My first day at this Land of Promise was to me like a fairy-tale. For
many days I had studied the charts and counted the time of my arrival
at this spot, as one might his entrance to the Islands of the Blessed,
looking upon it as the terminus of the last long run, made irksome by
the want of many things with which, from this time on, I could keep
well supplied. And behold, here was the sloop, arrived, and made
securely fast to a pier in Rodriguez. On the first evening ashore, in
the land of napkins and cut glass, I saw before me still the ghosts of
hempen towels and of mugs with handles knocked off. Instead of tossing
on the sea, however, as I might have been, here was I in a bright
hall, surrounded by sparkling wit, and dining with the governor of the
island! "Aladdin," I cried, "where is your lamp? My fisherman's
lantern, which I got at Gloucester, has shown me better things than
your smoky old burner ever revealed."
The second day in port was spent in receiving visitors. Mrs. Roberts
and her children came first to "shake hands," they said, "with the
_Spray._" No one was now afraid to come on board except the poor old
woman, who still maintained that the _Spray_ had Antichrist in the
hold, if, indeed, he had not already gone ashore. The governor
entertained that evening, and kindly invited the "destroyer of the
world" to speak for himself. This he did, elaborating most effusively
on the dangers of the sea (which, after the manner of many of our
frailest mortals, he would have had smooth had he made it); also by
contrivances of light and darkness he exhibited on the wall pictures
of the places and countries visited on the voyage (nothing like the
countries, however, that he would have made), and of the people seen,
savage and other, frequently groaning, "Wicked world! Wicked world!"
When this was finished his Excellency the governor, speaking words of
thankfulness, distributed pieces of gold.
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