seven o'clock we have dinner, after which the circle meets in the saloon of the princess; and the round-table, with the tapisserie-work, the piano, and a quantity of albums, entertain the company. The gentlemen walk about, and in some of the rooms are several games of whist. Once or twice a week there are hunting-parties, and we ladies follow in the carriage.

Sometimes I have the pleasure of being ordered to the boudoir of the princess, and when the hundred valets de chambre and servants have closed the last door, I am alone with my beloved young friend. Those are happy hours, which I enjoy far more since the regal pomp, which at other times surrounds her, no longer oppresses me. I look through it into that ever faithful and humble heart; and when the princess seizes my hand en passant, or her kind look tells me she is happy, then I am also happy.

A REAL PIRATE.

In this enlightened age, the notion obtains very extensively that a real, veritable, bona-fide pirate, is quite an obsolete affair-a character of the past a fellow who has performed his part, and retired from the world's stage forever, leaving behind him nothing but his name and a few pleasant and poetical associations, among which occur black flags, and bloody, emblazoned with death's heads, scuttled ships, with projecting planks nicely balanced over their quarter rails, and low, black schooners, with masts stepped at an angle of forty-five degrees, or, as the sailors say, "half way between nothing at all and a church steeple." Talk of pirates-people at once think of the Buccaneers or the salle rovers; and if by special invitation their attention is attracted to the piratical of modern times, they boggle at Lafitte and the victims of Commodore Porter's cruise, and come to a dead halt at the mention of the renowned Wansley and Gibbs. Beyond these two worthies, now some fifteen years defunct, it is almost impossible to coax the credulity of a single member of this not-to-be-humbugged community. No! it's of no use. Then and there, on Bedlow's Island, was hanged until it was dead, the romance of the seas; and now, of all those who go down to the sea in ships, and do their business in the great waters, you can't find a dozen, who, apart from the question of Malay proas off the coast of Sumatra and around Java Head, have any more respect for pirates than a modern boy of eight years old has for ghosts or the devil. Alas, for the good old piratical and poetical! both have been swamped in the floods of utilitarianism; often united in their lives, in their deaths they are not divided. In this respect, however, their degenerate progeny may be said to resemble them, but with a difference; the old piratical was always poetical; the new poetical 'tis said, is often, if not always, piratical.

The piratical having thus nearly disappeared as an element of the social state, and a very general skepticism as to any lingering remnants of it having taken possession of the public mind, it behooves any one about to introduce a real pirate into general society, to preface his appearance by an assertion of his claims to confidence. With this view, I

have added the epithet real-meaning thereby an actual, veritable pirate, in contradistinction to your ideal Red Rovers, and all such kind of fanciful craft. My free-booter was alive and hearty but a few years since, and I presume he is so now, inasmuch as he was a middle-aged man, with a good constitution; and my story, if it has but a little romance in it, has a good deal of truth, which is something in these days of animal magnetism and quack medicines.

But where shall I begin? Ah! I see-just off the Island of Flores, with Corvo, black as one of the crows from which it is named, far off in the distance to the north. Beautiful is the first land fall at sea, under any circumstances; and it may be imagined that it was with no ordinary feelings of pleasure that we gazed up the deep ravines and green valleys, dotted with the occasional hamlets, churches, and convents, and along the steep and rugged hill-sides of the northernmost of the Azores. "Beautiful!" I exclaimed, as I stood upon the poop-deck of the corvette C, with my spy-glass supported against the shrouds of the mizzen-rigging; "what a lovely and inviting valley!"

"Beautiful, indeed," replied one of the officers of the ship; "but did you ever hear that remark about distance lending enchantment to the view? If you were ashore there, you would find things of a different hue, I'll be bound. Those dark green slopes are nothing but potato patches, or what is equally unpicturesque, stumpy and bushy vineyards; and as for those pleasant-looking hamlets, I'll bet you could'nt get within fifty rods of them for the filth and stench with which they are surrounded. There is nothing like a Portuguese villa in the distance for an optical illusion."

The further discussion of the beauties of Flores, which, despite of the lieutenant's contemptuous opinion of Portuguese picturesqueness, seemed to be worthy of its name-the Island of Flowers-was interrupted by a midshipman, who, touching his cap to the officer of the deck, reported something floating in the water, a few hundred yards off the weather-beam.

"What does it look like?" demanded the lieutenant.

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Why, sir," replied the middy, "it looks to me like a bunch of seaweed; but Jem Jones, of the fore-top, says he thinks it is something more than sea-weed; and Jones has got eyes like a hawk."

Pshaw! it's nothing but some piece of a spar, with sea-weed collected round it. However, there is no harm in looking at it a little nearer. Take a pull on the larboard braces! Luff up! luff up! Mr. P-, report to the captain a nondescript in sight to windward."

