stified the confidence so poetically expressed above.
He sailed his ship along steadily, taking no risks, and after a
pleasant passage of thirty-six days brought her to anchor in Carlisle
Bay, Barbadoes, where we were due to deliver some bags of mails.
I have said that the trip was uneventful; it was even without
incident save for some fooleries on reaching the Line, and such
trifling distractions as an unsuccessful attempt to shoot an
albatross, and the sighting of some flying-fish and sundry
long-tailed birds which the sailors called boatswains. But, as
Plinny wrote--

"Life at sea has a natural monotony
Of which 'twere irrational to complain:
You cannot, for instance, study botany
As in an English country lane.
But the mind is superior to distance
With its own reminiscences stored,
Not to mention the spiritual assistance
We derived from a clergyman on board."

(He was a sallow young man of delicate constitution, and, partly for
his health's sake, had accepted the pastorate of a Genevan church in
Kingston.)

From Barbadoes we beat up for Jamaica, and anchored in Kingston
Harbour just forty-five days from home. The next morning we said
farewell to the ship, and were rowed ashore to a good hotel, where we
spent a lazy week in email excursions, while Captain Branscome busied
himself in hiring a mule-train and holding consultations with a firm
of merchants, Messrs. Cox and Roebuck, to whom Miss Belcher came
recommended with a letter of credit. These gentlemen, understanding
that we desired to cross over to the Main to visit some relations of
Miss Belcher resident in Virginia (for that was our pretence), opined
that the matter was not difficult of management, but that we must
needs travel to the extreme west of the island if we would hire a
vessel for the purpose, and they mentioned an agent of theirs at
Savannah-la-Mar--Jacob Paz by name--as the likeliest man for our
purpose.

Armed with a letter of introduction to this man, in the early morning
of October 22 we started on muleback, and, travelling without haste
through the exquisite scenery of Jamaica (the main roads of which put
ours of Cornwall to shame), arrived at Savannah-la-Mar on the 27th, a
great part of the way having been occupied by Miss Belcher (who hated
the sight of a negro) in rebuking Plinny's sentimental objections to
slavery, and by Mr. Rogers in begging a collection of humming-birds.