sick with yellow fever, from St. Jago de Cuba and Kingston, Jamaica, and if deaths take place on board, as they often do, some are ready to attribute them to the climate here-whereas they are but the development and consummation of disease contracted in other ports. But it is very seldom that people sicken and die with the yellow fever, either in this city itself, or its little port, Casilda; and even in the rainy season, during the hot, tropical summer, there are but few cases, and they generally yield to prompt, judicious treatment.

The climate on account of its great dryness and equability of temperature, is particularly favorable for complaints of the throat and chest, chronic asthma, and morbid states of the mucous membrane. For asthma, all assure me that it is one of the best climates in the world. Living here is somewhat expensive, but much cheaper than at Havana.

There is no doubt that should some well-qualified person, of energy and enterprise, establish a good house here for the accommodation of invalids, and make it permanent, and the fine qualities of this lovely climate be made fully known, many would come hither every winter, and receive far more benefit than is derived from a residence in various other places, to which it is more customary to resort.

The invalids have now (April 20th) nearly all gone from Havana and vicinity, and the few that are left will soon depart in the steamer Alabama for New Orleans, and in other packets for the north. Many of them commit a fatal mistake by leaving here so early for the cold winds, cloudy skies, and rainy atmosphere that are often to be met with even till the month of June, in any part of the Northern and Middle States, not to say in the South itself. A summer residence in a warm climate, would, in many instances, have a more decidedly beneficial effect than only a winter one. A winter, the ensuing summer, and then another winter, ought, in many cases, to be passed before a return to our northern climate. A change takes place in the human system in a

year and a half, while it is experiencing the different annual seasons of a tropical climate, which cannot be effected by only a few months of mild air during the winter. But Home, and Friends, and dear familiar faces, have, I too well know, an attraction that it is hard, very hard, to resist, even when the common instinct of self-preservation--the love of life itself-pulls strongly in the opposite direction.

The infamous traffic in slaves is still carried on upon this island to a lamentable extent. It is only eight or ten days since a small slave schooner crossed the mouth of this harbor, and was seen plainly from the port. She went only a few miles to windward, and there landed her human cargo of one hundred and ten negro slaves; and this vessel, I have understood, had only a crew of about eight men! Two rakishlooking vessels are now lying in port, which only a few weeks since returned from Africa with the same kind of cargo. One of them, which designed to carry many more, was chased off the coast by an English man-of-war, and was obliged to leave with only fifty-four.

It would be a new thing under the sun to see an American squadron engaged heart and hand in exterminating the slavetrade. Would that we might behold such an agreeable spectacle; for, as things are now permitted to go on in this business, to the disgrace of nations calling themselves civilized and Christian, most truly may it be said,

Man's inhumanity to inan

Makes countless thousands mourn.

CHAPTER XV.

HOPES

RAISED-FRUSTRATED-AND

AT LENGTH

TERMI

NATED IN DEATH ON HIS RETURN VOYAGE TO AMERICA.

He lives, who dies bequeathing works which tell
That he has been; who so fulfils his race,
That though no dazzling deeds his praises swell,
He yet may find a holy resting-place

In the FOND HEART'S REMEMBRANCE, there to trace
The record of a soul renewed by grace:

He who thus lives, when Death's dim shadows lower,
Shall win eternal life in that transporting hour.

ANON.

THROUGH a perseverance and force of character in surmounting difficulties that gave promise of large results in time to come, an honorable professional standing is now fairly won on foreign ground, and amidst jealous competitors. The American friends of the young Physician were fondly hoping that a successful career of professional usefulness was opening to him, which a gracious Providence would allow him to pursue. We have seen how his severe bodily affliction had proved the wholesome soil of virtue,

"Where goodness, honor, sweet humanity,

Calm fortitude, take root, and strongly flourish."

We thought they were to flourish awhile below, before transplanting to the paradise of God. But to

Infinite Wisdom that never errs, it seemed otherwise, as the present chapter will reveal.

His safe return from Havana, duly authorized and approved, with his hard-earned and dear-bought medical honors, is thus announced in a letter to his Brother, dated, Trinidad de Cuba, May 6th, 1844:

I am, by God's blessing, permitted to announce to you my safe arrival at this place on last Thursday evening. I am comfortably settled at my old quarters in Calle de la Gracia. I feel depressed and discouraged sometimes, I can assure you ; and I can say with the deepest feeling, when I review the long years of suffering with this dreadful infirmity, the separation from friends, the trials, and the abnegations, through which I have passed, and still suffer, "I am the man that hath seen affliction."

In my day dreams, I sometimes see vistas of reputation, honor, and wealth, opening up before me, but. perhaps, I shall never be permitted to realize them. The will of the Lord be done, whatever it may be. I trust, yea, I feel assured that I have an interest in his pardoning love, and that let what may befall me in time, all, all is well for eternity. Oh! blessed, sustaining hope! What should I be, and what should I do without that! If my worldly dreams were all realized, and I had no cheering hope of heaven, how miserable a man!

"Were the whole sea one chrysolite,

This earth a golden ball,

And diamonds all the stars of night,

This hope were worth them all."

Under date of May 12th, he writes in his Journal :

My license has been duly presented both to the Subdelegado Di Gallo, and to the Governor; and I am now fully author

ized to practise my profession. Oh, that God may deign to bless me in its exercise here, and make me useful. I feel "ready to halt," when my animal spirits sink so low as they have done at times. Since my return, I have experienced also a good many trials and vexations to harass and annoy me, besides the great ones which I am constantly called to endure of ill-health, and absence from all I love best. But the blessed consolations of the word of God, and a happy spirit of prayer do not fail me. O, what should I do without that unspeakable privilege! It is more precious to me than thousands of gold and silver. I would not exchange it for all the wealth, without the exercise of that gift, of the richest man living.

Were I possessor of the earth,

And called the stars my own,
Without thy graces and thyself,
I were a wretch undone.

Trinidad de Cuba, June 12th, 1844.

MOST DEARLY BELOVED SISTER.-I commence this afternoon what I intend shall be a sort of tête-à-tête conversation with my dear Sister, and beloved Mother, whose birth-day I recollect was yesterday. My mind is continually full of thoughts that breathe, and words that burn" towards you, but ah! how tardy and dull seems the pen, as a mode of transmitting them, compared with the sweet, precious, mutual reciprocity of personal conversation, the giving and receiving of those sparks of mental electricity, which do so delightfully vivify and ventilate the atmosphere of our being, when friend meets friend in the dear intercourse of domestic life. But this privilege we cannot now have, much as we do desire it, and we must make the most of the only substitute that remains, that of epistolary communications.

I must now answer some of your inquiries, and refer to the topics touched upon in your most welcome letters. As to