a
source of serious reflection. Far from following their example, I felt
myself some degrees better than they were; and in the pride of my
heart thanked God that I was not like these publicans. My pharisaical
arrogance concealed from me the mortifying fact that I was much worse,
and with very slight hopes of amendment. Humility had not yet entered
my mind; but it was the only basis on which any religious improvement
could be created--the only chance of being saved. I rather became
refined in vice, without quitting it. Gross and sensual gratification,
so easily obtained in the West Indies, was disgusting to me; yet
I scrupled not to attempt the seduction of innocence, rather more
gratified in the pursuit than in the enjoyment, which soon palled, and
drove me after other objects.

I had, however, little occasion to exert my tact in this art in the
Bahama Islands, where, as in all the other islands of the West Indies,
there is a class of women, born of white fathers and mustee or mulatto
women, nearly approaching in complexion to the European; many of them
are brunettes, with long black hair, very pretty, good eyes, and often
elegant figures. These ladies are too proud of the European blood in
their veins to form an alliance with any male who has a suspicion of
black in his genealogical table; consequently they seldom are married
unless from interested motives, when, having acquired large property
by will, they are sought in wedlock by the white settlers.

So circumstanced, these girls prefer an intercourse with the object of
their choice to a legal marriage with a person of inferior birth; and,
having once made their selection, an act of infidelity is of rare
occurrence among them. Their affection and constancy will stand the
test of time and of long separation; generous to prodigality, but
jealous, and irritable in their jealousy, even to the use of the
dagger and poison.

One of these young ladies found sufficient allurement in my personal
charms to surrender at discretion, and we lived in that sort of
familiar intercourse which, in the West Indies, is looked upon as a
matter of necessity between the parties, and of indifference by every
one else. I lived on in this Epicurean style for some months; until,
most unfortunately, my _chere amie_ found a rival in the daughter of
an officer, high in rank, on the island. Smitten with my person, this
fair one had not the prudence to conceal her partiality: my vanity
was too