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girl tittered; " Read, ma'am! Buchara read! me no read." "You sew, then? I suppose," continued my wife."O yes," replied the girl; "can but no more than hem handkerchief sometime."-"What do you do, then, with your time?" replied Eliza. — " Plenty for do;" she returned, "all day sit down, and talk sometime." - My dear wife smiled, and the brown young lady resumed the rubbing of her teeth, which was done in a manner not to fatigue her, and walked out of the room with a peculiar movement, that swung her petticoats from side to side at every step.

In a little time the table-cloth was laid, and our hostess told us there was a guinea fowl roasting for second breakfast, and that it soon would be ready; for which we thanked her. In the meanwhile I wrote a note to Captain James, and asked her to despatch it on board the Solebay; but she said she had no doubt he was on shore, and would therefore first send where she thought he was; which she did; and in about a quarter of an hour he waited on us, with another captain of the navy, whom he introduced as Captain Denny. Captain James was very glad to see us; and my wife, in turn, received him and his friend courteously, and requested they would partake of our second breakfast. They politely assented; but before we sat down, Captain James sent off a note to his ship. We talked of England and Jamaica, and the Spanish Main; at least, he talked of the latter, believing that we had come from thence with our stores of gold; however, the topics were all lightly touched on, so that there was no embarrassment.

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After we had finished our repast, a midshipman came in, to say the barge was in waiting; and Captain James then repeated his invitation to Mrs. Seaward and myself, to do him the honour of visiting his ship. We were struck with the elegance of the boat, and the neatness of the crew, who were all dressed in white shirts, and trowsers like petticoats, and small straw hats. They pushed off the boat in a peculiarly fine style, and rowed simultaneously, with a long interval between each stroke of the oar, the coxswain making a sweep as if he would pass the ship; and, in fact, he did so, for I saw her cabin windows, before he brought the boat's head fairly round. As we approached, the bowman tossed his oar into the air, and caught it again; while at the same instant all the crew placed their oars regularly within the boat, and she was laid alongside with the greatest ease and exactness. The frigate appeared high; but my dear wife said she could easily get up: however the necessity of the attempt was prevented, for a large chair, fitted for the purpose, was lowered down to the boat, into which the Captain placed her, covering her limbs with a flag, and in one moment, by the signal of the boatswain's pipe, she was hoisted up, and placed on the quarter-deck in safety. The Captain, and Captain Denny, were received with presented arms. He then introduced his officers to us; they were all dressed in dark blue coats, with white linings, but the lieutenants only, wore white facings; some had on gold laced waistcoats with deep flaps, rather the worse for wear; others wore their waistcoats plain, but I observed a rose on all their buttons. The lieute

nants, and another officer, wore small cocked hats, of a shovel fashion, and they were laced, though somewhat rusty; and more than one of the group flaunted an awkward-looking wig under the beaver. But, without exception, every fighting man of them had a short curved cutlass slung horizontally at his side. I made a few complimentary remarks on the dress worn by the lieutenants, but more especially on that worn by Captain James himself. He said, in reply, that the navy was indebted for it to his present majesty; that it was but a few years ago he had given them the white lapelle, and double rose upon their button: previously the coat was singlebreasted, like that of a landsman; the junior officers wearing nothing but jackets, with sugar-loaf buttons, and a bit of gold lace edging the rim of a round hat.

After this ceremony, we walked down into the captain's cabin, which is on the main deck, where he showed us increased courtesy. “You see your

cash there," said he to me, pointing to the afterpart of the cabin; -"but you perceive," continued he, "I am more careful of it than you were, for I have caused the carpenter to make a great coat of oak plank for each of your deal boxes; I wonder you could trust gold in such trumpery cases." I thanked him, smiling, saying, "If they were nails, we should think deal boxes safe enough; and perhaps we sometimes add little to our security, by too evident precaution! Still I felt much obliged to him; and I hoped he would not suppose I undervalued my obligation, by the remark I had made."—"No," returned he, with something like

an oath, which rather startled my dear wife; "no, I really think you are right.” And then he told us a story about his smuggling some valuable things, when he came from India as a lieutenant, by merely putting them into a seaman's chest, for which he gave Jack five shillings, and which he sent on shore by a common waterman, directing it to a waggon office in London; where it arrived safe, when all those who bribed custom-house officers, and took every precaution, had their whole collection of things seized the moment they were landed.

Our chatty host now invited us to see the ship. I observed there were some small cannon on the quarter deck, but on each side of the main deck the guns looked nobly; yet I believe they were only nine pounders; the frigate was said to carry twenty-two guns altogether, with a complement of one hundred and fifty men. We were next introduced to the gun room, a deck lower, where the officers live. It was hot and dark, and is below water. Men must have a great thirst for glory, thought I, to live in such a place; to which the cavern in our own dear island, is a palace! We found ourselves very pleasant on the quarter deck, after emerging from that close region; and the awning being spread, we walked under its shade with great comfort, the cool breeze from the sea blowing freshly over us. The ships, and the scenery around, were all objects interesting to our reflective minds. A-head of us, were the remains of a once proud city; over the ruins of which, perhaps, we now stood, on the deck of the frigate! My dear wife made this reflection. Captain Denny assured

her he had seen the chimney tops; and that he had heard of their being hooked sometimes by the fluke of an anchor. "I do not know how to credit that!" said she, smiling. "Oh! there was not

a word of a lie in it, I do believe," cried he. "Well, but," added his gentle antagonist, "where did the chimneys come from? I have not yet seen any in Jamaica; and if ever there were any in Port Royal, the climate must have been strangely altered by the earthquake!” Captain James laughed heartily at Denny's exposure; but he himself joined in the laugh, crying aloud, "What an infernal ass I am, to be sure!"-by which unusual candour, and great good humour, he completely turned aside the shaft of ridicule he had unwittingly drawn upon himself.

Dinner was announced by a drum beating "The. Roast Beef of Old England," when Captain James, who was a well-bred gentleman, handed my wife down to his cabin; Denny, at the same time, giving me a slap on the shoulder, said, "Make sail, my boy, and keep in the commodore's wake."-There was no other company. We had peas-soup at dinner, which was a novelty to us, and some Newfoundland cod, with onions. There were a couple of roast ducks, and a dish of pancakes made on board without either milk or eggs; the last dish proving very good, was a great mystery to my wife. They were made with sea-water! During the meal we had some excellent Hockenstein, brought from Curaçoa, and a glass of ratafia by way of finish. Our conversation at dinner was not worth noting, excepting an account which Captain James gave us