een originally designed for the reception of the mendicants with
which the town had been very much infested. About forty families had
subscribed a certain sum to erect this building, and to furnish in a
manner every way convenient and consistent with such a design. But we
were informed that the governor had filled it with the daughters of the
labouring poor, who were here instructed in weaving and spinning, and
were brought up in industry and cleanliness, remaining in the house until
of a marriageable age, when a portion equal to ten pounds sterling was
given with each on the day of her nuptials. This and the other expenses
of the house were furnished by a fund produced from the labour of the
young people, who appeared all in the same dress, plain indeed, but
cleanly and neat.

We heard with surprise, and not without regret, that this institution was
likely to fall to the ground whenever the governor's departure should
take place, the subscribers being dissatisfied with the plan that was
then pursued, alleging that their money had been given to get rid of
their beggars, whose numbers were not diminished; and that the children
were only taught what they could learn from their mothers at home. To us
however, judging without prejudice or partiality, the design of the
institution appeared to have been more effectually answered by striking
at the root of beggary, than if the charity had been merely confined to
objects who would have been found daily to multiply, from the comfortable
provision held out to them by that charity.

A whole-length picture of the governor was hung up in the working-rooms
of the house. He was represented, agreeably to the end that was at first
proposed by the institution, conducting a miserable object to the gate of
the workhouse; a front view of which was also given.

These islands, known to the Romans by the appellation of the Fortunate
Islands, appeared even at this day to deserve that epithet; for the
inhabitants were so fortunate, and the soil so happy, that no venomous
creature had been found to live there; several toads, adders, and other
poisonous reptiles, which had been brought thither for proof, having died
almost immediately after their arrival. The air of this place is very
salubrious; an instance of which was remarked in a gentleman who was said
to be 113 years of age, and who had been happy enough to preserve his
faculties through such a series of time, nearly entire, his memory alon