Froudacity | Page 9

the bitterest animosity had for years been raging between Dr.

Nichol and some of the elected members-a fact which our author chose
characteristically to regard as justifying an onslaught by himself on the
whole of that section of which the foes of his new friend formed a
prominent part.
Swayed by the above specified motives, our author also manages to see
much that is, and always has been, invisible to mortal eye, and to fail to
hear what is audible to and remarked upon by every other observer.
[31] Thus we find him (p. 56) describing the Grenada Carenage as
being surrounded by forest trees, causing its waters to present a violet
tint; whilst every one familiar with that locality knows that there are no
forest trees within two miles of the object which they are so
ingeniously made to colour. Again, and aptly illustrating the influence
of his prejudices on his sense of hearing, we will notice somewhat
more in detail the following assertion respecting the speech of the
gentry of Barbados:--
"The language of the Anglo-Barbadians was pure English, the voices
without the smallest transatlantic intonation."
Now it so happens that no Barbadian born and bred, be he gentle or
simple, can, on opening his lips, avoid the fate of Peter of Galilee when
skulking from the peril of a detected nationality: "Thy speech
bewrayeth thee!" It would, however, be prudent on this point to take the
evidence of other Englishmen, whose testimony is above suspicion,
seeing that they were free from the moral disturbance that affected Mr.
Froude's auditory powers. G. J. Chester, in his "Transatlantic Sketches"
(page 95), deposes as follows-
[32] "But worse, far worse than the colour, both of men and women, is
their voice and accent. Well may Coleridge enumerate among the pains
of the West Indies, 'the yawny-drawny way in which men converse.'
The soft, whining drawl is simply intolerable. Resemble the worst
Northern States woman's accent it may in some degree, but it has not a
grain of its vigour. A man tells you, 'if you can speer it, to send a beerer
with a bottle of bare,' and the clergyman excruciates you by praying in
church, 'Speer us, good Lord.' The English pronunciation of A and E is
in most words transposed. Barbados has a considerable number of
provincialisms of dialect. Some of these, as the constant use of
'Mistress' for 'Mrs.,' are interesting as archaisms, or words in use in the
early days of the Colony, and which have never died out of use. Others

are Yankeeisms or vulgarisms; others, again, such as the expression
'turning cuffums,' i.e. summersets, from cuffums, a species of fish,
seem to be of local origin."
In a note hereto appended, the author gives a list of English words of
peculiar use and acceptation in Barbados.
[33] To the same effect writes Anthony Trollope:
"But if the black people differ from their brethren of the other islands,
so certainly do the white people. One soon learns to know-- a Bim.
That is the name in which they themselves delight, and therefore,
though there is a sound of slang about it, I give it here. One certainly
soon learns to know a Bim. The most peculiar distinction is in his voice.
There is always a nasal twang about it, but quite distinct from the
nasality of a Yankee. The Yankee's word rings sharp through his nose;
not so that of the first-class Bim. There is a soft drawl about it, and the
sound is seldom completely formed. The effect on the ear is the same
as that on the hand when a man gives you his to shake, and instead of
shaking yours, holds his own still, &c., &c." ("The West Indies," p.
207).
From the above and scores of other authoritative testimonies which
might have been cited to the direct contrary of our traveller's tale under
this head, we can plainly perceive that Mr. Froude's love is not only
blind, but adder-deaf as well. We shall now contemplate him under
circumstances where his feelings are quite other than those of a
partisan.

BOOK I: VOYAGE OUT
[34] That Mr. Froude, despite his professions to the contrary, did not go
out on his explorations unhampered by prejudices, seems clear enough
from the following quotation:--
"There was a small black boy among us, evidently of pure blood, for
his hair was wool and his colour black as ink. His parents must have
been well-to-do, for the boy had been to Europe to be educated. The
officers on board and some of the ladies played with him as they would
play with a monkey. He had little more sense than a monkey, perhaps
less, and the gestures of him grinning behind gratings and perching out
his long thin