Many persons here are flattering themselves with the prospect of a speedy peace. The rumour has probably arisen from the circumstance of the commander in chief having given directions for a partial diminution of some of the establishments which is perhaps only an economical regulation, in consequence of the present tranquil state of the army, and its reduced numbers. This arrangement being extended to the medical department, the services of some of the supernumerary assistants, who were engaged in the islands for a temporary purpose, during the severe pressure of sickness, are now dispensed with. From the decrease of disease, and the diminished number of troops, some of the other classes of medical officers are likewise left without employment, and may, consequently, return to England; but this, in no degree, authorizes the expectation of an approaching cessation of hostilities.

I grieve to tell you that our much-valued commissary of accompts has not experienced any benefit from his retirement at the delightful mountain-cottage, which I mentioned in a former letter. He is now returned to St. Pierre for the convenience of medical attendance. Père Edouard, the venerable French physician, under whose care he was placed in the early stage of his illness, considers him to be convalescent, although in a feeble state; but his friends have many anxious forebodings respecting the event of his case; and wish him safe in England.

Mr. Dornford made me acquainted with Père Edouard, not only that I might meet him in consultation on the subject of his own illness; but also with the obliging intention of giving me an opportunity of hearing his remarks regarding the fever of Martinique, and tropical diseases in general.

The Père is a polite and accomplished man, very much of the old French regime, and quite a methodical member of his profession. He was the principal officer of the medical department at La Charité, before the island was captured by the English. Desirous of acquiring information from his experience, you will imagine that I listen with eagerness to his observations, and that I am much gratified in finding him affable and communicative. Educated in the continental schools, he has imbibed their tenets, and, according to the doctrine of former days, he esteems venæsection the great and leading remedy in all fevers, particularly at their commencement. The only difference in his treatment of the yellow fever, and the bilious remittent, of hot climates, consists in the extent to which the bleeding is carried. In the latter it is seldom repeated beyond a second, or a third time; recourse being then had to the Peruvian bark, and other tonics: but in the former the blood-letting, aided only by laxatives and diluents, is continued throughout the whole course of the disease.

Père Edouard remarks, that the English physicians have a strange abhorrence of a slow convalescence; and, from the dread of debilitating the patient, they do not bleed him sufficiently to subdue the disorder: but the French physicians, being less fearful, regarding a tedious recovery, take away blood more freely, in order to overcome the immediate danger from the disease, which he considers to be effected “by decreasing, and altering the offending fluid” so considerably as to prevent the recurrence of febrile action. With this view he holds it necessary sometimes to repeat the venæsection as many as ten, twelve, or (as in his own case) fourteen times.

As an elucidation of his practice, the Père maintains that it is not sufficient to reduce an Englishman, who may be attacked with fever soon after his arrival in the West Indies, down to the standard of an Englishman in health; but that he should be bled down to the standard of a French creole; and then supported through a slow convalescence upon a diet of bread and water, ptisan, or thin sago. He feels no apprehension from the excessive debility which must necessarily ensue; nor, on account of any of the maladies which might result from the depleting treatment being carried to an extreme degree.

On the fourth inst. we were enlivened by reviews of troops, hoisting of flags, firing of salutes, and other marks of rejoicing, in honor of his Majesty’s birth-day; and on the evening of the fifth the governor gave a grand ball and supper at St. Pierre, on the occasion; when we had an opportunity of witnessing a crowded assemblage of the beauty and fashion of Martinique.

According to the custom of the West Indies the ladies danced a long time without fatigue, in defiance of oppressive heat, and in a room so thronged that it was almost suffocation, even to remain in it. Without the exertion of dancing I felt the heat so distressing that I was obliged to seek relief by walking frequently down a cool avenue of grenadilloes and jasmine, which led from the door of the house, to a pleasant garden.

