waited with nervous anxiety until the old chief of the pah came forth to give me the accolade of welcome and the mystical nasal touches which guaranteed a friendly and safe reception. On one important subject, however, the notions of the Maoris appear quite irreconcilable with their usual good sense. They seem to have no idea of a man's dying either from natural exhaustion and mere old age, or from slow chronic disease. Their language contains only one word (mate) to express both that a man is ill and dead. Indeed, you cannot be certain that a man is dead, unless the informant states that he is also ngaro, or hidden, and buried. It is probable that, until within the last twenty or thirty years, it was rare for a Maori to die a natural death. His troubled life was passed in an unceasing succession of skirmishes, surprises, and pitched battles, till in one of these he ultimately met his untimely fate, and was duly consigned by his conquerors to a 'copper Maori,' or native oven, and straightway cooked secundum artem. When the exceptional case occurred of a Maori being struck down by disease in the flower of his days, the invisible cause of his death was found in the malignant influence of some chief, or tohunga (priest) of a hostile tribe, by whom the deceased had been bewitched (makutu). His friends rigorously exacted utu, or satisfaction, and deadly feuds were thus engendered and continued. Two years ago, a war was on the eve of breaking out in Hawke's Bay, between the tribes of te-Hapuku (the Codfish) and te-Moana-nui (the Great Ocean), the two leading chiefs of the district, on the occasion of the death of young Karanma (Cranmer), the eldest son of te-Hapuku. Having made too free a use of the Pakehas' wai piro, poor Karanma was carried off during an attack of delirium tremens, and in his frenzied ravings accused te-Moana-nui of having makutued him. Whereupon te-Moana-nui became desperately mate, and said he had been makutued by his old enemy te-Hapuku. This counter-accusation might be a ruse to bring up the members of his tribe to the fighting-point. Fortunately, however, the founder of the European colony in that district possessed well-deserved influence with both the rival wizards, and the threatened hostilities were prevented. There are not wanting instances of Maoris moping themselves to death, when they have imagined that they have been makutued. Now, makutu may serve to account for death in a few isolated cases, but it will not suffice to explain the wide-spread mortality which accompanies epidemics. Such visitations must tend greatly to shake the belief in the makutu superstition. About two years ago, the Maoris of the Northern Island were decimated for the first time by a general epidemic. An aggravated combination of influenza, measles, and low typhoid fever, had previously been very fatal among the young colonists of Tasmania, the country nearest to New Zealand. From Hobart-Town the scourge was carried to Auckland by an American vessel, one of the passengers having had the disease on the voyage. Soon afterwards, great numbers of the Maoris in Mechanics' Bay-the Maori quartier at Auckland-were affected by this complication of diseases, and many died. Hence the epidemic spread gradually over the whole island, even to Wellington, its southern extremity. In every enclosed pah and open kainga there was weeping and wailing, feasting, firing of muskets, and cutting of the flesh with shells, in accordance with Maori mourning rites, which partake not a little of the demonstrative character of an Irish wake, barring the fighting. Whenever an old chief, or the son of a chief, had succumbed to the epidemic, the friends and relatives congregated from all quarters to hold a festive tangihanga, or wake. At such great gatherings, the contagion or infection was communicated, and propagated to more remote districts. A marked instance of such a dissemination of the epidemic occurred when the great tangihanga took place at the Wairoa in honour of the renowned old warrior Apatu. The habits of the Maoris render them obnoxious to contagious febrile diseases. They are very remiss in the matter of personal cleanliness, and careless in everything that regards the general health, as might be anticipated where death by disease is attributed to witchcraft. They are extremely capricious in the nature and quantity of their clothing, which varies in the same person, and often on the same day, from zero or absolute nudity, through the several degrees of a blanket, a shirt and blanket, a blanket and trousers, &c., up to the maximum number of garments which constitute a full European costume. And these sudden changes in the quantity of corporeal covering are generally dictated by vanity and whim, rather than by any fluctuations of the weather. But the great predisposing cause to disease is the Maori dwelling-house, which still retains, in all probability, the identical type given to it by the original colonists from the sunny islands of the tropics, when they first experienced the rude blasts and chilling rains of a New Zealand winter. The floor of the whare puni, or closed house, as it is significantly