England later in the year, and Nelson took his wife down to his father's Norfolk parsonage. He was at this time twenty-nine

years of age, but had been twice in love before, once with a Canadian. lady in 1782, and once with a clergyman's daughter at Paris in the

following year. He had already served at the North Pole as well as in the East Indies, and in a former commission as lieutenant in these West Indies, from 1777 to 1781. During the forenoon we passed over the Saba bank where we saw the bottom clearlywhite sand and coral-at nine fathoms. By noon we had run 168 miles. At 5.15 P.M. observed Sainte Croix on the port bow, and at 11.30 P.M. sighted St. Thomas's light.

March 7th.-Shortly after 2 A.M. came to in nine fathoms outside the harbour of St. Thomas-one of the fifty islands called "Virgin" by Columbus, after St. Ursula and her companions. He sighted them on his second voyage, 1493; they were held by Dutch and English buccaneers till settled by Danes in 1672. The Danish islands surrendered to the English in 1801 and again in 1807, but were restored in 1815. Saw the sun rise over this bare-looking island. The bright little town of Charlotte Amalia (so named after the Danish queen) stands at the head of the bay, straggling up the hills at its back; the houses have white walls and green blinds, and red-shingle roofs; some are in gardens. The ships and mail steamers are anchored in front of it, and the bowsprit of the Dagmar just shows from behind one island on the port hand. The bay has evidently been the crater of an extinct volcano, and we are looking into it from the outside through the gap where the sides of the crater gave way and admitted the sea. The Dannebrog is flying over the Government House and fort, and fluttering too from the many flagstaffs, one of which, just as in Denmark, every house seems to possess. At 8 A.M. we too hoist the Danish flag to our main masthead, and salute the white cross on the crimson ground with twenty-one guns. After church Prince Waldemar and Captain Brin came off to the Bacchante, and after going all over the ship took us both back to the Dagmar, where we spent the day but did not land. In the evening Prince Waldemar with Captain Brün and Lieutenant Ebers dined on board the Bacchante, and there was some talk of his going with us to Jamaica, but the difficulty was in his rejoining the Danish corvette here, as he would arrive in that island too late for the returning mail steamer, and the Bacchante was to proceed from thence to Bermuda.

March 8th.—At daylight (6.30 A.M.), weighed and proceeded under sail, shaping course south-west by south, the wind being well from the east, so that we were able to set port stunsails. Running before the trade we make between six and seven knots, and pass the other Danish island of Sainte Croix away in the distance on the port

beam (purchased by the Danes from the French for 75,000l.); the two towns on the island are named after their twin kings, who always reign alternately-Frederickstadt and Christianstadt. After we got clear of St. Thomas's on the starboard hand (which has quite a different appearance to any other West Indian island we have seen yet, being apparently unwooded, bare and unfruitful), we came upon little Crab Island, and then sailed during the morning on past the long Spanish island of Porto Rico. The social and economical history of this island is peculiar. It is a good deal smaller than Jamaica, but it contains no fewer than 650,000 inhabitants, whereas Jamaica contains only 560,000. The majority are people of colour, that is a mixture of Spanish and Indian blood; and instead of being planters carry on a thriving pastoral business, and pass for a hardy, dexterous, though not very industrious class, dwelling among their flocks and herds like the Boers of the Cape. The island has also a very fair export trade in sugar and coffee. It was off here that Sir John Hawkins, and it was not far from here, off Porto Bello, that Sir Francis Drake, each breathed forth their manly spirits; and beneath these waves sank to rest all that was mortal of those two noble sons of Devon, far from home, it is true, but in the very centre of that new world that had fired their ambition, and still in quest of honour and of wealth for themselves and Queen. At St. Domingo too, close by, by a curious coincidence, the body of the great navigator Columbus was buried in 1506 in the cathedral at St. Domingo, where his ashes were re-discovered in 1877.

March 9th.—At five A.M. watched out of the stern ports the sun rise; first there was an orange tinge over the whole sky in the east, and then the new moon rose, apparently going to join Venus, which was the star shining just above; then this orange colour faded all quite away, and just before the sun rose the sky seemed dead grey again at last up burst the king in all his glory from the sea. The coast of Porto Rico, sixty miles distant from Haiti, was still visible in the distance for half an hour after dawn. Reading Hazard's Haiti all day while not in school as we run along under its southern coast, which is 400 miles long. The history of the island is about as sad as that of any of the West Indies. "Haiti" is the old Carib for "mountainous country." There were over three million Caribs in the island when Columbus named it "Little Spain" in his first voyage, 1492; and on its northern shore was established the first