65 



was determined not to do : to take exercise 

 after ten in the day; to be exposed to the dews 

 after sun-down ; and to sleep at a Jamaica lodging- 

 house. So, yesterday, I set off for Montego Bay at 

 eight o'clock in the morning, and travelled till 

 three ; walked home from a ball after midnight ; 

 and that home was a lodging-house at Montego 

 Bay ; but the lodging-house was such a cool clean 

 lodging-house, and the landlady was such an ob- 

 liging smiling landlady, with the whitest of all pos- 

 sible teeth, and the blackest of all possible eyes, 

 that no harm could happen to me from occupying 

 an apartment which had been prepared by her. 

 She was called out of her bed to make my room 

 ready for me ; yet she did every thing with so 

 much good-will and cordiality ; no quick answers, 

 no mutterings : inns would be bowers of Paradise, 

 if they were all rented by mulatto landladies, like 

 Judy James. 



I was much pleased with the scenery of Mon- 

 tego Bay, and with the neatness and cleanliness 

 of the town ; indeed, what with the sea washing 

 it, and the picturesque aspect of the piazzas and 

 verandas, it is impossible for a West Indian town 

 so situated, and in such a climate, not to present 

 an agreeable appearance. But the first part of 

 the road exceeds in beauty all that I have ever 

 seen : it wound through mountain lands of mv 

 own, their summits of the boldest, and at the same 

 time of the most beautiful shapes ; their sides orna- 



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