called, is sunk a foot or two below the surface of the ground, and the roof rises at about an equal height above it. An erect position is only practicable just under the roof-tree. The only apertures are a very small doorway, about three feet and a half high, and a little oblong hole for light, both in front: these are carefully closed by wooden slides at night. A fire of wood blazes on the middle of the earthen floor, to give warmth in winter, and to drive off the mosquitoes in summer, for the food is invariably cooked in a special cook-house. Around this fire the Maoris lie prostrate, chatting or sleeping, without raising the head much above the floor, on account of the stifling and bitter fumes of the imperfectly dried wood, which have no other outlet than the interstices among the reeds, &c., that cover the roof. In such sunken, overcrowded, dark, unventilated, smoky hot-houses are passed, on an average, twelve hours out of twenty-four during six months of the year. It is scarcely necessary to add, that scrofulous affections, pulmonary complaints, and diseases of the eyes, are very common among the Maoris. The recent epidemic had fallen on the land during the autumn and winter, and its fatal effects were fearfully increased by the indiscriminate huddling together of the healthy and diseased in the dismal underground heated whares punis. Not long after this baneful cloud had overshadowed the country, I was called upon to assist in initiating certain sanitary measures, which the leading chiefs of the district, with characteristic good sense, had determined to adopt. A deputation from this self-constituted board of health found me sketching on the top of a fern-clad clay-hill. Before me was the Hawke's Bay of Cook, shut in to the southward by Cape Kidnapper and the precipitous mountains which form the patrimony of te-Moana-nui; and to the northward by Table Cape, and the huge Whakapunake Mountain, said to be still inhabited by the gigantic Moa. Behind lay the long level swampy plain of Ahuriri, stretching far away inland, until it is confounded with the lower flanks of the lofty Ruahine range, the backbone of the island, whose highest ridges are clothed with eternal snow. On the banks of the various rivers that meander through this fine plain, are the several pahs (enclosed forts) and kaingas (open villages) of the chiefs of the Ahuriri district. After transferring to my drawing the various patches of local colour in the landscape, and trying to catch the transient effect of the purple cloud-shadows sweeping rapidly over the sunlit sea, I was watching with interest the sagacious proceedings of a flock of black-who escaped with Tarehah is now the wahine tapu, or winged gulls (karoro) busily employed in digging cockles from a gravel-bed just uncovered by the receding tide. Each successful digger rose into the air to a height of twenty or thirty feet, opened his bill, and let fall a captive bivalve, which he followed closely during its descent. If the shell was not fractured by the fall, the process was repeated, until a sufficient breach was effected to allow of the extraction of the savoury mollusk. The dull clatter of unshod hoofs announced the approaching party, which comprised the chiefs, or rangitiras, Karaitiana, Noah, Tarehah and his nephew, and Paoro, the representatives of the tribes in alliance with te-Moana-nui. If the reader's ideas of a New Zealand chief are drawn from the treatise on the New Zealanders and similar works published some years ago by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, he will form a very incorrect notion of the appearance of the five equestrians that were scouring through the fern towards me. The days of shark-oil and ochre are passed awayweapons and mats are laid aside. Their dress consists of cloth caps, cabbage-tree hats, or wide-awakes, plain gray shooting-coats, fustian trousers, leather leggings, and strong hobnailed boots. They resemble a group of stout, hearty English farmers returning from market when corn is at war-prices! In another generation, even the tattoo, that distinctive mark of a savage, will have entirely disappeared here. The missionaries have very properly interdicted the custom, and the present young men and women have escaped this torture. On account of the severe inflammation which attends the process, a small portion only of the face was operated upon at one time. Most of the middle-aged men of the present time, such as Noah, Karaitiana, and Tarehah, seem to have become Christians before the tattoo was complete, some of the pattern being filled in, while the rest is only traced in outline, so that their faces give you the idea of a proof of a half-finished engraving. In this district, te-Hapuku and Puhara are the only persons whose faces are completely covered with the deeply punctured flowering of the perfect moko of a great heathen chief of the olden time. head-wife, of Puhara, the brother of te-Hapuku. On account of her illustrious descent, she is styled the queen (te-Kwini); and always goes abroad in considerable state, on a fine white horse, with English bridle, side-saddle, &c. She is tall and queenly, with lips