ich a boar's head grinned a welcome. Snails from France, oysters
torn from trees, gazelle cutlets, stewed iguana, smoked elephant,
fried locusts, manati-breasts, hippopotamus steaks, boiled alligator,
roasted crocodile eggs, monkeys on toast, land crabs and Africa soles,
carp, and mullet--detestable in themselves, but triumphant proof of
the skill of the cook--furnished forth the festival-table, in company
with potatoes, plantains, pine-apples, oranges, papaws, bananas, and
various fruits rejoicing in extraordinary shapes, long native names,
and very nasty flavours; and last, but not least, palm-cabbage stewed
in white sauce, 'the ambrosia of the gods,' and a bottle of good
Bordeaux at every's man's elbow. When evening came, Mr. Reade and a
special friend sought the river: 'The rosy wine had rouged our yellow
cheeks, and we lay back on the cushions, and watched the setting sun
with languid, half-closed eyes. Four men, who might have served as
models to Appelles, bent slowly to their stroke, and murmured forth a
sweet and plaintive song. Their oars, obedient to their voice, rippled
the still water, and dropped from their blades pearls, which the sun
made rubies with its rays. Two beautiful girls, who sat before us in
the bow, raised their rounded arms and tinkled their bracelets in the
air. Then, gliding into the water, they brought us flowers from
beneath the dark bushes, and kissed the hands which took them, with
wet and laughing lips. Like a dark curtain, the warm night fell upon
us; strange cries roused from the forest; beasts of the waters plunged
around us, and my honest friend's hand pressed mine. And Christmas
Day was over. We might seek long for a stranger contrast to an
Englishman's Christmas at home, although--to adapt some seasonable
lines--

Where'er
An English heart exists to do and dare,
Where, amid Afric's sands, the lion roars,
Where endless winter chains the silent shores,
Where smiles the sea round coral islets bright,
Where Brahma's temple's sleep in glowing light--
In every spot where England's sons may roam,
Dear Christmas-tide still speaks to them of Home!"

[93] The discovery of the North-West Passage for
navigation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, by the
northern coasts of the American continent; first
successfully traversed by Sir R. McClure in 1850-1.

[94] _Chambers's Journal_, December 25, 1869.

[95] Fosbroke