LETTERS FROM THE VIRGIN ISLANDS.
THE groupe of the Virgin Islands lie scattered about the 18th degree of North latitude and the 65th of West longitude. They are many in number; from Tortola, the largest, to a sunken islet, a bold rock, or broken ranges of "keys" little more than reefs. They are claimed by the English, the Danes, and the Spaniards ; but the only settlements with any pretension to the name are St. Thomas and St. John's, belonging to Denmark, and Tortola, to England. As a free port, St. Thomas became a depot de omnibus rebus. There, during the Colonial ascendancy of Spain, prohibited articles could be stowed in safety till a convenient opportunity of smuggling them to the Continent : when war raged between the Spaniards and their colonists, both belligerents were equally wel- come to sell their prizes or purchase supplies ; the Britisher at St. Thomas's could buy Continental articles forbidden to be imported into his own West Indian isle ; and the slaver found solace, and we believe still finds it, from the cosmopolitan Northman. If Tortola were sunk in the sea tomorrow, certain persons would lose the salaries of certain places, and the Government the patronage thereunto belonging ; but the world at large would only be rninup a few thousand hogsheads of Colonial sugar, a considerable portion of which used to be imported into Tortola from "foreign parts," and reshipped as British produce. But though not very important in a political or commercial sense, the British possessions in the Virgin Islands are curious for their singular conformation, their natural features, and probably from the state of their society—old jog. trot Colonial, bearing a similar re- lation to the larger and more stirred if not more active islands that a secluded village in England does to one placed on a leading road. And perhaps they are worthy of a more penetrating observer and a more vigorous describer than the author of the volume before us ; or perhaps his book should have been published nearer to the period of its composition, before legislation had altered the status of the population in Tortola, and made other changes in its social system—or before the reader fancied it has. The Letters from the Virgin Islands were written to a friend, by a person who appears to have held some official situation at Tortola : no date is attached to them, nor any direct information given as to the period of their composition, but an incidental notice fixes it to the reign of GEORGE the Fourth. The subject-matter of the letters is the voyage of the author, including a call at Barbados; the geographical character, natural scenery, and curiosities of the Virgin Islands ; sketches of the manners of the people; remarks upon the institution of slavery, with illustrations of its effects; and occasional limnings of Colonial singularities. Tortola and its dependencies is the author's main field ; but he varies his matter by an occasional sea-voyage, and a few trips to St. Thomas, with sketches of the Colonial Danes.
The style of the letters is elegant, fluent, and animated ; though perhaps the vivacity is rather of manner than of spirit, so that it does not always succeed in exciting a corresponding vivacity in the reader. The writer is possessed of literary accomplishments, but relies rather too much upon their effects. There is a hearsay or compiled account of the Danish island of St. Croix, and a series of extracts or supposed extracts from the papers of a de- ceased surgeon, bearing upon the old slave-trade, with other passages that were not likely to have found their way into real letters. There is also something of slightness in the substance of the whole work. But the main evil has been the delay in its publication; which detracts from the intrinsic interest of the matter by giving it a bygone air, and may have induced the author to extend his volume by the literary arts we have mentioned, in the hope of exciting attention by much speaking. Very little of the book will bear separating from its immediate context ; but we subjoin a few of the most presentable passages, as specimens of the author's style.
A SAMPLE OF THE PROTECTIVE SYSTEM.
The portion of our imports entered at the douane is trifling : shingles and deal-ends, the half cargo of some Yankee in distress, part of the estate sup- plies purchased at St. Thomas, with a few bale and crate goods from home, make the sum of them. The remainder comes here no one knows how, or cares much to inquire. Tea, wines, brandy, cigars, with twenty other articles forbidden in the commercial decalogue, are yet seen among us : the smiling virginities of Tortola have their Leghorn bonnets, and are escorted by beaux in the true wefts of Nankin, without a solitary import id genus being found in his Majesty's revenue-books. I write you on foreign stationery, in waistcoat and hose of excellent French silk, shirt of line German linen, and brogues made here from the villanous leather of Kentucky. And yet we are told that the West Indies consume annually four millions of British manufacture
were in such juxtaposition with a free port as the loyal Creoles of the Virgin's, Parliament might hear another story.
TORTOLA BREAKFASTS.
Your breakfasts within the Tropics is a meal "fit for the Shah." In most houses they bring one coffee at daylight in porcelain cups, just the antique articles that at borne lie secure in grandmamma's closet, far too valuable for nee; and, this taken commonly It the toilet, whets the stomach for a:more sub- stantial refection about nineso'clock. The hall-table then appears decked I la fawechette, with veal pates, a chicken, or tete de veau garnished with an excellent itorksbi-e tongue or Bolognas; while sliced plantain, that should be eaten from the embers hot as lava, and the fine squashes they boil here, attend as substi- tutes for our potatoes. At times, indeed, we get them from Scotland ; generally, however, of indifferent quality : those imported by the packet seldom reach us. Then again there is broiled fish—inaracouta, an omelet, or the fine avocado pear, called among the military subaltera's.buttax—fer theatharpdad. Lind also seen radishes here, villanously tough, and water-cress, equal to any elsewhere.
The bread consists of French rolls, and the common island loaf, that smacks of garlick and the leaven used in it, but eats passing well with our rich dairy produce. Tortola is remarkable in this respect : and for those who can digest the grossness of what are brought to table as Johnny cakes, this part of the dejeune will have large attractions. Our liquids are chocolate, cafe-au-lait, with, in many parts, their constant attendant, claret; tea does not often appear at this meal. Lastly, you find a sweet cake, and salvers with honey or Barbados ginger in preserve, set on es- ticingly at the close, but which wind up the business rarely.
A NEGRO LOVE LETTER.
Jane brought me one day a billet-doux, stolen by her from our housemaid : this dark wench had fallen asleep while engaged in cleaning some articles of plate, and the letter, that some clever urchin had been reading for her, lay among them. It is from a Black operative now at St. Thomas. "Dear Catryn, Dare much fine house, and bera much ship here ; been much fine gal too, but me tub Catryn all time. Buddy Smit say dat Nigger Jock come see you : me too pale with tub: hope your heart like mine. You berry dear to George. Me work for one dollar by day here; no — cut dollar, him make five quart, I tink, in de Road. Buddy Smit bring you die; he say me lub you too much, Catryn."
SHOPS AT ST. THOMAS.
The great trading street of St. Thomas extends in a broad line, parallel with the water, for about a mile and a half. Here, and generally on the harbour side, lie what they term the fire-proofs, stone buildings into which you enter by large iron-case doors, not unlike in form and size those in the towers of old churches : these admit you to a sort of superterrene vault, where long coffin-like trunks are seen in niches, or piled together almost to the roof. Such edifices, besides the defence afforded by them against an element that rages here but too frequently, have the further merit of being cool and airy from their size and loftiness. True, they cut but a sorry figure, as well in front as their internal arrangements: here is none of the display made at the shop-windows on Lud- gate Hill, nothing of their agaceries within ; to the street they present, when closed, the aspect of so many dungeons; and open, make just the lugubrious show one sees at an undertaker's. Articles of sale are exhibited fresh from the packages in which they arrive, to be consigned there again if declined by the customer : Canton shawls emerge in this way from their figured cases, artifi- cial flowers bloom in plain deal boxes, and fine linen tempts you from a hair trunk. This, however, chiefly prevails in the principal stores ; those of less note expose at least some of their goods.
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