Six months in the West Indies

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no. . .but a gold hoop which my good father bought for me from a wandering Jew ; this I proffered for the service of the sable bridegrooms, and I now wear it as a sort of charm as close as possible to Eugenia’s hair. It noosed thirteen couples. I gave away most of the brides ; one of them, a pretty French girl of the Romish faith, behaved very ill ; she giggled so much that the clergyman threatened to desist from the ceremony, and her mate, a quiet and devout Protestant, was very angry with her. When she was kneeling after the blessing, I heard her say to her husband,— ‘ dit-on, Jean ! hooka drole manière de se marier ! hè ! hè ! hè !’ I’ll warrant she leads her spouse a decent life of it. The Pitch Lake is in this neighbourhood, but I was unable to visit it. The roads are made in a great measure of the bitumen, and there is a hot calcined smell always issuing from it during the action of the sun which is very disagreeable. Repeated experiments have been tried upon it, but it is found to be unfit, except at an enormous cost of preparation, for the use of ship builders. St. Joseph’s, the old capital of the island, is distant about ten miles from Port of Spain, and a little removed from the banks of the river Caroni. It has a fine parish church with a spire, barracks for a detachment of soldiers which is usually kept here, and a few good houses besides. Here it was that Sir Walter G 2


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