CHAPTER
GENERAL
X.
REMARKS.
BARBADOS.
IN all the islands which we have yet visited, where the Apprenticeship has been introduced, the Appren ticed laborers are peaceable and industrious ; in all of them, property has risen in value since 1834 ; and, independently of the seasons, the production and ex port are as large as they were during slavery. In Bar bados, the cultivation was never in a better state than at this moment ; the ensuing crop is expected con siderably to exceed an average, and estates have risen very greatly in value. This prosperity is chiefly to be attributed to the measures of the Imperial Parlia ment. The colony has received an immense compen sation, for losses which it has not yet incurred ; and which it is by no means probable that it will ever have to sustain. The state of things may to this extent be considered satisfactory, but it cannot illustrate the effects of Emancipation, except that the price given for estates, proves that the planters are at length persuaded, that they will be able to carry on a profitable cultiva tion after the year 1840. We do not find that the most distant fears are entertained, that the negros will forsake estate labor when free, or will refuse to work for reasonable wages. On the other hand, so far as the negro is concerned, the Apprenticeship is a system