n. In the evening there was a small dinner party, made up chiefly of
officers from the West Indian regiments at Kingston. The English troops
are in the mountains at Newcastle, four or five thousand feet up and
beyond common visiting distance. Among those whom I met on this occasion
was an officer who struck me particularly. There was a mystery about his
origin. He had risen from the ranks, but was evidently a gentleman by
birth; he had seen service all over the world; he had been in Chili,
and, among his other accomplishments, spoke Spanish fluently; he entered
the English army as a private, had been in the war in the Transvaal, and
was the only survivor of the regiment which was surprised and shot down
by the Boers in an intricate pass where they could neither retreat nor
defend themselves. On that occasion he had escaped and saved the
colours, for which he was rewarded by a commission. He was acquainted
with many of my friends there who had been in the thick of the campaign;
knew Sir Owen Lanyon, Sir Morrison Barlow, and Colley. He had surveyed
the plateau on Majuba Hill after the action, and had gathered the
rumours which were flying many coloured about Colley's death. Friend and
foe alike loved Colley, and his already legendary fame is an
unconscious tribute to his memory. By whose hand he fell can never be
known. We believe as we wish or as we fancy. Mr. ---- was so fine an
officer, so clever a man, and so reserved about his personal affairs,
that about him too 'myths' were growing. He was credited in the mess
room with being the then unknown author of 'Solomon's Mines.' Mr.
Haggard will forgive a mistake which, if he knows Mr. ----, he will feel
to be a compliment.

From general conversation I gathered that the sanguine views of the
Colonial Secretary were not widely shared. The English interest was
still something in Jamaica; but the phenomena of the Antilles were
present there also, if in a less extreme form. There were 700,000
coloured people in the island, with but 15,000 or 16,000 whites; and the
blacks there also were increasing rapidly, and the whites were
stationary if not declining. There was the same uneasy social jealousy,
and the absence of any social relation between the two races. There were
mulattoes in the island of wealth and consequence, and at Government
House there are no distinctions; but the English residents of pure
colonial blood would not associate with them, social exclusiveness
increasin