Benbow) had prepared me, in
a measure, before we left Portsmouth, for the wondrous beauty of
these western isles, but I might say, as the Queen of Sheba said of
the glory and grandeur of King Solomon, that "the half had not been
told." I was struck dumb with admiration as we threaded our way
through a narrow channel between irregular reefs lying off the
harbor of Port Royal. The spacious harbor itself was a noble sight,
but the background was even more picturesque--the light,
two-storied houses with their piazzas painted green and white, the
varying hues of the gardens, filled with palms and cocoanut trees,
and the lofty minarets of the Blue Mountains, towering to a great
height behind. Such scenes were a new thing to my untraveled eyes,
they were in very truth the revelation of a new world to me.
Our arrival was the occasion of great festivity; all the
inhabitants of Spanish Town, the capital, from the governor
downward, were lavish in their hospitality; and for some days it
was one round of balls and banquets, to which we came with unjaded
appetites and vigor after our long voyage. And I warrant you that
the officers of Collingwood's regiment then in garrison were soon
mighty jealous, for the ladies of the place, English and Creole
alike, preferred us naval men to them as partners. I confess I
nearly lost my heart a dozen times, and the thirteenth might have
been fatal, only it chanced that her name being Lucetta reminded me
of a certain Mistress Lucy at home in England, whom the others had,
so to speak, elbowed out of my recollection.
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