Part 13

At this very interesting period of suspense, if a strange vessel enter the bay, the whole harbour becomes a crowded and moving scene, in consequence of almost every ship sending off a boat to seek tidings of the fleet. You, who can feel for our solicitude, will compassionate our disappointment, when we happen to find that she is not direct from England. This frequently occurs, and we return loaded with chagrin. Of two ships which have been this day thronged with eager visitors, one proved to be from Newfoundland with fish, and the other from the coast of Africa with slaves; consequently neither of them knew so much of England or the convoy as ourselves.

I am sorry to tell you that information of an unpleasant nature has reached us from Grenada, in consequence of which it has been deemed expedient to embark a body of troops, on board the Expedition _armée en flute_, and other smaller vessels, to send to the relief of that island, without waiting for the arrival of the commander in chief.

Could it have been known, that the remainder of the convoy would have been detained so many weeks behind us, the troops which have assembled at Barbadoes might have been beneficially employed in restoring tranquillity to our disordered islands, and, perhaps, have been still in time to have joined in the great, and more combined object of the campaign. But it is not given to humanity to foresee events, and the sad disasters of this formidable armament only tend to prove the extreme uncertainty which must ever attend our expeditions. The plan may be concerted with wisdom; all the necessaries amply provided; and the force, on sailing, fully adequate to the intended purposes: yet, after all, the lamentable fickleness of the elements will often frustrate the best and wisest arrangements.

We have an encampment of negroes formed near Bridge-town, upon a spot called Constitution-hill. They are a fine body of men, who have been enlisted from the revolted French islands, or brought away on the evacuation of them by our troops. They are active and expert, and are training into a formidable corps to assist in our intended attacks. About sixteen hundred of them bear arms; besides whom there are twelve hundred to be employed as pioneers. They have all the vivacity and levity of the French character; and it, occasionally, affords us amusement to observe the Barbadoes negroes looking at them with evident amazement, and seemingly wondering at their volatility and alertness. John Bull differs not more widely from a Parisian _petit-maître_ than many of the Barbadoes slaves from the _sable fops_ of this sprightly corps.

It is now the dry season of the year at Barbadoes, and if you have imbibed the same idea of a tropical climate which I remember to have once felt, you will learn, with surprise, that very few days have passed, since we have been here, without a refreshing shower of rain. The heat is far more supportable than we had expected. The thermometer, at noon, is commonly about 80, and very seldom exceeds 82: we have not yet seen it above 84.

It happens, fortunately, that some of the ships, laden with the temporary hospitals, made in England, have reached Carlisle Bay, and, likewise, a few of the men belonging to the corps of artificers; who, together with some creole and negro carpenters, are actively employed in fitting and putting up these frames with all possible speed: but much of hurry and difficulty might have been avoided if the hospitals, the barracks, and other buildings had been sent out in time to have been put up before any of the troops, or any division of the moving part of the expedition came in.

The confusion that must necessarily arise from the arrival of the soldiers, of the buildings requiring to be erected, and of all the various departments, at the same moment, must be self-evident; and it will readily appear, from the hurried and numerous claims each department will have upon the artificers, that many of the requisites attaching to the hospitals may not be completed, before the more urgent necessity for them may have ceased. Present experience may convey an useful lesson.

From the great exertions now making we hope very soon to have hospital room at St. Anne’s Hill, for, at least, a thousand sick, and I am sorry to remark, from the unhealthy state in which some of the transports have already arrived, that it seems likely we may have occasion for it all; but we have the further convenience of hospital ships, should they be required, and have, therefore, the prospect of seeing all the sick very tolerably placed, and amply provided with such necessaries as their unfortunate condition may demand. This, to a medical officer, is a circumstance of no trivial import. To the service it is likewise essential: but, speaking as an individual, I know of few things that could be so truly distressing, as to behold a crowd of brave and suffering soldiers lying destitute of the comforts and accommodations required in sickness; and you will believe that I feel a cordial gratification in finding that I am not likely to witness this example of misery.

In a moon-light walk lately from St. Anne’s Hill to Bridge-town, after our visit at the hospital, our attention was very powerfully arrested by the peculiar appearance of a grove of coco-nut trees, at the side of the road. From the brightness of the moon, the peculiar form of the trees, and the dead stillness of the night, we were suddenly struck with the grandeur and solemnity of the scene. The trees grew nigh, one to another, and the naked trunks formed so many stately pillars, supporting their palmated summits, which, stretching to meet each other, assumed the semblance of extensive aisles of Gothic arches. A gentle breeze waved the leaves in soothing undulation, while the dark shading foliage shut out the silver moon-beams, allowing only an occasional ray to steal in at partial openings, to relieve the sepulchral gloom. At the same time the sea at the bottom of the grove rolled its tranquil billows in soft murmurs to the shore, and broke in whispers scarcely to be heard upon the sands.

