I was of a party
who had rowed in a boat six miles out to sea, beyond the harbour's mouth,
to meet them; and what was our disappointment, on getting aboard,
to find that they had not brought a letter (a few official ones
for the governor excepted) to any person in the colony! Nor had they
a single newspaper or magazine in their possession; nor could they
conceive that any person wished to hear news; being as ignorant
of everything which had passed in Europe for the last two years
as ourselves, at the distance of half the circle. "No war - the fleet's
dismantled," was the whole that we could learn. When I asked whether
a new parliament had been called, they stared at me in stupid wonder,
not seeming to comprehend that such a body either suffered renovation
or needed it.
"Have the French settled their government?"
"As to that matter I can't say; I never heard; but, damn them,
they were ready enough to join the Spaniards against us."
"Are Russia and Turkey at peace?"
"That you see does not lie in my way; I have heard talk about it,
but don't remember what passed."
"For heaven's sake, why did you not bring out a bundle of newspapers?
You might have procured a file at any coffee house, which would have
amused you, and instructed us?"
"Why, really, I never thought about the matter until we were off
the Cape of Good Hope, when we spoke a man of war, who asked us
the same question, and then I wished I had."
To have prosecuted inquiry farther would have only served to increase
disappointment and chagrin.
