CHAPTEE II 



We were thirty days in making Antigua, and 

 thanked Providence for ordering us so long a 

 passage. A tremendous gale of wind, approach- 

 ing to a hurricane, had done much damage in the 

 West Indies. Had our passage been of ordinary 

 length, we should inevitably have been caught in 

 the gale. 



St. John's is the capital of Antigua. In better 

 times it may have had its gaities and amusements. 

 At present, it appears sad and woe-begone. The 

 houses, which are chiefly of wood, seem as if they 

 had not had a coat of paint for many years ; the 

 streets are uneven and ill-paved; and as the 

 stranger wanders through them, he might fancy 

 that they would afford a congenial promenade 

 to the man who is about to take his last leave of 

 surrounding worldly misery, before he hangs 

 himself. There had been no rain for some time, 

 so that the parched and barren pasture near the 

 town might, with great truth, be called Eosi- 

 nante's own. The mules feeding on them, put 

 you in mind of Ovid's description of famine: — 



"Dura cutis, per quam spectari viscera possent," 



It is somewhat singular, that there is not a single 

 river or brook in the whole island of Antigua. 

 In this it differs from Tartary in the other world ; 



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