From some unknown circumstance, my Aunt Josephine had imbibed an unaccountable prejudice against these islands. She was wont to consider them as lands, where the most disgusting tyranny, and the most barbarous cruelties were inflicted, for the purposes of gain, by unrelenting and avaricious planters, over a tame but unfortunate race of people, whose only crime was that of being discontented with their enslaved condition. These notions had induced my well-meaning, but mistaken, relative to refrain from taking even the smallest quantity of sugar in her tea; and I verily believe that she had not tasted pie, pudding, tartlet, or any other eatable of which this ingredient composed a part, for the last twenty years of her life. She imagined too, that dissipation, luxury, and immorality were leading features in the characters of the West Indians: and she pronounced it ruin, irrevocable ruin to a young man, to take him to places where vice, if it were not fostered and encouraged, was certainly not punished and despised. When, therefore, she heard my father's determination to take me with him, she appeared like one thunderstruck indeed her astonishment was truly amusing, as was also the vehemence of her arguments against it. She began, in a style of eloquence which appeared to me altogether a novelty, to convince my father of the utter impropriety of adopting such a plan, and of following a scheme in such total nonaccordance with the principles and prejudices that had been the guides of her life. The talented Author of " Pelham," in his amusing tale of "Too handsome for any thing," has remarked, that riches in an uncle are wonderful arguments respecting the nurture of a nephew, whose parents have nothing to leave him: I presume the same may be applied to an aunt; but, alas! my poor relative! she had only a competency of her own, and as my father expected nothing from her liberality, conviction appeared a difficult task. My aunt, however, was not easily repulsed, and the excess of her volubility, with the unwearied, though not unwearying, perseverance with which she continued to repeat her arguments, convinced me that she had fully and entirely adopted the opinion of Byron, who says, "A reasonable reason, But my aunt was totally unsuccessful with my inflexible father, whose prejudices were as few, as his sister's were numerous; for it was finally settled that I should positively accompany him to the West Indies; thereby running the risk (to use my aunt's expression) of having my heart hardened, my taste vitiated, my morals corrupted, and my disposition spoiled, by entering into dissipated society, and by the influence of bad example. My respected relative is now no more; peace to her manes. If she had many peculiarities, she had few failings; failings too more than counterbalanced by many estimable virtues. She was our neighbour, and we knew her character. She ever extended the arm of charity to the afflicted and distressed, she instructed the children of the poor, she consoled the widow and the orphan, she visited the needy with relief; by them she was received with joy, by the rich with welcome, and by all with the respect that her virtues merited. It is but just that I should mention her good qualities as I have before related her prejudices. Had she lived, she would have seen me on my return (notwithstanding her predictions) with the same taste, the same disposition, and the same morals with which I set out; she would have seen too, that my intercourse with the world had furnished me with many interesting anecdotes; and the perusal of my memoirs would have perchance amused her aged mind, and have removed some of her prejudices concerning that race of people, whose situation elicited so much of her pity; and of whose actual state of happiness or misery she had, like many, far too many, of her countrymen, formed such wrong and mistaken ideas. Perhaps she might even have been prevailed upon to sweeten her tea, and to indulge herself betimes with the sweetmeats I had brought her, even though they were prepared by a slave. And now I propose giving my readers an account of my preparations for, and afterwards of my voyage across, the foamy and stomach-stirring Atlantic; my arrival in a tropical climate, and the memoirs of my residence in the several islands, during the space of four years. My readers will have a description of the towns and harbours, the mountains and vallies, the natural curiosities, and the striking scenery of these places, from one who has visited them :-they will learn the state of society from one who has mixed in it and the state of slavery will be placed before them by one who has lived, during a long period, in the midst of slaves-they will see things as they are; and with both sides of the question before them, they will have an opportunity of judging for themselves. As my object is impartiality, I shall seldom venture an opinion at all, and never without good grounds. Perhaps it may not be amiss to state, that I neither have, nor ever have had, any interest in the West Indies, except that naturally arising from a local residence in them; thus in describing them, I shall find safety without difficulty in keeping a middle course, for, as Ovid says, "Medio tutissimus ibis." And I believe Ovid from the bottom of my soul. READER, if thou hast ever experienced the pleasures of a country life; if thou hast ever known the enjoyments of retirement, or felt the comfort of residing at a distance from the smoke and fog of London, thou mayest fancy, perchance, our feelings on leaving our little farm to prepare for a journey to foreign lands, and to experience the turbulence of the watery element, after having enjoyed peace and quietness for the space of nine long years. From the commencement of our preparations to our departure, I felt a kind of mournful melancholy in visiting the familiar scenes around me, which I was so soon about to leave. The fertile meadows, the rich vallies, the smooth and silvery lakes, the rippling of winding streams, the falling of cataracts, and indeed all the beauties. |