f
1843 proves that his capacity for mischief is unabated. The whole
island, indeed, is somewhat unsafe; for the hapless town of Point-a-
Pitre, destroyed by that earthquake, stands not on the volcanic
Basse Terre, but on the edge of the marine Grande Terre, near the
southern mouth of the salt-water river. Heaven grant these good
people of Guadaloupe a long respite; for they are said to deserve
it, as far as human industry and enterprise goes. They have, as
well, I understand, as the gentlemen of Martinique, discovered the
worth of the 'division of labour.' Throughout the West Indies the
planter is usually not merely a sugar-grower, but a sugar-maker
also. He requires, therefore, two capitals, and two intellects
likewise, one for his cane-fields, the other for his 'ingenio,'
engine-house, or sugar-works. But he does not gain thereby two
profits. Having two things to do, neither, usually, is done well.
The cane-farming is bad, the sugar-making bad; and the sugar, when
made, disposed of through merchants by a cumbrous, antiquated, and
expensive system. These shrewd Frenchmen, and, I am told, even
small proprietors among the Negroes, not being crippled, happily for
them, by those absurd sugar-duties which, till Mr. Lowe's budget,
put a premium on the making of bad sugar, are confining themselves
to growing the canes, and sell them raw to 'Usines Centrales,' at
which they are manufactured into sugar. They thus devote their own
capital and intellect to increasing the yield of their estates;
while the central factories, it is said, pay dividends ranging from
twenty to forty per cent. I regretted much that I was unable to
visit in crop-time one of these factories, and see the working of a
system which seems to contain one of the best elements of the co-
operative principle.

But (and this is at present a serious inconvenience to a traveller
in the Antilles) the steamer passes each island only once a
fortnight; so that to land in an island is equivalent to staying
there at least that time, unless one chooses to take the chances of
a coasting schooner, and bad food, bugs, cockroaches, and a bunk
which--but I will not describe. 'Non ragionam di lor, ma guarda'
(down the companion) 'e passa.'

I must therefore content myself with describing, as honestly as I
can, what little we saw from the sea, of islands at each of which we
would gladly have stayed several days.

As the traveller