Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/287

 Rh by the highest standard; even men who but seldom taste meat at home, demand it here three times a day; and now talk of beer in addition to their grog.

Killed a lamb to-day, about six months old, small, but good; it weighed only six pounds a quarter.

5th.—After breakfast, Francis Whitfield, and shortly after ten natives, came here: among them were three women, such unlovely specimens of feminity as I never wish to see again. One of them carried a pretty chubby-faced boy on her back. Would that these visits, like angelic ones, were "few and far between," for they are a smart tax upon me, as I am obliged to distribute bread among the visitors. I try to make them understand that they should come only once a week, to levy their "black mail," as I call it; but they do not, or will not, understand, my hints.

My shepherd (unconscionable dog) wants to get the head and pluck as a perquisite for killing sheep, and a glass of grog, besides one every wet day. I fear I must part with him, though he is an excellent herdsman.

12th.—Oh, I have had such a week of it!—Sat in court on Tuesday from ten until it was dark, and so every successive day until Friday evening. There were forty-nine actions for trial, several motions for a new hearing, or for staying judgment, &c., &c. One law argument. Many of