nd in Charles, a young lieutenant in the --- regiment, quartered at
Nassau. Our intimacy became the closer, in proportion as we discovered
the sottish habits and ignorance of those around us. We usually spent
our mornings in reading the classic authors, with which we were both
familiar; we spouted our Latin verses; we fenced; and we amused
ourselves occasionally with a game of billiards, but never ventured our
friendship on a stake for money. When the heat of the day had passed
off, we strolled out, paid a few visits, or rambled over the island;
keeping as much aloof from the barracks as possible, where the manner of
living was so very uncongenial to our notions. The officers began their
day about noon, when they sat down to breakfast; after that, they
separated to their different quarters, to read the novels with which the
presses of England and France inundated these islands, to the great
deterioration of morals. These books, which they read lounging on their
backs, or laid beside them and fell asleep over, occupied the hottest
part of the day; the remainder, till the hour of dinner arrived, was
consumed in visiting and gossiping, or in riding to procure an appetite
for dinner. Till four in the morning, their time was wholly devoted to
smoking and drinking; their beds received them in a state of
intoxication, more or less; parade, at nine o'clock, forced them out
with a burning brain and parched tongue; they rushed into, the sea, and
found some refreshment in the cool water, which enabled them to stand
upright in front of their men; the formal duty over, they retired again
to their beds, where they lay till noon, and then to breakfast.

Such were their days; can it be wondered at that our islands are fatal
to the constitution of Europeans, when this is their manner of life in a
climate always disposed to take advantage of any excess? The men too
readily followed the example of their officers and died off in the same
rapid manner; one of the most regular employments of the morning was to
dig graves for the victims of the night. Four or five of these
receptacles were thought a moderate number. Such was the fatal apathy
in which these officers existed, that the approach, nay, even the
certainty of death, gave them no apparent concern, caused no
preparation, excited no serious reflection. They followed the corpse of
a brother officer to the grave in military procession. These ceremonies
were always conducted in