of the line of my duty, so far from my boat, I squatted amongst the brushwood, thinking they would pass by; but, as the devil would have it, they pulled directly for the place where I was ensconced, beached their boats, and jumped on shore. "Here's a mess,' thought I.

I soon made out that one of the officers was captain Pinkem of the Flash, and that the parties saluted each other with that stern courtesy which augured no good.

"So, so, my masters, not enough of fighting on the coast of America, but you must have a little private defacing of God's image amongst yourselves?"

Pinkem spoke first. "Mr Clinch," (I now knew he addressed the first lieutenant of the flag-ship, )- Mr Clinch, it is not too late to prevent unpleasant consequences; I ask you again, at the eleventh hour, will you make an apology?

He seemed hurried and fidgety in his manner; which rather surprised me, as I knew he was a seasoned hand in these matters, and it contrasted unfavourably with the calm bearing of his antagonist, who by this time had thrown his hat on the ground, and stood with one foot on the handkerchief that marked his position, the distance, twelve paces, having already been measured. By the by, his position was deucedly near in a line with the grey stone behind which I lay perdu; nevertheless, the risk I ran did not prevent me noticing that he was very pale, and had much the air of a brave man come to die in a bad cause. He looked upwards for a second or two, and then answered, slowly and distinctly, "Captain Pinkem, I now repeat what I said before; this rencontre is none of my seeking. You accuse me of having spoken slightingly of you seven years ago, when I was a mere boy. You have the evidence of a gallant officer that I did so; therefore I may not gainsay it; but of uttering the words imputed to me, I declare, upon my honour, I have no recollection." He paused.

"That won't do, my fine fellow," said Pinkem.

"You are unreasonable," rejoined Clinch, in the same measured tone, "to expect farther amende for uttering words which I have no conviction of having spoken; yet to any other officer in the service I would not hesitate to make a more direct apology, but you know your credit as a pistol-shot renders this impossible.”

"Sorry for it, Mr Clinch, sorry for it."

Here the pistols were handed to the principals by their respective seconds. In their attitudes, the proficient and the novice were strikingly contrasted; (by this time I had crept round so as to have

a view of both parties, or rather, if the truth must be told, to be out of the line of fire.) Pinkem stood with his side accurately turned towards his antagonist, so as to present the smallest possible surface; his head was, as it struck me, painfully slewed round, with his eye looking steadily at Clinch, over his right shoulder, whilst his arm was brought down close to his thigh, with the cock of the pistol turned outwards, so that his weapon must have covered his opponent by the simple raising of his arm below the elbow. Clinch, on the other hand, stood fronting him, with the whole breadth of his chest ; holding his weapon awkwardly across his body, with both hands. Pinkem appeared unwilling to take him at such advantage, for, although violent and headstrong, and but too frequently the slave of his passions, he had some noble traits in his character.

66 Turn your feather edge to me, Mr Clinch; take a fair chance, man."

The lieutenant bowed, and I thought would have spoken, but he was checked by the dread of being thought to fear; however, he took the advice, and in an instant the word was given-" Are you both ready?" "Yes."

"Then fire!"

Clinch fired without deliberation. I saw him, for my eyes were fixed on him, expecting to see him fall. He stood firm, however, which was more than I did, as at the instant, a piece of the bullion of an epaulet, at first taken for a pellet of baser metal, struck me sharply on the nose, and shook my equanimity confoundedly; at length I turned to look at Pinkem, and there he stood with his arm raised, and pistol levelled, but he had not fired. He stood thus whilst I might have counted ten, like a finger-post, then dropping his hand, his weapon went off, but without aim, the bullet striking the sand near his feet, and down he came headlong to the ground. He fell with his face turned towards me, and I never shall forget the horrible expression of it. His healthy complexion had given place to a deadly blue, the eyes were wide open and straining in their sockets, the upper lip was drawn up, showing his teeth in a most frightful grin, the blood gushed from his mouth as if impelled by the strokes of a force pump, while his hands griped and dug into the sand.

Before the sun set, he was a dead man.

"A neat morning's work, Gentlemen," thought I.

The two surgeons came up, opened his dress, felt his pulse, and

shook their heads; the boats' crews grouped around them—he was lifted into his gig, the word was given to shove off, and—I returned to my broom-cutters.

When we got on board, the gunner who had the watch was taking his fisherman's walk on the starboard side of the quarterdeck, and kept looking steadily at the land, as if to avoid seeing poor little Duncan's coffin, that lay on a grating near the gangway. The crew, assisted by thirty men from the flag-ship, were employed in twenty different ways, repairing damages, and were bustling about, laughing, joking, and singing, with small regard to the melancholy object before their eyes, when Mr Douglas put his head up the ladder-"Now, Jackson, if you please."

The old fellow's countenance fell as if his heart was wrung by the order he had to give.

"Aloft there! lie out, you Perkins, and reeve a whip on the starboard yard-arm to lower Mr”- -The rest stuck in his throat, but, as if ashamed of his soft-heartedness, he threw as much gruffness as he could into his voice as he sung out-"Beat to quarters there!-knock off, men!"

