In my lengthened descriptions of the negro tribe, among the darker shades of their character inebriation has not been mentioned, as it is not a general vice among them. Still it cannot be altogether passed over, for alas! too many have to deplore the consequences of excessive drinking. In a country where his actual wants are sooner supplied than in a colder clime, the labourer has a larger portion to spend upon that deleterious poison, _new rum_. A few sticks, collected by himself or his wife, serves to cook his daily meal, a mat forms his couch, while a coarse garment of cloth is the dress of his children, and their little feet seldom know the confinement of a shoe. Their smart dresses (if they have any) are reserved for a Sunday, or any particular occasion; but the generality of negroes who are addicted to the vice of drunkenness, seldom pay any regard to their personal appearance. Their excuse for indulging in this habit of drinking is, that after working all day they require something to strengthen them and allay their thirst. But the question is, will ardent spirits do this? or will they not rather, from their heating qualities, augment the craving? Now, most negroes have a sweet tooth, and a beverage composed of sugar and water would tend to alleviate their thirst, and at the same time nourish and enrich their blood. It is very much to be wished that managers and owners of estates would try and enforce on the minds of their labourers the pernicious effects of dram-drinking; for a steady, well-ordered peasantry is a blessing to a country. True it is, the negroes have a stubborn temper; and yet there are very many to be found among them who seem willing to follow good advice; in that case, the “rum-shops” might be forsaken in time, and their frequenters become, instead of the refuse, the ornament of the class to which they belong. The time has at length arrived when this despised and benighted race are treated as rational creatures; when— “Spite of the shade, at length confess’d a man; Nor longer whipp’d, because he is not white.” If a society was formed in Antigua, similar to the “horticultural,” or agricultural societies in England, only extending it to articles of manufacture, it would be the means, perhaps, of exciting in the minds of the lower classes a worthy spirit of emulation, and by employing them during their leisure hours, draw them from their bad associates, and conduct them, by gentle and persuasive measures, into the paths of virtue.