209 
CHAPTER XIII. 
A GEOGRAPHICAL LECTURE.-KINGSTON.-COALING A STEAMER.— 
LEAVE-TAKING AND SHOPPING.-NEGRO CRUELTY AND INSO¬ 
LENCE.-PORT ROYAL.-A DIGNITY.—DEPARTURE PROM JAMAICA. 
u Well, gentlemen,” said I, addressing the officers of 
H.M.S. Gorgon, “I have received onr sailing orders; 
and where do you think we are destined to he stationed 
for some time ?” 
“ Barbadoes,” said one; “Havana,” another; while 
a third with a deep sigh, and in a faltering tone sug¬ 
gested “ Halifax ;” where he had not long before en¬ 
joyed the society of a lovely Bluenose muffin,*' and 
left his heart behind him. 
# “ Muffin ” is a term about as inexplicable as the “Chops and 
Tomato Sauce ” of Sergeant Buzfuz. It is indigenous to the colonial 
society of the “Dominion/’ and is used to designate a young lady 
possessing a Platonic sweetheart who has tacitly sworn fealty at the 
beginning of the winter season, and who is always in attendance, 
whether driving out, sledging, or dancing at parties and balls. Colonial 
society does not look upon these marked and particular attentions with 
the mother country’s notions on the subject, and the gentleman is not 
subjected to a demand in respect to his intentions: in fact, this sort of 
engagement, which generally ends with the winter, is a sort of proba¬ 
tionary course, a glimpse of paradise as it were, but not necessarily 
leading to the heaven of marriage. 
P 