LETTER XXV.

Barbadoes, March 1796.

It being stipulated that all subjects of remark may find place in my _Notes_, you will not reproach me, if an occasional sentence shall chance to be given upon medical matters. Indeed, you have desired it should be so, and this prevents the necessity of apology.

You will have collected, from what I have said before, that there are gentlemen engaged in the healing art in Barbadoes, who are, equally, an honor to their profession, and an ornament to society, and I may here repeat that many such are to be met with in the island. But it is an unhappy truth that there are others who are only pre-eminent in ignorance, for, alas! practitioners in medicine may be found in this colony, who, in learning and manners, are not far removed above the slaves. They are more illiterate than you can believe, and the very _negro doctors_ of the estates too justly vie with them in medical knowledge. It has happened to us to see, among them, men, who instead of having the care of the health and lives of their fellow-subjects, ought not to be intrusted to compound a pill, or a bolus. A tyro, advanced only a year or two in his apprenticeship, in England, is far better instructed in medicine, than some of the soi-disans and practising _proficients_ of Barbadoes. Totally unprepared with a classical education, and, indeed, wholly devoid of the very rudiments of literature, they indolently waste a few years, in the house, or idly looking out at the shop-window of some uneducated apothecary of the island, and then, in all the bold confidence of ignorance, they commence _Doctors_, feeling themselves fully qualified, without professional reading, without visiting the schools of Europe, without experience, and I might say, without thought, or judgment, to undertake the cure of all the direful maladies which afflict mankind; in short, without one necessary qualification do these creole _pretenders_ feel themselves competent to exercise all the various branches of the healing art.

In every climate, a sound judgment, and an acuteness of discrimination, together with a correct knowledge of the human frame, are necessary to the successful treatment of diseases: but in the West Indies, where the attack is too commonly sudden, and the progress destructively rapid, if the disorder be neglected or badly treated, in its incipient stage, medicine becomes inefficient, and, too often, the disease cannot be subdued by all the art of the best-informed Physician. How lamentable, then, is it that such ignorant medicasters should be intrusted, and particularly in a tropical region, with the health and lives of multitudes of their fellow-beings!

When we reflect that the riches and prosperity of a country are intimately connected with its population, and that the lives of men are of the greatest importance to the state, it becomes matter of surprise and astonishment, that, even in the remotest colony, such uninstructed pretenders should be permitted to disgrace the healing art. If that wise principle, “salus populi suprema lex,” be correct, and I suspect it cannot be disputed, the health of the people must be a subject of the highest consideration to every government: how then are we to account for the apathy which permits such dangerous _doctors_ to wield the destructive lance, or, how shall we explain the miscalculating policy which not only tolerates a tremendous host of empirics, but suffers them to over-run every part of the state, under the all-creating sanction of _a patent_, or allows them, on the bare privilege of bold assurance, to commit depredations upon the health, the purses, and _the lives_ of His Majesty’s subjects?

In one of our late walks, near Bridge-town, we met with two small windmills, erected for the purpose of clearing the cotton from its seeds; and, as they happened to be in motion, we availed ourselves of the opportunity of waiting a short time, to witness the process. The cotton envelopes the seeds, forming the matrix in which they grow and are embedded; when pulled from the pod it is separated from them by being caused to pass through the bite of two small metallic rollers, placed horizontally, one over the other, and turned by the action of the mill. These going round, near to each other, are fed with the cotton, which they take in, without receiving the seeds, leaving them to fall to the ground, or into a basket below, while the cotton, drawn between the rollers, is ejected into a box on the opposite side. The process is so entirely simple, that it might be performed equally well by a smaller instrument worked with the hand, or the foot, and which we are told is the method practised in many of the colonies.

Among the novelties which meet the eye of an European upon his arrival in the West Indies, is the practice of carrying the children across the hip, instead of seating them upon the arm. The lower class of white women, in Barbadoes, have adopted this custom, from the example of the negroes, among whom it seems to be the universal mode of nursing. A deformed negro is a very rare object, and this may probably be attributed, in great measure, to the management of them in their infancy: they have the advantage of being allowed to crawl about upon their hands and feet at a very early age, in perfect freedom, unrestrained by ligatures, or tight garments.

