t, in my individual opinion, as good. After remaining among these true
Barbadian-born drawlers about ten days, we left them, and made sail for
St. Pierre Dominique, where we anchored two days after. The manners and
customs of the people at this island were totally different to those in
vogue in Barbadoes; all, with the exception of a few, spoke creole French.

This island is mountainous, but not very picturesque. It produces sugar
which undergoes the process of being clayed--that is, after a great part of
the molasses has been drained from it, it is put into forms made of clay,
which extract the remaining moisture; it then becomes a beautiful straw
colour; it is exported in cases. Coffee also grows here, but not of the
finest quality. We also saw abundance of different fruits. The purser
purchased several tons of yams for the use of the ship's crew, some of
which weighed upwards of twenty pounds each. We bought for our mess some
sweet potatoes, plantains, bananas, shaddocks, forbidden fruit, and limes.
There were groves of oranges, but we had not time to visit them. We saw in
the market melons, guavas, sour-sops, alligator-pears, love-apples and
mangoes. I remarked that oxen were the only animals used for burthen. I
did not see a single horse. The streets of the town of St. Pierre are not
laid out with much regularity, nor are the houses well built. I thought it
an ugly town; it is, however, ornamented with a number of cocoanut-trees,
some of which are forty and fifty feet high.

The general officer we brought from England and his suite left us at this
place. The object of his visit was to raise a mongrel regiment for the
purpose of acting against the French islands, as a fleet with troops from
England was daily expected to effect their capture. We remained here a few
days, and afterwards amused ourselves by cruising off the islands of
Martinique, Guadaloupe, St. Lucie and Marie Galante, but were not
fortunate enough to effect any captures. We repaired a second time to St.
Pierre roads and received on board two companies of mongrels to transport
to Barbadoes. We wished them, and sometimes ourselves, in heaven. All the
mids thought it a great pity that we had not fallen in with a first-class
French frigate. We might have walked on board of her, said they, in such
fine style. There were several women with the troops, some of whom had
children at the breast. I pitied them, and endeavoured to assist them all
in my power. For