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Show 72 DOMINICA. the extent of its capacities, the remaining wild land being of little value. Dominica is watered by a vast number of little streams which flow (as we were told) from a fathomless lake cmbosomed in the mountains, at a high level above the sea. It is. i~ consequ~nce a moist island, and of luxuriant fertility; and nmetenths of the soil, productive as it is by nature, are wholly unoccupied-in a state of absolute w_ildn_ess. Antigua again, long before the date of emmlClpatwn, was the scene of much Christian labor, and education had been spread extensively among the slaves. On the contrary, in Dominica, the people, who speak a barbarous French patois, were, until lately, almost entirely destitute of schools, or any other means of instruction- an ignorant and uncultivated race. And yetwonderful to say-the experiment of emancipation is working just as well in Dominica as it is in Antigua. The negroes of Dominica, neither squat on the wild land, nor show any wildness themselves ; the trifling unsettlement which took place at the date of full freedom, soon subsided; and they are working, in a quiet inoffensive manner, on the estates of their former masters. "Their conduct," says one of the Stipen· diaries (in his last report to the Governor General, dated "January 1, 1840") "is orderly, quiet, and peaceable." A second says, "They continue to conduct themselves with every propriety;" a third ob· serves that "their general conduct is orderly and industrious." The solution of the problem is easy. Educated, or uneducated, the negro loves his hom:, humble thoul\h it be, and has no wish to exchange It for a wild life upon the mountains. With equal sin· DOMINICA. 73 eerily he loves the silver "mochas" which are placed in his hands as the reward of his labor, and it is natural to him to work, in order to obtain them. On the following morning we obtained a distant view of Dominica, but did not succeed in reaching Roseau, until nightfall. Columbus discovered this island on the First day of the week-thence its name, Dominica; and when queen Isabella asked for a description of it, he crumpled a sheet of paper in his hands, in order to give her some notion of the jagged and compressed appearance of its conical mountains. One cannot approach this roman tic spot of earth, without feeling a kind of fascination. A late writer describes it as a land of" mists and torrents and rainbows," and such it truly is. The mountains, peaked and picturesque as they are, and some of them verv lofty-the highest five thousand six hundred fee-t above the level of the sea-are mantled to their very tops with luxuriant vegetation ; and through the deep ravines and luxuriant dells which divide them, many a sudden ~ust of wind assails the mariner, and man~ a mountam stream finds its way into the ocean. As it was quite dark before we cast anchor, we concluded not to attempt a landing until morning; but after I had retired to my berth, I was told that two colored gentlemen, Louis Bellot, a planter, and Charles Fillan, clerk to the house of representatives, had come on board to offer us a hearty welcome, and tender their help and hospitality. We declined their kindness for the night; but the next morning they rejoined our company, and conducted us to the clean and comfortable abode of Maria Dalrymple, a colored Methodist |