room, overhung with chandeliers and lamps in profusion, and bears the marks of many scenes of mirth and wassail.  The eastern windows, which extend from the ceiling to the floor, look out upon a garden filled with shrubs and flowers, among which we recognised a rare variety of the floral family in full bloom.  Every thing around—­the extent of the buildings, the garden, the park, with deer browsing amid the tangled shrubbery—­all bespoke the old English style and dignity.

After waiting a few minutes, we were introduced to his Excellency, who received us very kindly.  He conversed freely on the subject of emancipation, and gave his opinion decidedly in favor of unconditional freedom.  He has been in the West Indies five years, and resided at Antigua and Dominica before he received his present appointment; he has visited several other islands besides.  In no island that he has visited have affairs gone on so quietly and satisfactorily to all parties as in Antigua.  He remarked that he was ignorant of the character of the black population of the United States, but from what he knew of their character in the West Indies, he could not avoid the conclusion that immediate emancipation was entirely safe.  He expressed his views of the apprenticeship system with great freedom.  He said it was vexatious to all parties.

He remarked that he was so well satisfied that emancipation was safe and proper, and that unconditional freedom was better than apprenticeship, that had he the power, he would emancipate every apprentice to-morrow.  It would be better both for the planter and the laborer.

He thought the negroes in Barbadoes, and in the windward islands generally, now as well prepared for freedom as the slaves of Antigua.

The Governor is a dignified but plain man, of sound sense and judgement, and of remarkable liberality.  He promised to give us every assistance, and said, as we arose to leave him, that he would mention the object of our visit to a number of influential gentlemen, and that we should shortly hear from him again.

A few days after our visit to the Governor’s, we called on the Rev. Edward Elliott, the Archdeacon at Barbadoes, to whom we had been previously introduced at the house of a friend in Bridgetown.  He is a liberal-minded man.  In 1812, he delivered a series of lectures in the cathedral on the subject of slavery.  The planters became alarmed—­declared that such discourses would lead to insurrection, and demanded that they should lie abandoned.  He received anonymous letters threatening him with violence unless he discontinued them.  Nothing daunted, however, he went through the course, and afterwards published the lectures in a volume.