NOTES AT SEA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 828, 8 February 1868, Page 2

NOTES AT SEA.

[From an officer of the West India Squadron,]

Barbadoes was first of the West Indian Islands proper we touched at. Since then we have been about a good hit amongst the Windward group ; but I’ll give you an account of our doings as we proceeded. 1 don’t recollect whether I stated that the Confederate ram, “Stonewall Jackson,/ was lying at Barbadoes when we got in there. She was so far on her way to Japan, being sold to the Japanese by the American Government for, as I was informed, the sum of four hundred thousand dollars. A more ugly-looking object there scarce could be in form of a vessel, though there are some ships of curious shapes in the present day. Yet I suspect she would prove a formidable antagonist. She was manned by Americans, and in charge of a captain of the U.S. navy, who came onboard us a 3 soon as we dropped anchor, accompanied by a Japanese nobleman in a sort of semiuniform. We arrived at Barbadoes on Monday, and left on the following Saturday. During that time I had a run ashore, but did not go far into the country, so that I had only a superficial look at the place. I find that there is a great difference between the West Lndies and the Coast of Africa. Here it is not so hot or enervating, nor do I think vegetation acquires the growth and profusion it does on the African coast; neither is animal life so abundant ; in fact, things are not so extreme as I found them there.

The island of Barbadoes is well adapted for growing sugar-cane, which is, indeed, the staple or principal crop ; and it must be profitable, for I understand that the authorities have to look after the planters to see that food for the support of those on the island is grown. I had not seen the sugar before ; it appears a species of grass, and is just like a tuft of grass of large size, the stem of each blade being the cane. It grows about ten feet high. It is planted in drills about six feet apart, and when well grown is like a thick forest on a small scale. It would be a fine place for the boys at home to play at hare and hounds in. Negroes are particularly fond of sugar-cane —man, woman, and child would, if they could, suck at it from morning till night, and probably “all night through” as well. Consequently, laws against stealing the cane are severe and strictly enforced, and they bad need be, for in this climate the natives can do without fire or raiment, and are averse to labour. They would be comfortable and contented if they only lie all day in the sun, though with nought save a bit of sugar-cane to eat, and would look fat and sleek upon it. Bridgton is the largest of the West Indian towns, but you must not suppose that tropical cities are like English. If you expected to meet with fine, wide, and paved streets, with gay shop windows and solid stone houses, you would be disappointed. Those I have seen are mostly a collection of negro huts, stores, and places of business. People of means rarely live in town, so that few houses of the better sort are to be met with. Glass windows are not at all common. The houses are generally the reverse of substantial, and I fancy that the reason of their not being blown away by the hurricane is that they are so open that they offer little resistance to the wind. Barbadoes is thicky populated ; the number is not far short of one thousand square mile. Leaving Barbadoes on the morning of the 14th September, we stood for the island of Grenada, about a hundred and sixty miles distant. This is a small island, but the largest of the “Grenadines” which we sighted the same night, thoughwe made the passage under canvass. Next day we went in and found H.M.S. . We received orders to proceed to St. Thomas, and the following morning weighed and stood for that island, which was something about fiye hundred miles |distant. The island of Grenada is a good height, unlike Barbadoes, which is level. It struck me as being very like the sketch of mountains in an atlas, showing the comparative heights of each. I did not land, but what I could see from the ship, it was not much cultivated, owing, of course, to its being so hilly. All the hills were covered with vegetation, though not in such gigantic proportion and profusion as in Africa, nor did I see a single palm tree, which is such a striking object, and so abundant in the African coast.

Four days’ sailing took us to St. Thomas, which is the station for the West Indian mails. This island possesses an excellent harbour, which is an exception to the other islands. Except as a mail station it i 3 otherwise little worth ; it produces nothing. Steamers of all nations call and depart, distributing mails tar and wide. There is a fleet of steamers collecting and distributing mails over the West Indian Islands, Guiana, the Gulf of Mexico, by the Isthmus of Panama, into the Pacific, and timed almost as punctually as the mail trains at home. In olden times St. Thomas was a stronghold of pirates, and there is yet the remains of a castle of a noted freebooter named or nicknamed Bluebeard. We did not make a long stay, nor did I go on shore while there. The island is a Danish possession.