tattooed blue; wears a ring with a large precious stone on her finger; and a tooth of the Mako shark dangling from her ear. When at Wellington, a few years ago, treating with government for the sale of a large block of land, Madame Puhara figured as the queen of Ahuriri in a royal dress of black velvet. During this memorable raid of the Waikatos there fell more than five hundred fighting-men of Ahuriri. Some small tribes were annihilated, and others are now represented by two or three men. Te-Hapuku and his people were closely besieged at Table Cape, and reduced to eat sea-weed and clay. A large reliev ing army from Poverty Bay was thoroughly routed by the invaders, in a pitched battle on the long sandy beach at the Mahia. These disasters had made the survivors extremely sensitive with respect to everything tending to diminish their numbers. Children were cherished with anxious care, and no more women were allowed to live with Pakehas. The fatal epidemic had stimulated this morbid feeling, and produced a lively apprehension of the ultimate extinction of their race. Karaitiana unfolded the object of their visit to me in a formal speech (korero). They had determined to abolish the whare puni-ka kino,' it was bad; and meant to build a town on the banks of the Ngaruroro River, on land belonging to Karaitiana. The houses were to be Pakeha houses, with large doors and windows, fireplaces and chimneys, and bedsteads raised above the ground. A plot of land would be set aside for a church and parsonage. In this town would be assembled all the tribes of te-Moana-nui's party. Though very near to Pa-kowhai, the headquarters of te-Hapuku, their town was not to be fenced in or fortified. It was to be a kainga, and not a pah. Their objects were health, union, and peace. Being reputed a tangata mohio, or knowing man, they had come to ask me to give them a plan for their new Pakeha houses, and to survey and stake out the ground for the town. Dismounting, the sanitary commissioners gave me the customary shake of the hand, and formula tena koe' of recognition. Either from curiosity or courtesy, I readily acceded to this flattering request, although they inspected my sketch with admiring exclamations painfully conscious at the moment that my college of Ka pai,' 'Ka nui pai' (It's good-it's very good). course had not included the arts of domestic archiFor Tarehah, I knew that the scene had a direct per- tecture or practical surveying. I knew, however, that sonal interest. In the immediate foreground was a high I could rely on the advice of my worthy host, the cliff whose terraced summit shewed traces of former aforesaid founder of the European colony of this disfortifications. Deep trenches cut off this ancient out-trict, who would adapt my plans to the character and work from the mainland. Near the gravel-bed which formed so treacherous a covering to the colony of cockles, lay a low flat island, enclosed by strong palisades, among which at intervals rose high in the air several of those grimly grotesque wooden warriors which always grin defiance from the exterior defences of a Maori citadel. In Tarehah's boyhood, an army of 7000 Waikatos, armed with muskets, had driven his people from this fortified cliff to their last refuge, the island pah. The pursuers were constructing pontoons of bulrushes (raupo) to cross over, when the doomed fugitives, anxious to save the heirs (arikis) of their chiefs, conducted Tarehah and a girl of noble descent to the opposite side of the island, whence they swam across the mouth of the river, and ran along some miles of sea-beach to a friendly pah at Petone. Their brave friends meanwhile covered their retreat by an obstinate and prolonged resistance, which ended in an indiscriminate and unsparing massacre. The numerous circular depressions on the sloping green below, still indicate the sites of the ovens which prepared the inhuman feast of the conquering Waikatos. The girl habits of the natives, and by his approval, secure their adoption. The pahs and kaingas of te-Moana-nui, Noah, and Karaitiana, all lie not far apart, sheltered by Cape Kidnapper from the tonga or souther, the coldest and most violent wind of the antipodes. The continuous possession of their lands can be traced back through many generations of ancestors; it is therefore certain that the fathers and grandfathers of my Ahuriri friends were the principal actors in that remarkable scene described by Cook, which took place here ninety years ago, on a fine sunny Sunday, when the 'Indians' came out in their large war-canoes to brave the pioneers in the good ship Endeavour, and when some of them were bold enough to snatch from the main-chains the boy Tayeto, son of Tupia of Tahiti, and carry him off, doubtless to make a savoury addition to their Sunday's dinner. This incident caused Captain Cook to give the appellation Cape Kidnapper to the adjoining headland. The sons and grandsons of these dreadful 'Indian' kidnappers and cannibals are now sober, industrious, and moral Christians, who read a good deal, and write more, corresponding with their distant friends by letter (pukapuka), who have familyworship in their pahs