The roll of the drum stayed the confusion and noise of the people at work in an instant, who immediately ranged themselves, in their clean frocks and trowsers, on each side of the quarterdeck. At a given signal, the white deal coffin, wrapped in its befitting pall, the meteor flag of England, swung high above the hammock nettings between us and the bright blue sky, to the long clear note of the boatswain's whistle, which soon ending in a short chirrup, told that it now rested on the thwarts of the boat alongside. We pulled ashore, and it was a sight perchance to move a woman, to see the poor little fellow's hat and bit of a dirk lying on his coffin, whilst the body was carried by four shipboys, the eldest scarcely fourteen. I noticed the tears stand in Anson's eyes as the coffin was lowered into the grave,―the boy had been wounded close to him, -and when we heard the hollow rattle of the earth on the coffin, -an unusual sound to a sailor,-he shuddered.

6.

Yes, Master Cringle," he said, in a whisper, "he was as kindhearted, and as brave a lad as ever trod on shoe leather,—none of the larkings of the men in the clear moonlight nights ever reached the cabin through him,-nor was he the boy to rouse the watch from under the lee of the boats in bad weather, to curry with the lieutenant, while he knew the look-outs were as bright as beagles -and where was the man in our watch that wanted 'baccy while Mr Duncan had a shiner left?" The poor fellow drew the back of

his horny hand across his eyes, and grumbled out as he turned away, “And here am I, Bill Anson, such a swab as to be ashamed of being sorry for him."

We were now turned over into the receiving ship the old Shark, and fortunately there were captains enough in port to try us for the loss of the Torch, so we got over our court-martial speedily, and the very day I got back my dirk, the packet brought me out a lieutenant's commission. Being now my own master for a season, I determined to visit some relations I had in the island, to whom I had never yet been introduced; so I shook hands with old Splinter, packed my kit, and went to the wharf to charter a wherry to carry me up to Kingston. The moment my object was perceived by the black boat-men, I was surrounded by a mob of them, pulling and hauling each other, and shouting forth the various qualifications of their boats, with such vehemence, that I was nearly deafened.

Massa, no see Pam be Civil, sail like a witch, tack like a dol

phin?”

"Don't believe him, Massa; Ballahoo is de boat dat can beat him.'

"Dam lie dat, as I am a gentleman!" roared a ragged black vagabond.

“Come in de Monkey, Massa; no flying fis can beat she. "Don't boder de gentleman," yelled a fourth,—“ Massa love de Stamp-and-go-no so, Massa?" as he saw me make a step in the direction of his boat. "Oh yes-so get out of de way, you black rascals, "-the fellow was as black as a sloe himself—" make room for man-of-war buccra; him leetle just now, but will be admiral one day."

So saying, the fellow who had thus appropriated me, without more ado, levelled his head like a battering ram, and began to batter in breach all who stood in his way. He first ran a tilt against Pam be Civil, and shot him like a rocket into the sea; the Monkey fared no better; the Ballahoo had to swim for it; and having thus opened a way by main force, I at length got safely moored in the stern sheets; but just as we were shoving off, Mr Callaloo, the clergyman of Port Royal, a tall yellow personage, begged for a passage, and was accordingly taken on board. As it was high water, my boatmen chose the five foot channel, as the boat channel near to Gallows Point is called, by which a long stretch would be saved, and we were cracking on cheerily, my mind full of my recent promotion, when, scur, scur, scur, we stuck fast on the bank. Our black boatmen, being little encumbered with clothes,

jumped overboard in a covey like so many wild-ducks, shouting, as they dropped into the water, We must all get out,

66

-we must all get out;" whereupon Mr Callaloo, a sort of Dominie Sampson in his way, promptly leaped overboard up to his waist in the water. The negroes were thunderstruck.

"Massa Parson Callaloo, you mad surely, you mad!"

“Children, I am not mad, but obedient-you said we must all get out".

"To be sure, Massa, and you no see we all did get out?" "And did you not see that I got out too?" rejoined the parson, still in the water, and somewhat nettled,

66

Oh, lud, Massa! we no mean you-we meant poor niger, not white man parson."

"You said all, children, and thereupon I leaped," pronouncing the last word in two syllables-" be more correct in your grammar next time."

The worthy but eccentric old chap then scrambled on board again, amidst the suppressed laughter of the boatmen, and kept his seat, wet clothes and all, until we reached Kingston.

CHAPTER VII.

SCENES IN JAMAICA.

Excellent-why this is the best fooling when all is done."

Twelfth Night.

I CONFESS that I did not promise myself much pleasure from my cruise ashore; somehow or other I had made up my mind to believe, that in Jamaica, putting aside the magnificence and natural beauty of the face of the country, there was little to interest me. I had pictured to myself the slaves-a miserable, squalid, half-fed, ill-clothed, over-worked race-and their masters, and the white inhabitants generally, as an unwholesome-looking crew of saffronfaced tyrants, who wore straw hats with umbrella brims, wide trowsers, and calico jackets, living on pepper pot and land crabs, and drinking sangaree and smoking cigars the whole day; in a