The sun., 1894-10-14
A BUSY BRITISH COLONY.
BARBADOEs, WHERE THE INHAB-
ITANTS MUST WORK TO LIVE.

The snip lay anchored IN CARLISLE Bay, on
Tho coast of Barbados, with the city Of Bridge
town in front Of us and n largo breakwater
alongside. This broakwnter Ia the making OF
tho harbor, for Carlisle Bay Is hardly more than
. roadstead. II not only makes safe anchorage
for vessels, but gives them n 'csreenage' better
even than the natural one at st. Lucia, where
small vessels can bo carecned and scraped.
These 'careenages,' which believe are still In
use In some parts Of our own country, are very
common in tho West Indies, where the native
vessels are usually small. To make good
cArcenago nothing is needed but a wcll-sheltcr-
ed strip Of hard sand beach with gentle slope,
~ was almost sorry when We reached Barba-
docs" the young botanist continued. because
that showed that the end OF my delightful jour
ney was approaching Beyond Barbados my
only stop was to be at Tobago on the way to
Trinidad. and Trinidad was the end. But there
was a certain romantic pleasure in lying in the
roadstead of Barbadoes, for that island Is, In
literature at least, the hub and centre of West
Indian romance. had not forgotten that Robin
son Crusoo on his memorable voyage therefore
resolved 10 stand away for Barbados He did
not reach II, however. because on the way he
was wrecked on the island OF Tobago. OF course
had read For Faith and Freedom and the
terrible accounts in IL Of tho Barbadocs sugar
plantations. considered myself entitled TO look
for something highly picturesque.
You can imagine that was surprised when
found Barbados the most commonplace ofisl-
ands In appearance. As seen from the ship there
nothing more tropical about II than few
cocoanut trees growing along tho shore, and the
binding glare of the sun. Indeed IL reminded
me very much OF Block Island on hot sum-
mer's day. Just crowd Block Island with peo-
pie, and put city Of $4,000 inhabitants on tho
shore. and make the soil little whittier, and you
will have good idea OF Barbados as seen from
the deck. II is almost absolutely fiat: no noun
tains at ALL and no elevation reaching an nlti-
tude OF 1000 feet. Every inch of II seems TO
be cultivated. Here and there are little clusters
of trees, but there are no forests. There is not
river, not a stream, except few hidden ones
that flow underground. Instead OF an isle OF
romance, IL seems from the ships deck to be
very matter-of-fact place, devoted TO business.
THE resemblance to Block Island faded
away when the boatmen began to come out to
us. These boatmon very plentiful in Bridge
town. and the moment passenger ship arrives
they swarm out to her. They have the reputa-
tion OF being the most impudent negroes in the
world, those Barbados boatmen, and had
some curiosity to see them. They are very en-
ergetic and very pushing, certainly, but can
not say that found them impudent 1t seemed
to me that they were in their way just about
like the hackmen In any large place where they
are not well controlled by the police.
" You must imagine the ship lying there in
smooth water 30 clear that you see the hot
tom anywhere. with thirty or forty passengers
leaning over the rail- perhaps ten or twelve OF
whom intend 10 land at Barbados. Then YOU
must see perfect fleet OF rowboats come along
side each containing two or three black men.
and each of these black men using his voice To
(,,IIa ..,s. IA
ger walks down the Cangway and all the boat
men make frantic efforts to push TO the front.
80 Here Won is mawster," one Of III. boatmen
shouts; Use your boy. mawster. I row Won
ashore lawst time YOU was here mawsterw' Tse
'Merican man: been 10 New York mawsterr
another cries Here de bes, boat in de harbor
saws n third. Every one of them has
some inducement to offer. and the dialect ia
more easily understood than on some of the
Islands. for nothing but English IL spoken in |
When the boatman secures his pas |
senger he Ia so crate ful that he almost always
tries TO charge him n dollar for taking him
ashore, the legal fare being 25 cents
MY boatman landed me at a very solid stone
wharf with steps TO allow for the rising and fall
ing tides. ana one OF his assistants Immediately |
offered 10 become nv guide The CaptaIn OF the |
.hip Ind given me n hint on This noint A
,tranQer landing in Barbaloes sbould olwsvs
engage guide at the earliest moment TO save
himself ANNOYANCE, otherwise he will have a |
troop of colorcd people. Young and old. following
him Offering their services. With this knowl- |
.dge engaged the Young boatman. knew. TOO. |
hat a guide is a cheap luxury in Brdgetown-a |
few pennies nav the bill.
"where Won 90. mawster = he asked. .Tode |
hotel? To do icehouseY'
"The mere suggestIon of the icehouse was |
cooling. That Barbadoes sun comes down |
straight and hard. for the island il only 900 |
miles north OF the Equator and I'm the utter nh |
ence of shade was a little afraid of il. | had |
earned on the other islands that n West Indian |
cehouse IA not merely n place where ice is
stored, but a restaurant also, and generally a |
,tore, a place where ice cream and other cooling |
htn,,s -. ~ Ia a., . t,1.I,a -. d., ,h |
"""s9 ihaS "e han' an" iaNorte resort 'or tho
people. decided unhesitatingly In favor OF the |
cehouse, and we started across n small open |
,onara In ,,LIcb ,ho onI, sLaa. a ,,,aT, b. 90,
'I""i. III Mh''h tho ohiS sha"e ~ given ny ONO
palm tree, and In which there is no |
yrass, but sand and limestone rock instead. You
na, ba,,a ,o,I,1 ,, ~, - a, ,,a,,.ir,,
nay hs'o ho'iceu u'at limestone rock 's usuAily |
white. was thankful that the square we |
crossed was very small. not only ON account Of |