20 
INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE. 
flection its distance. Presently the sun rose, and 
purpled the conical head long before he shone on us, 
or even on the lower ranges of mountains. The 
well-known comparison by which Columbus is said to 
have given Queen Isabella an idea of Jamaica, — a 
sheet of paper crumpled up tightly in the hand, and 
then partially stretched out, — occurred to me, and I 
could not hut admire its striking appropriateness. 
The oblique rays of the sun showed out the alternate 
hollows and ridges in vivid distinctness, and gradually 
raised thin white mists from the former, which soon 
grew into clouds, and spread themselves about the 
summits and sides of the higher mountains, until 
these were quite veiled, except where dark portions 
were here and there revealed through openings, like 
great rents in a garment. 
The city of Kingston, with its steeples and white 
houses, was visible from the rigging, over the long 
low' spit of sand called the Palisades, on the point of 
which we could see the collection of hovels known as 
Port Royal, with the masts of a line-of-battle ship 
towering above them. 
By and by black specks appeared upon the shining 
sea as suddenly as if they had just emerged from its 
depths, each of which we understood to be the canoe 
of a fisherman, engaged in examining the wicker 
pots ” or traps, which had lain all night upon the 
bottom, or else in the more active employment of 
fishing with the hook and line. One of these tiny 
specks pulled out to us, and as she lay alongside, I 
observed with delight the brilliant colours and strange 
forms of the fishes that had just been caught; among 
