her Mrs. Edward Sterling's Uncles, a Coningham from Derry,
had, in the course of his industrious and adventurous life, realized
large property in the West Indies,--a valuable Sugar-estate, with its
equipments, in the Island of St. Vincent;--from which Mrs. Sterling
and her family were now, and had been for some years before her Uncle's
decease, deriving important benefits. I have heard, it was then worth
some ten thousand pounds a year to the parties interested. Anthony
Sterling, John, and another a cousin of theirs were ultimately to be
heirs, in equal proportions. The old gentleman, always kind to his
kindred, and a brave and solid man though somewhat abrupt in his ways,
had lately died; leaving a settlement to this effect, not without some
intricacies, and almost caprices, in the conditions attached.

This property, which is still a valuable one, was Sterling's chief
pecuniary outlook for the distant future. Of course it well deserved
taking care of; and if the eye of the master were upon it, of course
too (according to the adage) the cattle would fatten better. As the
warm climate was favorable to pulmonary complaints, and Sterling's
occupations were so shattered to pieces and his outlooks here so waste
and vague, why should not he undertake this duty for himself and others?

It was fixed upon as the eligiblest course. A visit to St. Vincent,
perhaps a permanent residence there: he went into the project with his
customary impetuosity; his young Wife cheerfully consenting, and all
manner of new hopes clustering round it. There are the rich tropical
sceneries, the romance of the torrid zone with its new skies and
seas and lands; there are Blacks, and the Slavery question to be
investigated: there are the bronzed Whites and Yellows, and their
strange new way of life: by all means let us go and try!--Arrangements
being completed, so soon as his strength had sufficiently recovered, and
the harsh spring winds had sufficiently abated, Sterling with his small
household set sail for St. Vincent; and arrived without accident. His
first child, a son Edward, now living and grown to manhood, was born
there, "at Brighton in the Island of St. Vincent," in the fall of that
year 1831.

CHAPTER XII. ISLAND OF ST. VINCENT.

Sterling found a pleasant residence, with all its adjuncts, ready
for him, at Colonarie, in this "volcanic Isle" under the hot sun. An
interesting Isle: a place of rugged chasms, precipitous gnarled
heights