the mate; "but my opinion is, we might as well attempt to fly, as to turn a five-and-twenty-tonner up in such a sea as this; although I think we have made better way since we cut the boat adrift."

In the course of an hour after the loss of the boat, both wind and sea increased considerably; and the position of the yacht was extremely perilous. Notwithstanding there were some of the stoutest hearts aboard that ever trod a deck, still it was apparent to her whole crew that the best seamanship in the world might be of no avail, aboard so small a yacht, in such a gale. Her decks were swept by every sea, and her hull appeared to tremble to the very keel. Still, the daring yachtsman continued at the helm, and carried-on with his tempest-tossed bark, until one huge wave, larger than any yet encountered, threatened to engulf them for ever within its capacious jaws.

"Hold fast, for your lives, every man of you " roared the yachtsman, as he saw the threatening attitude of the approaching danger. For a few moments, the hull of the little vessel was completely buried beneath the water. Luckily, every man had taken the precaution to lash himself to the yacht, or nothing could have saved them from being washed overboard. The violence of the wave had torn the foresail to ribbons; and Charley then saw that no soul on board would ever see land again, if he persisted in carrying-on the yacht so venturesomely, in such a raging sea. He therefore instantly resolved on abandoning all attempts to regain the harbour, and directed the mainsail to be lowered. The trysail, after considerable difficulty, was then got up, and bent in its stead; and the yacht was laid to, under trysail and spitfire.

For full two hours the Sooloo lay pitching and tumbling in the waves, but evidently making little lee-way. There was still no prospect of the gale ceasing. Charley therefore determined on scudding for the nearest harbour of refuge, as the more prudent course than riding out the gale at sea, particularly as it appeared to be blowing with as much fury as ever, and there was every prospect of its continuing throughout the night, which was rapidly drawing upon them. But to reach the nearest available harbour, they must scud nearly twenty knots, although within eight or ten of the haven they had been striving so hard, but ineffectually, to fetch.

The yacht was put about; and the twenty knots were reeled off in less than two hours, so rapidly did they run before the wind. As soon as they arrived in smooth water, the cabin entrance was unfastened, and Charley immediately proceeded to look after his guests. He found them both better than he expected: they had been very ill, and at last had found it best to resign themselves to fate. They complained of being terribly bruised; but when the yachtsman showed some of his own bruises, they appeared to think less of theirs. "It must have been a terrific gale, Mr. Scupper," said Clara. "It has been as heavy a gale as I ever experienced at this time of year," said Charley.

"I suppose we have arrived in the harbour at last, have we not, Mr. Scupper?" inquired the lady.

"We have arrived in a harbour of refuge; but we are thirty miles

from Littleborough by sea, and fifty by land," replied the yachts

man.

"Oh, good gracious!" cried the lady, with much alarm, "what a fright my dear mamma will be in! But is it not possible to get home to-night?"

"Impossible," replied Charley, "or I should not have come here. Do not be frightened; compose yourself: you are quite safe and out of danger now; but a few hours ago, our position at sea was one of extreme peril; but, I thank God, we are all right once more. I made the greatest possible efforts to fetch the harbour; but when I saw those efforts were attended with great danger-so heavy was the sea, and so threatening the gale-we laid-to for two hours, and were at last obliged to abandon our hopes, and scud for this harbour, as the nearest on the coast. We will take you and your brother ashore here to an inn, where you shall be attended to; and I hope you will make yourselves as comfortable as you can under these misfortunes. Such an event as this I never anticipated at this season of the year. I am sorry it has occurred, although it was from circumstances over which I had no control."

"I am sure, Mr. Scupper, you have done all for the best; and I feel much indebted to you for your kind consideration. It must have been a most desperate gale; for I several times thought the yacht was breaking to pieces, and we were sinking. Did not you, Tom?"

"Oh law, yes!" replied Tom. "It serves you right, you little seagoing devil. You have had enough of it now, I'll be bound. At any rate, I have. Egad, I'm more dead than alive!"

"I am very sorry, Tom," said his sister; "but this is an unavoidable misfortune."

"Ah, sorry, indeed! It's of no use being sorry about it now. Here we are, fifty miles from home; and a dark night coming on. Your mother will be in a sad fright, I'm afraid."

"Well, as to that, Tom," said the yachtsman, "I am in hopes she will have heard of our running for the harbour. There were two large vessels passed us as we were scudding; and I believe they were both bound for our harbour, and will be able to satisfy your friends as to our safety."

Charley having thus endeavoured to console the feelings of his guests, the yacht was brought to a safe anchorage; and her bruised and weather-beaten crew having furled the sails, hailed a boat, and conducted their gallant master and his friends ashore, proceeded to appease their appetites with beef, beer, and biscuit, having taken nothing throughout the gale.

SKETCHES OF LIFE AND CHARACTER IN THE WEST INDIES.

COMMUNICATED TO, AND EDITED BY, LORD WILLIAM LENNOX.

CHAPTER XIII.

