Caryl Phillips - Cambridge

Some ten days later, as promised, Arnold escorted me back into Baytown where I attended a dinner given at a prominent merchant's house. I had been led to understand that the dull expense of formal dinner was being replaced by the latest vogue of the small social community, where ladies might debate freely with gentlemen, and thus conversation might replace cardplay as the main communal resource of a lady's evening. However, I was to be afforded the opportunity of witnessing the traditional West Indian dinner, where the table laboured under a burden of ostentatious and substantial dishes. Gentlemen predominated numerically. Many brought with them their servants, some in livery, some not so, some with shoes, some barefoot, but all truly exemplified the type of the unprepossessing negro. They buzzed and swarmed around us like flies, and the lack of any formal arrangement among them created a vast disorder — excepting, of course, the arrangement whereby they might attempt to steal from beneath our very gaze whatever might be carried off.

I believe our merchant host originated in Portugal, but his table gave no hint of his foreign tastes, laden as it was with familiar local provisions, which not only now sat easily upon my stomach but gave so much pleasure to the palate that I began to wonder if I should ever again adjust to the fare of England. Was I doomed to become an exotic for the rest of my days? This, it now seemed to me, would be no bad thing, for I discovered much at this dinner that warmed my heart towards one class of these creole people. I had heard those engaged in West Indian cultivation spoken of as choleric and unstable, inclined to be imperious, but lacking in polish, who having raised themselves from mediocrity to some form of affluence, now reclined in tropical ease framing excessively elevated notions of their birth. However, these plantation managers are hard-working, up before sunrise, first into the field, and often the last to leave at night. Since their labour is not purely for their own benefit, their application is all the more admirable. Men such as Father, who profit greatly by these managers' labour, would surely expire were they required to perform a fraction of the physical and mental tasks that these fellows undertake daily. At this dinner were two or three planting men who seldom come to Baytown seeking pleasure, for they are usually too busy with their agricultural concerns. Baytown is occupied by, or, rather, abandoned to, those who hold situations under Government, or attorneys, medical men, merchants, and of course the military (including naval officers of such ships as chance to be on station).

Another myth was soon dispensed with, that of drink. Many a long cork of the rosy Vin de Bordeaux was carefully drawn and the wine poured into the waiting crystal, and bottles of champagne were unwired, uncorked, and their sparkling contents offered to all. But although the tongue never remained idle, fine wit was displayed. The news was eagerly discussed, and bons mots flew like arrows, but no hectic face glowed excessively, nor were the laughing eyes dampened with anything other than the dew of happy excitement. It appears that drinking to excess is seldom practised, although the lower orders, the book-keepers and white labourers, regularly fall victim to this vice. I have mixed in society where courtly manners prevail, and where much art is practised to bestow a polished grace, but seldom have more sterling qualities of the mind and native good breeding been displayed than amongst these planters, whose propriety was such that not for one moment did I suspect any of aping their betters.

After the dinner, the ladies were not encouraged to remain long at the table. We retired to the drawing room, where something like conversation took place. Only the most successful among the managers are able to afford a wife. Her duties are most arduous. Distant from markets and the few small civilized comforts that a West Indian town affords, she must survive upon the stock produced from the estate. With careful management this can be comfortably arranged. She must, however, discipline herself to listen to all the stories of the people on the estate, young and old, and the negro children must be closely watched. It is her duty to reward the good and admonish the wicked. Those ladies with small children of their own have still more to do, yet in their personal attention towards their offspring they prove the most responsible and affectionate of parents, different in conduct from the fashionable mothers of England who quickly abandon their progeny to the care of negligent mercenary nurses, thereby depriving the leading youth of England of that natural maternal contact which brings forth the balanced mind. As to the practice of education, there is little to be done but to send the older children to Europe, for a newly arrived governess will soon marry. Either this or risk the children falling into a slothful state of ignorance. In later years the boys seldom return, and should the girls do so it is generally to enjoy the chivalry of local eligible bachelors, all intent upon marriage to any passing creature with a fair skin.

In a little time the gentlemen entered, and befogged the room with tobacco smoke. Soon after, a pair of grinning, facetious negroes busied themselves handing around coffee and cake. Sad to recount, those just beneath the status of plantation manager, the overseers, book-keepers and the like, no matter how large the plantations they labour on, generally have not the means to enable them to make any woman decently comfortable. Salaries as small as £200 per annum are not unusual, with of course provision made for what rum, sugar and salt-fish they require from the estate. These overseers and book-keepers are seldom invited to share a merchant's table, but Arnold's situation is a little happier, since following the departure of Mr Wilson, he has assumed the role of manager. His salary and status were now certainly sufficient to warrant his presence, although I felt strongly that he barely tolerated the excesses of our merchant host in order to assist me in my investigation of the white people and their ways. Indeed, as comfortable and welcome as I was made to feel, I could not help but wonder at the pretentious parade of our city company.

Among the merchants, as distinct from the planters, it is incumbent upon each new host to outdo his predecessor. Furthermore, at the earliest opportunity, newly acquired diamonds and strings of pearls must always be prominently displayed. I was made to understand that it is on the annual occasion of the Governor's Ball that the grand scale of this vulgar extravagance finds its full expression. Female hearts, young and old, beat at the prospect of this eventful night, and the solitary shop which deals in European fashions is crowded with visitors, or their femmes de chambre, demanding lace, tiffany and other materials to occupy the busy fingers of a dozen seamstresses. Plying their needles with breathtaking speed, these tailoresses are called upon to invent ever-increasingly flamboyant flounces, pinkings and furbelows. This addiction to ornament, at the expense of convenience, is at present a strong characteristic of the West Indies, luxuries abounding where decencies are often found to be lacking. It appears that this is the common consequence of a young civilization lacking the constraints of a polite tradition.

I shared some of Arnold's relief as we entered our carriage and prepared for the journey back towards the comparative sanity of our plantation. The convivial season of Christmas lay some weeks hence, but the spirit of goodwill was already in the air. Before we could take our leave large numbers of over-excited negroes gathered about, begging us to give them some remembrancer of the season. This we declined to do, though we did bestow upon each one of them a broad smile. Soon they would receive more tangible rewards, for Arnold informed me that every Christmas the negro enjoys four pounds of pork and two quarters of sugar, with children under twelve receiving half allowance. Often an ox is killed and a fresh portion of meat distributed, and for all the sambos this is a time of great merriment during which they regularly powder each other with flour and play contentedly. Even our negro attendants grinned and joked as we made our way back through the pitch black night, but I did, however, suspect some application of the rum encouraged their joviality.