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Show 44 ~T. CIIIUSTOI'HER'S. before the act of emancipation,) it was worth only £2,000, with the slaves upon it.. Now, without a single slave, it is worth three times the money. I would not sell it for £6,000." This remarkable rise in the value of property, is by no means confined to particular estates. I was assured that, as compared with those times of depression and alarm which pre. ceded the act of emancipation, it is at once general and very considerable. I asked the president Crook, and some other persons, whether there was a single individual on the island, who wished for the restora· tion of slavery. Answer, " Certainly not one." After breakfast I was joined by our kind friend Archibald P. Burt, a lawyer of eminence, who accom. panied me on horseback for many miles, over lofty hills, to a village called Cayon. The view, from these hills, of the cultivated plains below, the town, the shipping, the sea, and the mountainous island of Nevis in the distance, was grand and beautiful. The highlands of St. Christopher's are evidently worthy of a more diligent examination than it was possible for us to give them. They are clothed with a forest of hard wood; chiefly, I believe, a tree with laurel-like leaves and large pink bell-formed blossoms (of which I observed many specimens) called on the island the white cedar. These woods abound with monkeys, mischievous enough among the canes, but always too cunning to be caught or shot. They regularly employ a sentinel in advance, who sets up a terrible screech· ing as soon as danger approaches. "Mount Misery," the loftiest in the island, is henceforth (the Lieu· tenant Governor afterwards assured us) to be culled ST. Cl-IRlS'fOPHER."s. 4r.i "Mount Liberty." It is an extinct volcano, 3,700 feet high; the crater is 2,600 feet in depth; the bottom of it is said to be a level of fifty acres, of which seven are covered with a lake, and the rest with grass and trees. Streams of hot water, impregnated with sulphur, still issue from the fissures. Beautiful wild flowers, and flowering shrubs, arc common in St. Christopher's, as well as Tortola; especially large hedges of aloes. One of the most valuable productions of the island is the "Tous-les-mois " so called from the notion that it blossoms every month. It is a beautiful plant, resembling the Canna Indica, and from its root is obtained a substance extremely similar, in appearance and taste, to arrow-root; equally nutritious, and better suited to a delicate stomach_ This substance is gradually becoming an important article of export. As to the staple article of sugar, we found the island in a condition of prosperity. It was supposed that the crop on the ground, which to us appeared heavy and luxuriant, would produce at least the usual average of 7,000 hogsheads ; and no difficulty whatever was apprehended in realising it. We accompanied our friend Burt to Ottley' s-a well ma.naged sugar estate, belonging to himself and Judge W1gley of Tortola-where we again examined the P~~cess of sugar making, and again saw the negroes d1hgently at work, on the day which they usually reserve for their own business. The day's wages, in this island, are from 7d. to 9d. sterling per day, besides the usual privileges; but the ncgr~es have uo difficulty in earning from 2s. to 3s. stcrlmg per day by job work. Under this system par- |