daily, and who are now most anxious to erect improved dwelling-houses, to collect their several tribes into one large town, and to live in peace and good-will with their fellow-men. A FEW WORDS TO TOURISTS. Ar this season of the year, when so many of our compatriots are filling the purses of Swiss innkeepers, and raising the dividends of innumerable foreign railways, a few practical hints may not be entirely thrown away on any of our readers meditating a trip across the Channel; and we are led to offer these remarks from the conviction-based on a pretty long experience that half the annoyances and disappointments of travelling on the continent arise from easily obviated causes. We constantly meet with people who have brought back from their rambles no other souvenirs de voyage than a budget of grievances. To listen to these travellers' tales, you would shudder at the depravity of your species; the infamous practices of roguish landlords, and the swindling propensities of people in general, would bring you to Edgar Poe's dismal conclusion, that 'society is principally composed of villains.' Of course, any argument would be worse than useless with gentlemen of such strong opinions as these: all we can say is, that our own observation by no means corroborates their statement, that The Jews are all Germans, the Germans all Jews. It is not, therefore, these inveterate grievance-mongers we address, but, as we hope, a far larger class of tourists, who have every desire to enjoy themselves, and to put up with any little inconveniences they may meet with in an ungrumbling spirit. For the benefit of such friends as these, we will string together half-adozen observations, which, if attended to, will, we doubt not, add materially to their comfort. began to disappear, or to seek out less beaten tracks. It would never do for the Most Noble the Marquis of Stoneystare to be seen sitting at the same table d'hôte with his bootmaker from Bond Street. A German grand-duke might perhaps permit such a proceeding, but a British peer of the realm, sir, ought never to forget his dignity to this extent. So, after levelling a few hearty oaths at the impertinence of certain low fellows, who dared to come between the wind and his nobility, the respected Stoneystare took himself off in a huff to some inaccessible hamlet in the Pyrenees, where he was for a time beyond the reach of canaille tourists. But the evil he had done lived after him. The tribe of landlords could not all at once conceive that their new guests were an entirely different class of mortals from the old ones, and they accounted for the change in expenditure by all sorts of ridiculous reasons. Gradually, however, this idea of John Bull's inexhaustible purse has given way to more correct notions; and it is now generally a man's own fault if he meets with much imposition. A tinge of the old feeling doubtless remains, but it is very slight, the race of extortioners having transferred their affections to our American cousins and their friends the Russian boyards. Odd that the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers should have replaced the traditional milor of French comedy; but it is even so. Whilst, however, this beneficial change has taken place, and an English gentleman is no longer looked upon as a lawful object of plunder, still there are several reasons why he will always find his expenses greater than those incurred by most other travellers. In the first place, he is much more exacting. He can't dine at one o'clock like the other guests; neither can he drink their very thin wines, nor feel quite content with their ordinary fare, therefore a distinct table d'hôte has to be prepared for him in the afternoon; and if he knew the objection all cooks and waiters have to this second edition, he would no longer wonder at his host charging him rather more than for the usual dinner. Then again, with all due respect be it said, he too generally speaks foreign tongues, like Chaucer's Prioress, After the scole of Stratford atte bowe, For Frenche of Paris was to hire unknowe; and consequently a costly establishment of interpreters has to be maintained for his convenience. But without wearying our readers with a catalogue of his peculiarities, we trust we have said enough to shew that the Englishman is usually a more expensive tourist than the inhabitant of other countries. If, however, he can manage when in Rome to do as the Romans do, we verily believe his bills will be no heavier than theirs. And this leads us to our promised advice. One of the most grievous complaints raised against our continental brethren is, that they are extortionate in their dealings with us poor islanders, and make a marked difference in this respect between us and their own people. Now, to a certain limited extent, this is true; but the reason for it is very obvious. Some years ago, the roving Englishman was generally a person of great dignity, moving about with all the pomp of couriers and travelling-carriages. Such a person naturally inspired awe. The courier told such marvellous tales of his master's vast possessions-his leagues of coal-mines and acres of