XIV 



PREFACE 



also by the conciliatory policy of Washington 

 towards a native Government which, like that of 

 Cuba, owed its establishment to American inter- 

 ference. Many hard things have been said in this 

 country of the hand America took in these revolu- 

 tions, but would the means by which Great Britain 

 came by her splendid empire overseas bear equally 

 strict scrutiny ? 



A bird of passage can enjoy no more than a 

 bird's-eye view, and the commercial importance of 

 the Caribbean islands and the romantic interest of 

 the Spanish Main are but poorly honoured in the 

 concluding portion of the book. 



I landed in New York on the day after the 

 terrible catastrophe at San Francisco, and it was a 

 fine object-lesson to be with the American nation 

 in its first hours of mourning and to watch the 

 wonderful despatch with which relief trains were 

 pushed off, one after the other, to succour the 

 stricken city of the West. Since my return home 

 Kingston has gone too ! 



Urbes constituit cetas ; hora dissolvit ! 



Quite a different object-lesson was afforded by 

 the contrast of our own and the American ideal of 

 the salus populi and by the endeavour to grasp 

 their un-English equation of personal liberty. The 

 Englishman must travel on a crowded down-town 

 car, with a couple of labouring men sitting in his 

 lap, to appreciate my difficulty. 



At anyrate, I have posted yet another journal 

 of sport in deep waters, imprisoned the fleeting 

 vision of yet another summer gone on swallow's 

 wings, and treasured a few more of those clinging 

 memories of the morning of life, gfirrevocati dl, 



