qualities seemed absorbed by it. He produced
some excellent brandy, and still better cigars,
and we began to discuss how I should amuse
myself till the schooner was ready to start. Of
course I had a list of commissions, all of which it
was agreed should be executed at a cooler hour
next morning. Then we began to talk about the
harbour, and I happened to ask if there were many
sharks in it? Hereupon my host brightened up,
and said: "If you would like to see a few, I'll
show you some. A horse of mine was taken ill
last night, and is just dead. We'll tow the
carcase off with a boat to the mouth of the
harbour, take a couple of rifles and a harpoon,
and it's odd if we don't have some sport."
No sooner said than done. Orders were at
once given to drag the dead horse to the water's
edge, and my host, followed by myself and a
big negro, who carried the rifles and the harpoon,
walked down to the boat. It was a large boat,
with four rowers and an awning, and as the
boatmen, notwithstanding the heat, pulled with
a will, we made way rapidly, and before long had
got past the steamers, and were nearing the
mouth of the harbour. As yet I had seen nothing,
and was becoming rather impatient. "Why,"
said I, "I don't believe there are any sharks.
I have not seen a single back fin above water."
In reply, my host checked the rowers for a
moment, when, as the surge we made subsided,
several dark lines showed themselves just astern
of the horse. "Give way," said he to the boat-men;
"we have not yet reached the place where
we can fire safely, and if we stop another half
minute the horse will be torn to ribbons." When
the boat had gone a few hundred yards further,
he said to me, "Now cock your rifle, and look
out! The instant we stop, the sharks will rise,
and the first that turns to seize the horse, fire
right into his belly. I'll give him both barrels
too, and four conical pills should settle him!
Are you ready?" "Quite ready," I replied, and
the boat stopped.

In an instant the dark lines were visible
again, but this time they came rapidly up to the
surface, and five monstrous sharks showed themselves.
The apparition was so sudden, and the
sharks were so huge, so much larger than any I
had seen before, that I started, and, had I cocked
my rifle as I had been told to do, there is no knowing
where I might have sent my random shot. But
it has always been my practice not to cock till I
see the object; and this has prevented my making
many a bad miss. In a moment I recovered
myself, and, as the foremost shark turned on his
back and darted at the carcase, I took good aim,
and fired nearly at the same moment with my
friend. All our four balls told: one of them, as we
afterwards found, going right through the heart.
The smoke came full across my eyes, but there
was a tremendous splash, and I caught an indistinct
glimpse of the monster as he sprang half
out of the water and fell back. Almost at the same
instant, the big negro who had the harpoon sent
it into the shark just below the lower jaw with
such force, that, had he had more life in him
than remained, he would hardly have escaped.
Meantime, the other sharks, who sank for a
moment when we fired, had risen again to
the surface, and one of them had already torn a
great bit out of the horse, giving such a violent
jerk to the boat, that one of the niggers took
fright, and before we could see what he was
about, undid the rope by which the carcase was
being towed, and it was immediately jerked into
the water as the other sharks fastened on the
prey. This they did in such numbers, and with
such right good will, that before we could
reload and prepare for another shot, they had
dragged the carcase under water, and we could
only tell by the bubbles and bloody foam what a
worry was going on below. However, we had
got one monster safe, and returned towing
him in triumph. When we reached the
landing-place there was quite a crowd to receive
us. It took eight or ten men to drag the shark
on shore, and we found he measured over sixteen
feet long, and nearly six feet in circumference.
His stomach was quite empty, which accounted
for his being ravenous.

I was glad of a bath and a change of toilet,
after which my friend drove me in his carriage
round the west part of the island, of which some
description may be acceptable. To begin then
with the beginning, be it known that, between
the eighteenth and nineteenth degrees of north
latitude, a little to the east of Porto Rico, in an
almost continuous cluster, lie the Virgin Islands,
so called by Columbus from the eleven thousand
of sainted memory, with whom in number these
islets seemed to vie. Exactly in the centre of
the group, is St. Thomas, and next to it, on the
east, is St. John. All the islands to the east of
St. John belong to the English, and all to the
west belong to the Danes. You may tell the
English possessions by the roughness of the
nomenclature and the utter want of high-flown
titles. There is, for example, Salt Island, followed
by Ginger, Cooper's, and Beef Island.
Next we come to Camanoe, Scrub, Guano, and
Jost-van-Dykes Isles. Then there is Anegada,
or "Drowned Island," famous or infamous for
wrecks, where many a gallant seaman has gone
to his rest beneath the waters. It is a curious
place that Anegada. It lies all awash with the
sea, and when the mist comes up, as it does
very often, one would fancy the waves were
rolling clean over it. Anegada is ten miles
long, and has a reef to the south-east of nine
miles more, and upon this reef many scores
of vessels have gone to pieces. But to the west
there is good anchorage, and abundance of
funnel-shaped wells, full of fresh water, in which,
curiously enough, the fresh water rises with the
tide. The bays there in the old time
swarmed with buccaneers. When they were
gone, came gangs of wreckers and colonised the
island, and reared stock, and grew cotton; but
their true market-day was when a vessel struck
on the reef, and many a rich prize they got, and