213 
Chap. XIII.-B.P.] COALING A STEAMER. 
tied in front, and as they pass oyer the plank which con¬ 
nects the steamer with the wharf, they half turn to¬ 
wards a tally-man, who keeps account of how many 
baskets are carried on board by dropping a pea, as each 
passes, into a perforated tin box, with numbers painted 
over the holes to correspond with that given to each 
woman on commencing work. The scene is, indeed, an 
extraordinary one; the ladies moving backwards and 
forwards between the coal-heap and the ship’s hunkers 
at a slow jog-trot, not only chaffing each other hut 
every looker-on and passer-by, and singing songs, not 
coarse but positively ribald. The scene is still more 
weird-like when the coaling is carried on by night: the 
dusky figures, with begrimed dresses once the much- 
admired property of some fashionable lady, flitting 
to and fro by the light of lanterns and torches. The 
white agents are compelled to tolerate the custom 
under penalty of not getting the steamer coaled at any 
price, for the men have forgotten how to work. 
But to return to our leave-taking and shopping. 
We wandered about under white umbrellas, in twos 
and threes, saying good-bye to our friends, and making 
purchases; the impression being that none of the ne¬ 
cessaries of life could he obtained in the out-of-the- 
way part of the world to which we were going. By 
far the hardest part of the work was leave-taking, 
for nowhere is such unbounded hospitality practised 
as amongst the planters and merchants of Jamaica. 
Their doors are always open ; and although their palmy 
days have fled for ever, and no more Madeira is to he 
found in their cellars, yet there is a little rum left. 
