are stopped, the captain will soon put matters
to rights, if any one can; but, Caramba! this all
comes of sailing on a Friday. I never hur-red
of no good from sailing on a Friday." Destiny,
however, was for this time to let us off with only
a fright. The thundering blows ceased with the
stoppage of the engines, the steam and smoke
gradually cleared away, and the hubbub abated.
It was then we learned that the great shaft
which connects the paddle-wheels with the
machinery had suddenly snapped, and, starting up
like a snag, had caught some ponderous gear,
which it whirled round with each revolution of
the engines, smashing the paddle-box and everything
near it. In the confusion there had been
an upset of hot coals and an escape of steam,
which scalded several men, and drove the others
out of the engine-room.

The danger of the late accident was soon forgotten,
and some of those who had been most
alarmed were unmercifully quizzed. About one
short fat Creole in particular the jokes were never
ending. He was in his cabin when the crash took
place, and fancying from the smoke and steam
which entered his quarters that the ship was on
fire, he actually contrived to thrust his corpulent
body through the round window, though one
would have thought it too small for the passage
of a fat rabbit. From the window he somehow
scrambled on deck, and made his appearance,
steaming with perspiration, with one sleeve of his
coat torn off, and with a face and figure, as every
one declared, considerably elongated by his
squeeze through the bull's-eye.

How the damages were repaired I know not,
but, in a few hours, we were going on much as
usual; so much so, indeed, that the Frenchman,
who had told me he was doctor and bootmaker at
once, could now finish his story and explain himself.
"When I commenced my career," said he,
"I found that, no one would trust me to prescribe,
on account of my juvenile appearance. In
despair, I consulted a friend, who said to me,
'My dear fellow, with that child's face of yours,
you will never have a patient. But stay! I
know a certain college in which a Greek professor
is wanted. You shall be the Greek professor;
you shall have the place!' In vain I protested
that I knew nothing of Greek. 'I make it entirely
my business,' replied my friend; 'you shall have
the place.' Accordingly, I found myself at the
college, with a letter of introduction to the
lecturer, who had been temporarily discharging
the duties of the defunct professor of Greek. I
had counted on several days to prepare myself,
but on handing him the letter, he said, in a sharp
voice, 'Charmed to see you, and to resign my
functions. The students will be ready for you in ten
minutes. I will send a man to show you the
lecture-room.' At that moment I felt my knees
tremble under me, and my uneasiness was so
great, that I almost resolved to jump into an
omnibus I saw pass, drive to the station, and
return to Paris. Somehow, I found myself at the
lecture-room, and just then a lucky thought
occurred to me. 'Range yourselves,' I said to the
students, 'as you ranked at the last examination.
Now,' I continued, when they had done so, 'let
the lowest read first.' When he had finished, I
said to the next, 'What mistakes has he made,
and how do you correct them?' He mentioned
one or two blunders, and I then put the same
question to others, till no one had anything left
to say. The reading and the corrections occupied
a long time, at the end of which I said, 'That
will do for the first lecture; at the next I shall
have more to say to you.' In fact, when the
next séance came, I had, by great industry,
prepared myself a little, and managed to deliver a
discourse, and, in the mean time, I had the
satisfaction of hearing that my fame was great among
the students, who were tickled with the novelty
of my system, insomuch that my senior colleague
congratulated me on abandoning the career of a
physician, and assured me that I was born to be
a professor! I longed, however, to return to my
original employment, and, as I did not see my
way in France, I went out to Lima, where I
married a Creole, fell ill of dysentery, and, as I
could not recover my health in Peru, I opened a
shoe-shop, left my wife in charge of it, and
returned to Paris, and I am now going out to
bring home my daughter to be educated."

Next day we arrived within the influence of
the trade-winds. We had now frequent squalls
and thunder and lightning till the 30th, on
which day, at seven P.M., we made, as the
sailors say, the little island of Sombrero, or
"Hat Island." It is only three-quarters of a
mile long and nine hundred feet broad; is a
perfectly flat rock, about twenty feet above the level
of the sea; and derives its name from its fancied
resemblance to a cardinal's hat. In 1850 it was
uninhabited, except by sea-fowl and black lizards:
the only place of landing was at a bight on
the west side: and getting on shore was what
Yankees would term a caution to snakes.
"Under very favourable circumstances," says
a nautical writer, "by watching an opportunity,
you may jump on to a flat ledge to the
cliff, and with some difficulty ascend to the
summit." The almighty dollar, however, would
make a landing anywhere, and as there was
abundance of guano on the rock, the Americans
had taken possession of it, and we saw them
hard at work with cranes and carts loading
vessels with the precious deposit.

At three P.M. on the 1st of July we anchored
in the harbour of St. Thomas. I looked in vain
for the little steamer which I expected would be
ready to convey me to La Guaira. Instead of it I
was shown a schooner of about eighty tons, which
was to sail next day for that place. Viewed from
the decks of the gigantic Nameless, she looked
like a cockle-shell. Spite of the heat, I landed at
once, and went straight to the store of a young
merchant, whose family I knew. He was a handsome
fellow of about two-and-twenty, with bright
blue eyes and curly hair, and with such an
over-powering share of good nature that all his other