40 LEAVES FROM A LOG. 



a colonelcy in the army, whose pay is, to use a naval proverb, 

 e< nothing a day, and find yourself." The father, at the beginning of 

 the war, had the prudence to remit some money to a friend in the 

 island, to serve as a dernier ressort. When Don Josef found the cause 

 of his sovereign lost on Costa Firma, he refused to live under the 

 democratic government ; so, accompanied by about forty slaves, he 

 went to Trinidad. These people followed their master voluntarily ; 

 and though the laws of the colony obliged Don Josef to land them as 

 free people, as no slaves were admissable from foreign ports, they 

 have served him ever since most faithfully. With the wreck of his 

 fortune he settled the cocoa plantation, on which I then visited 

 him. 



Don Josef asked me if I would take refreshment. I told him I 

 had not dined. 



" So much the better," said he, " I am just from town, and having 

 had a long passage, have not dined myself," and he called his servant 

 to hasten dinner. While this was getting ready, we talked of the busi- 

 ness that brought me to his estate. In a few minutes the servant in- 

 formed us of the glad tidings that dinner was on the table, when we 

 sat down to it, accompanied by Pedro Juan, a man of mixed Euro- 

 pean and Indian race, Don Josef's major domo (so Spaniards call the 

 managers of plantations). This man, who was an Angosturian, talked 

 a little English rather convenient for our conference ; for Don Josef 

 spoke Castilian, purer than the Spanish generally spoken there ; con- 

 sequently I was sometimes at a loss to understand him, although it is 

 remarkable, of all the European tongues, that of Spain is generally 

 the least corrupted in the New World. 



But to dinner on seating myself, I reconnoitered the table. The 

 first dish that took my attention was a stewed opossum ; its rat-like 

 look and unsavoury odour were any thing but tempting to my palate : 

 secondly, there was a dish of tasso or Columbian jerked beef this 

 was intolerable to me, on account of its smoky taste; thirdly a fricasseed 

 capon, uneatable in consequence of the profusion of garlic used in dress- 

 ing it, garlic being my aversion. But to make amends for these three re- 

 jected dishes, there was one of the most tempting-looking, well-dressed 

 fish ; at the sight of which the cockles of my heart were cheered, and 

 I mentally said " so my dream will not be verified after all." The 

 general superiority of fish over other meats of this island, had made 

 me quite pisciverous. I knew not what kind of fish it was ; this was 

 not to be wondered at, for the finny tribes are here so numerous, that 

 one may reside in Trinidad twenty years without knowing half 

 their names. It was sufficient that it looked tempting to in- 

 duce me to try its taste, and its gout surpassed its appearance. As 

 this repast was my breakfast, dinner and supper, triojuncta in uno, 

 I eat most ravenously ; the casava and arapa (a bread made from In- 

 dian corn) served as good substitutes for a wheaten loaf, of which 

 there was none at table. Repeatedly did Don Josef press me to 

 change my plate, and try the other dishes no, I found the fish so 

 good, and had such an insuperable aversion to opossum, tasso, and 

 garlic, that I was thrice helped to fish ; whilst emptying the contents 

 of my third plate, whether from the effects of the journey, my long 

 fasting, defective state of digestion from having eaten too much or 



