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THE BLACK PILOT.
a flag, which, fluttering in the breeze, announced to the good people of St. John's the arrival of a ship from " home" as the Antiguans always call England. Several boats now joined us from the shore, conveying friends to welcome us to Antigua ; a harbour-master, (a very agreeable and worthy personage by-the-bye,) to make certain inquiries ; customhouse officers, (of a superior class of men to those who board vessels in the Thames, and are so disagreeably dis tinguished by their undeviating devotion to that herb, which Sir Walter Raleigh, in his excessive overflow of human kindness, is said to have introduced into England,) to see that if you smuggled yourselves on shore, you did not smuggle your goods ; and plenty of black boys, to grin and chatter, and get all the biscuit and beef they could. But I must not omit to give a more particular account of the black pilot. A very pompous personage he was, and one who no doubt stood vastly high in his own estimation as he lent upon the rail of the vessel, with his large straw hat, and gigantic snuff-box, giving orders to the sailors, and in the interim discussing the news of the island. " Hab fine rain last night; you bring good wedder—(war for you 'tand staring dere for, you black nigger?)—yes, feber berry bad last month, many buckra die—(war you go do, run de ship on de shore?)—Crop bery good dis year; ship load fast 'nough—(why you no haul dat rope good?)—Yes, gubberhor bin bery bad; better now tho'." And thus he ran on, until, the proper place gained, down dropped the ponderous anchor, a boat received us, and in a short time landed us " all well" upon one of the wharfs of Antigua, amid blacks and whites, porters and boatmen, and boys and girls clad " à la Venus." The harbour of St. John's is reckoned one of the finest and most commodious in the West Indies. The entrance is defended by Goat Hill Fort on the south, and St. James Fort on the north ; across the mouth of it runs a shoal, known as the bar, which extends from a bay called Hog