18 



porter's JOURNAt. 



that time until the morning of the 2d of December, we were 

 occupied in getting on board refreshments and water ; but 

 of the latter we were only enabled to get about five thousand 

 gallons. The beef was very dear, and very poor ; a bullock 

 weighing three-hundred weight cost thirty-five dollars; 

 sheep were three dollars, but very poor ; oranges forty cents 

 per hundred, and other fruits in the same proportion, and 

 in the greatest abundance. It is supposed that the ship had 

 not on board less than one hundred thousand oranges, to- 

 gether with a large quantity of cocoa-nuts, plantains, lemons, 

 limes, casada, <fec. &lc. Every mess on board were also 

 supplied with pigs, sheep, fowls, turkeys, goats, &;c. which 

 were purchased tolerably cheap ; fowls at three dollars per 

 dozen, and fine turkeys at one dollar each ; many of the sea- 

 men, also, furnished themselves with monkeys and young 

 goats as pets, and when we sailed from thence, the ship bore 

 no slight resemblance, as respected the different animals 

 on board her, to Noah's ark. 



In the town of Praya there are not more than thirty 

 whites ; the rest of the population is made up of slaves and 

 free negroes, making altogether not more than three thou« 

 sand, of whom about four hundred are soldiers. All the 

 officers, except three or four, are mulattoes, and their priest 

 "is a negro, who possesses considerable polish of manners. 

 The soldiers are generally destitute of clothing from the 

 waist upwards, and it can be asserted with a certainty of 

 adhering strictly to the truth, that there are not five ser- 

 viceable muskets in Praya. Most of them are without any 

 locks, their stocks broken off at the breech, their barrels tied 

 into the stocks with a leather thong, or a cord made of the 

 fibres, of the cocoa-nut ; and it was no uncommon thing to 

 see a naked negro mounting guard, shouldering a musket 

 barrel only. Their cavalry were in a corresponding style, 

 mounted on jack-asses, and armed with broken swords. 



The governor informed me, it had been ten years since 

 they had received any pay, or supplies of clothing or armg. 



The guns of different calibres mounted about Praya, for 

 the defence of the place, although in commanding situations, 

 are in a state equally bad with the muskets of the negroes. 

 They are placed on ship's carriages, which are old and rot- 

 ten, scarcely holding together, without platform, shelter, 

 breast-work, except a slight dilapidated one before the 