Many genteel and graceful women were present at the ball, and there was a greater display of handsome females than is common in the West Indies: but there was no example of that lovely freshness of countenance which so distinguishes the fair of our country. It has often occurred to me to observe a striking difference between the foreign ladies, and those of England, and particularly between the English and the French, which, however difficult to describe in words, is, to the eye, very perceptible. More acuteness, more of vivacity and brilliancy are commonly displayed in the features of French females: but I never witnessed, in the women of any other country, that sweetly appealing softness—that modest gentleness—that tender and inviting loveliness of face, which prevails among the genuine daughters of the British islands. The smooth and flowing line of beauty is more correctly preserved in the English countenance than in that of other nations. There is a blooming delicacy—an expression of tenderness and retirement which, to our sex, seems to say ... Protect me! while the harder lines and more prominent points, together with the quickness and animation of the French mien, bespeak a confidence almost masculine, and appeal only to our ... participation!

But I am wandering from the birth-day and the governor’s fête. Let me return, and do justice to the ladies I left in the ball-room, by telling you that the French excel, in dancing, equally in the West Indies, as in Europe. Nor is this confined to the whites; for the French people of colour are infinitely superior, in the agility and gracefulness of the dance, to the dark-hued race of the Dutch and British colonies.

Card-tables were set in two smaller apartments, adjoining the ball-room; but they were thinly attended, and did not seem to constitute one of the favorite amusements of the evening.

At midnight a very elegant supper was served in a long saloon, which opened into the garden, and nearly a hundred ladies sat down to enjoy the refreshment of a cool room, and a liberal repast; but, instead of being permitted to partake in comfort and quietness of the plentiful collation before them, a rude freedom of manners (or an unbecoming foreign habit) created a scene of scrambling and confusion, which, in England, would have disgraced a market-day ordinary.

Perhaps it was polite for the gentlemen to place themselves behind the ladies, professing to attend, and procure them what they wished for—perhaps it was kind in the ladies to give a bone, or a tart to their favorite partners; but the scene, thus introduced, was sadly vulgar and indecorous. The gentlemen crowded about the ladies, pressing upon their chairs in rows three or four deep, almost forcing them upon the viands; when some of the fair (with more kindness than delicacy) handed over their shoulders, to those near them, a leg of a duck or a chicken, a slice of ham, or some other part of the repast. This seemed to be regarded as the signal for a general scramble. Pies, tarts, pigeons, ducks, chickens, ham, fruit, salad, or any thing the ladies could give, or the men could reach, were now snatched off the table, and torn to pieces, without knives or forks, or spoons or plates, and devoured, as if by a den of ravenous wolves, who had been long deprived of their prey. Here stood one gnawing a bone, there another swallowing fat ham; the next was tearing asunder the joints of a duck, or a chicken; the fourth gobbling up a pie or a tart. A tall officer, with his filthy black whiskers reaching to the corners of his mouth, was cramming down a bowl of salad with his fingers; another was devouring a plate of fruit, and the next greedily consuming a dish of cakes and sweets: in short, the whole group were voraciously gnawing, tearing, and swallowing whatever provisions chanced to be nearest them, equally regardless of cleanliness, decency, and good manners. Nor did the fluids of the feast escape better than the solids: for wine, porter, noyeau, and all the liquors of the table, were seized in the same lawless manner, and numbers were seen standing with bottles between their knees, drinking and serving out the contents to their friends with a spoon, a tureen-ladle, a butter-boat, or any other unseemly utensil within their grasp.

It was intended that all should eat, and the governor’s hospitality had most amply spread the board; but, alas! when those who had waited, without joining in the scramble, quietly took the seats from which the ladies retired, they found scarcely any thing remaining upon the table, for, in addition to the craving appetites with which the supper had been devoured, it was remarked that some of the ladies, like certain animals, had auxiliary pouches, which served as reservoirs, to administer to their stomachs a future supply.

