The young men are equally scrupulous in adorning their persons; although, in many instances, very negligent in improving their minds. Their dress, which has been already described when speaking of the _black beaux_, they procure by following the several trades of tailors, shoemakers, joiners,[44] &c., and sometimes, I am sorry to say, by less honest means. They are far behind the females in appearance; for the latter, let them be ever so uneducated, have a certain gracefulness of manners, which, as long as they keep their mouths shut, tends to gloss over their ignorance. I have had opportunities of noticing this in public places of resort; the missionary bazaars, for example. The females sit or stand quietly in groups, and offend not the eye or ear by their coarseness of mien; but, on the contrary, the men have that dissolute, vulgar, cavalier manner, so characteristic of low, over-dressed vanity, that, were it in England, we should be led to keep a steady eye upon our pockets and watches, and feel ourselves safe only at a distance. Even in the West Indies, where the “swell mob” does not exist, a kind of unpleasantness of feeling steals over one upon their near approach, heightened, or rather produced, by their boldness and vulgar, officious conduct. They appear to know no difference of rank, but, in their obtruded remarks, forget their plebeian origin. This is more apparent in their behaviour to the higher classes of their own colour, whom they approach with the utmost familiarity, and unless they are speedily and properly discountenanced, prove as troublesome as the impertinent little _gad-flies_ do to a quiet herd of cattle, when standing musing in some marshy pool.[45] The higher class of coloured persons, which embraces a large portion of the community, I have already slightly glanced at; but still my work would indeed be incomplete did I not more fully endeavour to portray their worth and superiority. These are men, who, if not educated in England, have received the best instruction the West Indies could afford, aided by their own strenuous endeavours for information. Hospitable in the highest degree, with a hand ever open to grasp in friendship that of the strangers whom fate or the winds may lead to their pretty little island; living in an easy elegance of style—the possessors of warm and generous thoughts—the doers of high and noble actions— patriots in the full sense of the term, their services ever at the command of their country; of agreeable conversation and polished manners; these are the characteristics of many of our Antiguan coloured gentlemen. Their wives and daughters are, in several instances, as unexceptionable as themselves, and perform their social duties in the same pleasing manner.