first brought there by English people, within the last seventy or
eighty years.

Hayti is now a much more flourishing island than it was; the Emperor,
Faustin Soulouque, does every thing in his power to render it a
civilized and polite country. He encourages all the arts and
industrial sciences; and, in his court is kept up the grandeur of a
great and powerful state; though the Haytians are black people, and
were for the greater part negro slaves.

Barbadoes is an exceedingly warm country, and is unfortunately liable
to dreadful hurricanes, which sometimes overthrow whole towns and
villages. The products are sugar, cotton, ginger, and rum. The tall
sugar-canes, which grow as high as five or six feet, are set in
plantations and tended by negroes; and the cotton plants are also
taken care of by the negroes, who are almost the only persons who can
work in the open air, on account of the heat. The houses of the
planters are numerous all over the country; and, with the green hills,
and the luxuriance of the vegetation, make an extremely picturesque
scene.

Since slavery has been abolished in our West India islands, schools
for the children, and chapels for religious worship, have been erected
at the expense of the negroes; numbers of whom have also become small
landowners.

[Illustration]

What a number of specimens have been despatched to the Exhibition from
Algeria, Tunis, and the Cape of Good Hope: one, a model of a winged
head, moulded in fine yellow clay, is really pretty; and the preserved
fruits have quite a tempting look. And here are some boxes, made of
most brilliant fancy woods; a few knives, soaps, cigars, herbs, and
specimens of various woods, in blocks and in polished pieces. Here is
also opium, paper made from the palm-tree, articles manufactured from
native woods, with essences, perfumes, and splendid veils, slippers,
caps, guns, and swords.

Algeria now belongs to France; it was formerly one of the Barbary
States, in the north of Africa, and many very useful plants and trees
flourish there; oranges, melons, cucumbers, cabbages, lettuces, and
artichokes, grow in great luxuriance. The sugar-cane is cultivated
with success; and everywhere may be seen quantities of white roses,
from which a sweet essence is extracted. The stems of the vines, which
the people tend, are sometimes so thick, that a man can hardly put his
arms round them; and the bunches of grapes are a foot and a-half long.
Only think of b