ich
subsequent experience happily confirmed--I fell asleep.

CHAPTER II.

KINGSTON.

Having satisfied myself, by a sound night's rest, that the laws of my
physical constitution had undergone no essential revolution by a change
to the torrid zone, I began in the morning to look curiously around to
note what the differences might be in the outer world. The quaint old
lodging house itself first drew my attention, with its thick walls and
heavy brick arches on the ground floor, built to guard against
earthquakes, of which few years pass without several shocks, though none
especially memorable have taken place since the dreadful one of 1692.
Cracks in the walls here and there, however, show that it is not useless
to make provision against them.

While I was seated at a most comfortable breakfast of bread and butter
and the excellent fish which abound in Kingston harbor, flanked by huge
oranges of enticing sweetness, a shrivelled old negro woman, who was on
her knees giving the uncarpeted floor its morning application of wax,
and rubbing it into a polish with a cocoanut shell, suddenly rose to her
feet and kissed her hand to me with a grace worthy of a duchess.
Somewhat startled at this unexpected salutation from the fairer, or the
softer sex--I am in some doubt as to the proper adjective in this
case--I gazed rather blankly at her without replying; but she dropped on
her knees again and went on with her work, satisfied doubtless that she
at least knew the proprieties. It is this submissive respectfulness of
the blacks that makes it pleasant living among them, notwithstanding all
their faults and vices. At home we are no better than our neighbors, but
here, if we only have a white complexion, we belong to the undisputed
aristocracy, and carry our credentials in our faces. It is that which
has bewitched so many Northern people living at the South with slavery.
But what is wanted is not a community of slaves, but only a community of
blacks.

After fortifying myself against the sweltering heat of the December
morning by copious draughts from the unglazed earthen coolers, which
look so refreshing in this climate that you often see their coarse red
pottery on handsomely laid tables, looking quite as well entitled to a
place as anything else, I sallied out to see what daylight would show in
the chief city of Jamaica, a city of nearly 30,000 people. I must say
that for appearance' sake the best thing for Kingston would be to