and clouded my career during the last twelve years, and cheerfully
undertook the task, stimulated thereto by what I thought weighty
considerations. I saw that no representative of Her Majesty's
Ethiopic West Indian subjects cared to come forward to perform this
work in the more permanent shape that I felt to be not only desirable
but essential for our self-vindication. [16] I also realized the
fact that the "Bow of Ulysses" was not likely to have the same
ephemeral existence and effect as the newspaper and other periodical
discussions of its contents, which had poured from the press in Great
Britain, the United States, and very notably, of course, in all the
English Colonies of the Western Hemisphere. In the West Indian
papers the best writers of our race had written masterly refutations,
but it was clear how difficult the task would be in future to procure
and refer to them whenever occasion should require. Such
productions, however, fully satisfied those qualified men of our
people, because they were legitimately convinced (even as I myself am
convinced) that the political destinies of the people of colour could
not run one tittle of risk from anything that it pleased Mr. Froude
to write or say on the subject. But, meditating further on the
question, the reflection forced itself upon me that, beyond the mere
political personages in the circle more directly addressed by Mr.
Froude's volume, there were individuals whose influence or possible
sympathy we could not afford to disregard, or to esteem lightly. So
I deemed it right and a patriotic duty to attempt [17] the enterprise
myself, in obedience to the above stated motives.

At this point I must pause to express on behalf of the entire
coloured population of the West Indies our most heartfelt
acknowledgments to Mr. C. Salmon for the luminous and effective
vindication of us, in his volume on "West Indian Confederation,"