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Show 42 ST. Cl-IJUSTOPII.ER's. state of no small poverty and distress. is some view entertained of converting it into a settlement. St. Martin'~, belonging partly to French, and part! y to the Dutch, and St. Bart's, Swedish island, once a place of much resort as a port, but now little frequented, present to the eye, one passes by, a picturesque outline. This however, applies with greater force to St. which rises to a great height, and has all the ancc of an extinct volcano. I am told that it is in fact. The plain at the bottom of the mountain, small extent, appeared, in the distant view, to be with sugar cultivation. The approach to St. Christopher's from the west, is highly interesting. The northern part island is mountainous and clothed with forest; as we drew near to the coast, it was delightful to serve the brows of the hills and plains below, and verdant with the sugar cane-the settlements the plauters looking neat and prosperous-some the wind-mills turning-companies of nq~rocs seen in the distance, at work in the fields-neat places worship visible-and eight large vessels, with other smaller ones, in the harbor of Basse-terre, waiting, as we presumed, for their cargoes of sugar. A more remarkable prima-facie evidence of prosperity, I hal'c seldom witnessed. This evidence we afterwards found to be fully confirmed. On our arrival at Basse-terre-a low, hot and dusty little town-we met with no small disappointment in the absence of the Lieutenant Governor, Charles Thornton Cunningham, a young fnend and connec- ST. C.:HIUSTOPllER's. 43 tion of mine, whom we were very desirous of visiting. He was gone to Antigua, on an official visit to Sir William Colebrooke, the Governor General of the Leeward islands. No suitable accommodation was to be obtained at the taverns, and, with the kind invitation of the President of the Council, W. H. Crook, and of J. T. Pcdder, the Governor's Secretary, we took possession for a short scjour, of the government house, a commodious, airy building, at a little distance from the town. There we found kind attentions and agreeable accommodations, and were glad to be even so far out of the way of an epidemic fever (occasioned probably by the malaria of a salt marsh to the windward) which was then raging in the town-considerable numbers dying rlaily. Early the next morning, I mounted one of the Governor's horses, and enjoyed a solitary ride in the country. Although it was the Seventh day of the week, usually applied by the emancipated laborers to their private purposes, I observed many of them diligently at work on the cane grounds, cutting the canes for the mill. Their aspect was that of physical vigor, and cheerful contentment, and all my questions as I passed along, were answered satisfactorily. On my way, I ventured to call at one of the estates, and found it was the home of Robert Cli}xton, the Solicitor General of the colony, a gentleman of intelligence and respectability. He was kind enough to impart a variety of useful, and, in general, cheering information. One fact, mentioned by him, is highly encouraging. Speaking of a small property on the island belonging to himself; he said, "Six years ago, (that is, shortly |