The house itself was a large, square, solid-looking building, with a flat roof. It was surrounded by a wall, some ten or twelve feet in height, which enclosed a space covering about an acre of ground, and within which there was a kitchen, outhouses for the slaves, and a stable having accommodation for three horses.
The chambers on the basement were large and lofty, but were only used as store-rooms.
On the floor above there was one large sitting or reception-room, and three other apartments; access to which was obtained from the front of the house by a door on the basement, leading to a massive stone staircase; and on the rear of the house, by a double stone staircase leading from the court-yard.
The spaces for windows of the rooms on the basement were barred by iron wood; the door of the house was double and folding, and all the fastenings were heavy, awkward, and cumbersome, evidently made with a view to resist any attacks of the natives. The windows of the upper apartments were one half glass, and the other half a wooden shutter on hinges, which opened to admit air; while the glass part was fitted with a similar shutter to exclude, when necessary, the intense light of that latitude.
The reception-room was furnished with two light Indian sofas, which looked cool and inviting; a dozen and a half chairs, of all descriptions, collected from every quarter of the globe, each design showing that comfort was the object sought; three tables placed conveniently in the apartment; a few good French coloured prints on the wall; a number of books in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian, on a variety of subjects—history, architecture, agriculture, mining, poetry, and belles-lettres—scattered about the room, showed the attainments of the owner. In one corner stood two barometers, one French and the other English, while close adjoining, on the wall, hung an aneroid. In another part of the room was seen one of Dent’s duplidescopes for finding noon by the double reflection of the meridian sun in any latitude; by its side a German microscope, and a French alarm clock. Exploring the next apartment, one came across a magic lantern, Chinese puzzles carved in ivory, and a complete apparatus for the Daguerreotype process. These all attested to the various tastes of the owner, and it was his favourite boast that the house contained everything; in proof of which, on visiting the store-room below, he showed me a rusty rat-trap, an American cotton-gin, palms and needles, copal varnish, rockets; and, in short, anything that I named was, as if by enchantment, immediately produced.
The house, with the slaves attached to it, twenty-three in number, and a small open carriage with one horse, were at my service, and to be considered absolutely mine for twelve months; the rent to be agreed upon as soon as a kitchen was built adjoining the house, so as to cook in it in the English style; and the sum was agreed upon which the rent was not to exceed.
Mr. Soares had breakfast prepared, and bade us welcome, saying that he was glad to show us some return for our kindness to him “when, sick and lonely at the Cape of Good Hope, we nursed and made him well.”
The following day our baggage was landed from the “Hermes,” and she proceeded to sea some days afterwards.