British Colonies. White. Slave. F. Col'd. Total.
Anguilla 365 2,388 357 3,110
Antigua[[A]] 1,980 29,839 3,895 35,714
Bahamas 4,240 9,268 2,991 16,499
Barbadoes 15,000 82,000 5,100 102,100
Berbicel 550 21,300 1,150 23,000
Bermuda[[A]] 3,900 4,600 740 9,240
Cape of Good Hope[[B]] 43,000 35,500 29,000 107,500
Demerara[[B]] 3,000 70,000 6,400 79,400
Dominica 850 15,400 3,600 19,850
Grenada 800 24,000 2,800 27,600
Honduras[[B]] 250 2,100 2,300 4,650
Jamaica 37,000 323,000 55,000 415,000
Mauritius[[B]] 8,000 76,000 15,000 99,000
Montserrat 330 6,200 800 7,330
Nevis 700 6,600 2,000 9,300
St. Christophers,St. Kitts 1,612 19,310 3,000 23,922
St. Lucia[[B]] 980 13,600 3,700 18,280
St. Vincent 1,300 23,500 2,800 27,600
Tobago 320 12,500 1,200 14,020
Tortola 480 5,400 1,300 7,180
Trinidad[[B]] 4,200 24,000 16,000 44,200
Virgin Isles 800 5,400 600 6,800
Total 131,257 831,105 162,733 1,125,095

[Footnote A: These islands adopted immediate emancipation, Aug 1, 1834.]

[Footnote B: These are crown colonies, and have no local legislature.]

ANTIGUA.

CHAPTER I.

Antigua is about eighteen miles long and fifteen broad; the interior is low and undulating, the coast mountainous. From the heights on the coast the whole island may be taken in at one view, and in a clear day the ocean can be seen entirely around the land, with the exception of a few miles of cliff in one quarter. The population of Antigua is about 37,000, of whom 30,000 are negroes--lately slaves--4500 are free people of color, and 2500 are whites.

The cultivation of the island is principally in sugar, of which the average annual crop is 15,000 hogsheads. Antigua is one of the oldest of the British West India colonies, and ranks high in importance and influence. Owing to the proportion of proprietors resident in the Island, there is an accumulation of talent, intelligence and refinement, greater, perhaps, than in any English colony, excepting Jamaica.

Our solicitude on entering the Island of Antigua was intense. Charged with a mission so nearly concerning the political and domestic institutions of the colony, we might well be doubtful as to the manner of our reception. We knew indeed that slavery was abolished, that Antigua had rejected the apprenticeship, and adopted entire emancipation. We knew also, that the free system had surpassed the hopes of its advocates. But we were in the midst of those whose habits and sentiments had been formed under the influences of slavery, whose prejudices still clinging to it might lead them to regard our visit with indifference at least, if not with jealousy. We dared not hope for aid from men who, not three years before, were slaveholders, and who, as a body, strenuously resisted the abolition measure, finally yielding to it only because they found resistance vain.

Mingled with the depressing anxieties already referred to, were emotions of pleasure and exultation, when we stepped upon the shores of an unfettered isle. We trod a soil from which the last vestige of slavery had been swept away! To us, accustomed as we were to infer the existence of slavery from the presence of a particular hue, the numbers of negroes passing to and fro, engaged in their several employments, denoted a land of oppression; but the erect forms, the active movements, and the sprightly countenances, bespoke that spirit of disinthrallment which had gone abroad through Antigua.

On the day of our arrival we had an interview with the Rev. James Cox, the superintendent of the Wesleyan mission in the island. He assured us that we need apprehend no difficulty in procuring information, adding, "We are all free here now; every man can speak his sentiments unawed. We have nothing to conceal in our present system; had you come here as the advocates of slavery you might have met with a very different reception."