100
THE
ENGLISH
IN
THE
WEST
INDIES
CHAPTER IX. Barbadoes again— Social condition of the island — Political constitution — Effects of the sugar bounties —Dangers of general bankruptcy— The Hall of Assembly— Sir Charles Pearson — Society in Bridgetown —A morning drive — Church of St. John's — Sir Graham Briggs—An old planter's palace — The Chief Justice of Barbadoes.
at sea, and on the way back to Barbadoes. The commodore of the training squadron had offered me a berth to St. Vincent, but he intended to work up under sail against the north-east trade, which had risen to half a gale, and I preferred the security and speed of the mail boat. Among the passengers was Miss — , the lady whom I had seen sketching on the way to the Blue Basin. She showed me her drawings, which were excellent. She showed me in her mosquito-bitten arms what she had endured to make them, and I admired her fortitude. She was English, and was on her way to join her father at Codrington College. We had a wild night, but those long vessels care little for winds and waves. By morning we had fought our way back to Grenada. In the St. Vincent roadstead, which we reached the same day, the ship was stormed by boatloads of people who were to go on with us ; boys on their way to school at Barbadoes, ladies young and old, white, black, and mixed, who were bound I know not where. The night fell dark as pitch, the storm continued, and we were no sooner beyond the shelter of the land than every one of them save Miss — and myself was prostrate. The vessel ploughed on upon her way indifferent to us and to them. We were at Bridgetown by breakfast time, and I was now AGAIN