art men, over six feet in height, to tiny little blackies of
about three feet six, with curly hair, snowy teeth, and mischievous,
beady eyes. The arrival of the provision boat and the transfer of its
miscellaneous cargo to the 'Sunbeam' was quite an amusing sight. The
pretty black goat and the sheep bleated, the fowls cackled, and the
ducks quacked, while the negroes chatted and laughed as they handed
and hauled on board fish of all shapes and sizes, bunches of bananas,
piles of cocoa-nuts, sacks of potatoes, and many other things,
finishing up with a tiny black boy, about three years old, whom I
think they would rather have liked to leave behind with us, if we
would only have taken him. The fish proved excellent, though some of
them really seemed almost too pretty to eat. A brilliant gold fish,
weighing about three pounds, and something like a grey mullet in
flavour, was perhaps the best. The prices were very curious. Chickens
a shilling each, ducks five shillings, goats thirty shillings, and
sheep ten shillings. Vegetables, fruit, and flowers were extremely
cheap; but the charge for water, fetched from the spring in our own
breakers by our own crew, with but little assistance from four or five
negroes, was 3_l_. 18_s_. However, as ours is the only yacht, with one
exception, that has ever visited this island, there was nothing for it
except to pay the bill without demur.

I never in my life felt so warm as I did to-day on shore, though the
inhabitants say it will not be _really_ hot for two months yet; I
never before saw cocoa-nut palms growing; and I never tasted a mango
until this morning; so I have experienced three new sensations in one
day.

The night was fearfully close, muggy, and thundery, the temperature in
the cabins being 89 deg., in spite of open sky-lights and port-holes.
Generally speaking, it has not hitherto been as hot as we expected,
especially on board the yacht itself. On deck there is almost always a
nice breeze, but below it is certainly warm.

_Tuesday, August 1st_.--Yesterday we were still under sail, but to-day
it has been necessary to steam, for the wind has fallen too light.
There was a heavy roll from the south, and the weather continued hot
and oppressive. In the cabins the thermometer stood at 89 deg. during the
whole of the night, in spite of all our efforts to improve the
temperature. We therefore put three of the children in the deck-house
to sleep, opening the doors and windows; and