Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/152

Rh This is a large, square, but low fortress-like wall, in which the slaves live as at Ariadne plantation, and in which they are secured by bolts and bars during the night. I have often visited them here during meal times, and have always felt it a refreshment to witness their vigorous life and their cheerfulness; nevertheless, I have seen countenances here steeped in such gloom, that not all the tropical sunshine would illumine, so hopeless, so bitter, so speechless were they—it was dreadful! The countenance of one young woman in particular, I shall never forget!

I cannot but often admire the herculean frames among the men, the energetic countenances in which a savage power seems united to a manly good-heartedness; which last shows itself especially in their treatment of the children, and by the very manner in which they look at them. The little ones are not here familiar and merry as they are on the plantations in America; they do not stretch out their little hands for a friendly salutation; they look at the white man with suspicious glances—they are shy: but the very little Bambinos, which are quite naked, fat, and plump, as shiny as black, or black-brown silk, dance upon their mother's knees, generally with a blue or red string of beads around the loins, and another round the neck; they are the very prettiest little things one ever saw; and the mothers with their strings of beads round their necks, their showy kerchiefs fastened, turban-wise, around the head, look very well too, especially when with delighted glances and shining pearly teeth, they are laughing and dancing with their fat, little ones. Such a young mother, with her child beneath a banana-tree, is a picture worthy the pencil of a good painter.

I saw in those dark little rooms—very like those at Ariadne plantation—more than one slave occupied during the short time allowed him for rest, in weaving little baskets and hats of palm-leaves, and one of them had