Martinique continued - The Traveller's Tree: A Journey Through the Caribbean Islands - page 54

moribund. For the Mulattoes form the largest proportion of the population, and the liberal traditions of
the French government and its complete lack of colour prejudice do at least offer—as opposed to colon-
ies like Antigua or Barbados—a psychological climate in which this better state of things could prosper.
The Mulattoes to whom I refer feel that their black and white blood, instead of warring in their veins and
leading to unhappiness and frustration as they have so often done in the past, should combine to equip
them for appeasing the discord that history has left them; and that the intuitions they derive by their des-
cent from both slaveowner and slave equip them psychologically, as much as their numerical preponder-
ance designates them electorally, to tackle and solve their island questions. 'It's our task,' Rose-Rosette
affirmed, ' vraiment une mission sacrée —to try and uproot all the old bitterness, and build up some sort
of harmony.'
It was the first reasonable solution that I had heard put forward, and one of immense importance; be-
cause harmony and a lasting solution in these islands can only come from the heart. Home governments
may legislate wisely and humanely, but it is the passions on the spot, the hangover from the days of
slavery, that queer the proper implementation of their measures. For every single one of the inhabitants
of these islands had grandparents or great-grandparents that were either owner or slave; often both; and
the few generations that have elapsed since the emancipation have not yet been sufficient to blot out the
effects of those three hundred abnormal years. The white Créole world is on the defensive, and feels an
understandable desire to remain white and maintain its own traditions of family life. This is backed, too,
by a feeling of misgiving and hopelessness at the vast preponderance of the coloured race. The present
situation tempts many of them to pack up and go, and, if they remain, limits and inhibits their actions.
'Why begin anything in this atmosphere of uncertainty?'
The rancour on the coloured side is equally understandable and more justified; and both of these out-
looks are exacerbated by politics. There they are, black, brown and white, destined, if things continue as
they are, to live side by side throughout eternity. The situation errs from the original foundation, and, un-
less an attitude such as that which has been outlined becomes general, the future looks very dark indeed,
though perhaps a shade less dark in the French West Indies than the British.
Rose-Rosette is in his early forties, tall and fine-looking, with a rich coffee complexion, and features
notable for their regularity and strength. He lived and studied in Paris for a number of years. He is in-
fectiously cheerful and unbelievably kind, and it was obvious that he is liked and respected equally by
whites and blacks. He and his brother, a friend called Dr. Midas, who owns the Echo des Antilles , and M.
Villeneuve, a young Frenchman, took us on several expeditions to the south of the island. Of these one
especially sticks in my mind.
We stopped at the house of a cousin called Madame Chevalier de la Salle for ices and drinks on the
way eastwards round the bay of Fort-de-France, and then struck south. Undulating mornes were suc-
ceeded by green volcanic slopes until the road was running through mud flats by the sea. Here, at the ap-
proach of the motor-car, scarlet and black landcrabs galloped away sideways over the surface of the dried
swamp, and took refuge under the bamboo trees. East of here lies the Morne des Pétrifications, a rocky
and treeless district given over to sea birds, cactus and prickly pear, and shards of wood that the nature
of the water in these parts has completely petrified, giving them the appearance of jasper and agate. But
westwards on the road we followed lay a village among shady trees, that clustered round a church. The
volutes of the façade manifested, in a fumbling and infantile way, the first gestures of baroque; which, as