"
He had better have held his tongue, honest man; for as he looked up
broad in Yerk's face, who was leaning over the hammocks, the scupper
immediately over head, through whose instrumentality I never knew, was
suddenly cleared, and a rush of dirty water, that had been lodged there
since the decks had been washed down at daydawn, splashed slapdash over
his head and shoulders and into his mouth, so as to set the dear little
man a--coughing so violently that I thought he would have been
throttled. Before he had recovered sufficiently to find his tongue, we
had pulled fifty yards from the ship, and a little farther on we
overtook the captain, who had preceded us in the cutter, into which we
transhipped ourselves. But Whiffle never could acquit Yerk of having
been, directly or indirectly, the cause of his suffering from the impure
shower.
This day was the first of the Negro Carnival or Christmas Holydays, and
at the distance of two miles from Kingston the sound of the negro drums
and horns, the barbarous music and yelling of the different African
tribes, and the more mellow singing of the Set Girls, came off upon the
breeze loud and strong.
When we got nearer, the wharfs and different streets, as we successively
opened them, were crowded with blackamoors, men, women, and children,
dancing and singing and shouting, and all rigged out in their best.
When we landed on the agents wharf we were immediately surrounded by a
group of these merry--makers, which happened to be the Butchers John
Canoe party, and a curious exhibition it unquestionably was.
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