JAMAICA. 189 



" and the white teeth arc perpetually shining out in the 

 '* sable faces, as the merry laugh — the negro's own 

 "laugh — rises continually. The figures of the women, 

 " many of them not ungraceful, though plump and 

 '' muscular, are picturesque, clad in short gowns of 

 "showy colours, and wearing the peculiarly set handker- 

 " chief for a head-dress, in form of a turban, often also 

 "of bright hues, though in most cases white as snow. 

 " They move about amongst the bustle, crowding up to 

 " the canoes to stow their ware ; tucking up their frocks 

 " still higher as the depth of water increases, regardless 

 "of displaying their bronzed legs. At the edge of the 

 " water, on whose mirror-like surface the mounting sun 

 " begins to pour torridly, the little children sit, sucking 

 " cane or oranges, while the elder ones play about them, 

 " helping to augment the noise. " 



It was during one of these occasional visits to Savannah- 

 le-Mar that he received the news of his father's death. 

 Almost immediately after Philip's departure for Jamaica, 

 the old gentleman had been seized with an ailment which 

 defied medical skill ; it proved fatal on November 26, 1844, 

 while his son was crossing the Atlantic. Mr. Thomas Gosse 

 was serene in mind to the last, and died apparently without 

 pain, and almost without a sigh, conscious, but entirely 

 tranquil. He would, in eight months more, have com- 

 pleted his eightieth year. The only thing which fluttered 

 in the calm of his resigned cheerfulness was the memory 

 of one of those hopeless works in prose and verse which 

 he had so vainly urged upon the publishers for more than 

 half a century. His latest words referred to an epic poem, 

 The Impious Rebellion, that he thought he had, on one of the 

 last occasions upon which he walked out, left for inspection 

 with Messrs. Blackwood, at their London agents'. He was 

 doomed, however, to live and die inedited, and when his 



