234
HISTORY  OF  ST. DOMINGO.
chap. iv. their uniform, and the females bedecked with various jewels:
"""^T ' they had also a refection. The animation displayed by both
Black repub- gexeg .q the dance ^ astoIushing, which consisting entirely of
amatory history, was equal to many ballets which are performed
on the French or Italian stage, while the dancers might have
been called, without any dereliction from the Cytherean goddess,
though not exactly comporting with her in complexion,
.---------" fair Venus' train."
Manners,
&c.
The hauteur with which they passed the prison of " the white
man taken" was astonishing; yet some seemed willing to pity
and relieve, but it arose rather from ostentation than mercy.
One circumstance, however, occurred that remains deeply
impressed in his bosom, and relieves his mind while recording
it, which would have done honor to the most dignified of a dif-
ferent complexion.
After lying two nights on a couch, formed of dried sugar-
canes, with a very slender supply of food, the prisoner had re-
signed himself to the vacuity of despair; he was stretched out in
silent agony, when, as the night closed in, and the mirthful troops
had progressively retired, a gentle female voice, with the tenderest
accents, aroused his attention. How long the benign object had
been there, he could not ascertain ; but, when he looked up, and
beheld her, his feelings were indescribable : she was a fine figure,
rather tall, and slender, with a face most beautiful, and a form
of the finest symmetry, improved by the melancholy air which
the