respect.

During the time I visited Demerara (and I fancy it is very slightly
changed now) it was one of the vilest holes in creation. It is built on
a low sandy point of land at the entrance of a great river, and is
almost the hottest place on the earth. Mosquitos in thousands of
millions; nothing for the natives to do but to cultivate sugar-canes
and to perspire. There were two crack regiments quartered at Demerara,
who, having to withstand the dreadful monotony of doing nothing, took I
fear to living rather too well; the consequence was that many a fine
fellow had been carried off by yellow fever. For my part, I took a
rather high flight in the way of pastime by falling (as I imagined)
desperately in love with the governor's daughter. The governor, I must
tell my readers, was a very great swell, a general, a K.C.B., &c., and
his daughter was a mighty pretty girl, much run after by the garrison;
so it was thought great impertinence on my part, as a humble
sub-lieutenant, to presume to make love to the reigning, if not the
only, beauty in the place.

However, audacity carried me on, and I soon became No. 1 in the young
lady's estimation. I used to ride with her, spent the evenings in the
balcony of Government House with her, sent her flowers every morning,
and so on, till at last people began to talk, and steps were taken by
her numerous admirers to stop my wild career. This was done in a
somewhat startling way (premeditated, as I found out afterwards). One
evening I was playing at whist, one of my opponents being a momentarily
discarded lover of my young lady; I thought he was looking very
distrait; however, things went off quietly enough for some time, till on
some trifling question arising concerning the rules of the game, the
young man suddenly and quite gratuitously insulted me most grossly,
ending his insolent conduct by throwing his cards in my face. This was
more than I could put up with, so I called him out, and the next morning
put a ball into his ankle, which prevented him dancing for a long time
to come. He, being the best dancer in the colony, was rather severely
punished; it seems that he had undertaken to bell the cat, hardly
expecting such unpleasant results.

On returning home after the hostile meeting I found a much more
formidable adversary in the shape of the governor himself, who was
stamping furiously up and down the verandah of my apartment. He received
me with, 'What the d--- l do you mean,