notoriety, in consequence of Mr. Hudson acknowledging to several individuals that his plan was to conduct an armed party against the town of San Martha, for the purpose of plundering it, and afterwards decamping with the booty.

Shortly after our arrival at Saint Bartholomew's, the remaining officers and men (six in number) were put on shore, but we were still permitted to remain on board, through the special favour of the Supercargo, who further extended his kindness by continuing to us our customary rations, an indulgence which could only be protracted a few days longer, as he had determined on proceeding to Port au Prince, in the island of Saint Domingo, in the hope of being there enabled to dispose of the artillery and military stores.

On Saturday the 21st, we finally quitted the Britannia, it having been intimated to us that she would sail in the course of that day. When put ashore we were utterly devoid of even the means of procuring a single meal; without a friend upon the island to whom we could make application for relief;

in every respect destitute and pennyless, and reduced by a long train of disappointments, and the wretchedness of our present hopeless situation, to a state of the most desponding misery.

On landing, we should have been even at a loss where to deposit our portmanteaus and trunks, had not a gentleman, who witnessed our embarrassment, granted us permission to secure them in one of his warehouses.

The apprehended period of penury and want had now apparently arrived, when our friend Mr. Ritchie, to whose kind and feeling heart we had already been so deeply indebted, again sympathising in our sufferings, voluntarily, and in the most handsome manner, advanced us, from his own purse, a sum sufficient to meet the exigencies of the present moment.

Shortly after taking leave of Mr. R., my friend Captain proceeded with a gentleman for a few days to one of the small neighbouring islands. The remainder of the day I spent in endeavouring to procure a lodging, but was unable to discover

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any sufficiently moderate for my scanty finances. Anxious to avoid the inquisitive observations of the inhabitants, I returned to the beach, and again indulged in the melancholy but pleasing recollection of home-the remembrance of happier days, and of those absent but dear friends from whose society I was now so distant. Every circumstance connected with former felicity recurred with double force to my imagination, and I was only roused from this train of cheerless contemplation, by the well-known cadence of the sailors weighing anchor on board the Britannia. I thought my heart would have burst when I saw the vessel (which from habit I almost considered my home) depart from the bay without me; despair nearly took possession of my mind, and the barren hills of Saint Bartholomew's at this instant appeared more desolate than ever. Whilst in this gloomy reverie, the approach of night and want of nourishment, warned me of the necessity of proceeding to the town, in order to procure shelter and refreshment: weak and spiritless thither I accordingly pursued my course,

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but had only advanced a short way when I met Mr. Vaucrosson, the merchant to whom the Britannia had been consigned, who offered me the use of a waste room in one of his outhouses, of which I gladly accepted. A black woman, who also occupied part of the place of which I had now become a temporary tenant, appeared solicitous by every means in her power to render my situation comfortable; but swarms of musquitoes, which proceeded from a well of stagnant water under, the floor, only covered by a few loose boards, prevented the possibility of repose, by their intolerable stinging.

The following day I spent in endeavouring to devise some means of relief from my present painful condition, but was unable to conceive any practicable plan. Monday was spent in a similar lonely state of fruitless anxiety, but my spirits were considerably cheered on the following morning by the return of my companion, who now likewise became a sharer in Mr. V.'s bounty, and a fellow lodger in the same ruinous abode; for such it may justly be

designated, being merely composed of some old wainscot, which had by time become so disunited as to admit free ingress, in every direction, to the sun's rays.

Our thoughts were now wholly occupied in forming plans for returning to Europe, but every suggestion for attaining that object proved nugatory, in consequence of our pecuniary inability; a circumstance which even rendered the prospect of ultimate success extremely doubtful and uncertain. A week had now elapsed since the departure of the Britannia, during which short interval we contemplated with alarm the rapid decline of our finances; owing to the exorbitant price of every article composing the common necessaries of life.

From the Swedish inhabitants, whose hospitality and friendship were so conspicuous on our first arrival in the island, we no longer experienced either kindness or attention; they appeared wholly forgetful of their recent flattering professions, and their present conduct fully exemplified how difficult it is to form a just value of human sincerity, except through the medium