Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/81

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PART II.

Note 1. Page 18, line 1.—An eastern plant ingrafted on the soil.—The Cane is said to have been first transplanted from Madeira to the Brazils, by the Portuguese, and afterwards introduced by the Spaniards into the Charibbee Islands.—See also line 21, below.

PART III.

Note 1. Page 36, line 6.—To deeds of charity and words of truth.—Dr Winterbotham says, 'The respect which the Africans pay to old people is very great.—One of the severest insults which can be offered to an African is to speak disrespectfully of his mother.'—'The negro race is perhaps the most prolific of all the human species. Their infancy and youth are singularly happy—The mothers are passionately fond of their children.'—Goldbury's Travels.—"Strike me," said my attendant, "but do not curse my mother."—'The same sentiment I found universally to prevail.—One of the first lessons in which the Mandingo women instruct their children is the practice of truth.—It was the only consolation

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