es, 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 further 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 shown
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 mind had received equal cultivation; and such a one I
fou