47 



As we sail along, the air is absolutely loaded with 

 " Sabean odours from the spicy shores" of St. Do- 

 mingo, which we were still coasting at sunset. 



December SO. 



At day-break Jamaica was in sight, or rather 

 it would have been in sight, only that we could 

 not see it. The weather was so gloomy, and the 

 wind and rain were so violent, that we might have 

 said to the Captain, as one of the two Punches 

 who went into the ark is reported to have said to 

 the patriarch, during the deluge, " Hazy weather, 

 Master Noah." — I remember my good friend, 

 Walter Scott, asserts, that at the death of a poet 

 the groans and tears of his heroes and heroines 

 swell the blast and increase the river ; perhaps 

 something of the same kind takes place at the 

 arrival of a West India proprietor from Europe, 

 and all this rain and wind proceed from the eyes 

 and lungs of my agents and overseers, who, for 

 the last twenty years, have been reigning in my 

 dominions with despotic authority ; but now 



ec Whose groans in roaring winds complain, 

 Whose tears of rage impel the rain;" 



because, on the approach of the sovereign himself, 

 they must evacuate the palace, and resign the de- 

 puted sceptre. " Hinc ilte lachrymas! " this is 

 the cause of our being soaked to the skin this 



