old "mop" or hiring fair of
England took place.

In 1878 they somehow got the impression that the labour law was about to
be relaxed, but there does not seem to have been any combination among
them to obtain such an end; they were dissatisfied, and that was all.
About the same time the Government were so assured of their peaceable
disposition that they reduced the garrison of Christiansted, the
capital, to sixty men. When the 1st of October arrived the negroes
assembled as usual in Frederiksted, round the rum shops, appearing
good-humoured, although noisy, as such a crowd always must be. Nothing