forwards, with a wooden bar fastening inside; so that, when shut, the gale was completely excluded The store-room windows, indeed, were fitted otherwise they were protected only by boards, slanting one over the other, in the fashion of Spanish blinds; but these boards nearly overlapped each other, throwing off the rain entirely, and very materially breaking the force of the wind. Still our terrors were great, and we rose from our bed, and I struck a light; and we went into the great hall, to see how it fared with Mira; but she was reckless of the storm, and slept soundly. "Happy creature!" said my dear wife; "thou knowest not what anxiety means!" Towards morning the wind abated; and we also found repose, on retiring to

our cot.

A little before daybreak, I thought I heard guns firing. I instantly got up, and sent the men to the summit of the promontory to look out. They quickly returned, with information that a vessel was in distress, and they believed on a reef in the offing. I hastened back with them to the heights, and taking the glass, saw the vessel, a brig schooner, steering away to the south-west. No doubt she had been aground, but had got off. We watched her for a couple of hours, until nearly out of sight. My gracious Eliza was much moved by the recital on my return; and without expressing any natural regret at so probable an instrument of deliverance to ourselves from the island, not having come into our barbour, she thanked God that they had escaped, and were proceeding on their voyage. The rains, with occasional gusts of wind from every quarter

of the compass, continued daily, at intervals, in profuse torrents, for nine days, but may be said to have subsided entirely on Tuesday the 14th.

From the circumstance of seeing the vessel in distress, the idea of erecting a flag-staff on the promontory, on which I might hoist the brig's ensign. if occasion should offer, presented itself to my mind; and I set about putting it in execution. With some trouble, we unshipped the fore top-gallantmast of the brig, which was already struck, and brought it away; and before night we conveyed it to the summit of the promontory. On Wednesday morning we fitted a truck and halliards to it; and, with the crow-bar, excavated a place in the rocky ground to receive it. After placing the mast as firmly as we could, we built the base round with stones, to steady it, and finished the job before sunset. On Thursday, we were all on foot by the grey of the morning, taking the ensign with us; and as the sun rose, I hoisted the English colours, and gave three cheers, crying aloud, "King George, and England for ever!" I felt that, by this act, I had taken possession in sovereignty for our gracious king. We left the flag flying till sunset, when the men and I ascended the hill again, with a tarpauling bag, in which we cased the colours, after lowering them at the going down of the sun.

On my return home my dear wife regaled me with coffee and a cigar, while I expatiated on the probable consequences of the measure, perhaps with some extravagance; for we were ignorant of whose dominions we were in, or even of the probable name of the spot where we were; for our

situation did not exactly answer to any island, or islands, laid down in the chart I had found in the captain's chest. Indeed it had been made sufficiently evident to us, that these islands were extremely dangerous of approach on all sides to a very great distance seaward; so that mariners, being perhaps aware of the prodigious number of rocks and shoals which lay in this direction, might always give them, if possible, a wide berth; and, accordingly, it might as yet be an unappropriated place.

Friday, 17th.—Diego put the two women in requisition to-day, to assist him in the field; while Xavier began the erection of a storehouse for provisions, at a little distance from the south-west end of our dwelling-house. This storehouse cost our carpenter a great deal of labour; for it was regularly built with boards, and shingled over; so that he had not completed it before Tuesday, the 11th of February, by which time the plantation-work was also nearly completed, although on a much more extended scale than formerly; for not only all the good ground between the mansion and woodland region had been cultivated, but the fertile plots between the spring and rock also.

There yet remained much of the former harvest in store. Our fowls and ducks had multiplied, and our young goats had kidded three amongst them. The wild bananas, put in near the spring, had attained their full growth. The sugar-canes and pines had thrown out many offsets, which had been transplanted; and both the one and the other were approaching maturity, Diego had made cigars from his tobacco during the rains, of which from

time to time he brought me an offering. And the bad weather gave occasion also to a new species of domestic industry- the platting of narrow strips of the cabbage-palm leaf into a continued extension, called sinnetto, which the women sewed together in form, making of it a hat, somewhat rude in shape, but light in texture: holding out an earnest of something better on a future day. In short, peace, harmony, plenty, and promise, surrounded our dwelling; and it only remained to keep alive in our hearts a daily and habitual thankfulness to the Giver of all things. During this period, my dear wife and myself, with Mira and Fidele, took many a happy walk; but passed the heat of the day generally within our new palace, enjoying the few books we had the good fortune to bring out with us.

CHAP. XI.

WEDNESDAY, 12th February. While at breakfast I heard distinctly the firing of cannon, and hastened with my Eliza, and all the group at my heels, to the summit of the promontory. We saw a brig and a schooner in the offing, the former firing at the latter, which seemed much embarrassed by the shoals and reefs, in her endeavour to escape the enemy. I could discern Spanish colours flying at the brig's peak; but the schooner did not show any. I immediately hoisted our ensign; and in a few minutes the schooner showed English colours at her fore topmast head, at the same time shaping her course for the promontory. The brig followed her, firing a bow gun every now and then. I did not hesitate, but leaving my wife and the women near our ensign, hastened with the men back to the house, and taking down the muskets and the pikes, and ship's trumpet, got out a bundle of ball cartridges; and throwing some provisions that were at hand into a basket, and making one of my companions fill the canteen with water, we returned to the height with as much speed as possible. By the time we reached the summit, we saw the schooner entering the passage between the promontory and opposite island. I instantly loaded one of the muskets; and at that moment the brig, which was not above half a mile