Fri. 14. [14 January 1898] Mr Renwick woke me at 4 saying that the
Southern Cross was visible, I came on deck and saw it blazing away,
extremely beautiful. This is the shape of it [illustration] The Great
Bear was lying on his back on the zenith and the Pole Star was quite
near the horizon. The moon very bright in the third quarter, Orion
below the horizon, Arcturus and Pleiades visible. Miss Pattinson and
the Abbots appeared. The Captain came and talked to us and the
4th officer bustled round getting us coffee and tea. Hayti [Haiti] lay
like a black cloud to the north of us a fine bold outline standing up well
out of the sea. A table shaped hill falling suddenly in the direction of
Jacmel was the highest point - the Drop of Jacmel they call it and
steer by it. The glow half an hour before dawn was very lovely; a
battlemented thin line of cloud lay all along the south east, gradually
growing more solid as the light grew stronger. The island began to
take form and shape; the ranges of hills stepped out from one another
and the colour of the woods began to show. We were waiting outside
the shallow bay of Jacmel till the light came. The glow of the dawn,
the bright waning moon and the shining Southern Cross were a
combination of light and colour such as one had never seen. At 6 we
began steaming into the bay. A German man of war was lying close
to the town. We went onto the bridge and as we stood there the band
of cloud glowed into life and the ball of the sun rushed straight up out
of the sea. We lay off about a mile from shore. We cd see the waves
breaking up the little white line of rocks and a jungle of trees growing
all up the mountains. Here and there a little white hut up on an Alpe
and a patch of pale, bright green banana leaves round it. There is a
cathedral in Jacmel - it all looks very white and pretty from far off and
they say it's beastly inside. The Free Nigger has lapsed back into
hopeless savagery; human flesh is sold in the markets; no white man
has any civil rights; their nominal religion is R.C. but it must be purely
nominal; but the Christs on their crucifixes are negroes. The minerals
of the island are unworked and it is scarcely cultivated. We sent a
boat on shore, with the mails and lighters came out to us for our cargo.
The Captain sent me up a loot of sapadillos, a fruit like a potato
outside, something the consistency of a rotten pear inside, very sweet
and good, two black pips. We steamed along the coast of Hayti all
day, a very fine bold mountain outline. Scarcely any wind so that it
was pretty hot. I saw a nautilus float by with a silver sail hoisted. Slept
most of the afternoon. After diner played dominoes with the Captain.