ing from a continued system of intermarrying within a very narrow circle.

Some of the French creoles in this colony are men of considerable wealth; they live retired on their estates, but are withal hospitable and fond of a good deal of feudal display. The

rations; and if we may credit Maffæus, an inhabitant of Bengala, in the year 1557, made it his boast that he was 335 years of age. So that all this considered, it is no incredible thing that our Caribbians should live so long. To be sure-c'est le premier pas qui coûte.

At a burial the men place themselves behind the women, and ever and anon they stroke them with their hands over their arms to incite them to lament and weep. Then singing and weeping, they all say with a pitiful and lamenting voice ;—“ Alas, why didst thou dye? Thou hadst so much manioc, good potatoes, good bananas, good ananas. Thou wert beloved in thy family, and they had so great care of thy person; why, therefore, wouldst thou dye? Why wouldst thou dye?" If the party were a man, they add, "Thou wert so valiant and so generous; thou hast overthrown so many enemies; thou hast behaved thyself gallantly in so many fights; thou hast made us eat so many Arouagues; Alas! who shall now defend us against the Arouagues? Why therefore wouldst thou dye ?" " -Davies.

The Irish say the same words; 'Arrah! Pat, why did ye die? Hadn't ye plenty of praturs and good whisky, Pat?' &c.

"The Topinambous,' adds Davies, ' make in a manner the same lamentations over the graves of their dead :— "He is dead," say they, "that brave huntsman, that excellent fisherman, that valiant warrior, that gallant eater of prisoners, that great destroyer of Portugueze and Margajats."

contrast between the English and French colonists is nowhere more strongly seen than in Dominica.

They consider wet or dry weather, each quite exclusive of the other, as healthy, but irregular rain and sunshine usually induces ague and intermittent fevers.

We took our leave of General Nicolay and his accomplished lady at nine at night, rowed to the Eden which had been lying on and off for some time for us, and steered for Mont

serrat.

MONTSERRAT.

BASSETERRE-PLYMOUTH, ITS LANDING-PLACE-TURTLEEATING-ABBE O'HANNAM-SOUFRIERE OF MONTSERRAT-SURROUNDING SCENERY-STATE

GO

OF THE VERNMENT-CHURCHES-SLAVES MR. LUCKCOCK

THE METHODISTS AND THEIR MISSIONS.

WE stole slowly under the high ridges of Dominica during the night, and were only just clear of the northern extremity of the island by the morning. Then the breeze freshened at E. by N., and having crossed the scene of the action between Rodney and De Grasse in 1782, where Tom Rowland, the mason in my town, lost his precious leg by a splinter, we passed gaily by the Saintes, some rocky islets belonging to the French, but which were chiefly occupied during the war by the English for the purpose of refitting, when it might have been difficult to beat up to English Harbour. In the Grand Sainte there is a pottery and a few canes. Marigalante lay on the horizon due east behind the Saintes. At three P.M. We breasted the southern point of the great island of Guadaloupe and, as the wind came round freer, we ran into the roadstead before Basse

*

* Called by the Caribs, Carucueira.

terre, and dashed gallantly by the Frenchmen. within fifty yards of the shore. I believe the folks thought we were going to cut out a merchantman, or run ourselves against the shingles for fun. It seemed a very pretty town, and, I am told, is a most convenient one; there was an agreeable show of trees peeping over the tops of the houses, and the hospital built by the English, and the governor's mansion, were conspicuous at the northern end. This hospital is said to have been since destroyed in the hurricane of July, 1825, when 230 persons or more perished in various miserable ways. The garrison at Prince Rupert's bay in Dominica. suffered at the same time considerably. The country, though apparently very fine, had not quite so finished an air of cultivation as in Martinique, but its features were bolder and more magnificent. Some of the planters' houses were upon a larger scale, and more attention to comfort in the adjoining premises seemed to be displayed than is usual in the English colonies. The wind fell, as it almost always does, under the long lee of the high land, and it was about seven A.M. of the 25th, before we cast anchor in the open road of Plymouth.

I must needs say I have a vehement desire to abuse this island through thick and thin. I declare I cannot to this day think of the ducking I got upon first landing or rather watering at Plymouth without an emotion of anger, which forces me to leave my chair and take