Although the mode of carrying children upon the hip is the common method among the slaves, yet, when they have to take them to a great distance, they neither place them upon the hip, nor the arm, but upon the back; for which purpose a mere pocket-handkerchief, tied carelessly round the mother, often suffices.

A few evenings ago I witnessed a scene of cruelty, which strongly exemplified the abject and wretched condition to which human beings are subjected in a life of slavery. It happened that I was waiting upon the quay for the Lord Sheffield’s boat, when two men, apparently white creoles, came up, and seized a negro, who was standing near me, accusing him of having run away from his master. The poor black assured them that he had no master,—that he belonged to Mrs. ——, that he was well known in the town, and that they must, certainly, have mistaken his person! Upon these grounds he strongly urged the impropriety of their taking him to prison: but, regardless of his remonstrances, and of their own error, they tied him with a thick cord, fastened his hands, and forced him towards the place of confinement! Curiosity led me to follow them. The poor man still pleaded his innocence, and the wrong they had committed, begging and praying to be allowed to refer them to his mistress, or to another family in the town, to identify his person. Heedless of his protestations and entreaties they still dragged him on, and from his only expressing a reluctance at being thus, unjustly, hurried to a prison, one of these hardened wretches struck him a violent blow on the head, with a large stick, calling out to the other, in broad Barbadoes accent, “Daa-am him, cut him down.”

A little before they reached the prison they had to pass a door-way where there happened to be a strong light, by means of which one of these cruel instruments of the law of _force_ instantly recognised the poor ill-treated slave, and finding that they were actually guilty of the mistake which the negro had stated, he called out to his savage comrade, who had struck the helpless black upon the head, “Daa-am him, I know the fellow, we must let him go;” upon which, they both, with dreadful imprecations, ordered him to stand, _without stirring_, whilst they should untie him: and, upon his only moving his arm to expedite the loosening of the cord, they swore, that if he dared “_to stir_, or _look savage_,” they would “cut him down,” or put him “directly into prison.” Such was the compensation dealt him for the unjust and cruel treatment which he had already received. The wretches not only dragged the unoffending slave to a prison, in defiance of his solemn assurances of their having erroneously seized him, and without allowing him an appeal to any one who knew his person, but, because he ventured to say they were committing an error, had the inhumanity to strike him with a force sufficient to have fractured his skull, and to threaten him with the further severity of death, or a dungeon, should he dare only to cast a _look_ of displeasure.

What must have been the feelings of this injured man! who, after being abused and maltreated, was put in fear of his life, if he should only permit nature to assume her seat on his brow,—if the cruelty, pain, and injustice which he had suffered, should only cause a mark of disapprobation to appear upon his countenance! But nature, however proscribed, was not to be restrained by such command! While the power of memory remains to me I can never—_never_ forget the indignant, but hopeless expression of injury which overspread the features of this poor slave, as he retired! He felt aggrieved, and was conscious that——he had no remedy,—no appeal!

LETTER XXVI.

Barbadoes, March 9.

It occurs to me that, amidst all the uncertainties of our unfortunate fleet, it may be pleasant to you and others of our friends to know which of the ships have made good the passage; I send you, therefore, the annexed list of upwards of sixty, which are now safe at anchor in Carlisle Bay.

A vessel from Liverpool is come into harbour, which sailed on the 9th of January, but we are still without any late news of the fleet, which took its departure on the 9th of December; and, singular to tell, the Liverpool ship, now arrived, performed the whole voyage without falling in with any one of the convoy. It is now thirteen weeks since the fleet left England, and we know about as much concerning the great body of it, at this moment, as if it were sailing in the moon.

We, who are destined to proceed to St. Domingo, have new disappointment in finding that the Cork division, intended for that island, had not sailed at a date many weeks subsequent to the time when it had been reported to be at sea; and we now feel it probable that we may be long detained or even placed on duty at Barbadoes, in consequence of the increasing number of sick, and the non-arrival of the medical officers of the Charibbee Island, or what is incorrectly called the _Leeward_-Island staff.

You will be surprised, perhaps, to know that the transports in Carlisle Bay have been several times interrupted, and the whole harbour disturbed, and brought into a state of anxiety, by the visitings of different press-gangs, in the exercise of that necessary custom, so repugnant to the feelings, and the freedom of Englishmen.

In one instance an alarming scene took place in consequence of the sailors of one of the ships resisting this arbitrary and unconstitutional method of obtaining their services. They opposed the boarding, and beat off the agent, and two boats with the press-gang. This resistance was soon followed by the appearance of a party of soldiers, with firelocks and fixed bayonets, who were called to aid the press-party, and to force the sailors to submission.

