Government offered the hospitality of Kingston Harbour, with coaling
facilities, for an unlimited period to the French Cruiser Squadron,
then in the West Indies. Kingston is not only the finest harbour in
the Antilles, but the coaling arrangements are far superior to any in
the French ports, and, most important point of all, Kingston would be
some twenty-four hours steaming nearer to Gibraltar and the
Mediterranean, in case of emergency, than the French islands of
Guadeloupe or Martinique.

The arrival, then, of the French Fleet was a great event, and, acting
possibly on a hint from home, every attention was shown to the French
officers by the Governor, Sir Alexander Swettenham. He entertained
forty French officers to luncheon at King's House, and his French
having grown rather rusty, asked me to welcome them in his name. I
took great care in preparing my speech, and began by ascertaining
whether any of the reporters who would be present understood French. I
was much relieved to find that not one of them knew a single word of
the language, for that gave me a free hand. The table, on the occasion
of the luncheon, was decorated in a fashion only possible in the West
Indies. One end of the table glowed, a scarlet carpet of the splendid
flowers of the _Amherstia nobilis_, looking like red satin tassels,
then came a carpet of the great white trumpets of the _Beaumontia_, on
a ground of white stephanotis. Lastly a blue carpet of giant solanums,
interspersed with the dainty blue blossoms of the _Petraea_, the whole
forming the most magnificent tricolour flag imaginable. The French
officers much appreciated this attention.

I spoke for twenty minutes, and fairly let myself go. With a feeling
of security due to the inability of the reporters to follow French, I
said the most abominably indiscreet things, considering that it was an