riety of ways, and
learning a great deal of Creole medicinal art, until I couldn't find
courage to say "no" to a certain arrangement timidly proposed by Mr.
Seacole, but married him, and took him down to Black River, where we
established a store. Poor man! he was very delicate; and before I
undertook the charge of him, several doctors had expressed most
unfavourable opinions of his health. I kept him alive by kind nursing
and attention as long as I could; but at last he grew so ill that we
left Black River, and returned to my mother's house at Kingston.
Within a month of our arrival there he died. This was my first great
trouble, and I felt it bitterly. For days I never stirred--lost to all
that passed around me in a dull stupor of despair. If you had told me
that the time would soon come when I should remember this sorrow
calmly, I should not have believed it possible: and yet it was so. I
do not think that we hot-blooded Creoles sorrow less for showing it so
impetuously; but I do think that the sharp edge of our grief wears
down sooner than theirs who preserve an outward demeanour of calmness,
and nurse their woe secretly in their hearts.

CHAPTER II.

STRUGGLES FOR LIFE--THE CHOLERA IN JAMAICA--I LEAVE
KINGSTON FOR THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA--CHAGRES, NAVY BAY,
AND GATUN--LIFE IN PANAMA--UP THE RIVER CHAGRES TO
GORGONA AND CRUCES.

I had one other great grief to master--the loss of my mother, and then
I was left alone to battle with the world as best I might. The
struggles which it cost me to succeed in life were sometimes very
trying; nor have they ended yet. But I have always turned a bold front
to fortune, and taken, and shall continue to take, as my brave friends
in the army and navy have shown me how, "my hurts before." Although it
was no easy thing for a widow to make ends meet, I never allowed
myself to know what repining or depression was, and so succeeded in
gaining not only my daily bread, but many comforts besides from the
beginning. Indeed, my experience of the world--it is not finished yet,
but I do not think it will give me reason to change my opinion--leads
me to the conclusion that it is by no means the hard bad world which
some selfish people would have us believe it. It may be as my editor
says--

"That gently comes the world to those
That are cast in gentle mould;"

hinting at the same time, politely, that the rule may apply to me
personally. And perhaps he is rig