In the ship which conveyed us hither, was a black man, who officiated as cook. Our first place of destination, after leaving England, was British America, where we arrived in the beginning of a very severe winter. Sincerely did I pity this poor man, for his scant and tattered clothing was no protection from the pitiless blast, and excessive cold of that hyperborean clime. Being a native of so warm a country as the West Indies, and having never before experienced the rigours of winter, it was with some difficulty he could bear up against this (to him) accumulation of ills. His custom was to remain in the steerage of the ship, and when any of his messmates tried to arouse him, and invite him to visit the deck, his only answer was, “I brought all my fingers and toes from Antigua, and please God, I must try and carry them back again.” After remaining in America for some time, (suffering _hot aches_, and I know not what beside,) until the ship had discharged her cargo of _interesting_ emigrants, and re-loaded with that necessary article “lumber,” (_alias_ timber,) we took our departure, with many a favour of “King Frost’s” hanging about our vessel, in the shape of huge blocks of ice. A pretty fair wind soon carried us into warmer latitudes, and I used frequently to remark, how delighted that _poor half-clothed_ man must be. “Oh! oh!” was the answer, “that poor half-clothed man, as you call him, is a very respectable and dashing fellow, I do assure you, in his own country.” I thought this assertion bordering upon the burlesque, but I made no reply, wisely remembering the old saying, “Time will shew all things.”
At length, after encountering, as every other mortal must, calms as well as storms, one bright morning brought us to the shores of fair Antigua. This, as I have before remarked, was during the season of Christmas, the time for fun and dress among the negroes. The morning after we landed, I early shook off “tired nature’s sweet restorer, balmy sleep,” and hurried over the duties of the toilet in order that I might look about me, and see what kind of _bipeds_ I had fallen in with. I had not long left my apartment when I saw a very dashing-looking gentleman enter the back gate, and approach the door near which I was standing, admiring the bright sun and blue sky of this December morning. It certainly struck me as rather surprising, that a gentleman of his appearance should enter by that part of the house usually appropriated to the servants, but I supposed it was one of “the customs” of the country. Not wishing to be in that disagreeable situation of having to introduce myself, I retired into an inner apartment; but ere long I learnt, to my great surprise, that the “_exquisite_,” whose appearance caused my sudden departure, was no less a personage than the black cook from on board the ship.