cotton-factoriesthat no wonder the host of a little hotel thought he might with impunity draw up a higher tariff for this grand seigneur, than for his poorer guests, especially as milor was but a bird of passage, and rather Before quitting England, provide yourself with one troublesome to boot. In those days, English gold of Mr Murray's invaluable guide-books for the country flowed like water along the grand route of Europe; it you intend visiting, and don't be laughed out of this was the pride of our nobles and rich commoners to by any poor jokes. These works are so carefully uphold the notion, that London was paved with that written, and so superior to anything of the kind pubmetal, and that we were a nation made of money. lished abroad, that we have met with Frenchmen who Only rich men thought of leaving their own island; never think of travelling in their own country without the middle classes were content with a trip to Rams- one of them. Be careful to have your passport accugate, or, at furthest, a jaunt into Wales. But time-rately drawn up, and see that the proper signatures that great revolutionist-brought steam, and steam are attached: we have known much inconvenience brought steam-boats and railways; and these latter arise from the omission of an apparently insignificant brought hosts of Browns, Joneses, and Robinsons-all visé. Make a point of always keeping this document anxious to see with their own eyes the castled crag in one place, say the breast-pocket of your coat; you of Drachenfels,' and to gaze on those will thus be able, without trouble, to lay your hand upon it whenever it may be required; and instances have occurred of travellers being compelled to get out of the malle poste, and sacrifice their fare, for no other reason than that their passports were carefully hidden in the depths of some cumbrous portmanteau, and the coach could not stop long enough to enable the luckless Peasant girls with deep blue eyes, And hands which offer early flowers, whose fairy images had long haunted their susceptible imaginations. Now, no sooner did these adventurous spirits arrive, than the old class of travellers gradually voyageurs to search for their papers. On arriving at a hotel, if you are in any sort of doubt, ask the landlord whether this certificate of respectability is quite en règle for the next stage; if not, the commissionaire of the establishment will be happy, for the sake of a small gratuity, to see that it is properly visé. Recollect that these precautions, trivial as they may appear, are absolutely necessary. Neglect of them often causes great annoyance; and in some of the Italian states, travellers have frequently got into serious trouble from carelessness of this sort. It is not an agreeable thing to be compelled to retrace your steps some thirty or forty miles, or to be shut up in a dismal village for two or three days, simply because you have omitted to procure the signature of some wretched little functionary of the Grand-duke of Tuscany. Never, as you value your peace of mind, carry contraband goods in your portmanteau. The little you gain by smuggling is not worth the constant fear of detection; and there is nothing more humiliating to a sensitive man than the subterfuges he is compelled to have recourse to, in order to elude the custom-house authorities. In the Austrian, Neapolitan, and Papal states, be careful in the selection of your literature. You may easily, by applying to the minister of these countries, get a list of forbidden books, which will guide you in your choice of a travelling library. Also be chary of expressing your opinions concerning political matters. Recollect that an expensive staff of spies is supported for the purpose of watching your movements; and these spies, being chiefly men of very indifferent character, will hesitate at no means, however unworthy, to lead you on into conversation, in order to entrap you. They will probably commence by abusing the government in pretty strong language, and then endeavour to rouse your indignation by enumerating instances of its iniquities. Stephens, the American traveller, relates an anecdote of this species which occurred to himself in Moscow. A lady in one of the boxes of the opera had attracted his attention by her extreme beauty, and in order to have a better view of her, he moved his seat, whereupon a Russian official commanded him to resume it. Paying no attention to this rough summons, it was repeated in harsher and more guttural Russian than before; upon which a tall fine-looking man came up and ordered the fellow to go about his business, cursing him and all his compatriots, from the emperor downwards, as a set of canaille. He then chatted in the most friendly manner possible with the American, offering to introduce him to the celebrities of the green-room, and concluding by an invitation to a petit souper in one of the fashionable restaurants. This person turned out to be a Frenchman paid by the Russian government for the purpose of watching all foreigners; and it was well for Mr Stephens that he had not been led into making any observations adverse to the Muscovite. These secret agents, being