e fell into a sound sleep.

The reader who knows the West Indies, or knows human nature, will not
be surprised that I should have continued this connection as long as I
remained on the island. From the artless manner in which Carlotta had
conducted her plot; from her gestures and her agitation, I was quite
sure that she was a novice in this sort of crime, and that should she
ever relapse into her paroxysm of jealousy, I should be able to detect
any farther attempt on my life. Of this, however, I had no fears,
having by degrees discontinued my visits to the young lady who had
been the cause of our fracas; and I never afterwards, while on the
island, gave Carlotta the slightest reason to suspect my constancy. I
was much censured for my conduct to the young lady, as the attentions
I had shewn her, and her marked preference for me, had driven away
suitors who really were in earnest, and they never returned to her
again.

In these islands, the naturalist would find a vast store to reward
investigation; they abound with a variety of plants, birds, fish,
shells, and minerals. It was here that Columbus made his first
landing, but in which of the islands I am not exactly certain; though
I am very sure he did not find them quite so agreeable as I did, for
he very soon quitted them, and steered away for St Domingo.

It is not, perhaps, generally known, that New Providence was the
island selected for his residence by Blackbeard, the famous pirate;
the citadel that stands on the hill above the town of Nassau, is built
on the site of the fortress which contained the treasure of that
famous freebooter. A curious circumstance occurred during my stay
on this island, and which, beyond all doubt, was connected with the
adventures of those extraordinary people, known by the appellation of
Buccaneers. Some workmen were digging near the foot of the hill under
the fort, when they discovered some quicksilver, and on inspection, a
very considerable quantity was found; it had evidently been a part of
the plunder of the pirates, buried in casks or skins, and these having
decayed, the liquid ore naturally escaped down the hill.

Though not indifferent to the pleasures of the table, I was far from
resigning myself to the Circean life led by the generality of young
military men in the Bahamas.

The education which I had received, and which placed me far above
the common run of society in the colonies, induced me to seek for a
companion whose m