My stay in Kingston was too short to enable me to visit the schools, but I find a correct account of them in the Anti-Slavery Examiner, published in 1838 in New York. Two deputies from the American Anti-slavery Society visited Jamaica in 1837, and give the following account of them :

"We visited the Wolmer free school, the largest and oldest school in the island: the whole number of scholars is five hundred. It is under the charge of Mr. Reid, a venerable Scotchman of scholarship and piety. All colours are mingled in it promiscuously. We saw the infant school department examined by Mr. R.; there were nearly one hundred and fifty children of every hue; from the jettest black, to the fairest white; they were thoroughly intermingled, and the ready answers ran along the ranks from black to white, from white to brown, from brown to pale, with undistinguished vivacity and accuracy. We were afterwards conducted into the higher department, where lads and misses, from nine to fifteen, were instructed in the various branches of academic education. A class of lads, mostly coloured, were examined in arithmetic they wrought several sums in pounds, shillings, and pence currency, with wonderful celerity. Among other things which we witnessed in that school we shall not soon forget, having seen a curly-headed negro lad of twelve, examining a class of white young ladies in scientific history.

"Some written statements and statistical tables were furnished us by Mr. Reid, which we subjoin :

'Kingston, May 13, 1837.

'Dear Sir, I delayed answering your queries in hopes of being able to give you an accurate list of the number of schools in Kingston and pupils under tuition, but have not been able completely to accomplish my intention. I shall now answer your queries in the order you proposed them. 1st. I have been teaching thirtyeight years in Kingston. 2nd. I have been the master of Wolmer free school twenty-three years. 3rd. There are now four hundred and thirty coloured children in the school. 4th. Considerable opposition was made to their entrance the first year, but none afterwards. 5th. They are more regular in their attendance than the white children, and they learn better. 6th. They are more easily governed. 7th. There are fifty children of apprentices. 8th. The parents generally desire to have them educated. 9th. The children generally leave the school between twelve and fourteen. 10th. The boys generally become clerks in counting houses or attorneys' offices, some become planters, others mechanics; the girls seamstresses, mantuamakers, and a considerable portion tutoresses in Kingston and throughout Jamaica as situations offer. (Signed) 'D. REID.'

"The following table will show the average number of the respective classes, white and coloured, who have attended Wolmer's free school in each year, from 1814 to the present time:~

"With regard to the comparative intellect of white and coloured children, Mr. Reid gives the following valuable statement:

"For the last thirty-eight years I have been employed in this city in the tuition of children of all classes and colours, and have no hesitation in saying that the children of colour are equal both in conduct and ability to the white. They have always carried off more than their proportion of prizes, and at one examination, out of seventy prizes awarded, sixty-four were obtained by children of colour.""

They also visited the Union school, which has been established for some years in Kingston. All the children connected with it, about one hundred and fifty, are, with two exceptions, black or coloured. The school is conducted generally on the Lancasterian system. They examined several of the boys in arithmetic. They put a variety of questions to them to be worked out on the slate, and the reasons of the process to be explained as they went on, all which they executed with great expertness. There was a jet-black boy whom they selected for a special trial. They commenced with the Simple Rules, and went through them one by one, together with the Compound Rules and Reduction, to Practice, propounding questions and examples in each of them, which were entirely new to him; and to all of them he gave prompt and correct replies. He was only thirteen years old; and they aver that they never saw a boy of that age in common schools that exhibited a fuller and clearer knowledge of the science of numbers. In general their opinion of the school was similar to that already expressed concerning the others. It is supported by the children, aided by six hundred dollars granted by

the Assembly. In connection with the subject there is one fact of much interest. However strong and exclusive was the prejudice of colour a few years since in the schools of Jamaica, in 1837 there were not more than two or three places of education, and those private ones, from which coloured children were excluded, and amongst the numerous schools in Kingston there is not one of this kind.

I insert a table of the number of schools alluded to in Mr. Reid's foregoing communication; it affords a view of the increase of schools and scholars since the abolition of slavery :

270

1368

.... 1005

1044

Total.... 4088

1. Jamaica Union.... 31. Gentlemen's private 59. Ladies'

120

ditto

The island prisons were not so well regulated as they might have been, and in some of them great abuses existed. They were rather schools for the propagation of crime, than asylums in which criminals might require habits of industry and virtue. The prisoners were often employed in gangs on public works, and thus exposed to public view, which hardened them in crime, and constant exposure to public observation rendered them callous to public opinion. Many of the treadmills, too, were very defective, and I question whether it is a fitting punishment in a climate that affects different constitutions in so many different ways. difficult to apportion the work to the physical powers of the individual, and I will quote the observations of the same gentlemen on that subject as explanatory of my view of the case:

"We visited the House of Correction for the parish of St. Andrew's. The superintendent received us with the iron-hearted courtesy of a Newgate turnkey. Our company was evidently unwelcome; but as the

to admit us.

The first sound that greeted us was a piercing outcry from

the treadmill. On going to it, we saw a youth about eighteen hanging