PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
21 
*est of the population is made up of slaves and free negroes, 
•shaking altogether not more than three thousand, of whom about 
four hundred are soldiers; all the officers, except three or four, 
are mulattoes, and their priest is a negro, who possesses consider¬ 
able polish in his 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 
serviceable muskets in Praya. Most all 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 * 0 years since they had 
received any pay, or supplies of clothing or arms. 
The guns of different calibres mounted about Praya, for the de¬ 
fence of the place, although in commanding situations, are in a state 
equally bad as the muskets of the negroes. They are placed on 
ship’s carriages, which are old and rotten, scarcely holding toge¬ 
ther, without platform, Shelter, or breast-work, except a slight 
dilapidated one before the saluting battery, and another in as bad 
a state on the west point of the bay The whole number of guns 
amounts to thirty; and for them chiefly they are indebted to a 
Portuguese frigate that was lost by the negligence of her officers 
about three years since. Port Praya could be taken, and every gun 
spiked, by thirty men. 
An abundance of fish may be caught with the hook and line 
along side, and with the seine on the beach, where we hauled every 
morning during our stay; and one afternoon, at the particular re¬ 
quest of the governor, when himself and the ladies of his family, as 
well as all the other white ladies of the town, consisting altogether 
of seven, besides the white and coloured officers, attended. We 
were not at that time so fortunate as we were afterwards; we how¬ 
ever caught enough to afford them a mess, which I caused to be 
carried to their houses. A very good amusement may be had in 
the bay, by rowing with a small boat across the mouth, and towing 
