BOOK I: BARBADOS
[41] Our distinguished voyager visited many of the British West
Indies, landing first at Barbados, his social experience whereof is
set forth in a very agreeable account. Our immediate business,
however, is not with what West Indian hospitality, especially among
the well-to-do classes, can and does accomplish for [42] the
entertainment of visitors, and particularly visitors so eminent as
Mr. Froude. We are concerned with what Mr. Froude has to say
concerning our dusky brethren and sisters in those Colonies. We
have, thus, much pleasure in being able at the outset to extract the
following favourable verdict of his respecting them--premising, at
the same time, that the balcony from which Mr. Froude surveyed the
teeming multitude in Bridgetown was that of a grand hotel at which he
had, on invitation, partaken of the refreshing beverage mentioned in
the citation:--
"Cocktail over, and walking in the heat of the sun being a thing not
to be thought of, I sat for two hours in the balcony, watching the
people, who were as thick as bees in swarming time. Nine-tenths of
them were pure black.
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