So there, on set high days, the Governor and the Lady of the Governor hold their court.

There, when the squadron comes in, officers in uniform dance at desperate sailors' pace with delicate Creoles; some of them, coloured as well as white, so beautiful in face and figure that one could almost pardon the jolly tars if they enacted a second Mutiny of the Bounty, and refused one and all to leave the island and the fair dames thereof.

And all the while the warm night wind rushes in through the high open windows; and the fireflies flicker up and down, in and out, and you slip away on to the balcony to enjoy--for after all it is very hot--the purple star- spangled night; and see aloft the saw of the mountain ridges against the black-blue sky; and below--what a contrast!--the crowd of white eyeballs and white teeth--Negroes, Coolies, Chinese--all grinning and peeping upward against the railing, in the hope of seeing-- through the walls--the 'buccra quality' enjoy themselves.
An even pleasanter sight we saw once in that large room, a sort of agricultural and horticultural show, which augured well for the future of the colony.

The flowers were not remarkable, save for the taste shown in their arrangement, till one recollected that they were not brought from hothouses, but grown in mid-winter in the open air.

The roses, of which West Indians are very fond, as they are of all 'home,' i.e.European, flowers, were not as good as those of Europe.