BAIRD'S WEST INDIES AND NORTH AMERICA.
IN 1849.* Mn. ROBERT BAIRD is a gentleman of Glasgow, who was advised to make a voyage to the West Indies for a pulmonary affection. In pursuance of that advice, he left England in January 1849, by one of the vessels of the West Indian Steam-packet Company; and after touching at Madeira, Barbados, St. Lucia, Martinique, Do- minica, and Guadeloupe, resided for some time in Antigua. He subsequently visited several of the other smaller islands, in- cluding the Danish settlements of St. Thomas and St. Croix ; so- journed in Jamaica and Cuba; just landed at Porto Rico ; and made an extensive tour through North America, commencing at Mobile • in Alabama, extending to Canada, and closing at Boston. The route Mr. Baird rau.sued was from Mobile to New Orleans ; thence he ascended the Mississippi and Ohio, to Louis- ville ; made his way to the Lakes ; saw Niagara, descended the St. Lawrence to Montreal and Quebec ; crossed into the States
again, and navigated the 'Judson from Albany to New York. Be- fore finnlly leaving America, he visited Philadelphia Baltimore,
and Washington' and, returning to the Empire State, went on to Boston; whence he embarked for England, calling at Tralifax en route.
Mr. Baird's opportunities were not so- great as the extent of his tour and the enumeration of places he visited would lead one to
suppose ; for at some of the islands his time was merely while the steamer was waiting ; Antigua, Jamaica, Cuba, and the Danish islands were the only places he seems to have remained at, besides New
islands, and New York. His opportunities, however, were greater than their results; for he does not add much to our exist- ing knowledge, though a thorough and unbiassed account of the West Indies is a thing much to be desired just now. Neither has he produced a very graphic -book. The tangible reasons for his want of success partly originate in very laudable motives. Mr. Baird is averse to the practice of exaggerating national peculiarities for the sake of literary effect, or inventing singularities with the same object; he is 80 more opposed to the introduction of indivi- duals from whom the traveller may have received civilities, and these scruples shut him out from two means of making a readable book. At the seine time, there is something in perception and taste as well as in literary morals. A vivacious mind will see and relish traits that escape or do not attract the graver character. Some men consequently perceive aninsement and instruction in mat- ters'which many consider barren. Writing, after all, is a secondary matter ; it is in fact merely the type of the mind. The man of spirit and penetration perceivesthe essential characteristics of things, and describes them in a kindred way. The common or feeble- minded person sees things in the gross and nothing very distinctly', and truly enough represents his own mind when he enumerates many subordinate or concomitant circumstances instead of the needful points. Even in the merest word-spinner, the words really represent the poverty or paucity of ideas, just as indifferent artists use a good many lines to depict imperfectly what the master does_ at once by a single stroke. That which we call self-training originates in natural bias, is continued by habit, and gives greater keenness to the observer, and greater closeness to his style ; while the mere phrasemonger acquires by a similar process a readier knell of disguising in words his want of perception, and improves in the wrong direction.
Mr. Baird has nothing of the litterateur about him but he Pro- bably would have become one had fate thrown him; upon litera- ture. His mind attends to indifferent circumstances as much as to the main substance, and hence he overlays his book with uninte- resting matter. He has also the uninstructed writer's ideas of being complete ; so he tells the story of most of the localities he comes to, is continually gathering facts about places, which might have been found ihi books without leaving the library, and, in- stead of presenting the facts which influenced his opinions, he writes disquisitions on subjects which- were scarcely required un- less he could pour into them more depth and more knowledge than he possesses : for instance, the West Indian question, slavery in America, international copyright, Canadian affairs, and emigra- tion. It is not that he is wrong in his views on these matters, but he is common, or he suggests what is not practical. An immigra- tion of labourers from Africa to the West Indies, carried thither by means of the present blockading squadron, would, no doubt, be useful to the planters' but that seems quite unattainable.