Having noticed the superior style of dancing which prevails among the French people of colour, I may remark that I have had a recent opportunity of witnessing it, upon the mirthful occasion of a negro-wedding; when the slaves of the estate and their visitors were indulged with a grand ball in order to celebrate the happy alliance. They danced, in large groups, upon a spacious green, in front of their owners’ dwelling; and never was a happier crowd assembled. Great agility was displayed, and, compared with the rude motions and savage gestures of the slaves in the Dutch and British settlements, their steps might be considered as graceful.

Besides the happy party upon the green, the inferior orders of the gang were seen at the negro-huts of the estate, footing it merrily, to the simple sound of the banjar; nor even among these, did we observe those disgusting attitudes and movements which constitute so great a part of the common, hideous dance of the Africans.

When I mentioned, in a former letter, the many beauties, and the pleasing variety of scenery of Martinique, it would probably occur to you that they must have appeared peculiarly striking to us, from being so strongly contrasted with the country we had lately left. That you may better judge of this, I will now place before you a concise view of some of the remarkable points of difference, between the coast of Guiana, and the island of Martinique, such as they present themselves to our early notice; cautioning you to regard them only as simple facts, given, without favor or prejudice, merely as they meet the eye and the observation of a stranger.

We find that the French are more in the habit of conversing, as companions, with the slaves, than is common among the English and the Dutch; and that the females, employed in the house, are treated more in the manner of the filles de chambre of Europe. From this circumstance, together with the slight gradations of shade, or the many links forming the chain between the Europeans and the Africans, and from the great number of people of colour, who have obtained their freedom, it is extremely difficult to ascertain where the line of slavery commences. But while the eye and the feelings are less offended by the degrading distinctions of bondage, it is observable that with respect to kicking, cuffing, and scolding, the French are not more tender towards their human property than the owners in other colonies. It is even probable that the less frequent sound of the whip proceeds, in a great degree, from a cause not exclusively founded in humanity.

In words, the French degrade the people of colour into mere brutes, the terms negro and bête being commonly used as synonymous. Amidst the noise of a crowded town, the distressful lash is not so easily heard: nor is it common, at St. Pierre, to inflict the punishment in the same exposed manner as at Stabroek and New Amsterdam; it being a regulation of the police, that any one, wishing to have his slave punished, shall send him to the public bourreau (or executioner) at the house of correction, accompanied with a written charge or deposition against him, and a certain fee. By this arrangement the chastisement is better proportioned to the offence than it might be under the immediate inspection of the enraged master, and is, at the same time, stamped with an air of public justice.

Although it would be difficult, or impossible, from either face or manner, to distinguish many of the people of colour from the creole whites, still, however nearly they may approach in hue, or in conduct, it would be regarded as an irretrievable disgrace to intermarry with any of the race, however distantly descended from the Africans. If, by the minutest scrutiny of pedigree, only the slightest trace of negro blood can be discovered in their veins, it forms an indelible stain, and establishes an impenetrable barrier against such an union.

In Martinique, the descendants of the Africans sometimes observe the regular forms of matrimony among themselves; but the whitest and best educated of their females prefer living as chères amies, with Europeans, or white creoles, rather than marry with any of the other classes; all of whom they regard as infinitely inferior.

The great distinction, between the whites, and the people of colour, is scrupulously observed, also, at public places; for, although in manner, dress, and person, those of the two classes may be strictly equal, still, where the fatal taint of African blood can be traced, the presence of such persons would not be tolerated: they would not be permitted to sit among, or to associate with genuine backras—“les véritables blancs.”

At the house, where I am now an inmate, the family consists of females of five or six different shades of skin; and we see, almost daily, little Miss, the fair daughter of the mestee hostess, tripping along to church, with her darker slave at her heels, carrying the parasol to protect her from the sun, and a small stool for her to pray upon; yet, notwithstanding her being thus attended upon the streets, or to a place of worship, if this young lady were to presume to appear in the pit or boxes of the playhouse, she would be instantly taught, that the gallery was the fit place for persons of African descent.

