sand-bank; and that the town of Belize, on the main land, consisted of a few wretched houses on the south side of the river of that name; and that the whole country, for nearly a hundred miles in every direction, was little better than a swamp covered with mangroves; that there was neither beef nor mutton to be had; that the inhabitants passed most of their time up the country, cutting logwood and mahogany; that they lived on Irish salted provisions, American flour, and maize; and looked to their fish, and turtle, as their only resource for fresh provisions. This was a sad prospect. "No wonder," said I, " that my cousin Tom desires to return to England." I must confess, the account from Mr. Dickinson disheartened me not a little, and I thought it right not to conceal what I had heard from Eliza. "Well," said she, "but we shall be together, Edward; happiness is not meat nor drink, but peace and contentment; and under privations we may be induced to seek that happiness where alone it can be found." My heart owned the support it had received; I was again at ease, and attended to the completion of our cargo with cheerfulness.

All being ready on Saturday the 22d of December, the captain determined to sail the next day, viz. Sunday the 23d, on which holy day, for some fanciful reason or superstition, sailors like to t to sea. By Mr. Dickinson's advice, I was to buy two or three goats; and as many fowls and ducks, and Guinea-fowl, as the coops would hold, for stock on our arrival at St. George's Key; the probability being that I should find "a plentiful scarcity," as

he expressed it, of such things at my cousin's residence; who, he said, lived like a Bay-man, on salt provisions and turtle. I was therefore to go into the negro market on Sunday morning, the marketday of Jamaica. I told Eliza of my object, and she desired to accompany me; yet not without passing a just but severe censure on such an unchristian usage in a Christian colony. The market was held in a large street, and we saw it full of negroes, male and female, with all sorts of fruits and vegetables and poultry; it was a grotesque scene, and, although I had been on this side of the Atlantic before, was perfectly novel to me. We bought two goats with kid, a dozen fowls, as many Muscovy-ducks, and half a dozen Guinea-fowl, a great quantity of yams and plantains, and coccos (a sort of potatoe), some shaddocks, and oranges, and limes, and a few pumpkins, and water-melons, half a dozen fine pine-apples, and as many muskmelons, some capsicums and bird-peppers, and two large sugar-canes.

Mr. Dickinson's negroes took our stock on board, which, when the captain saw, he exclaimed, “What are we to do with all this? we shall be only five or six days on the passage."—"It is stock, captain, for St. George's Key," I replied, "where I shall be happy to see you take some of it when we arrive.” — “ Oh! very well," cried he; "you may keep poultry there, if you carry a good stock of maize for them; but nothing will grow there, that you have brought on board, except the pumpkins and water-melons; unless you could take some good

soil with you; and I don't think that would pay freight."

The brig was under weigh at eleven o'clock, and we ran down to Port Royal, a distance of eight or nine miles, in little more than an hour. With the same fine breeze, we stood out to sea, and shaped our course to the southward, to keep clear of the Pedro shoals; which, by the way, was not our proper route: we should have kept between those shoals and the island of Jamaica; but it was the captain's obstinacy, or fate, not to do so. In the evening we were becalmed, Portland Point being just discoverable from deck; and during the night we made little or no way through the water. About three o'clock in the morning (Monday 24th), the wind off the land reached us, which carried the brig a few leagues farther to the southward. Early in the forenoon the trade-wind set in, very fresh, from the E. N. E., when the captain, considering himself clear of the Pedro shoals, edged away a little to the westward; and finding, by observation at noon, that he was well to the southward, the brig was kept away west, the trade-wind continuing to blow steadily from the eastward, but sometimes freshening almost into a gale. We found by our reckoning on Tuesday at noon, that we must have run nearly two hundred miles during the last twentyfour hours.

The gale began now to slacken, and the wind veered to the N. E. and N. N. E. in squalls, looking sometimes very black to windward, so that from time to time we were under the necessity of taking in sail. But the sea had got up, and the motion of

the vessel had become very uneasy; therefore it was necessary to lash and secure the hen-coops on deck, and every thing in the cabin and state rooms, as safely as possible. Towards evening the weather became still more unsettled; sometimes perfectly calm, yet the sea much agitated; sometimes blowing a fine steady breeze from the eastward, which induced the captain again to set the topgallant sails; then suddenly chopping round with a heavy squall from the N. W., obliged us to clew up all sail. I requested the captain, as night was coming on, to hand the mainsail and topgallant sails, and closereef the topsails, and, being made snug, to lay to under easy sail till daylight; as we were now approaching the main land, where the shoals and rocks were numerous, and not accurately laid down on the chart; but he would not consent to heave the vessel to, although he made her snug: he would keep his course, to get in under the island of Rattan in the morning, if possible; and I was obliged to yield to his determination. One of the men said we should have a hurricane: "The hurricane months are over, you blackguard," replied the captain angrily. The man, however, appeared to know what he was talking about, and I, for one, believed him ; but the captain laughed at him, after his choler had subsided. I then thought it quite time to insist on the dead lights being put in, to secure the cabin windows against the violence of the sea, if it should break up against them and well it was that I had been firm to have it done; for the windows were scarcely secured by their wooden outside shutters, when it began to thunder and rain in torrents; it was one cascade of

water from the heavens. My poor dear wife had gone below into the cabin, a little before the storm came on; she had been induced to descend by the awful blackness that totally overspread the sky, which until then had been cheeringly bright in some one quarter or other; and although I did not remain five minutes after her, I was thoroughly wetted to the skin, before I could get off deck and run down the ladder. I had scarcely entered the cabin, when the wind arose suddenly, and with such violence, that the brig in an instant seemed on her beam ends. At this moment I thought I heard some one fall down the companion ladder. The hurricane had blown the sails to ribands, but the crew had succeeded in getting her before the wind. The vessel being a little steady, I went to see who or what it was that had made the unlucky tumble, and found my two goats, which, in the bustle and confusion, had probably attempted to take refuge in the companion, or some one had thrown them there purposely out of the way, as the door was immediately closed down after them, to keep the sea from rolling from the deck into the steerage-passage and cabin. This circumstance, which at the time did not appear worthy of much notice, was nevertheless important, the hand of Providence having directed it.

I now endeavoured to console my wife, whose strength of mind and kindness of heart bestowed reciprocal consolations on myself. "God will preserve us, my honoured love!" said she; "I feel. that we are safe, notwithstanding this dreadful hurricane but," added she, pressing my hand and

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