vanishes where water and sky appear to unite, are so fantastic in their shape, that one watches them every time with renewed pleasure. We thought to-day we saw a fleet of ships suddenly appearing, as if it were by magic, on the western horizon; first one, and in the next moment ten, nay twenty. The illusion was so perfect that many glasses were directed towards it, and the forecastle was filled with passengers, to witness this peculiar spectacle. Lofty chains of mountains rose behind the fleet, here and there broken, and the setting sun throwing his parting rays on their precipices.

And how shall I describe the scene which followed, when night had broken in upon us, the canopy of heaven clustered with stars, scarcely a breath of wind stirring, the sea perfectly calm, and each star reflecting its image in the glassy mirror! I have spent many a night on the ocean, in calm sand storms, but such a sublime scene I never witnessed before. Our vessel propelled by mighty steam, ploughed her way through the glossy mass, the snow-white foam of the disturbed ocean bubbling against her bow; each star to the third magnitude might be seen reflected. Those which threw their image at some distance from our course, where not even a ripple moved the surface of the ocean, appeared steady and fixed; but far otherwise was it near our floating-house; here it appeared they had met in merry gambols, or as if they were under the influence of Oberon's magic horn!

Their common aim, to bathe in the foam of our advancing vessel, and to join in kisses when diving out of it. Our course was west,-Venus, then an evening star, shone with the lustre of a little moon. The lovely goddess, more than any other star, joined in the merry dance, and appeared to arise every moment anew out of the froth of the sea.

The peculiar effect was produced by the rapid motion of our steamer through a perfect calm sea, which caused the optical illusion, as if the reflected image of the star were drawn towards the vessel, re-appearing the next moment. All of us acknowledged that we had never witnessed a more beautiful scene, and the more excitable of our fair passengers were in ecstasy.

This night was a worthy pendant to the splendid sunrise, when off Madeira. The following day was to bring me to my destination.

Monday, the 24th of November. The calm still prevailed when we came this morning on deck. The high land of Barbados was discerned about ten o'clock, and from this moment our vessel exhibited a scene of commotion. Our gangway was almost filled with boxes, portmanteaus, and chests of all descriptions, with here and there a sprinkling of

ladies' band-boxes.

At the time of luncheon, we were still too far distant to recognize objects; but we approached rapidly, and all glasses were put in requisition. The church of St. John, built on a rock, which rises nearly one thousand feet above the sea, became a prominent object, and served us as a guide towards our port. At three o'clock we were only a few miles from it, and the ships at anchor in Carlisle Bay were visible.

And now we are surrounded with shore boats and gigs, anxious faces look for familiar features. Is Mr. So-and-so,-is Miss A. B. on board? resounds from all parts. Some tawny-looking beauty pushes a card in your hand, recommending the Clarence Hotel, and its corpulent owner, Miss Betsey Austin. Captain Marryat has rendered her immortal in his "Peter Simple." A deep courtesy of a damsel, not fair

but well-grown, is rather meant to disengage your attention from Miss Austin's emissary, and she profits of its interval to recommend Miss Lee's City Hotel. The owners of these establishments are sisters, but it is whispered there is not much love between them, and they consider each other as rivals. Miss Lee's hotel is more fashionable than the Clarence, and, consequently, it is more resorted to. Unfortunately, those who wish to honour Miss Lee's, have to pass on their way the Clarence, not without a shake of the head, and some pithy remark of the corpulent owner, who cannot forget the palmy days of former years, when she was the sought-after, from the young middy to the decorated admiral; and, I need not say, she does not bear sisterly love to the owner of the City hotel.

I saw a friendly hand extended to me, and my friend Colonel A. offered me a welcome in Barbados. He was anxious to conduct me to the governor, Sir Charles Grey; and, as a well-manned gig awaited us, I left a few minutes afterwards our floating hotel, and landed at Carlisle bay.

The governor's residence is about a mile from town, and is built on rising ground. His excellency received me very kindly, and after I had told him the nature of the business which led me to Barbados, he promised me his kind co-operation, as far as he could to forward the object of my mission. I had previously arranged with my colleague that we would take up our residence at the City hotel, until we had made the necessary arrangements for occupying the temporary residence which the kindness of a friend had assigned to us.

At my arrival at the City hotel, I found confusion and clamour paramount. The greater number of our fellow-passengers had come ashore to enjoy the land before the steamer continued her voyage.

