"
The worthy but eccentric old chap then scrambled on board again, amidst
the suppressed laughter of the boatmen, and kept his seat, wet clothes and
all, until we reached Kingston.
CHAPTER VII
Scenes in Jamaica
'Excellent--why this is the best fooling when all is done.'
TWELFTH NIGHT, II. iii. 29--30.
I confess that I did not promise myself much pleasure from my cruise
ashore; somehow or other I had made up my mind to believe, that in
Jamaica, putting aside the magnificence and natural beauty of the face of
he country, there was little to interest me. I had pictured to myself the
slaves--a miserable, squalid, half fed, ill--clothed, over--worked
race--and their masters, and the white inhabitants generally, as an
unwholesome--looking crew of saffron faced tyrants, who wore straw hats
with umbrella brims, wide trowsers, and calico jackets, living on pepper
pot and land crabs, and drinking sangaree and smoking cigars the whole
day; in a word, that all that Bryan Edwards and others had written
regarding the civilisation of the West Indies was a fable. But I was
agreeably undeceived; for although I did meet with some extraordinary
characters, and witnessed not a few rum scenes, yet, on the whole, I
gratefully bear witness to the great hospitality of the inhabitants, both
in the towns and in the country. In Kingston the society was exceedingly
good, as good, I can freely affirm, as I ever met with in any provincial
town anywhere; and there prevailed a warmth of heart, and a kindliness
both in the males and females of those families to which I had the good
fortune to be introduced, that I never experienced out of Jamaica.
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