CHAPTER XVIII.

LEAVING BARBADOS.-MAKING ST. LUCIA.

"Farewell-farewell-farewell."

Old Novel.

"Holla! land ahead there."

Journal of a Sailor.

In the foregoing chapters I have often hinted at the attachment of my friend Phillipson to Miss Merrythought; and, in the last, I said that I was invited to their marriage. Now a marriage is by far the least interesting scene I know of; nevertheless, it is one that always concludes a comedy, and very often a novel. I knew full well the gallantry of my friend. I knew that love was his element; but I always thought it pure, Platonic, and philosophical. I never dreamt, even in my wildest fancies (and heaven knows how I do sometimes dream), that I should be invited to see the soldier, with an intended on his arm and a crabstock by his side, entering the temple of Hymen. Truly, reader, it was a matter of no small importance that could detain me from such a scene; and I sincerely regretted that the vessel in which I was to take my departure was obliged to sail before the ceremony took place. Had there

been only my own particular and important self concerned in the affair, I might have contrived to delay the vessel for another day; but alas! there were others going by the same conveyance; and some of these, having had the misfortune to be married themselves, had seen quite enough of that happy and bliss-bestowing ceremony on the day

"When each was wedded to a loving wife,

"Who spoiled his tea and teased him all his life."

Reader, when I was a child, it was not Gall, but some other galling Phrenologist, who seizing on one of the largest protuberances of my reverend head, thank heaven it was not my nose, deliberately told my aunt Josephine, that the said bump contained the organ of matrimony. Now my aunt, not being deep in the science, as deliberately replied, that she did not believe in any organ but the organ of music, whereat the good man, no way discouraged, immediately commenced feeling for the said organ. Indeed, Sir, cried I, somewhat impatiently, indeed, Sir, I have got no more bumps, and I should not have had that, only I fell down yesterday and knocked my head against the table. My aunt Josephine laughed aloud, the Phrenologist was disconcerted, and I, glad of the opportunity, escaped from the room.

The said matrimonial bump has since entirely disappeared; marriage now never occupies my thoughts, unless I see a friend with an uncommonly charming wife, which is indeed

"Rara avis in terra;"

and so, up to my present sober age of three and twenty I have escaped the "silken cords," and, thank heaven, the hempen ones too; and now "me voici tout seul."

But what has all this to do with my departure from Barbados? nothing, positively nothing. Well, then, the sun had set in the western sea, and the full orbed moon was casting her silver beams over the then still and silent waters of the Atlantic; the breeze was light and balmy, hardly strong enough to stir the branches of the fair and stately palm, or wave the feathery plumes of the mountain cabbage; the negroes were chattering on the door steps, and the town's-people were taking their evening walk, when I found myself accompanied by a party of friends, and bending my way to the boat that was waiting for me on the strand. There is always a certain melancholy attending our departure from a place where we have been accustomed to receive much kindness or attention; and still more, if we have formed any friendships. I was, therefore, not in the best of spirits; nor did the extreme kindness of those around me contribute to revive them. There were many in Barbados, both among the military and civilians, whom I greatly esteemed; and I had hoped to have enjoyed a longer residence with them.

Their friendship was greatly manifested towards me, by the attentive anxiety with which they had taken care to send on board the vessel every thing that could make me comfortable on my passage, and

by the kindness with which they accompanied me to the boat. Mat, who followed us to the beach, was loaded with little tokens of good nature, such as preserved ginger, Guava jelly, fruit, pickles, &c.; and I have to thank Miss Sabina Brade, our ci-devant hostess of the tavern, for her great consideration, in sending me a very handsome cake and a dozen bottles of my favourite sorrel drink.

When we arrived at the boat, my friends insisted on seeing me safe on board; and, even after they had bid farewell, it was not till they had given three loud parting cheers that they pulled away for the land.

Doubtless it is gratifying to a sovereign, when he beholds thousands of loyal subjects displaying an ecstatic joy at the presence of their king; doubtless it is gratifying to a governor, to see his arrival hailed with the sounding of cannon and the waving of flags; doubtless it is gratifying to a general to be beloved by his soldiers, to an admiral, to be adored by his fleet; but there is only one kind of gratification superior to that, experienced when receiving parting proofs of kindness from friends we are about to leave, and that is the rapture felt by a wanderer when he returns to his native home, undeceived in the truth of his beloved. Laura, if among these tropic isles I fall not a prey to sickness, or if, when returning to the blessed shores of old England, I find not a watery grave in the blue and dreary depths of ocean, such rapture will be mine. I shall come, undeceived in the truth of my beloved; for Laura is

too innocent for falsehood, to lovely to dream of guile.

The "Duke of York," such was the name of the vessel on board which I now found myself, was a brigantine belonging to Government, and usually employed in transporting troops, stores and baggage, from one island to another. It was now going on an excursion of this nature, and the officers on board were nearly all persons whom I. knew in Barbados. There was Captain Sulivan, of engineer memory, on his return to St. Lucie, whither the vessel was first bound; she was next to proceed to St. Vincent, and there to deposit the author of this little book, with one or two more gentlemen; after which she was to sail for the Islands of Antigua, St. Kitt's, and Trinidad Colonel B, Lieutenant L, and Major W, were the persons destined for these three places. The Colonel and Major were carrying with them animals, that would have proved a great incumbrance to the Lieutenant, more especially as he was a reasonable man.-I know not the appellation which the Gods have given to the said animals, but we men call them wives and children.

It was what the ladies called very lucky, and the Captain a great bore, that there was scarcely any wind. This circumstance did not greatly add to the speed of the vessel; and on the following morning, instead of arriving, as is customary, at the mouth of the harbour, we were only just able to perceive the island at a distance.

As I knew it would be impossible for me to remain