Here was some unlucky wight bargaining with an unreasonable black boy for fare for bringing him ashore, and who was telling him of dollars and bits, while our fellow passenger knew only of pounds, shillings, and pence. A brown lassey, dressed in virgin white, as if it wanted a strong contrast to set off her dark complexion, with a kind of head-dress resembling a turban, a pair of large golden drops in her ears, and a smile on her face, offers a selection of neat fancywork, made of the seeds of a mimosa, which appears to be very abundant in Barbados. Baskets, necklaces, girdles, reticules, are worked with it in a tasty manner. Madeira and Fayal have their flowers and feathers; Bermuda and the Bahamas their shellwork; but to Barbados belongs the fancywork, made of the seeds of the mimosa virgata; and so highly, it appears, is the value which the manufacturer puts upon it, that the purchaser in no instance congratulates himself upon his cheap bargain I

The spacious rooms were filled with fellow-passengers, some regaling themselves with ice-cream and lemonade, others enjoying more substantial refreshments. My friend and myself had invited some of our fellow passengers to dine with us; and we passed thus some happy hours longer together, perhaps, never to meet again in this world!

The boom of the gun from the steamer announced that the hour of departure had arrived; and a few moments after, Mr. H. and myself were left alone in the spacious rooms of the City hotel.

BRIAN O'LINN ;

OR, LUCK IS EVERYTHING.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST."

WITH AN ILLUSTRATION BY LEECH.

CHAPTER XXIV.

"CROAKER.-Our pockets are low, and money we must have."

"Ah! turn your eyes,

The Good-natured Man.

Where the poor houseless shivering female lies.
She once, perhaps, in village plenty blest,
Has wept at tales of innocence distrest;
Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,
Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn:
How lost to all! her friends, her virtue fled."

The Deserted Village.

ALTHOUGH the gentle reader may consider it a greater liberty than we are by authorial latitude and prescriptive right warranted in taking, we must bring him back to the worst circle of acquaintances that, as we opine, he had ever been introduced to, and request him to favour us for an hour with his company at the Fortune of War.

We left the captain adding an important postscriptum to his despatch, and the Pet communicating, as a good husband should, to Mrs. Huggins at the bar-fire, the Early One's discovery, with a detail of Mary Hargrave's treachery-while deep was the indignation which that virtuous and exemplary lady exhibited, when the fighting man had concluded this narrative of woman's falsehood.

Vell, Ben, I declares it's my reg'lar opinion that honesty 's wanished from the vorld. Here, in the mornin', ve vere robbed of three flimsies by that circumwenting willain they calls the Bouncer; and then, in the arternoon, Poll fights a cross, and throws us over vith an ungratitude that makes von ashamed to be called a voman. Vat's to be done now? The Captain's matter, I s'pose, vill scarce come off?"

"I thinks it must, and vill," returned the Pet. "But, as it's a thing wot requires unkimmon risk and leariness, I'm determined to see my vay clear, Sal, before I runs the chance of scragging. Whish! the Captain calls. If I assists-vy, as it's a new adwenture altogither, ve must make another bargain. I'm vide avake, my tulipand, as we're warned out by the landlord, and the license is safe to go, if I can git ye a snug sitting down in the country, vy, as we're purty vell known in town, that would be the ticket."

Known, indeed, they were extensively. There was not a prison in the metropolis, criminal or debtor, in which a probation had not been undergone by Mr. Huggins; and, touching the dietary and discipline of the House of Correction, the Pet's lady could have given authentic information to the curious in gaol statistics.

Mr. Wildman, having in brief and ship-shape style apprized his

patron of the increasing difficulties attendant on the delicate affair which had occasioned his present visit to the Modern Babylon, and pointed out the imperative demand for an increased and immediate supply of the circulating medium, reposed after his labour; and, as he discussed, at the same time, a replenished tumbler of his favourite beverage-namely, two-water grog-he held communion with himself on the state of affairs generally.

I

"Ropes-end me!" he exclaimed, "if things don't look so squally, that I have half a mind to up helm, and quit the chase at once. have made the land safe enough already; and, with a snug harbour under my lee, why should I stand out to sea again? Whether I do the present trick or not, Mr. Hunsgate's in my power; but it would be my interest to get him deeper in it still. Were this younker done for-damme !-I could then make any terms I pleased with the schipper at the Priory. I hate this Irishman in my heart-and I know that he gives me a sincere return; for we feel to one another like cat and terrier." He rose to light his pipe; and, glancing at the shattered mirror which ornamented the space above the mantel-piece, the halo round his eye, which still remained discoloured, recalled the rencounter at the Gloucester Coffee House vindictively to his recollection.

