Mr. C. pointed to the opposite side of the basin to a small group of stunted trees, which he said were the last remains of the Barbadoes forests.  In the midst of them there is a boiling spring of considerable notoriety.

In another direction, amid the rugged precipices, Mr. C. pointed out the residences of a number of poor white families, whom he described as the most degraded, vicious, and abandoned people in the island—­“very far below the negroes.”  They live promiscuously, are drunken, licentious, and poverty-stricken,—­a body of most squalid and miserable human beings.

From the height on which we stood, we could see the ocean nearly around the island, and on our right and left, overlooking the basin below us, rose the two highest points of land of which Barbadoes can boast.  The white marl about their naked tops gives them a bleak and desolate appearance, which contrasts gloomily with the verdure of the surrounding cultivation.

After we had fully gratified ourselves with viewing the miniature representation of old Scotia, we descended again into the road, and returned to Lear’s.  We passed numbers of men and women going towards town with loads of various kinds of provisions on their heads.  Some were black, and others were white—­of the same class whose huts had just been shown us amid the hills and ravines of Scotland.  We observed that the latter were barefoot, and carried their loads on their heads precisely like the former.  As we passed these busy pedestrians, the blacks almost uniformly courtesied or spoke; but the whites did not appear to notice us.  Mr. C inquired whether we were not struck with this difference in the conduct of the two people, remarking that he had always observed it.  It is very seldom, said he, that I meet a negro who does not speak to me politely; but this class of whites either pass along without looking up, or cast a half-vacant, rude stare into one’s face, without opening their mouths.  Yet this people, he added, veriest raggamuffins that they are, despise the negroes, and consider it quite degrading to put themselves on term of equity with them.  They will beg of blacks more provident and industrious than themselves, or they will steal their poultry and rob their provision grounds at night; but they would disdain to associate with them.  Doubtless these sans culottes swell in their dangling rags with the haughty consciousness that they possess white skins.  What proud reflections they must have, as they pursue their barefoot way, thinking on their high lineage, and running back through the long list of their illustrious ancestry whose notable badge was a white skin!  No wonder they cannot stop to bow to the passing stranger.  These sprouts of the Caucasian race are known among the Barbadians by the rather ungracious name of Red Shanks.  They are considered the pest of the island, and are far more troublesome to the police, in proportion to their members, than the apprentices.  They are estimated at about eight thousand.