y--Modern speculation--A
Spanish fable--Port Royal--The commodore--Naval theatricals--The
modern sailor.

The surviving representatives of the Jamaican gentry are as hospitable
as their fathers and grandfathers used to be. An English visitor who
wishes to see the island is not allowed to take his chance at
hotels--where, indeed, his chance would be a bad one. A single
acquaintance is enough to start with. He is sent on with letters of
introduction from one house to another, and is assured of a favourable
reception. I was treated as kindly as any stranger would be, and that
was as kindly as possible. But friends do not ask us to stay with them
that their portraits may be drawn in the traveller's journals; and I
mention no one who was thus good to me, unless some general interest
attaches either to himself or his residence. Such interest does,
however, attach to a spot where, after leaving Mandeville, I passed a
few days. The present owner of it was the chief manager of the Kingston
branch of the Colonial Bank: a clever accomplished man of business, who
understood the financial condition of the West Indies better perhaps
than any other man living. He was a botanist besides; he had a fine
collection of curious plants which were famous in the island; and was
otherwise a gentleman of the highest standing and reputation. His lady
was one of the old island aristocracy--high-bred, cultivated, an
accomplished artist; a person who would have shone anywhere and in any
circle, and was, therefore, contented to be herself, and indifferent
whether she shone or not. A visit in such a family was likely to be
instructive, and was sure to be agreeable; and on these grounds alone I
should have accepted gratefully the opportunity of knowing them better
which they kindly made for me by an invitation to stay with them. But
their place, which was called Cherry Garden, and which I had seen from
the grounds at Government House, had a further importance of its own in
having been the home of the unfortunate George William Gordon.

The disturbances with which Mr. Gordon was connected, and for his share
in which he was executed, are so recent and so notorious that I need
give no detailed account of them, though, of course, I looked into the
history again and listened to all that I could hear about it. Though I
had taken no part in Mr. Eyre's defence, I was one of those who thought
from the first that Mr. Eyre had been unworthily sacrifice