228 
DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. XIV.—B. P. 
the houses, straggling along the inner beach on the 
mainland, hacked by a dense tropical forest; from 
here the land continues low and thickly covered with 
trees, trending round by west, then northward toward 
Monkey Point. Over all, the heavy rain-clouds, edged 
with black, flitted past, putting the place in mourn¬ 
ing, so to speak, and ever and anon shutting out the 
monotonous, not to say gloomy view landwards, by a 
copious discharge. 
The state of the weather, the cheerless aspect of the 
shore, as viewed in the occasional glimpses vouch¬ 
safed to us, and the heavy rolling of the poor old ship, 
did not tend to raise the spirits of any of us; more 
than one, I suspect, wished the ‘Gorgon’ hack at Ja¬ 
maica; and I dare say my young friend thought of his 
“muffin,” and wished himself even further from Grey- 
town than the rest of his shipmates. And this feeling 
was strengthened by the stories we heard from the 
officers and men of the ship we had come to relieve; 
altogether, therefore, the melancholy forebodings, on 
learning that the destination of the ship was Greytown, 
seemed, at first sight, rather more than realized. 
Uninteresting, not to say gloomy, as the shore ap¬ 
peared from the ship, still it was the shore, and as 
soon as the usual naval courtesies had been inter¬ 
changed, every one was anxious to make a closer ac¬ 
quaintance with it. 
I landed with Captain Pakenham, who was in capi¬ 
tal spirits at the arrival of his relief, heightened by 
the prospect of a speedy departure from a locality 
which he did not profess to admire,—poor fellow ! he 
