said to me,--"London may one day be the same--and Paris; and you and
your children's children will all have lived, and had their loves and
adventures; but who will the wretched man be that shall sit on the
summit of Primrose Hill, and look down upon the desolation of the mighty
city, as you, from this little eminence, behold the once flourishing
town of St. Jago?"

The goats were browsing on the side of the hill, and the little kids
frisking by their dams. "These," thought I, "perhaps are the only food
and nourishment of these poor friars." I walked to Port Praya, and
returned to my floating prison, the slave-ship. The officer who was
conducting her home, as a prize, was not a pleasant man; I did not like
him, and nothing passed between us but common civility. He was an old
master's mate, who had probably served his time thrice over; but having
no merit of his own, and no friends to cause that defect to be
overlooked, he had never obtained promotion: he therefore naturally
looked on a young commander with envy. He had only given me a passage
home from motives which he could not resist; first, because he was
forced to obey the orders of my late captain; and, secondly, because my
purse would supply the cabin with the necessary stock of refreshments,
in the shape of fruit, poultry, and vegetables, which are to be procured
at Port Praya; he was, therefore, under the necessity of enduring my
company.

The vessel, I found, was not to sail on the following day, as he
intended. I therefore took my gun at daybreak, and wandered with a
guide, up the valleys, in search of the _pintados_, or Guinea fowl with
which the island abounds; but they were so shy that I could never get a
shot at them; and I returned over the hills, which my guide assured me
was the shortest way. Tired with my walk, I was not sorry to arrive at
a sheltered valley, where the palmetto and the plantain offer a friendly
shade from the burning sun. The guide, with wonderful agility, mounted
the cocoa-nut-tree, and threw down half a dozen nuts. They were green,
and their milk I thought the most refreshing and delicious draught I had
ever taken.

The vesper bells at Port Praya were now summoning the poor black friars
to their devotion; and a stir and bustle appeared among the little black
boys and girls, of whose presence I was till then ignorant. They ran
from the coverts, and assembled near the front of the only cottage
visible to my eye. A tall el