past had just been accomplished. It appeared that Mr.
White had questioned the doctor--who little suspected his object--as
to how long it would take to stop the vessel when running with
studdingsails set before a strong breeze. The unhappy man had
constantly complained of inability to sleep, and he had been seen on
deck the previous night long after everyone else had gone to bed. Of
the motive for the rash act it is impossible to form an opinion. Borne
down by physical and mental suffering, he must have been overcome by a
temporary aberration of intellect, which rendered him for the moment
irresponsible for his actions. I need not dwell on the terrible shock
which the dreadful catastrophe caused to our hitherto happy little
party. The evening was a sad one, and not even the excitement of
making the lights off Goa, bringing the ship up, and anchoring for the
night, or the prospect of an interesting excursion to-morrow, could
raise our spirits or dissipate the depression caused by the sad event
of the afternoon.

_February 26th._--Orders had been given for steam to be ready in the
launch by six o'clock, so that we might get ashore soon after
daybreak, and thus avoid the heat of the midday sun, which is now
becoming quite a serious matter. But the painful duty of collecting
and packing up all poor Mr. White's things to be sent back to Bombay
had first to be performed, and it was nearly half-past seven before
we were ready to land.

[Illustration: Vingora Lighthouse]

Just as we were starting, Mr. Norman Oliver, the Assistant Delegate at
Goa, arrived alongside in his pretty little schooner yacht, of native
design and build, but of English rig. He brought with him a very kind
letter from Mr. H.D. Donaldson, the assistant engineer of the new
Portuguese Railway, now in course of construction, to connect Goa with
the English lines northward to Bombay and eastward to Madras. If only
the inhabitants of Goa will make use of the new railway, it ought to
be of the greatest value to them. Such, however, is their conservative
disposition and so great is their pleasure in obstinately creating and
maintaining, in the form of customs-duties, obstacles to commerce and
free circulation, that it is considered probable that the railway will
have to be continued some fifty miles to the southward, as far as the
British port of Carwar, before any perceptible increase in the export
of produce can be looked for. The line to Goa is now nearly