the brewer, while {108} the retailer or publican with little or no capital gains 100l. per cent.
17th.—With Messrs. T. Coote and Dumbleton I visited the navy-yard, where I saw several eminent mechanics, nearly all Englishmen, some of whom are receiving not above 1-3/4 dollar a day, although at home they received 3l. a week. The steam machinery is here "mighty fine," "superbly elegant," as a native would call it, and the new 100 gun ship of war is a most noble vessel, a floating battery worked and manned by 900 men, and altogether as good and gallant a ship as John Bull ever saw. Gouging still flourishes. His Excellency, Mr. Monroe, while a young man, constantly kept his hair closely shorn, in order that his head might be less exposed to this brutal practice.
Mr. J. D. is now retailing bottled porter at a net gain of 7l. sterling per month. Mr. Thomas Coote, the brewer, prefers his chance to any which he could take in England. So cheap is all butcher's meat, and so dear are all vegetables, that for some tables the latter cost more than the former. A fat lamb or sheep will scarcely buy one bushel of new potatoes; but four bushels of ripe peaches shovelled loose out of a waggon, will just do it, if a sixpence is added.
Sunday, 18th.—This being Sunday, I visited the white and black Methodist congregations at {109} George town, to the latter of which (the black) the white mayor of the town, a rich Englishman, of long and high standing, is minister. At half a mile distant, we could distinctly hear their devotional songs. We found a mighty assemblage of priests and priestesses, for all preached, prayed, and sung together. The pious prayers, and sensible, cheerful singing of the poor negroes, (who are, however, apt to
