Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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Monkeys of many kinds, jaguars, toucans, wild cats; wonderful ant-eaters, racoons, and lizards; and strange birds, butterflies, wasps, and spiders abound, but none of those animals which resent the presence of man. Happy land!

But the gun has fired. H.M.S. Sea is getting all steam up. The privilege of leave cannot last for ever: it is “All aboard!” Whither bound? In the archipelago of the West Indies there are so many points of interest, and so many ports which the sailor of the Royal Navy is sure to visit. There are important docks at Antigua, Jamaica, and Bermuda; while the whole station—known professionally as the “North American and West Indian”—reaches from the north of South America to beyond Newfoundland, Kingston, and Jamaica, where England maintains a flag-ship and a commodore, a dockyard, and a naval hospital.

KINGSTON HARBOUR, JAMAICA.

Kingston Harbour is a grand lagoon, nearly shut in by a long sand-spit, or rather bank, called “The Palisades,” at the point of which is Port Royal, which, about ninety years ago, was nearly destroyed by an earthquake. Mr. Trollope says that it is on record that hardy “subs” and hardier “mids” have ridden along the Palisades, and have not died from sunstroke in the effort. But the chances were much against them. The ordinary ingress and egress, as to all parts of the island’s coasts, is by water. Our naval establishment is at Port Royal.