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in; and for this reason perhaps, that I had not only to cheer the
death-bed of the sufferer, but, far more trying task, to soothe the
passionate grief of wife or husband left behind. It was a terrible
thing to see young people in the youth and bloom of life suddenly
stricken down, not in battle with an enemy that threatened their
country, but in vain contest with a climate that refused to adopt
them. Indeed, the mother country pays a dear price for the possession
of her colonies.

I think all who are familiar with the West Indies will acknowledge
that Nature has been favourable to strangers in a few respects, and
that one of these has been in instilling into the hearts of the
Creoles an affection for English people and an anxiety for their
welfare, which shows itself warmest when they are sick and suffering.
I can safely appeal on this point to any one who is acquainted with
life in Jamaica. Another benefit has been conferred upon them by
inclining the Creoles to practise the healing art, and inducing them
to seek out the simple remedies which are available for the terrible
diseases by which foreigners are attacked, and which are found growing
under the same circumstances which produce the ills they minister to.
So true is it that beside the nettle ever grows the cure for its
sting.

I do not willingly care to dwell upon scenes of suffering and death,
but it is with such scenes that my life's experience has made me most
familiar, and it is impossible to avoid their description now and
then; and here I would fain record, in humble spirit, my conclusions,
drawn from the bearing of those whom I have now and then accompanied a
little distance on their way into the Valley of the Shadow of Death,
on the awful and important question of religious feeling. Death is
always terrible--no one need be ashamed to fear it. How we bear it
depends much upon our constitutions. I have seen some brave men, who
have smiled at the cruellest amputation, die trembling like children;
while others, whose lives have been spent in avoidance of the least
danger or trouble, have drawn their last painful breath like heroes,
striking at their foe to the last, robbing him of his victory, and
making their defeat a triumph. But I cannot trace _all_ the peace and
resignation which I have witnessed on many death-beds to temperament
alone, although I believe it has much more to do with them than many
teachers will allow. I have stood by receiving the l