in the receipt of liberal salaries, think it necessary, every now and then, to discover conspiracies, and to pounce down upon disaffected people, in order to prove their vigilance; hence their eagerness to catch the unwary traveller. In visiting places of amusement abroad, do not wear any very outré habiliments. Because foreigners are less stringent than ourselves in their rules of dress at the opera, it is no reason why we should shock their sense of propriety by arriving in a pepper-and-salt shooting-coat or a Scotch plaid. Conduct of this sort annoys them more than we imagine; they view it in the light of an insult, and say, that if one of their countrymen were to present himself in a similar costume at the doors of Her Majesty's Theatre, he would be instantly turned back. They do not desire to impose any absurd regulations regarding a gentleman's dress: they leave that to his own taste; but they certainly do expect that when he takes his seat by the side of elegantly clad ladies, he will at least appear in suitable attire. This disregard of the convenances of life has recently been strongly stigmatised in Paris, where English travellers have been seen in the stalls of the opera dressed in the most grotesque fashion. Why our fellow-countrymen, quiet dressers enough at home, should immediately, on crossing the Channel, disguise themselves in all sorts of abominable plaids and stripes, we never could divine. A dresscoat and pair of black trousers occupy but little room, and are always useful. A red coat, if you happen to belong to any militia regiment, will do good service at court-balls and receptions, otherwise, it is a bore; and as for the Highland garb, picturesque as it undoubtedly is, we once knew a gallant officer-now a distinguished man in the east-refused admission to a public entertainment on account of his too close resemblance to the style of Rob Roy. In frequenting foreign churches, similar rules of propriety are applicable It has a bad effect to see the group of tourists, during the celebration of mass, walking about and criticising, in an audible voice, the paintings, architecture, or ceremonies they are witnessing. We should be scandalised at home if strangers were to do the same thing. Amongst minor, but by no means unimportant matters, the habit of moving the hat on entering a shop may be mentioned. This courtesy is so invariably adopted, particularly in Germany, that non-compliance with it will be considered as an affront, and consequently the traveller who fails in paying this mark of respect must feel no disappointment should he find himself but indifferently served. Shopkeepers, moreover, hold a better rank in society on the continent than with us: the same may be said of hotel-keepers, many of whom are men of highly cultivated minds and polished manners. In fact, social life is more democratic abroad than in England; and therefore those marked distinctions which we are accustomed to at home, are not to be found elsewhere. At a German réunion, you will meet with respectable members of all classes-except, by the way, the Jews, who are terribly tabooed. Only two summers ago, at a table d'hôte dinner on the Rhine, a gentleman asked his neighbour to have the goodness to pass the salt-cellar. The person thus addressed looked at his companion for an instant, whilst in the act of complying with his request, and replied, with a courteous inclination of the head: 'Avec plaisir, sire.' It was the King of Würtemberg who wanted the salt for his potatoes. One little bit of useful advice we must give our friends on parting, and that is, never to order dinner, at a hotel, in their own rooms, unless money be an object of no importance. Of course, when ladies are concerned, it is another affair; but even in that case, the table d'hôte is generally to be preferred: that is, of course, supposing them to be protected by a gentleman-otherwise, decidedly not. We would, moreover, recommend English ladies travelling alone, to confine themselves to the high roads and the best hotels. The provinces of France should be avoided, both on account of the wretched accommodation and the company they are likely to encounter, being chiefly composed of commis voyageurs-a proverbially offensive set of men. Of course, the same applies with greater force to some other countries. Spain, for example, is not to be thought of, notwithstanding the fact of two ladies of our acquaintance fighting their way most gallantly to the Alhambra, and meeting nothing but civility on the road. In conclusion, let every tourist, however humble, recollect that, to a certain extent, he is a representative man;' that from his conduct, foreigners will naturally judge of his fellow-countrymen at home; and therefore, that he should do nothing calculated to reflect ridicule on the land of his birth. Half the preposterous ideas entertained of England 'Hollo there!' I exclaimed; 'leave off that row, will you?' 