scholars and good livers; able to read what
you like, able to write what you like, able
to eat and drink what you like, and spend
what you like, and do what you like; and
much you care for a poor, ignorant Private
in the Royal Marines! Yet it's hard, too, I
think, that you should have all the
halfpence, and I all the kicks; you all the smooth,
and I all the rough; you all the oil, and I
all the vinegar." It was as envious a thing
to think as might be, let alone its being
nonsensical; but, I thought it. I took it so
much amiss, that, when a very beautiful young
English lady came aboard, I grunted to
myself, "Ah! you have got a lover, I'll be
bound!" As if there was any new offence
to me in that, if she had!

She was sister to the captain of our sloop,
who had been in a poor way for some time,
and who was so ill then that he was obliged to
be carried ashore. She was the child of a
military officer, and had come out there with
her sister, who was married to one of the
owners of the silver-mine, and who had three
children with her. It was easy to see that
she was the light and spirit of the Island.
After I had got a good look at her, I grunted
to myself again, in an even worse state of
mind than before, "I'll be damned, if I
don't hate him, whoever he is!"

My officer, Lieutenant Linderwood, was as
ill as the captain of the sloop, and was
carried ashore, too. They were both young
men of about my age, who had been delicate
in the West India climate. I even took
that, in bad part. I thought I was much
fitter for the work than they were, and
that if all of us had our deserts, I should
be both of them rolled into one. (It may be
imagined what sort of an officer of marines I
should have made, without the power of
reading a written order. And as to any
knowledge how to command the sloop—Lord!
I should have sunk her in a quarter of an
hour!)

However, such were my reflections; and
when we men were ashore aud dismissed, I
strolled about the place along with Charker,
making my observations in a similar spirit.

It was a pretty place: in all its arrangements
partly South American and partly
English, and very agreeable to look at on
that account, being like a bit of home that
had got chipped off and had floated away to
that spot, accommodating itself to
circumstances as it drifted along. The huts of the
Sambos, to the number of five-and-twenty,
perhaps, were down by the beach to the left
of the anchorage. On the right was a sort
of barrack, with a South American Flag
and the Union Jack, flying from the same
staff, where the little English colony could
all come together, if they saw occasion. It
was a walled square of building, with a sort
of pleasure-ground inside, and inside that
again, a sunken block like a powder magazine,
with a little square trench round it, and
steps down to the door. Charker and I
were looking in at the gate, which was
not guarded; and I had said to Charker,
in reference to the bit like a powder magazine,
"that's where they keep the silver,
you see;" and Charker had said to me, after
thinking it over, "And silver an't gold. Is it,
Gill?" when the beautiful young English
lady I had been so bilious about, looked out
of a door, or a window—at all events looked
out, from under a bright awning. She no
sooner saw us two in uniform, than she came
out so quickly that she was still putting on
her broad Mexican hat of plaited straw when
we saluted.

"Would you like to come in," she said,
"and see the place? It is rather a curious
place."

We thanked the young lady, and said we
didn't wish to be troublesome; but, she said
it could be no trouble to an English
soldier's daughter, to show English soldiers
how their countrymen aud countrywomen
fared, so far away from England; and
consequently we saluted again, and went in.
Then, as we stood in the shade, she showed
us (being as affable as beautiful), how the
different families lived in their separate
houses, and how there was a general house
for stores, and a general reading-room, and a
general room for music and dancing, and a
room for Church; and how there were other
houses on the rising-ground called the Signal
Hill, where they lived in the hotter weather.

"Your officer has been carried up there,"
she said, "and my brother, too, for the better
air. At present, our few residents are
dispersed over both spots: deducting, that is to
say, such of our number as are always going
to, or coming from, or staying at, the Mine."

("He is among one of those parties," I
thought, "and I wish somebody would knock
his head off.")

"Some of our married ladies live here,"
she said, "during at least half the year, as
lonely as widows, with their children."

"Many children here, ma'am?"

"Seventeen. There are thirteen married
ladies, and there are eight like me."

There were not eight like her—there was
not one like her—in the world. She meant,
single.

"Which, with about thirty Englishmen of
various degrees," said the young lady, "form
the little colony now on the Island. I don't
count the sailors, for they don't belong to us.
Nor the soldiers," she gave us a gracious
smile when she spoke of the soldiers, "for
the same reason."

"Nor the Sambos, ma'am," said I.

"No."

"Under your favor, and with your leave,
ma'am," said I, "are they trustworthy?"

"Perfectly! We are all very kind to
them, and they are very grateful to us."

"Indeed, ma'am? Now—Christian George
King?——"