uit, vegetables, and poultry, together with as much fresh meat as we
believed we could possibly consume before it went bad; and then, leaving
in the bay such ships as were bound for Barbadoes, we sailed again for
the various islands to which our charges were bound, leaving some at
every halting-place, until in the fulness of time we arrived at Port
Royal, and the thirty sail or so that remained under our protection were
safely moored in Kingston harbour.

We remained at anchor in Port Royal harbour a full week, during which
the first lieutenant was more than generous to me in the matter of
leave, whereby I was enabled to twice dine and spend the night at the
Admiral's Pen, meeting there and making the acquaintance of several
military officers from Up Park Camp as well as a number of exceedingly
jovial, hearty, hospitable civilians--planters, merchants, and so on,
from Kingston and the surrounding neighbourhood. This was my first
experience of the West Indies, and after the glorious scenery of the
island and the marvellous luxuriance, beauty, and strangeness of the
tropical vegetation which everywhere clothed it, I think that what
impressed me most was the amazing hospitality of its inhabitants, who
positively seemed to vie with each other in their efforts to show us
kindness. Did any of us want the loan of a horse or vehicle to make an
excursion into the country, we had but to hint at our requirements and
we might take our choice of a dozen which were instantly placed at our
service; while invitations to dine and spend the night or longer, to
join picnics and shooting parties, were literally showered upon us in
such abundance that it would have needed at least six months' leave to
have enabled me to avail myself of them all. Thus, in addition to the
two nights I spent under the Admiral's hospitable roof, I passed one
night--and might have passed many more--at Up Park Camp, and three whole
days and nights visiting sugar plantations at Saint Thomas-in-the-Vale
in the centre of the island. Then came our orders to sail, and I was
obliged to bid a regretful farewell to my many kind friends; not,
however, until they had extorted from me more promises than I could ever
hope to fulfil that I would visit them and make a long stay when next I
found myself in the island.

Our orders were to cruise in the Caribbean generally, and among the
Lesser Antilles, for the protection of our own commerce and the
destruction of that of t