It has been our fortune on board the Lord Sheffield to be visited by two different bodies of the press-gang in the course of the same night: one of which came alongside at midnight; the other at two o’clock in the morning. From stealing upon us unexpectedly, and in the dark, you will suppose that much hurry and confusion was created. Being wakened by the noise of people over my head, I put on my _robe de chambre_, and went up to learn the cause, when, finding what visitors they were, I felt a strong disposition to observe their conduct and manner of proceeding, and therefore remained upon deck, during the time they continued on board.

A Lieutenant of the navy was stalking up and down with a huge drawn sabre in his hand, calling out, with boatswain’s lungs, for the steward to bring a light. His men were running about every part of the ship with cutlasses, pistols, hangers, and various other weapons. The sailors whom they found upon deck, were instantly tumbled into a boat at the side, filled with armed men; the others secreted themselves in holes and corners, while the old steward with seeming haste, but with fox-like cunning, delayed the candle. Perhaps you will say it was a little severe to demand a light, at all, from the ship, in order to rob her of her own men; but the whole proceeding was alike arbitrary and despotic, and this only consistent with the other parts of it. They came in darkness, and with muffled oars, that they might take the vessel by surprise.

The steward, somewhat endangered, from the ire which he had provoked by his well-contrived delay, at length appeared with the lantern; and a general search was immediately made below. The cabins,—the cable-tier,—the pantries,—the lockers,—the very pig-sty,—every hole and corner they could think of were hunted out, and they seemed resolved that not a spot should be omitted. Yet, notwithstanding all their vigilance, several of the sailors contrived to elude the search. One, who had not time to escape to a place of more probable security, remained quietly in his hammock, and, when they came to examine it, affected to awake uttering a loud groan, strongly expressive of pain and suffering. Hearing this, the press-gang asked who it was, and if a sailor. The mate, who was watching them with a vigilance not inferior to their own, immediately replied that it was a sick man, who had been long confined to his birth. His promptitude was successful: sick men they did not want; and the sailor was left undisturbed—his freedom the fruit of his well-timed stratagem, and of the expertness of the mate in promoting it.

LETTER XXVII.

Barbadoes, March 15.

We made a visit this morning to the senate-house, and were present at a sitting of the general assembly of the island. The proceedings were conducted according to the routine of our House of Commons, which the assembly regards as its model. The representatives, like ours, are returned from the provinces, two, not from each county, but from each parish: and, there being eleven parishes in the island, the assembly, consequently, consists of twenty-two members.

As in our house, so in theirs, the person who presides is denominated “the speaker.”

Among the members we recognised several of the gentlemen whom we had seen upon our marooning excursion into the country. It did not happen to be a sitting of great interest to strangers, there being but little before the house for discussion, and, consequently, few debates. Reading and passing a militia act, and some other bills, constituted nearly the whole business of the meeting. One part of the proceedings, however, we thought to be strictly in the —— _order of the day_. It was excessively warm, and we were parching with thirst, when two persons suddenly appeared with a large bowl, and a two-quart glass filled with punch and sangaree. These were presented to “Mr. Speaker,” who, after dipping deeply into the bowl, passed it among the members: nor was the audience forgotten, for we were most gratefully taught that the hospitality, so universal in the island, prevails in the senate. The glass was handed up to us, and we found that it was _relevant_ for strangers to join in this part of the debate. It came at a moment peculiarly opportune, and we drank cordially to our friends, and the house of assembly.

We have, lately, had a very interesting party to dine with us on board the Lord Sheffield; among whom were three gentlemen who had recently returned from imprisonment; one from France, the others from Guadaloupe.

One of the gentlemen, who had been taken to Guadaloupe, was confined on board a prison-ship, with several others of our countrymen, where, being treated with great rigour, and fed with a very scanty allowance of bad food, he entered into a confidential agreement, with one of his fellow-prisoners, to concert some means of escape; and, one day, seeing a boat, convenient for their purpose, come to the ship, they stepped over the side of the vessel, and descending suddenly into it, as it lay alongside, immediately threw overboard three of the five negroes, who were in it, and compelled the other two to take up their oars, and assist in rowing them away.

The success of this perilous enterprise was equal to the boldness with which it was undertaken. The sentinels fired at them in vain: being once clear of the ship they pulled the oars with vigour, and, encouraging the blacks to their aid, were soon out of reach. Neither boats, nor bullets were able to overtake them: they were quickly at sea, in their open skiff, and, gladly, entrusted themselves to the mercy of the elements. The weather favored them, and they soon made a port of safety in a British island.