Barbadoes itself till a later opportunity. My purpose had been to remain
there till I had given it all the time which I could spare, thence to go
on to Jamaica, and from Jamaica to return at leisure round the Antilles.
But it had been ascertained that in Jamaica there was small-pox. I
suppose that there generally is small-pox there, or typhus fever, or
other infectious disorder. But spasms of anxiety assail periodically the
souls of local authorities. Vessels coming from Jamaica had been
quarantined in all the islands, and I found that if I proceeded thither
as I proposed, I should be refused permission to land afterwards in any
one of the other colonies. In my perplexity my Trinidad friends invited
me to accompany them at once to Port of Spain. Trinidad was the most
thriving, or was at all events the least dissatisfied, of all the
British possessions. I could have a glance at the Windward Islands on
the way. I could afterwards return to Barbadoes, where Sir Charles
assured me that I should still find a room waiting for me. The steamer
to Trinidad sailed the same afternoon. I had to decide in haste, and I
decided to go. Our luncheon over, we had time to look over the pretty
gardens at Government House. There were great cabbage palms, cannon-ball
trees, mahogany trees, almond trees, and many more which were wholly new
acquaintances. There was a grotto made by climbing plants and creepers,
with a fountain playing in the middle of it, where orchids hanging on
wires threw out their clusters of flowers for the moths to fertilize,
ferns waved their long fronds in the dripping showers, humming birds
cooled their wings in the spray, and flashed in and out like rubies and
emeralds. Gladly would I have lingered there, at least for a cigar, but
it could not be; we had to call on the Commander of the Forces, Sir C.
Pearson, the hero of Ekowe in the Zulu war. Him, too, I was to see
again, and hear interesting stories from about our tragic enterprise in
the Transvaal. For the moment my mind was filled sufficiently with new
impressions. One reads books about places, but the images which they
create are always unlike the real object. All that I had seen was
absolutely new and unexpected. I was glad of an opportunity to readjust
the information which I had brought with me. We joined our new vessel
before sunset, and we steamed away into the twilight.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Labat seems to say that they were hung up alive in these cages, and