66

"No!" and he swore a fearful oath ; “ I'll never start tack or sheet until I'm fairly alongside, and repay the cleanest knock-down man ever got from a stripling he despised, by a home-thrust that will square yards between us, and for ever. But here comes a pal I think I can rely on; and, now that the girl has played us false, I must try it strong upon the fighting man, and see if he won't go halves in the adventure."

The colloquy which passed between a ruffian sailor and a blackguard cockney will be better omitted. Both were unscrupulous scoundrels, and both were artful ones. Wildman, from revengeful feelings, had already determined on the murder of the young Irishman-and stronger motives confirmed him in the resolution. Seafaring men are generally superstitious; and the Captain was particularly so. The effects produced by accident he blindly ascribed to fate; and Miriam's threatening prophecies, so far from deterring him from intended violence, confirmed him in his purpose. He had brought himself to believe that Brian and he were predestined to exercise an evil influence over the fortunes of each other, and that it was decreed, either that the youth must perish by his hand or agency, or that himself must fall in turn a victim. With these convictions, under a state of eternal excitement from strong liquors, and with a conscience deadened to every better impulse by former and repeated crimes, Hans Wildman sternly resolved that no personal or moral consideration should divert him from the commission of the murderous deed which he had come expressly to London to execute.

In Mr. Huggins the sailor fancied he had fallen on a safe and uncompromising ally; and, had he known more of the secret history of the Fortune of War, and its worthy landlord, he would have entertained no doubt whatever on the subject. The Pet, in character and circumstances, was equally a broken man. Riot and robbery were nightly committed in his house; and, low as the neighbourhood was, the Fortune had been represented by the parish authorities as a nuisance which called loudly for abatement.

He was

over head and ears in debt to the brewer and the spirit-merchant; and on the next quarter-day he must surrender his infamous hostelrie to its proprietor. All this was generally known; but, other causes for his disquietude as yet were hidden from the world. A figurative proverb of the Germans says that "a skeleton may be found in every house." Now, in downright reality, the assertion was applicable to the Fortune of War; for the bones of a wretched mariner, who had been robbed and poisoned two months before, were blanching in the beer-cellar; and, so lightly had the body been covered with earth, that the offensive stench arising from the grave of the murdered man rendered the place almost intolerable; and, were a stranger permitted to enter a vault, half cellar and half charnel-house-a discovery must be inevitable. Mr. Huggins was quite aware that he must disappear, as a matter of prudence, before a disclosure of the secrets of his prison-house was made. Thus, criminally and financially his circumstances were desperate alike; but, the Captain being in profound ignorance of his true position, the fighting man played his game with ability and success. He impressed upon Wildman the utter impossibility of his being able to effect the intended murder without a certainty of detection, if unassisted. The devoted victim could not be lured to any place like the Fortune, or, under any pretext, brought within the reach of quiet operations, by which safety to those concerned might be secured. The trick must be done openly and out of hand; and all engaged must be prepared to quit the metropolis, and be off at a moment's notice.

The mariner admitted the truth of Mr. Huggins's judicious remarks; but the very difficulty in effecting the felony appeared to have made him more obstinate in attempting it. To the Pet, whom he pressed to take an active part in the murder, Wildman doubled the present consideration, and gave flattering assurances of future advantages-but it was in vain; and he of Leg Lane steadily refused to aid and co-operate.

"Now you sees, Captain," observed Mr. Huggins, “as ye're a man as has cut yer wisdom-teeth, vouldn't I be precious soft to wenture my neck for a paltry hundred, and do a scraggin job for a gent I knows nothin' of whativir. Here I sits snug and warm in the "Fortune," with a rib that vould hornament a palace, and a safe bisniss of seventy pound a week. Sal and I are puttin' aside the tin fast -and in a kipple of years, vy we'll give up the public-line, retire to our own willa, and keep a one-horse chay. I pays my vay as I goes, owes nothing to nobody; and holds my head as high as any witlar in Lunnun. Now and then there will be a shindy in the house, but I manages to keep every thing dark; and if I vanted to change my house for one in another parish, who vould I go to for a karacter?-Vy, to the beaks themselves-and I would be safe to git one, too, at the nixt police-office."

Mr. Huggins paused to refresh himself; and Mr. Huggins, touching character, had spoken nothing but the truth,-for of characters there is an extensive variety. "On their own merits modest men are dumb ;" and the Pet had not been particular in detailing all that might have been said by the public authorities, who no doubt would, as a matter of common justice, have borne proper testimony to the deserts of an exemplary citizen.