ould boast of little temperance, far from exhausted.
We had turtle dressed in different ways, though our flat friend made his
first appearance in the guise of an appetising soup. We had stewed
guanna, a large sort of delicious lizard, that most amply repairs the
offence done to the eye by his unsightly appearance in conciliating in a
wonderful manner all those minute yet important nerves that Providence
has so bountifully and so numerously spread over the palate, the tongue,
and the uvula. The very contemplation of this beneficent arrangement is
enough to make a swearing boatswain pious.

We lacked neither fish, beef, nor mutton; though it is true, that the
carcasses of the sheep, after having been dressed by the butcher and
hung up under the half-deck, gave us the consolation of knowing, that
whilst there was a single one on board, we should never be in want of a
poop-lantern, so delicately thin and transparent were the teguments that
united the ribs. Indeed, when properly stretched, the body would have
supplied the place of a drum, and but little paring away of the flesh
would have fitted the legs and shoulders for drum-sticks. Of fowls we
had every variety, and the curries were excellent. Reud kept two
experienced cooks; one was an Indian, well versed in all the mysteries
of spices and provocatives; the other a Frenchman, who might have taken
a high degree in Baron Rothschild's kitchen, which Hebrew kitchen is, we
understand, the best appointed in all the Christian world. The rivals
sometimes knocked a pot or so over, with its luscious contents, in their
contests for precedency, for cooks and kings have their failings in
common; but, I must confess, that their Creole master always
administered even-handed justice, by very scrupulously flogging them
both.

Well, we will suppose the dinner done, and the West Indian dessert on
the table, and that during the repast the suavity of our host had been
exemplary. He found some means of putting each of us on good terms with
himself. At how little expense we can make each other happy!

The refreshing champagne had circulated two or three times, and the
pine-apples had been scientifically cut by the sovereign hand of the
skipper, who now, in his native regions, seemed to have taken to himself
an increased portion of life. All this time, nothing personal or in the
least offensive had been uttered. The claret that had been cooling all
day, by the means of evaporation,