United States or Tunisia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Sent John Webb as master with 7 mariners on board the prize, & with them a Bermudian negro, who had been taken prisoner in a fishing boat by the Spanish Cap't off the Bermudas, & a mulatto prisoner belonging to the Spaniards, with the instructions which are underneath. Latitude 22.° 50' N., Oct. 4th, 1741.
They left their careless, graceful skimming and swooping, and got into groups, wheeling about like starlings, and uttering curious cries. And scarcely had we become conscious of this change among the birds, than a simultaneous flutter ran through the Bermudian "rig-boats" which had been skimming with equal carelessness about the bay.
One of the loveliest fishes that swims is the Bermudian angel-fish, who has the further merit of almost equalling a sole when fried. Shaped like a John Dory, he has a lemon-coloured body with a back of brilliant turquoise-blue, which gleams in the water like vivid blue enamel. He is further decorated with two long orange streamers.
That is to say, three journeying ship-masters, a Boston merchant, and a returning Bermudian who had been absent from his Bermuda thirteen years; these sat on the starboard side. On the port side sat the Reverend in the seat of honor; the pale young man next to him; I next; next to me an aged Bermudian, returning to his sunny islands after an absence of twenty-seven years.
It was formed like a deep square box with a glass window for a bottom, and a specially prepared crystal had been used. "That's an improvement on the old kind, Early Bird," he said; "what do you think of it?" The Bermudian darky looked through the glass critically. "Yes, sah," he said, "thar's no compah'son 'tween the two.
The men seem to have a natural aptitude for cricket, whilst Bermudian girls can all dance, swim, play lawn-tennis, and sail boats to perfection. On my second visit to the islands, I was much struck with one small incident. Two pretty sisters were always the first arrivals at the bi-weekly hotel dances. I found that they lived on the far side of Hamilton Harbour, some six miles by road.
Owing to Bermudian boats being so "wet," one always landed soaked to the skin, and in any town but Hamilton, people would have stared at seeing three drowned rats in white garments, clinging like tights, making their dripping way home through the streets; but there it is such an everyday occurrence that no one even turned their heads; and, as the soldier-footman was fond of observing, "It's comfortable feeling as 'ow you're so wet that you can't get no wetter no'ow."
We might have been Captain Cook landing in Tahiti, instead of peaceful travellers making their quiet way to an hotel amidst a harmless crowd of tip-seeking coolies. The unfamiliar is often unnecessarily alarming. I remember a small ten-year-old white Bermudian boy who accompanied his father to England for King George's coronation.
Mighty Kinchinjanga The inconceivable splendours of a Himalayan sunrise The last Indian telegraph-office The irrepressible British Tommy An improvised garden An improvised Durbar Hall A splendid ceremony A native dinner The disguised Europeans Our shocking table-manners Incidents Two impersonations; one successful, the other reverse I come off badly Indian jugglers The rope-trick The juggler, the rope, and the boy An inexplicable incident A performing cobra scores a success Ceylon "Devil Dancers" Their performance The Temple of the Tooth The uncovering of the Tooth Details concerning An abominable libel Tea and coffee Peradeniya Gardens The upas tree of Java Colombo an Eastern Clapham Junction The French lady and the savages The small Bermudian and the inhabitants of England.
"You are very kind," he answered; "but, somehow, I'm not so sure you want me." He bowed himself out and, sore-hearted, sought the crowded solitude of the Metropolitan Club. His next move was characteristic. Having got Gordon on the wire, he requested as complete a list as possible of the passengers to sail by the Bermudian and the Cecelia. A new possibility had presented itself.
Word Of The Day