wand, whose magic rap on the fiddle produced
immediate obedience to his mandates. "Ladies and gentle, take your
seats." All started up. "Miss Eurydice, you open de ball."

Miss Eurydice had but a sorry partner, but she undertook to instruct me.
O'Brien was our vis-a-vis with Miss Euterpe. The other gentlemen were
officers from the ships, and we stood up twelve, checkered brown and
white, like a chess-board. All eyes were fixed upon Mr Apollo Johnson,
who first looked at the couples, then at his fiddle, and, lastly, at the
other musicians, to see if all was right, and then with a wave of his
_bow-tick_ the music began. "Massa Lieutenant," cried Apollo to
O'Brien, "cross over to opposite lady, right hand and left, den figure
to Miss Eurydice--dat right: now four hand round. You lily midshipman,
set your partner, sir; den twist her round; dat do, now stop. First
figure all over."

At this time I thought I might venture to talk a little with my partner,
and I ventured a remark. To my surprise, she answered very sharply, "I
come here for dance, sar, and not for chatter: look Massa Johnson, he
tap um bow-tick."

The second figure commenced, and I made a sad bungle: so I did of the
third, and fourth, and fifth, for I never had danced a cotillon. When I
handed my partner to her place, who certainly was the prettiest girl in
the room, she looked rather contemptuously at me, and observed to a
neighbour, "I really pity de gentleman as come from England dat no know
how to dance, nor nothing at all, until em hab instruction at
Barbadoes."

A country dance was now called for, which was more acceptable to all
parties, as none of Mr Apollo Johnson's pupils were very perfect in
their cotillon, and none of the officers, except O'Brien, knew anything
about them. O'Brien's superior education on this point, added to his
lieutenant's epaulet and handsome person, made him much courted: but he
took up with Miss Eurydice after I had left her, and remained with her
the whole evening; thereby exciting the jealousy of Mr Apollo Johnson,
who, it appears, was amorous in that direction. Our party increased
every minute: all the officers of the garrison, and, finally, as soon as
they could get away, the governor's aides-de-camp, all dressed in
_mufti_ (i.e. plain clothes). The dancing continued until three o'clock
in the morning, when it was quite a squeeze, from the constant arrival
of fresh recruits from all the houses in Barbadoes.