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Fore-top, there!" shouted the officer of the deck, in a few minutes after his order for bracing up the yards had been executed. "Fore-top, there! have you got your eyes open?"

"Aye, aye, sir."

Well, what do you make out on the weather-bow?"

"A barrel or cask of some kind."

"A barrel! well, it's to be hoped there is something in it," observed the purser ; to-morrow is the fourth of July, perhaps this is a godsend from old Neptune, in honor of the occasion."

The object was now plainly in sight, and the captain coming on deck, the ship was hove-to, and a boat lowered and sent for it. It proved to be what the top-man had announced-a barrel-although, when close along-side, it was a puzzle to me how any one could make out its character. Upon freeing it from sea-weed, and hoisting it on board, it was found to be completely enveloped in a mass of animal matter-barna

cles, sea-suckers-long worms, and a kind of flat centipede were intertwined in a firm and solid layer from three to four inches thick. The cooper was sent for, and after a good deal of active exertion, the head of the cask was exposed to view.

In the meantime there was much curious speculation afloat among the group of spectators, as to the time our prize had been in the water. Three years was the shortest period allotted by those who had had most experience of the sea; while among the junior officers there was a considerable diversity of opinion, and a much more liberal allowance of time to conjecture. "I'll tell you what I think," demurely interposed one of the younger middies-"you recollect that Columbus, when he was coming home on his first voyage, was caught in a terrible nor'wester just here, off the Western Islands, and in order that the knowledge of his great discovery might not be lost in case he foundered, as he was expecting to do every moment, he wrote two letters, enclosed them in tin cases with wax, put the cases in barrels, and then threw them overboard. There is no account of their ever having been picked up, and, of course, they must have been floating about till this time. Î guess

this is one of them."

"But the barrel is full of liquor of some kind," objected one of the by-standers.

"True," replied the middy; "but it is the sea-water, that, in the course of three hundred and fifty years, has leaked in-we shall find the cake of wax inside all safe."

The carpenter having, at last, scraped his way down to the head of the barrel, proceeded to tap it with a gimlet. Upon canting the cask over, a clear, colorless liquid streamed from the orifice, diffusing around a grateful fragrance, that made several old tars, who were assisting at the operation, snuff up the air with evident delight. A cup was brought and filled. The carpenter passing it to a midshipman, the midshipman to the first lieutenant, and the first lieutenant politely handing it on to the captain-who, nosing it with a dignified and pensive air for a moment or two, touched it to his lips, and handed it back to the first lieutenant. The first luff raised it to his lips.

"Gin!" exclaimed the captain. "Gin!" said the first luff.

"Very good!" said the captain.

"Devilish good!" responded the first luff.

At this moment the officer of the deck interposed to cut short the rising discussion. "That ship," said he, "to leeward, is acting in a queer kind of way. Since she was reported, about half an hour ago, she has altered her course, and is heading up for us as close as she can lie. She has signals flying, that I can make nothing of, at her fore and main-masts; but I can't tell whether she has a flag at her peak or not. I suppose she wishes to speak us.”

"Well, sir, square away, and give her a chance to do so," replied the captain.

The attention of all the idlers was, by this order, directed to the advancing ship; and upon looking round again for the first object of interest-the barrel of gin-it had most mysteriously disappeared. There was a rumor current throughout the ship, during the day, that the barrel had been seen on its way to the captain's store-room; but an extra glass of common ship's whiskey, given, ostensibly, in honor of the Fourth, but in reality, as Jack suggested, by way of commutation for

his share of the prize, was all that was ever heard of that cask of wellseasoned Hollands.

The stranger having backed his main top-sail under our lee-quarter, announced, in answer to our hail, that he was an Englishman—a hundred and ten days from Sidney, in New South Wales, and that the day before he had been boarded by pirates.

At the bare mention of the word pirate, there was as strong a sensation throughout the ship-from knight-heads to, taffrail-as ever_ran through a New-York drawing-room upon the announcement of an English lord or a mustachoed French marquise. One of the quarter boats was at once lowered away, manned, and the first lieutenant placing himself in the stern-sheets, pushed off, and was soon on board the stranger. We had nothing to do but to await his return. In the meantime speculation was rife as to the circumstances of the piracy, and the probable whereabouts of the freebooters.

