Their daughters are carefully instructed in all the various modes of setting forth their own charms, and of publishing their own exalted rank, by expressing their contempt for all beneath them. The scornful toss of the head, the disdainful curve of the upper-lip, the affected heave of the shoulders, the insolent stare, and the air of proud condescension, is studied with far more intenseness than their grammars or geographies. Meet them where you will, in the place of worship or the “public show,” their manners are equally haughty; and their boasted pretension to superiority is even expressed in the very bending of their knees, when in acts of supposed adoration.
The more juvenile part of the community are, of course, debarred by their youth from keeping up with proper dignity their rank in life; but in the very nursery, the lessons of pride and affectation are engrafted, soon to become strong and flourishing shoots.
The days of extreme ignorance are certainly passed; the days when the young white Creole was left entirely to the care of their black, or low-coloured nurses, who imagined they could not better discharge their duty than by giving them their own way. The days when girls of fourteen could find no other amusement than, seated upon the floor, amid their negro attendants, to pass their time in eating “sling,” or sucking sugar-canes, while their listless mothers lay stretched upon their couch, leaving their children to learn their alphabet as best they could. In later years, as before remarked, a poor English girl is generally procured to instruct them in the early branches of knowledge, curl their hair, and teach them their “steps,” until the period arrives when their parents deem it necessary to send them to England, and place them at some suburban seminary. Here they are taught to sketch a landscape, complete a butterfly in Poonah painting, play some of the fashionable airs, with variations, upon a piano, speak Anglicised French, dance a quadrille, and perhaps embroider a footstool. Their education is then supposed to be completed, and they are re-shipped to the West Indies, to astonish “papa and mamma,” play their part upon the theatre of life, and swell the ranks of the female coterie.
In the days when the militia was in being in Antigua, the ladies of these self-elected aristocrats, were very fond of alluding to the martial rank of their relatives, particularly in their visits to England—talking of “my husband, the colonel,” “Capt. X———, my papa,” or “Lieut. Z———, my brother.” The gentlemen, many of them, were also very proud of wearing their uniform upon “field-day,” which occurred once a month, and no doubt felt themselves, as they buckled on their glittering swords, like “Hudibras, grow valorous.” The governor, as commander of the force, was allowed by the militia laws an honorary staff, which consisted of six officers, who bore the local rank of lieutenant-colonels.
An anecdote is related of a gentleman of Antigua, who
formed one of this cortège, and who was no little pleased with his high rank, and garnished shoulders. Business or pleasure called him to England, and he carried “home” with him his growing daughters to gather instruction, and his smart aide-de-camp’s dress to reap applause. Arrived in London, and the fatigues of the voyage over, our aide-de-camp arrayed himself in his gay uniform, and hiring a carriage, drove with his daughters to a fashionable seminary. His card was sent in “Lieutenant-colonel ———” and the lady of the establishment met him with all possible grace, and bowed and courtesied to his inquiries with elegant obsequiousness. No references were of course asked for—no entrance money demanded: his gay apparel was a sufficient passport, and the gentle “maitresse d’ecole” only thought herself too happy in acquiring the patronage of an officer of such high rank.
Time sped on, and the recess was at hand—the young ladies remained with their instructress during its period—the scholastic duties were again resumed, and another six months passed away. The various items swelled to a vast amount, yet no remittance came—no aide-de-camp made his appearance. A faintish tremour played around the lady’s heart, and, unwillingly, she began to think of moneyless “soldiers of fortune.” Letters were despatched to put the tardy sire in remembrance of his daughters’ improvements in their various studies, and urge for a remuneration. But alas! like “sleep,” at the call of our fourth “Henry,” it came not; and in the end, the lady was only too happy to get rid of her fair charges without receiving any payment, resolving, however, in her mind, never to trust again a West Indian aide-de-camp.
[[53]] It is an erroneous opinion held by some English people, that only coloured persons are called Creoles; the word being, in its proper sense, applied to all who are born in the West Indies.
[[54]] These two classes are of coarse subdivided into many others, according to their different stages in society.