Caryl Phillips - Cambridge

A week ago we had the good fortune to fall in with the trade wind, and we are now careering both rapidly and smoothly upon the bosom of the ocean. The ship makes much headway, and what movement she achieves she does so steadily. The brilliant sun has chased away the clouds of darkness, and a delightful prospect confronts us. Since crossing the tropic this perfect weather has rescued me from an ague which reduced my person to lying supine and daily fearing the onset of contagion. These days it is true to say that there is not sufficient wind to fill out the sails, but there is certainly enough to render the air cool and pleasant. I have therefore passed much time on deck observing nature's new delights.

The sailors caught a dolphin, the heavenliest creature that goes upon fins, but attempted to do so without the traditional spear. A line was fastened to the stern and baited with salt-pork, but the dolphin is a large and powerful fish. Through a natural fear that this graceful beauty might break the line and flee, the decision to toss the spear was taken. This goddess of the deep was soon wrestled onto the deck where her bright colours were observed and admired, that is until the loss of blood caused them to fade and the cook made ready to prepare her for dinner. Other representatives of Neptune's family occupy us in our peregrination. The comical inhabitants of the ocean are without doubt the porpoises who gambol along both above and beneath the surface, always ready to delight with the unannounced spouting of ornamental water. Hawk-bill turtles might occasionally be espied, and they cause everybody's mouths to water. They have a tendency to idle, and it is when they are in this somnambulant state that the greatest efforts to capture them are made. But, as though with some special sense, they always contrive to awaken at just the precise moment that one is ready to haul them up and into the pot. They flick their rubbery protrusions with enviable calm, then roll and dive to the depths. Whole shoals of whale and shark are also daily visible, and as populous as sheep on the South Downs. Tropicus has indeed revealed to us a new world, the beauty of which has gone no small way to mollifying the pain which is daily lacerating my heart.

The weather has become excessively close, indeed sultry, bestowing upon us the full benefit of the concentrated rays of the tropical sun. Not a breath of wind is perceivable, and I am occasionally seized by a suffocating sensation which is only relieved when the pregnant afternoon hours finally give way to the relative coolness of dusk. I have in consequence thrown off my shop-dress and I now wear muslin, clothing myself according to the exigency of the weather. At night I he under a solitary Holland sheet, which I have to confess is too much — yes, even this little. The crew no longer retire to their quarters at night but can be heard on deck. Before they finally submit to their slumbers, they are able to witness the phenomenon of a blood-red horizon where the sun plunges in a blaze of fire into the sea. In the morning I am agreeably saluted by the peaceful calm of a new day, but still there is no breeze to greet my clammy cheek. These early sunbeams, devoid of the noonday heat, dance playfully on the rippled surface atop which we sit. I am now inclined to bathe on deck in a large cask, but only after the crew have vacated the premises for the preservation of my modesty. I have grown accustomed to bathing myself, and executing other tedious duties, for there is nobody on board to whom I might turn and offer employment. I long to arrive in the islands, where I shall engage a servant to take up where Isabella left off.

Each day flatters with the hopes of land, but as yet nothing. I think I detect that our captain is quickly growing out of patience with the tortoise-pace that we are making, but for my part I care very little as long as we do not encounter any further squally weather. To reach my journey's end peaceably and without harm is my sole aim. Of late I have thought much of this ocean, whose breast has supported many a ship heavy with slaves. The torn roots of these children of the sun has occasioned the stain of the institution to mark first their native soil, and then bleed across the waters to deface the Americas. There will be much to discover on arriving in tropical America, but I am engaged to spend only a three-month sojourn. I am therefore set apart from those projectors who visit the West Indies to either make or mend their fortune. For one such as I, my day of departure will be dawning from the moment we espy land, and I am accordingly neither anxious nor full of trepidation.

It would appear that we have finally crawled into the Caribbean sea. This morning I was alarmed by the loud call of the morning sun and the excited cry, 'Land! Land!' Together they shook me from my slumbers. I quickly pulled about me enough clothing to render me decent, hastily fastened a dainty bonnet about my head, and dashed upstairs to join the others who stared on at the small and seemingly deserted bird island that we sailed close by. And then in the distance, where the horizon invited and detained the eye, I beheld our destination; a mountainous island heavily clothed in vegetation, wooded on the upper slopes, the highest peaks swaddled in clouds, an island held in the blue palm of the sea like a precious green gem. The captain confirmed that this was to be my port of disembarkation, and I thanked him for the information. He seemed surprised, clearly unused to such civility. I do believe I even detected a small bow! I craned back my head and silently praised the Lord that I had survived the passage in safety. A little malnourishment, and the development of a small feverish tendency, constituted the sum of my ailments. When set against the watery tomb to which my Isabella and others of our society had been consigned, I had indeed much cause to be grateful.

There was just sufficient wind to gently impel us forward with elemental grace towards our, or at least my, destination. The forest-garmented heights, the wheeling gulls, the careless beauty of this verdant isle, all caused my heart to quicken further her already excited beat. I retired beneath the wooden deck and prepared myself for arrival. Assembling my belongings presented little difficulty, for I had already performed much in this line in order to occupy myself during the previous few days. On returning to the deck I discovered that a negro pilot had come aboard, his negro assistant having transported him by means of a canoe evidently hollowed out of a sturdy tree of some description. It caused me a little discomfort to hear our captain immediately baptize the pilot with the tide, nigger, but the pilot seemed somewhat resigned to his appellation.

The negro brought with him a water melon whose taste I could not suffer. It had about it a Shylocky taste of raw flesh. I preferred to watch in raptured fascination as the bluff sea-dogs devoured what was to them clearly a familiar fruit. The less ravenous, and generally more agreeable, mariners threw the lead to sound the depths. The sea adopted a lighter blue, and the negro pilot skilfully brought us around the rocks and squeezed us into the wine bottle of a bay, where the gentle plash of water sounded most musically to my ears. I was unable to perceive any exhibition of repugnance by the crew towards this black helmsman, they appearing to appreciate his navigational prowess and utmost decorum of deportment. This, to my intelligence, appeared only natural, for they were to a man generally less polished than the negro.

The beauty of the island improved as we drew nearer and found ourselves with land on either side. Hills and valleys opened on my view, and I could clearly discern that the land was dappled with trees, plants and shrubbery that were, in the main, afresh to me. However, I recognized the infamous sugar canes, whose young shoots billowed in the cooling breeze like fields of green barley, and 1 noted the tall cabbage palms, whose nobility of appearance provided a formidable decor to the small settlement of Baytown which spread before us in ordered and recklessly formal beauty. Behind our capital town, slender lines of houses snaked up the hillsides and merged with the vegetation. Indeed, I was beholding a tropical paradise. Our exploratory party returned with baskets full of fruit, excellent milk and fresh fowl which we consumed as our final and most succulent meal aboard the ship. This repast proved a most necessary balm to my intoxicated senses. I retired to my small cabin with a constitution for once well-watered and nourished, and a heart light with anticipatory joy at what I might witness in this new world that I had crossed the ocean to discover.