268 DELAGOA BAY. 



were curious to see how many of the inhabitants 

 could muster sufficient energy to attend. The 

 best performers, we were informed, had been 

 lately, or were still, in hospital ; the rest, 

 perhaps not half, played on instruments mostly 

 out of tune, and occasionally amused themselves 

 by playing some in minor, others in major keys, 

 so that the general effect was not calculated to 

 cheer the very small sprinkling of listeners.* 



" We were most kindly welcomed by Mr. 

 Geoffrey Holme, the Acting Vice-Consul during 

 the absence of our Consul, Captain F. Elton,t 



* It was so bad, as we heard it, that we enjoyed a hearty laugh 

 very often at the excruciating sounds. Not only were the instru- 

 ments bad and out of tune, but the players had odd notions 

 about the proper time and places for taking breath, sometimes all 

 taking it at the same moment, which occasioned some very funny 

 stoppages in the midst of running passages. Some of the 

 principal performers must have been amongst the sick, for 

 in one or two operatic selections the melodies and first parts 

 in ducts were painfully absent, this being especially apparent 

 in the well-known duet, "Deh con te," from Nonna, only 

 the second part being heard. At the close of each performance 

 some national hymn was played, and as soon as the first notes 

 sounded, all the dogs in the place, who had hitherto been quite 

 quiet and peaceable, gathered round the band and howled in 

 concert to the finish. 



t Since dead. 



