Frank Mildmay; Or, the Naval OfficerMarryat, Frederick
History
Frank Mildmay; Or, the Naval Officer
Marryat, Frederick
Great Britain -- History, Naval -- 19th century -- Fiction; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- Officers -- Fiction; Sea stories
with a burning brain and parched tongue; they rushed into, the sea, and
found some refreshment in the cool water, which enabled them to stand
upright in front of their men; the formal duty over, they retired again
to their beds, where they lay till noon, and then to breakfast.
Such were their days; can it be wondered at that our islands are fatal
to the constitution of Europeans, when this is their manner of life in a
climate always disposed to take advantage of any excess? The men too
readily followed the example of their officers and died off in the same
rapid manner; one of the most regular employments of the morning was to
dig graves for the victims of the night. Four or five of these
receptacles were thought a moderate number. Such was the fatal apathy
in which these officers existed, that the approach, nay, even the
certainty of death, gave them no apparent concern, caused no
preparation, excited no serious reflection. They followed the corpse of
a brother officer to the grave in military procession. These ceremonies
were always conducted in the evening, and often have I seen these
thoughtless young men throwing stones at the lanthorns which were
carried before them to light them to the burying-ground.
I was always an early riser, and believe I owe much of my good health to
this custom. I used to delight in a lovely tropical morning, when, with
a cigar in my mouth, I walked into the market. What would Sir William
Curtis or Sir Charles Flower have said, could they have seen, as I did,
the numbers of luxurious turtle lying on their backs, and displaying
their rich calapee to the epicurean purchaser? Well, indeed, might the
shade of Apicius [Lyttleton's Dialogues of the Dead] lament that America
and turtle were not discovered in his days. There were the guanas, too,
in abundance, with their mouths sewed up to prevent their biting; these
are excellent food, although bearing so near a resemblance to the
alligator, and its diminutive European representative, the harmless
lizard; Muscovy ducks, parrots, monkeys, pigeons, and fish. Pine-apples
abounded, oranges, pomegranates, limes, Bavarias, plantains,
love-apples, Abbogada pears (better known by the name of subaltern's
butter), and many other fruits, all piled in heaps, were to be had at a
low price. Such was the stock of a New Providence market.
Of the human species, buyers and vendors, there were black, brown, and
fair; from the fairest skin, with light blue eyes and flaxen hair, to
the jet black "Day and Martin" of Ethiopia; from the loveliest form of
Nature's mould, to the disgusting squaw, whose flaccid mammae hang like
inverted bottles to her girdle, or are extended over her shoulder to
give nourishment to the little imp perched on her back; and here the
urchin sits the live-long day, while the mother performs all the
drudgery of the field, the house, or the market.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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