ospitality, being furnished with plenty of provisions, fruits,
&c. and having collected my shell, I embarked early in the morning,
with a fair wind, for Pearl Key Lagoon. The wind soon died away and left
us with a dead calm, and we were obliged to paddle under a burning sun
during the day, which blistered my cheeks and ancles, not having any
stockings on my feet. We arrived at our home about eleven o'clock that
night.

CHAPTER VIII.

Visit to Bluefields.

Bluefields lies about twenty-five miles south of Pearl Key Lagoon on the
main land, and has a good harbor for small vessels, the water on the bar
at the mouth being about nine feet deep.

The English government took possession of it many years ago, but
afterwards exchanged their possessions here with the Spanish government
for the Bay of Honduras. Colonel Hudson, an English planter from the
Island of Jamaica, settled here with a number of negro slaves. By the
exchange of the country, he found it difficult to remove his slaves, who
had intermarried with the Indians, and he was obliged to sell them their
freedom and take their security for the payment of the debt, which was
to be paid in yearly instalments. From what I could learn from these
negroes, he never realized much from them. The inhabitants of
Bluefields are mostly called Samboes, being a mixture of negro, Indian,
and white blood.

After remaining a few months at the Lagoon, and receiving many
invitations, I concluded to make a visit to Bluefields, form some new
acquaintance, and call on my _countrywoman_, Mrs. Peggy, who claimed to
be a relation of mine because her father was said to be an American, and
ascertain what progress she made in disposing of the goods I had sent to
her to sell on commission.

I fitted up my canoe, hired three Indians, put our dinner-pot, gun,
fishing spears and some provisions on board, and launched out into the
broad ocean again. After we had proceeded about fifteen miles the wind
increased, which caused the sea to run so high that we were obliged to
run our canoe on shore, and hauling her up we built a fire, a precaution
necessary in travelling in this country to avoid being attacked by wild
beasts, and after cooking a scanty meal took lodging on the ground. We
were much annoyed during the night by musquittoes and small gnats, or
sand-flies, which allowed us but little sleep. The next morning, the
wind having moderated, we got under weigh and proceeded to Bluefields,