citizens of Port of Spain has somewhat defaced one end at least of
their Savannah; for in expectation of a visit from the Duke of
Edinburgh, they erected for his reception a pile of brick, of which
the best that can be said is that it holds a really large and
stately ballroom, and the best that can be hoped is that the
authorities will hide it as quickly as possible with a ring of
Palmistes, Casuarinas, Sandboxes, and every quick-growing tree.
Meanwhile, as His Royal Highness did not come the citizens wisely
thought that they might as well enjoy their new building themselves.
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