'Oh, is that you, sir?' replied the fellow. The row, bless you, is over long ago, whilst you was a sweetly sleepin', sir. And the skipper as is, sir, Mr Dowling, told me to be sure and give you his compliments when you woke, and say he was afeared you mout have taken rayther too much caudle afore turnin' in last night, seein' as how you slept so long.' Tell Mr Dowling, with my compliments, he is an impudent rascal, and that you are another.' Thank ye kindly, sir. We are all that, as you say, and more besides, as you don't know on; but if it's the same to you, I'd rather you took the message and what follers, yourself.' Evidently I had fallen to a very low figure in Scout estimation; and as it did not seem likely I should gain much by a further interchange of compliments, I sprang out of the cot-hammock, and, changing the subject, asked where Mr Harry Webbe might be. 'On deck, sir, now; but goin' ashore presently.' 'Going on shore is he? And what shore, pray?' 'Jarsey, sir. The Scout has brought up in the roads till the tide serves to go into harbour.' 'All right; and as you are going on deck, you can tell Mr Webbe that I shall be with him in a brace of shakes.' I had escaped without a scar or scratch; and not only as regarded myself, but all things else, no sign or trace of the night's murderous hurly-burly was visible. The water was smooth as glass-so rapidly do the tides in the vicinity of the Channel Islands run down the wildest sea-a sun of spring was shining brightly through the cabin windows; and when I reached the deck, the aspect of things in general' was so entirely the reverse of what it was a few hours previously, that I could almost have fancied I had been the dupe of a frightful dream. The dead had been flung to the fishes, the wounded and prisoners were out of sight below, the deck had been swabbed and holy-stoned, damaged rigging set to rights, gay flags waved proudly overhead, and the victorious Scouts, dressed in their best, men as well as officers, were lounging about in high feather at their victory, and the substantial reward thereof to be derived from the sale of the splendid war-brig, with her guns, stores, &c., anchored a few fathoms off. Both vessels were lying at about the centre of St Aubin's Bay, not far from Elizabeth Castle, a fort of some strength, connected with the mainland by a causeway dry at low-water, and at that time the only defence of St Helier's port, Fort Regent having been only recently commenced. The island militia were exercising upon the sands of the bay, crowds of view of the French man-of-war and her captor could spectators thronged every point of vantage whence a be obtained, and, to cap the glorification of the exulting Scouts, the lieutenant-governor himself, accompanied by half-a-dozen officers in brilliant uniforms, came off in a boat to congratulate the conquerors, mere privateersmen though they were. with that of the major-general and suite. Mr Dowling My appearance upon deck was nearly simultaneous received his excellency with all imaginable deference, and after a few minutes' conversation, presented to him the 'real hero' of the fight, 'Mr Harry Webbe, son of Captain Kirke Webbe, and genuine chip of the old block!' Yes, and the handsome young charlatan accepted the major-general's, compliments with a modest selfrespecting dignity, enough to make one's hair stand on end at his consummate impudence. However, I choked off one of his prettily turned phrases by managing to catch his eye as it came trippingly from his tongue. He stopped suddenly, blushed brick-dust, and extended his hand with a sickly smile of friendly recognition. 'Another of your brave youths?' said the general, with a condescending glance at my considerably savage self. 'O dear, no,' replied Dowling. 'Quite another sort of article. In fact,' said he, that young gentleman, Mr William Linwood, is only a lodger upon principle when there's fighting to be done.' 'Only a lodger upon principle,' said the lieutenantgovernor. 'I do not comprehend the jest.' 'I will explain it to your excellency,' said Dowling; and proceeded to do so, much to the amusement of the general and his suite, as testified by the contemptuous smiles with which they honoured me, though I could not hear the pro-tem. skipper's words. I was hot as flame, and should, I verily believe, have assaulted Dowling, had not Webbe caught me by the arm as I was about to march upon the mocking rascal, and begged me to favour him with a word or two below. The young fellow's grasp and words checked the absurd impulse to which I was giving way; and a moment's reflection sufficing to shew me the folly of my anger, I answered: A dozen if you like-have with you.' 'I hope,' said he, as soon as we were alone, and he had secured the door-'I hope, Mr Linwood, you do not repent of the magnanimity of your conduct in my behalf; you, that declared you did not esteem "glory" at a straw's worth?' 'Magnanimity and glory be smothered in their own smoke! True, I volunteered, like a noodle that I was, to take your place with the boarders, little dreaming that I should thereby brand myself in the eyes of the world as an arrant coward! And then you come it so confoundedly strong before governors and generals, that- In short, I find that I have made an enormous fool of myself-a discovery which, I need hardly say, is apt to preciously ryle a fellow's temper.' |