From living some time in Antigua, Jamaica, and Cuba, and mixing familiarly with the planters, Mr. Baird was in the way of getting good information and. arriving at correct conclusions. His opinion is not altogether new, but it is as discouraging as well can be. Under existing circumstances, Negro free labour cannot compete with slave labour in raising sugar. When the duties are eqealized, cultivation for export will be abandoned in the British West Indies : as the planters have no national or natural tie to the country, they will desert their profitless estates ; and the Blacks will become that nation of hucksters, small shopkeepers, and hand-to-mouth cultivators, which at one time formed the de- sideratum of Sir James Stephen and. Lord John Russell, as ex- pressed in a memorable despatch. The reduction of supply conse- • Impressions and EXperidnees of the West Indies and North America, in 1849. By Robert Baird, A.M. In two toluines. Published by Blackwood and Sons. quent upon this abandonment will raise the price of slave-grown
• .0 Mr. Baird conce '
ives it will rise as high as that which
St e trade " refused to pay. As there are, however, three rival cultivators—America, Cuba, and. Brazil—it is quite as likely that the slave-trade will receive a further stimulus, with little hope of its abolition after the failure of Emancipation in the British West Indies. It would be a singular thing if Whig-Buxton legislation should destroy our colonies extend the slave-trade, and rivet the fetters of the slave more firmly. As yet, Whig Free-trade legislation has had the effect of increasing the slave-trade and its hardships. " There can be no doubt of the fact, that during the laid year the impor- tation of slaves into the island of Cuba has been carried on in full rigour; so vigorously and extensively, that the price of slaves had fallen, in conse- quence of the plentiful supply, from four hundred and tiftv or five hundred to from two hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars. This fact is note- rMus, and I heard it authenticated by official authority. It is equally noto- rious in the island itself, that the agent of the Queen Mother. of Spain was and is extensively enga ged in the traffic • and it is more than sus- peeted that, directly or indirectly, his royal mistress is a large participator lit the heavy gains her agent realizes from this trade in human flesh. Indeed, the traffic 18 little short of being a legalized one ; the amount of dollars pay- able to the Governor or to the Government (for there is mach difference be- tween these two) being, if not fixed by law or order, at least as well under- steed as if it were so. All this is, of course, in direct and manifest violation of the engagements and treaties made by Spain with England; and it is an ascertained fact that fully one half of the slaves in Cuba are there held in abject bondage in violation of these soleinn treaties and engagements. In- deed, were it otherwise, it were nearly impossible that the Spanish colonists of Cuba could find slaves to cultivate their fields. Every one who knows Cuba, and the brutal inenner in which the great mass of the agricultural slaves are treated there, will laugh at the idea of the slave population of Cuba being self-supporting. Thanks to the lesson our Sugar-duties Bill of 1846 has taught them, the Cubans know well, not only that slave laboar is cheaper than free labour—so much cheaper that they can actually make for seven or eight shillings per hundredieight, the sugar that costs the British) Danish, or French colomst, at the very least, ten to twelve or fourteen shil- lings per hundredweight. But their knowledge of the statistics of the trade does not stop here ; they also know that it is much cheaper to import slaves than to breed them. The planter in Cuba found this to be the cue, even when the vigilance of the sritiah and French embers had made slaves so scarce in Cuba that the price of an able-bodied one was fully five hundred dollars. Of course, now that such vigilance has been, for a time at least; relaxed, and the price of slaves has fallen to from two hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars, the greater economy of keeping up the breed by portation is too. plain to be overlooked. Hence it is that the idea of a self= supporting system seems to be quite out of the Cubdierrealculations ; and that in the barraeoons on his estates there are often to be found numerous bands of males and but a very'few females, or ofttirues none at all. -It has been said, audit is generally credited by intelligent parties resident in Cuba, that the average duration of the life of a. Cuban slave, after his arrival in the island, does not exceed seven' or eight years • in short, that he is worked out in that time. is bodily frame cannot stand the excessive toil for a longer period."' ' As health was the primary object of Mr. Baird' tour, he na- turally paid great attention to everything connected with it,—the kind of climate to the feeling of the invalid, the kind of accommo- dations to be found, _the best islands to go to, and similar informa- tion: These sections form the most novel and important part of the book, and prove the importance of a subject. The following atidount of the heat would seem to show that it is not so hot as we generally believe, if you are not compelled to exertiot. and particularly on one in delicate health, little need here be said. It is hot; 'Of the general effects-of the climate of the West Indies on a European, but at the season of flay visit, between February and June, not so hot as I hathbeen led to anticipate from the representations of others. With proper precautiens, no one who visits the West Indies solely on account of health (and who is therefore not Under the necessity of exposing himself or herself often to the noonday sun) need make the heat any ground of serious objec- tion. There is generally-, if not always, a breeze which tempers the inten- sity of the sun's rays ; and the only remark the writer deems it necessary to make on this subject