498 
VOYAGE TO ENGLAND. 
[1814. 
When the ship was moored, the Captain, Mr. Beck, 
and I went ashore, and dined with Mr. Hastie from 
London, when we found that some of the Indiamen in 
the roads had been waiting for convoy, three, four, 
five, and one of them, six months, which had cost some 
of them four or five thousand pounds, besides greatly 
damaging their cargoes, and being a great additional 
expense to the passengers, about thirty shillings a day 
each ; infants at the breast are charged ten or fifteen 
shillings a day. 
Both the clergymen of the island, the Rev. Messrs. 
Boys and Jones, kindly invited me to take up my re- 
sidence with them. I lodged with the former during 
my stay. 
26th* Mr. Boys accompanied me on a ride into the 
country. We left James-town at eleven, A.M. when 
we instantly began to ascend the almost perpendicular 
side of Ladder Hill, by a zig-zag path, cut out of the 
rock with great labour. The path is secured by a 
parapet wall on the outside. To a stranger the road 
has a most terrific appearance, especially if he looks 
directly down upon the town as he ascends. Our road 
was up hill for more than an hour. Many gentlemen's 
seats on the sides of the mountains, and the winding 
paths to them, made the scenery very picturesque, and 
particularly gratifying on landing from the sea. Planta- 
tion house, the seat of the governor, is a neat, plain 
house, pleasantly situated among trees, having a fine 
view of the ocean. The furze and the bramble bushes, 
