orm could human life assume more charming than that which we were now
looking on? Once more, the earth does not contain any peasantry so well
off, so well cared for, so happy, so sleek and contented as the sons and
daughters of the emancipated slaves in the English West Indian Islands.
Sugar may fail the planter, but cocoa, which each peasant can grow with
small effort for himself, does not fail and will not. He may 'better his
condition,' if he has any such ambition, without stirring beyond his own
ground, and so far, perhaps, his ambition may extend, if it is not
turned off upon politics. Even the necessary evils of the tropics are
not many or serious. His skin is proof against mosquitoes. There are
snakes in Trinidad as there were snakes in Eden. 'Plenty snakes,' said
one of them who was at work in his garden, 'plenty snakes, but no
bitee.' As to costume, he would prefer the costume of innocence if he
was allowed. Clothes in such a climate are superfluous for warmth, and
to the minds of the negroes, unconscious as they are of shame,
superfluous for decency. European prejudice, however, still passes for
something; the women have a love for finery, which would prevent a
complete return to African simplicity; and in the islands which are
still French, and in those like Trinidad, which the French originally
colonised, they dress themselves with real taste. They hide their wool
in red or yellow handkerchiefs, gracefully twisted; or perhaps it is not
only to conceal the wool. Columbus found the Carib women of the island
dressing their hair in the same fashion.[6]

The waterworks, when we reached them, were even more beautiful than we
had been taught to expect. A dam has been driven across a perfectly
limpid mountain stream; a wide open area has been cleared, levelled,
strengthened with masonry, and divided into deep basins and reservoirs,
through which the current continually flows. Hedges of hibiscus shine
with crimson blossoms. Innumerable humming birds glance to and fro among
the trees and shrubs, and gardens and ponds are overhung by magnificent
bamboos, which so astonished me by their size that I inquired if their
height had been measured. One of them, I was told, had lately fallen,
and was found to be 130 feet long. A single drawback only there was to
this enchanting spot, and it was again the snakes. There are huge
pythons in Trinidad which are supposed to have crossed the straits from
the continent. The cool water p