The squatters are of many races, and of many hues of black and brown.  The half-breeds from the neighbouring coast of Venezuela, a mixture, probably, of Spanish, Negro, and Indian, are among the most industrious; and their cacao plantations, in some cases, hold 8000 to 10,000 trees.  The south-west corner of Montserrat {204} is almost entirely settled by Africans of various tribes—­Mandingos, Foulahs, Homas, Yarribas, Ashantees, and Congos.  The last occupy the lowest position in the social scale.  They lead, for the most part, a semi-barbarous life, dwelling in miserable huts, and subsisting on the produce of an acre or two of badly cultivated land, eked out with the pay of an occasional day’s labour on some neighbouring estate.  The social position of some of the Yarribas forms a marked contrast to that of the Congos.  They inhabit houses of cedar, or other substantial materials.  Their gardens are, for the most part, well stocked and kept.  They raise crops of yam, cassava, Indian corn, etc.; and some of them subscribe to a fund on which they may draw in case of illness or misfortune.  They are, however (as is to be expected from superior intellect while still uncivilised), more difficult to manage than the Congos, and highly impatient of control.

These Africans, Mr. Mitchell says, all belong nominally to some denomination of Christianity; but their lives are more influenced by their belief in Obeah.  While the precepts of religion are little regarded, they stand in mortal dread of those who practise this mischievous imposture.  Well might the Commissioner say, in 1867, that several years must elapse before the chaos which reigned could be reduced to order.  The wonder is, that in three years so much has been done.  It was very difficult, at first, even to find the whereabouts of many of the squatters.  The Commissioner had to work by compass through the pathless forest.  Getting little or no food but cassava cakes and ‘guango’ of maize, and now and then a little coffee and salt fish, without time to hunt the game which passed him, and continually wet through, he stumbled in suddenly on one squatting after another, to the astonishment of its owner, who could not conceive how he had been found out, and had never before seen a white man alone in the forest.  Sometimes he was in considerable danger of a rough reception from people who could not at first understand what they had to gain by getting legal titles, and buying the lands the fruit of which they had enjoyed either for nothing, or for payment of a small annual assessment for the cultivated portion.  In another quarter—­Toco—­a notoriously lawless squatter had expressed his intention of shooting the Government official.  The white gentleman walked straight up to the little forest fortress hidden in bush, and confronted the Negro, who had gun in hand.

‘I could have shot you if I had liked, buccra.’