46 



did on the Thames, and had " made all the world 

 look gay." During the night we passed Santa Cruz, 

 an island which, from the perfection to which its 

 cultivation has been carried, is called " the Garden 

 of the West Indies." 



December 28. 



Having left Porto Rico behind us, at noon to- 

 day we passed the insulated rock of Alcavella, 

 lying about six miles from St. Domingo, which 

 is now in sight. As this part of the Caribbean 

 Sea is much infested by pirates from the Ca- 

 raccas, all our muskets have been put in repair, 

 and to-day the guns were loaded, of which we 

 mount eight ; but as one of them, during the last 

 voyage, went overboard in a gale of wind, its place 

 has been supplied by a Quaker, i. e. a sham gun of 

 wood, so called, I suppose, because it would not 

 fight if it were called upon. These pirate-vessels 

 are small schooners, armed with a single twenty- 

 four pounder, which moves upon a swivel, and their 

 crew is composed of negroes and outlaws of all 

 nations, their numbers generally running from one 

 hundred to one hundred and fifty men. To-day, 

 for the first time, I saw some flying fish : we have 

 also been visited by several men-of-war birds and 

 tropic birds ; the latter is a species of gull, per- 

 fectly white, and distinguished by a single very 

 long feather in its tail : its nautical name is " the 

 boatswain." 