From these circumstances it will be seen, that the separation formed by colour is of immense magnitude with respect to the general practice of slavery. Its influence is beyond all calculation: construed into a sign of physical inferiority, it describes, at once, the line of demarcation; and fixes the stigma of bondage in a more precise and forcible manner than could have been effected by the most rigorous law of human invention. Nature has legibly drawn the distinctive line. The taint is marked in the countenance; it exists in the blood—is incurable, and descends to the remotest posterity. It is extremely doubtful whether the system which is pursued in the West Indies, could have been continued to the present day—whether the moral laws of our nature could have been, thus long, held at defiance, if the slave-owners had not raised about them an impregnable barrier, by seizing upon this most important physical distinction.

My pen being now upon the subject of slavery, I may relate an occurrence which happened only the day before we sailed from Demarara; and which, I am sorry to remark, stands too prominent in confirmation of the reputed cruelty practised by some of the Dutch colonists towards their negroes.

I took my farewell dinner with a party at the commandant’s; and, in the evening, after I had retired, but while the other gentlemen remained at table, they were disturbed by the groans of some person, who seemed to be in extreme agony. Prompted by feelings of humanity, Colonel Hislop sent one of the officers to the house, from whence the afflicting cries were thought to proceed, in order to ascertain if any person were ill, or if it might be in his power to afford relief; when, to the astonishment of all who were present, a scene of the most shocking cruelty was discovered. Instead of meeting with any one in sickness, the gentleman deputed upon this commission found a wretched slave suffering under a species of torture which could only have been invented by the most diabolical malignity.

The unfortunate man was tied down to the ground, with his limbs stretched out to the utmost extent; the legs being fastened with heavy chains, and the hands with strong cords, which were painfully tightened by being twisted with pieces of wood, placed across the wrists. For the honor of human nature, I hope it is a solitary, although an absolute fact, that this poor negro had been so confined, without being allowed a morsel of food, for three days; and with the additional cruelty of being burnt across the fleshy parts of his person at repeated intervals, with red-hot iron. Could such a mode of torture have suggested itself to any other mind than that of a blacksmith? which was the occupation followed by the depraved monster, into whose fiery hands it was the lot of this unfortunate African to have fallen!

The dreadful tale being reported to the commandant, a file of the guard was instantly marched to the house, with orders to release the sufferer; and quickly, with the irons and cords remaining upon his limbs, he was led before the colonel and party, whose timely humanity had saved his life. His fetters were now removed; food and wine were offered to him; and he was soothed with the assurance that justice should be done to his cause: but his strength was so exhausted as scarcely to admit of restoration! Upon swallowing a morsel of bread, moistened with wine and water, the effect upon his famished stomach was so painful as to produce extreme distress, and he nearly fainted: but, after a little time, he was so much recovered by the kind attentions of the commandant and his friends, as to be sensible of the anxieties of those about him; and, when questioned regarding the crime which had provoked this horrid punishment, it proved that he was utterly ignorant for what fault, or upon what pretence, he had been treated with such savage barbarity!

The hardened wretch, his master, was examined as to the nature of the offence which had urged him to this frightful example of cruelty. Whether his consciousness of the insignificance of the alleged misdemeanor, or the dread of the requital he merited, prevented him from avowing it, I could not learn, but he persisted in the most obstinate silence respecting it, and replied only by confused and hurried appeals, piteously imploring the commandant to pardon him, and beseeching that he might not be subjected to the ignominy of a personal punishment. His agitation was excessive: forgetful how grievously he had debased himself by his outrageous conduct, the apprehension of being exposed to the degradation of a corporal chastisement so entirely possessed his mind, that no direct answer could be obtained from him; every reply being an humble petition for mercy, or an anxious supplication not to be stigmatized with the disgraceful retribution, which he seemed conscious that he deserved.

It was the general opinion that he had been instigated to this act of deliberate cruelty by some trivial fault, which he was ashamed to acknowledge as the cause of such direful malice; but, as I left the colony the following morning, I had no opportunity of ascertaining whether he was afterwards brought to confess what was the real or pretended offence, which the savage had deemed it fit to avenge with such horrid inhumanity.