Chapter 4

The glamour of the West Indies--Captain Marryat and Michael Scott--Deadly climate of the islands in the eighteenth century--The West Indian planters--Difference between East and West Indies--"Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die"--Training-school for British Navy--A fruitless voyage--Quarantine--Distant view of Barbados--Father Labat--The last of the Emperors of Byzantium--Delightful little Lady Nugent and her diary of 1802--Her impressions of Jamaica--Wealthy planters--Their hideous gormandising--A simple morning meal--An aldermanic dinner--How the little Nugents were gorged--Haiti--Attempts of General Le Clerc to secure British intervention in Haiti--Presents to Lady Nugent--Her Paris dresses described--Our arrival in Jamaica--Its marvellous beauty--The bewildered Guardsman--Little trace of Spain left in Jamaica--The Spaniards as builders--British and Spanish Colonial methods contrasted