The report of the lieutenant, upon his return, was to the effect that the Englishman had been boarded early in the forenoon of the day before, by a boat from a clipper-built brig, after having been summoned to heave to by a shot from a long gun amidships. The brig showed no flag, but appeared to be well-manned with a Spanish-looking set of fellows, in red caps and blue woollen shirts, and in addition to the first gun, she carried three or four carronades on a side. Upon coming on board, the boat's crew at once set about plundering the ship, apparently seeking only such articles as they could use on the brig. In fact, the officer of the boat announced, in the politest manner, and in broken English, to the terrified passengers and crew, that his craft was merely short of sea-stores, and that he should simply help himself to such things as he stood in need of. How much of this forbearance was due to the fact that he knew there was hardly a possibility of there being any specie on board, and that the cargo was bulky, and of but little value, it is impossible to say. Having helped themselves to a new fore top-sail, several bales of canvass and rope, three or four barrels of pork and biscuit, and sundry articles from the tool-chest and steward's pantry, the pirates quietly got into their boats, and went off to their brig, which, without further notice, filled her main top-sail, and stood off to the south-east.

A long passage had already greatly reduced the Englishman's stock of provisions, and the pirate's exactions left him with barely ten days' supply, even after putting all hands upon the shortest possible allowance. It was this that had made him so anxious to speak us. Supplying him with beef and bread enough to last him for the remainder of his voyage, we bade him good-bye, and hauling our wind, stood upon the track of the pirate.

Not a sail showed itself the rest of the day, although some two hundred pairs of eyes were kept on the stretch; and provoking enough it was, when to a dead certainty there was a pirate within a hundred miles of us. The next morning, however, we were gratified with the sight of a set of topgallant sails; but unfortunately then there were three of them, whilst the gentleman we were after carried but two, his vessel being a brig. It was thought, however, best to overhaul the ship in sight, and inquire if she had seen anything of the freebooter, whose acquaintance we were so anxious to make. To do this, it was necessary to haul up a little, as the ship was to windward; but to our surprise it was soon perceived that the stranger had followed our example, and braced up too. A still sharper pull on our lee braces produced a corresponding change in the stranger's

course, and it was evident, that for some reason or other, he was indisposed to speak us. It would never do for a crack corvette to give it up so, and with everything set, alow and aloft, and bowlins hauled taut, we commenced a regular chace. At length we got near enough to send a shot dancing along on the water ahead of him, when he at once put his helm up and came down under our stern. She proved to be a beautiful Portuguese clipper-looking craft, with unmistakeable tokens of the slaver in every line of her finely moulded hull, and in the spread of her square yards and taunt tapering topmasts. However, we had nothing to say to her or her business, and she had seen nothing of the pirate, so we filled away for Fayal, upon the suggestion of the first luff "Who knows," says he," but that the fellow has gone into Fayal-it is close by; and as he appears to have been short of grub, he has, perhaps, put in there for potatoes and onions. As to the onions, I'm sure he couldn't do better, for the Fayal onions are almost equal to those of Madeira, and the Madeira onions are famous the world over."

We came to anchor in the roadstead of Orta, amid a fleet of Yankee whale ships, who were laying in their stores of vegetables and fruits; but no pirate was to be seen.

Örta, with its whitewashed buildings, looks pleasant enough from the sea, but as soon as you set foot on shore you find yourself in a little filthy dilapidated town. The streets, perhaps, are not so disgustingly dirty as those of New-York, but they are very narrow, and the houses are old and mean. On the opposite side of the roadstead rises the beautiful peak of Pico; its top covered with snow and enveloped in fantastic and evervarying clouds, and with its steep sides clothed with vineyards, from whence come the Pico wine of the New-York market.

There was no pirate; but as the first luff had promised us there were plenty of onions," mild as new milk, and big as your hat," of which with other fruits we laid in a good store, inasmuch as it was whispered that we were going to run by Madeira without stopping at Funchal until our

return.

Ten days from that time and we were becalmed, right under the famous Peak of Teneriffe. By this time the excitement about the pirate had died away; the fellow had slipped off, not only out of the sight of the sharp eyes at our fore topmast cross-trees, but apparently out of the minds of the loungers on the quarter deck, and the conversation for the time flowed in two pretty nearly equal streams-one an abuse of the calm, and the other a laudation of the majestic peak. Pour passer le temps, the deep sea lead was got overboard, but there was no bottom at hundreds and hundreds of fathoms. If the ocean ever dries up, so that the Peak of Teneriffe can be viewed from the present bottom of the surrounding sea, it will unquestionably be thought to be the most astonishing mountain in the world.

Every thing must have an end, even a calm in summer among the Canaries; and at last a gentle breeze and a favorable current set us around the island to the roadstead of Santa Cruz. There was quite a display of shipping at anchor, and the city looked really enchanting with its yellow and white-washed buildings, stretching along the foot of the craggy mountain. But it must be recollected that this was my first visit, and I had no idea of what a hot and disagreeable hole the chief town of Teneriffe really is.

"What a fine town," I exclaimed, as our gallant vessel was slowly creeping before the first light puffs of the sea-breeze into her anchorage. "Fine town, indeed!" exclaimed the surgeon, who had had some ex