is a sight worth the whole journey,--the splendor of this noon
sky at Barbadoes;--the horizon glow is almost blinding, the
sea;line sharp as a razor-edge; and motionless upon the sapphire
water nearly a hundred ships lie,--masts, spars, booms, cordage,
cutting against the amazing magnificence of blue.... Mean while
the island coast has clearly brought out all its beauties: first
you note the long white winding thread-line of beach-coral and
bright sand;--then the deep green fringe of vegetation through
which roofs and spires project here and there, and quivering feathery
heads of palms with white trunks. The general tone of this verdure
is sombre green, though it is full of lustre: there is a glimmer in
it as of metal. Beyond all this coast-front long undulations of misty
pale, green are visible,--far slopes of low hill and plain the highest
curving line, the ridge of the island, bears a row of cocoa-palms, They
are so far that their stems diminish almost to invisibility: only
the crests are clearly distinguishable,--like spiders hanging
between land and sky. But there are no forests: the land is a
naked unshadowed green far as the eye can reach beyond the coast-
line. There is no waste space in Barbadoes: it is perhaps one of
the most densely-peopled places on the globe--(one thousand and
thirty-five inhabitants to the square mile)--.and it sends black
laborers by thousands to the other British colonies every year,--
the surplus of its population.

... The city of Bridgetown disappoints the stranger who expects
to find any exotic features of architecture or custom,--
disappoints more, perhaps, than any other tropical port in this
respect. Its principal streets give you the impression of
walking through an English town,--not an old-time town, but a
new one, plain almost to commonplaceness, in spite of Nelson's