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Life of John Sterling-Part12_Thomas Carlyle(1795-1881)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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and seas and lands; there are Blacks, and the Slavery question to be



investigated: there are the bronzed Whites and Yellows, and their

strange new way of life: by all means let us go and



try!--Arrangements being completed, so soon as his strength had

sufficiently recovered, and the harsh spring winds had sufficiently



abated, Sterling with his small household set sail for St. Vincent;

and arrived without accident. His first child, a son Edward, now



living and grown to manhood, was born there, "at Brighton in the

Island of St. Vincent," in the fall of that year 1831.



CHAPTER XII.

ISLAND OF ST. VINCENT.



Sterling found a pleasant residence, with all its adjuncts, ready for

him, at Colonarie, in this "volcanic Isle" under the hot sun. An



interesting Isle: a place of rugged chasms, precipitous gnarled

heights, and the most fruitful hollows; shaggy everywhere with



luxuriant vegetation; set under magnificent skies, in the mirror of

the summer seas; offering everywhere the grandest sudden outlooks and



contrasts. His Letters represent a placidly cheerful riding life: a

pensive humor, but the thunder-clouds all sleeping in the distance.



Good relations with a few neighboring planters; indifference to the

noisy political and other agitations of the rest: friendly, by no



means romanticappreciation of the Blacks; quiet prosperity economic

and domestic: on the whole a healthy and recommendable way of life,



with Literature very much in abeyance in it.

He writes to Mr. Hare (date not given): "The landscapes around me



here are noble and lovely as any that can be conceived on Earth. How

indeed could it be otherwise, in a small Island of volcanic mountains,



far within the Tropics, and perpetually covered with the richest

vegetation?" The moral aspect of things is by no means so good; but



neither is that without its fair features. "So far as I see, the

Slaves here are cunning, deceitful and idle; without any great



aptitude for ferocious crimes, and with very little scruple at

committing others. But I have seen them much only in very favorable



circumstances. They are, as a body, decidedly unfit for freedom; and

if left, as at present, completely in the hands of their masters, will



never become so, unless through the agency of the Methodists."[9]

In the Autumn came an immensehurricane; with new and indeed quite



perilous experiences of West-Indian life. This hasty Letter,

addressed to his Mother, is not intrinsically his remarkablest from



St. Vincent: but the body of fact delineated in it being so much the

greatest, we will quote it in preference. A West-Indian tornado, as



John Sterling witnesses it, and with vivid authenticity describes it,

may be considered worth looking at.



"_To Mrs. Sterling, South Place, Knightsbridge, London_.

"BRIGHTON, ST. VINCENT, 28th August, 1831.



"MY DEAR MOTHER,--The packet came in yesterday; bringing me some

Newspapers, a Letter from my Father, and one from Anthony, with a few



lines from you. I wrote, some days ago, a hasty Note to my Father, on

the chance of its reaching you through Grenada sooner than any



communication by the packet; and in it I spoke of the great misfortune

which had befallen this Island and Barbadoes, but from which all those



you take an interest in have happily escaped unhurt.

"From the day of our arrival in the West Indies until Thursday the



11th instant, which will long be a memorable day with us, I had been

doing my best to get ourselves established comfortably; and I had at



last bought the materials for making some additions to the house. But

on the morning I have mentioned, all that I had exerted myself to do,



nearly all the property both of Susan and myself, and the very house

we lived in, were suddenly destroyed by a visitation of Providence far



more terrible than any I have ever witnessed.




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