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Show 34 ST. CHRISTOPHER's. of the wind-mills turning-companies of negroes seen, in thedistance, at work in the fields-neat places of worship visibleand eight large vessels, with other smaller ones, m the harbor of Basse-terre, waiting, as we presumed, for theu cargoes of sugar. A more remarkable prima-facie evidence of prosperity, I have 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 friend and connection of nline, 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 obtain-ed at the taverns, and with the kind invitation of the President of the Council, W. H. Crook,.and of J..T. Pedder, tho Governor's Secretary, we took possession for a shor.t sejm:tr, of the government house, a commodious airy building, at a short 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 daily. 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 Claxton, the Solicitor General of the Colony, a gentleman of great intelligence and respectability. He was kind enough to impart a variety of useful, >md in general, cheering, information. One fact mentioned by him, spoke volumes. Speaking of a small ST. CHRISTOPHER'S. 35 property on the island belonging to himself, he said, "Six years ago, (that-is, shortly befure, hc net of emancipation,}j t was worth only £2,000, with the slavc:s upon it. Now, without a smgle 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 preceded 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 indi: vidual on the Island, who w1shed for the restoration of slavery. Answer, "Certainly not one." After breakfast I was joined by our kiiid friend, Archibald Burt, a lawyer of eminence, who accompanied me on horseback for many miles, over lofty hills, to a village called Cayon. The v1ew, 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 d1l1gent 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 lumel-like leaves, and large pink bellformed 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 cunmng to be caught or shot. They regularly employ a sentmel 111 advance, who sets up a terrible screeching as soon as danger approaches. "Mount 1\Iisery," the loftiest in the island, is henceforth (the Lieutenant Governor afterwards assured us) to be called " 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 whic~ seven are covered with a lake, and the rest ,vith grass and trees. Streams of hot water impregnated with sulphur, still Issue from the fissures. Handsome wild flowers, and flowering shrnbs, are common |