The Barbadian has generally appropriated a name illustrious by the achievements of its original owner. A Mr. Horatio Nelson introduced himself to me one day near Gorgona, and when I suggested that his was a strange name, he assured me that it was quite a well-known one in England, and that one of his ancestors had made it famous. And on my still professing ignorance of it, he was very hurt and said, “You must be Frenchmans.”
The labourer from Barbados is a big, strong, impudent fellow, and has not got the same good name for honesty as his Jamaican cousin, although he is undoubtedly the better workman. But the negroes who have swarmed in hordes to the isthmus are reluctant to put forth all their strength and energy in profitable labour.
They will employ their hours of leisure in dancing till they stream with perspiration, but they are true artists in avoiding real work. Yet the strength which they undoubtedly possess is often shown in their moments of forgetfulness.
A gang of negroes were engaged in removing long, heavy lengths of timber a distance of about two hundred yards. After they had all gazed for some time at the stack, they were cajoled by the foreman into making a start, which was not accomplished without considerable palaver, the point of discussion being as to whether three men were sufficient to carry each beam.
Two of the gang, having lifted a heavy beam between them, returned to the discussion carrying it on their shoulders apparently little inconvenienced by its weight, and stood for fully ten minutes thus burdened continuing the argument. After a short acquaintance with them, their indolent ways and casual manner become so familiar as to excite little notice.
The quarters in which they are housed are shut during working hours, and none are permitted to enter the premises at night until they have produced evidence that they have put in a day’s work. Should they be unwell, they are examined by the doctor at the nearest dispensary and treated for their complaint. If only slightly indisposed and requiring a little more rest, they are placed in a building set apart for the purpose and allowed to loll about, read, smoke, or sleep until pronounced fit to resume their labours. In serious cases, of course, the patients are at once removed to hospital either at Colon or Ancon.
The accommodation provided for the labourers in the camps all along the canal work have been very severely criticised by a coloured journalist who lives in Jamaica, and who has paid brief visits to the isthmus in order to discover if his fellow countrymen were receiving that attention and care which he considered their due.
Any evidence of labourers’ habitations in Jamaica half as good as those provided by the Canal Commission would be difficult to obtain, for the miserable dirty yards which for the most part form the dwellings of the West Indian negroes in their own islands, with the disgusting huddling together of animals and human beings, cannot for a moment be compared with the cleanly large dormitories fitted with iron-framed bunks which are provided for them on the Zone.
Due regard is given to cubic air space by the Health Department, which insists on five hundred feet for each occupant, whilst the old tin cans and heterogeneous rubbish which the nigger is so fond of collecting and hoarding are rigorously excluded from the dormitories, only reasonable belongings which will not offend against the comfort and health of the inmates being admitted.
The buildings are raised on pillars about five or six feet from the ground, and the large space underneath has to be carefully inspected by the health officers, for, under the pretence of utilising this shelter as a store for odds and ends, there is a great danger of its becoming a heaving rubbish heap.