THE MAROON PARTY;* 



A WEST-INDIAN SKETCH. 



THE morning gun, which in this, as well as in every West-India 

 island, announces day-break, had just been discharged at the seaport 

 of Port of Spain ; as its echoes died away on the surface of the gulf 

 of Paria, and amongst the circumjacent mountains, I started from my 

 sleep, threw off my light covering, and dressed myself in jeans, the 

 general morning dress in this island. The business of the toilet briefly 

 dispatched, I hasted to the King's wharf, to meet a party who were 

 going to make a sailing and maroon tour along the snores, and amid 

 the mountains of the north of this island. 



I met my associates on the wharf, and we embarked on board a 

 beautiful Bermudian cutter, called " The Flying-fish." Our party 

 consisted of five persons. The first was a Mr. Aikin, an amateur 

 draughtsman, and a very talented fellow. 



The second person of our party was a Monsieur Du Bois, a Creole 

 of French extraction ; he conceived Voltaire was a great philosopher, 

 and that Shakspeare, or, as he pronounced it, Shack-es-pierre, was an 

 inspired barbarian. Mr. Du Bois was in no way a remarkable speci- 

 men of his nation, save that he was passionately fond of hunting, 

 shooting, and fishing. 



Thirdly, there was with us a certain Javinia, F. Goodenough ; he 

 was a native of New England, and cared little for Old England. He 

 believed that the Americans are the only free people on earth that 

 Dr. Franklin was the inventor of electric conductors, and a great 

 swimmer, and that General Jackson is the most wonderful warrior 

 that ever was seen since the days of Alexander the Great. 



The fourth person was Horace Rattoon. Natural history was his 

 favourite pursuit, to study which he would plunge in the midst of the 

 forest, armed with a gun, and furnished with a few instruments and 

 drugs for the purpose of skinning and preserving birds, snakes, &c.; 

 there a single wild cotton-tree, with its endless variety of mosses, 

 wild pines, and parasites, would afford him study for a day. It was 

 to him a living volume of botany ; his food during these solitary ex- 

 cursions was a piece of sweetened chocolate, a roll or two of which, 

 on these occasions, he always carried with him ; his drink was of the 

 forest stream, and, when that was not to be had, the water of vitis 

 indica, or the wild pine, quenched his thirst at night he would make 

 a fire to keep off insects and reptiles ; and under the shelter of an 

 ajoupa, or even without any shelter save the thick foliage of the woods, 



* It was formerly the custom in Jamaica to make parties of pleasure, whose 

 object was a ramble into the woods to visit the mountanious residence of the 

 maroons. These parties took, during their stay, what in England is called 

 " gipsey -meals " and reposed a day or two amongst the maroon villages, subse- 

 quently the word " maroon-party " was used to designate any party of persons 

 joining in making rough pedestrian excursions into the woods, or to other retired 

 places for recreation. 



