, as wild animals do, and at least tries to keep himself
clear of vermin. The blacks in Jacmel appeared (like the same animals as
soon as they are domesticated) to lose the sense which belongs to them
in their wild condition. My prejudices, if I have any, had not blinded
me to the good qualities of the men and women in Dominica. I do not
think it was prejudice wholly which made me think the faces which I saw
in Hayti the most repulsive which I had ever seen in the world, or
Jacmel itself, taken for all in all, the foulest, dirtiest, and nastiest
of human habitations. The dirt, however, I will do them the justice to
say did not seem to extend to their churches. The cathedral stood at the
upper end of the market place. I went in. It was airy, cool, and
decent-looking. Some priests were saying mass, and there was a fairly
large congregation. I wished to get a nearer sight of the altar and the
images and pictures, imagining that in Hayti the sacred persons might
assume a darker colour than in Europe; but I could not reach the chancel
without disturbing people who were saying their prayers, and, to the
disappointment of my companion, who beckoned me on, and would have
cleared a way for me, I controlled my curiosity and withdrew.

My hour's leave of absence was expired. I made my way back to the
landing place, where the mail steamer's boat was waiting for me. On the
steamer herself the passengers were waiting impatiently for breakfast,
which had been put off on our account. We hurried on board at our best
speed; but before breakfast could be thought of, or any other thing, I
had to strip and plunge into a bath and wash away the odour of the great
negro republic of the West which clung to my clothes and skin.

Leaving Jacmel and its associations, we ran all day along the land,
skirting a range of splendid mountains between seven and eight thousand
feet high; past the Isle a Vache; past the bay of Cayes, once famous as
the haunt of the sea-rovers; past Cape Tubiron, the Cape of Sharks. At
evening we were in the channel which divides St. Domingo from Jamaica.
Captain ---- insisted to me that this was the scene of Rodney's action,
and he pointed out to me the headland under which the British fleet had
been lying. He was probably right in saying that it was the scene of
some action of Rodney's, for there is hardly a corner of the West Indies
where he did not leave behind him the print of his cannon shot; but it
was not the scene o