me cure him;" and he snatched the stick out of Swinburne's hand, and
running up to the man, who continued to roll on the beach, commenced
belabouring him without mercy. "Eh, Sambo!" cried he at last, quite out
of breath, "you no better yet--try again." He recommenced, until at last
the man got up and ran away as fast as he could. Now, whether the man
was shamming, or whether it was real _tic tic_, or epileptic fit, I know
not; but I never heard of such a cure for it before. I threw the fellow
half a pictareen, as much for the amusement he had afforded me as to get
rid of him. "Tanky, massa; now man-of-war man, here de tick for you
again to keep off all the dam niggers." So saying, he handed the stick
to Swinburne, made a polite bow, and departed. We were, however, soon
surrounded by others, particularly some dingy ladies with baskets of
fruit, and who, as they said, "sell ebery ting." I perceived that my
sailors were very fond of cocoa-nut milk, which, being a harmless
beverage, I did not object to their purchasing from these ladies, who
had chiefly cocoa-nuts in their baskets. As I had never tasted it, I
asked them what it was, and bought a cocoa-nut. I selected the largest.
"No, massa, dat not good for you. Better one for buccra officer." I then
selected another, but the same objection was made. "No, massa, dis very
fine milk. Very good for de tomac." I drank off the milk from the holes
on the top of the cocoa-nut, and found it very refreshing. As for the
sailors, they appeared very fond of it indeed. But I very soon found
that if good for de tomac, it was not very good for the head, as my men,
instead of rolling the casks, began to roll themselves in all
directions, and when it was time to go off to dinner, most of them were
dead drunk at the bottom of the boat. They insisted that it was the
_sun_ which affected them. Very hot it certainly was, and I believed
them at first, when they were only giddy; but I was convinced to the
contrary when I found that they became insensible; yet how they had
procured the liquor was to me a mystery. When I came on board, Mr
Falcon, who, although acting captain, continued his duties as first
lieutenant almost as punctually as before, asked how it was that I had
allowed my men to get so tipsy. I assured him that I could not tell,
that I had never allowed one to leave the watering-place, or to buy any
liquor: the only thing that they had to drink was a little cocoa-nut
milk, which, as it