About four o'clock
If you can spare so much time , I am going this afternoon to visit a sugar-estate of mine a few miles out of town , stay the night , and return to-morrow morning after breakfast , and I shall be delighted to have the pleasure of your company . '' Nothing could have suited us better ; we accordingly accepted his invitation , and forthwith set off to see what there was to be seen of the town . In the course of our peregrinations we met and were introduced to several of our host 's friends , each of whom shook hands with us as though he had known us all our lives , and forthwith gave us a pressing invitation to his `` place . '' About four o'clock we returned to Mr Martin 's store , where we found his ketureen -- a sort of gig -- waiting , and also that of a Mr Finnie , another sugar-planter who was going to make one of the party . The skipper jumped in alongside of Mr Martin , I stowed myself away alongside his friend , and away we dashed up the sandy streets and out of town in the direction of the Blue Mountains . We reached the estate , and the house upon it , just in time to escape a violent thunder-storm , accompanied by such rain as I had never seen before . It came down literally in _ sheets _ , completely obscuring everything beyond a couple of dozen yards distant , and rattling upon the thatched roof as though it would beat it in .