is, that, after, visiting nearly the whole of the islands of the West Indian Archipelago North of Barbados his experience is, that 'there is much more chance of injAry from disregarding the changes of the climate, and the occasional blasts and chills of evening, than of much dis- comfort being felt from excessive heat. In Barbados, and the islands to the North of it, the thermometer varies very greatly—ranging in the shade front a little above 70' to 110', and even sometimes higher—the variation being: of course dependent on the comparative elevation, and also on the degree of ex- posure to the breeze from the sea. In Barbados there is no ground which can be characterized as mountainous, the highest elevation in that island being little above eleven hundred feet. But there is a sea-breeze generally prevalent, which greatly tempera the heat. In Antigua there are many shun- tions of some elevation, where a delightful climate may be had and..thir same remark applies even more strongly to Montserrat, Nevis, and St. Kitt's. The genial breezes and verdure of Santa Cruz have recommended it to the Americans and others as a place of sanatory resort; and in the noble moun- tains of Dominica, Martinique, and still more of Jamaica, (the island of springs,) may be found every degree of climate, from sultry to temperate, and even to cold. Everything, therefore, depends on the proper selection by the invalid of his place of retreat. In the course of my remarks, I shall have occasion to explain my reasons for affirming, that, many as are the invalids, and particularly those labouring under pulmonary complaints, who now oc- casionally visit the West Indies, there is not only far tee great ignorance prevalent as to the superior advantages of these islands as places of sanatory retreat, but there is often much ignorance displayed in the selection of the particular island to which the patient goes or is sent. Meantime, however, I shall simply content myself with remarking, that while the subject is an important one involving as it does the hopes of many a household, and the question of recovery or of nonrecovery of many a fair face and lovely form, there is provided by Providence in the great range of temperature to be found in the West Indian islands climates suitable for almost every stage and variety of pulmonary complaint. " But even after having made a good selection as regards the place of re- sidence, the European, and especially the English venter, should be some- what prepared for meeting with various experiences which may offend his habits or militate against his comfort. Some one has before remarked, that comfort is sword which has a peculiarly English meaning as well as sound ; and dining a temporary- residence in the West Indies the English visiter may be occasionally reminded of this fact. Not to speak of the compara- tively open, desolate, and unfurnished appearance which some West India houses (and particularly most of the West India lodging-houses) have to an eye straight from the do -fashioned and richly-carpeted rooms of Eng- land, there are other differences to be enumerated, which have a tendency to offend at least the prejudices of the European traveller."
The following judicious remarks on manners in the United. States may be quoted for the information they contain, and as rt sample of the fair and temperate character of Mr. Baird's mind.
"As to the general tone of male and female society in America, in rela- tion to mind and manners, I muy have formed—nay, I did form—my own opinions in the different places I visited; and it is but fair to say, that from what I saw, these opinions could not be otherwise than highly favourable. But still I Lave not professed to give the reader any information on the sub- ject. My stay was too short, and my opportunities for judging too limited, to permit of my arriving at any general conclusions on questions lying so far below the surface of society. As regards the national manners in Ame- rica, all I feel justified in saying is, that in so far as I saw the same prin- ciples of action prevail in private life, the same circumstances produce the same results, the same motives give nse to the same actions in America as In England; and that he or she who would be considered a lady or a gen- tleman in America, would be considered equally entitled to the distinction in England, and no more. In reference to the oft-quoted and much- caricatured peculiarities of our Transatlantic friends, I would say that I heard nothing of the alleged general use or misuse of words not In an Englishman's vocabulary, or of English words to mean things and ideas different from the things or ideas we would understand them to mean in Great Britain. No doubt, there are in the conversa- tion, and even in the writings of some Americans, occasional uses of words which sound unwonted to the English ear; but in most cases it would be difficult to prove that the use so made of particular words or phrases was at variance with their etymological meaning and strict significance. Again, among the general travelling public of the United States, one frequently hears such words asfix," settle," dander,'calculate,' guess,"reckon,' &c.' applied in a manner that is of course impossible to justify or defend. But the conversation in good society is as little interlarded with expletives, or with solecisms in language, as is the conversation of similar society in Great Britain ; and sure I am, that, limited as was my stay in each place, I could point out domestic circles in Boston, and in several of the other cities of the American Union, where the use of the extraordinary words and sentences which many of my countrymen think to be ordinary characteristics of Yan- kee phrase' would be viewed with as much surynse as they would be in the most courtly circles of queenly England. It is all very desirable to write agreeable, piquant, and reada6le books; but it is too bad to sacrifice truth at the shrine of effect, for the purpose of making them so."
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