nature were by no means sanguine. I knew that we had been driven widely out of our course, and unless some vessel should be visited by a similar calamity in the same latitudes, there seemed little likelihood of our ever again beholding the face of other fellow-creatures. Such were my own gloomy apprehensions, and perhaps I am naturally desponding, but they were by no means shared by my wife. From a deep religious conviction that she was in the hands of a superior power, who, whatever might be her final fate, would assuredly dispose of her for the best, she was surprizingly upheld in all our trials, never once repining at her sufferings, nor relaxing in her pious confidence. Her fortitude seemed more than human-it was the sublimity of a quiet and enduring devotion.

"On the fifth morning after our shipwreck, wearied with the toil of constantly fetching fresh water from the rocky fountain in a little pitcher, the only one hitherto redeemed from the vessel, I carried a small empty cask to the spot, intending to fill it, and roll it back, if possible, to our rude habitation. On reaching the place, I

determined to explore the source of the rill that tumbled into the basin, for which purpose I clambered up the yawning chasm between th two crags, where I found a tolerably level footing formed by a gradual ascent of about thirty" yards, down which the narrow stream ran with a rapid but smooth course. I had not quite reached the extremity of this passage, when O merciful Providence! what a gorgeous and my astonished magnificent vision burst upon my eyes! Outstretched before me in all its beautiful variety of hill and dale, and wood and water-in all that luxuriance of vegetable splendour and glowing richness of colour which Nature loves to lavish upon the most favoured regions of the earth-I beheld an island, or rather a delicious garden, more surpassingly fair than that of Eden, more enchantingly glorious than all that I had ever dreamt of the blissful bowers of Paradise. Overcome and even awe-stricken by its loveliness, I could only fall upon my knees and weep under the first impulse of my feelings, nor was it until after the lapse of some minutes, that I became col

lected enough to mark the particular feature of

the scenery.

"Along the glowing and far-extending valley which occupied the centre of the landscape meandered a rivulet, sometimes lost amid an exuberance of embowering shrubs and strange flowers, sometimes revealing itself by gentle cascades that sparkled in the sun, and finally winding its way to the rock on which I stood, where its waters being arrested, spread themselves out into a little lake that overflowed through the chasm by which I had ascended, into the basin on the other side, and thence into the sea. Immediately on the right arose a range of gentle hills, swelling and falling, and disclosing the bright ocean through their successive openings, the nearest being embroidered with rich deep-coloured moss, grass of the most vivid green, shrubs of entire bloom, and bright flowers, such as I had never seen before, the whole of whose ardent colours being confusedly reflected in the lake, resembled the gorgeous sunny hues thrown upon the pavement of a cathedral from an ancient painted-window. Others

of the hills in this direction were robed with
majestic trees, which dwindling as they followed
the descent of the ground on the other side, till
nothing but their summits could be seen, were

the

again caught in the distance, climbing up next ascent like an undulating sea of foliage. On the left, where the prospect was much more extensive and varied, were forests of majestic growth, containing the tree of Buddha, the Talipot, the Jaggree, the Jack-tree, the breadfruit, and many more, from among which the up high into lofty palms and cocoa-nuts shot the air, looking like one grove planted upon another. Occasional glades and openings gave glimpses of sunny meadows, and coppices of cinnamon and cashew-nut, areka and tamarind, and sylvan wilds, and still more remote woods, pierced by dark umbrageous alleys that seemed to lead into a new world, whither the imagination alone could follow them.

"Over the fragments of rock which lay scattered around one side of the lake, as if they had fal len from the crags behind me, was woven a ver dant tapestry of fern and moss, and creeping

far

up

plants, and flowers of brilliant hue and exquisite configuration while gourds and wild vines ran the huge cliffs between which I stood, as if every thing that overlooked that happy valley were compelled to participate in its exuberant fertility.

"Luscious fruits, sufficient to banish for ages every thought of famine, sprung up spontaneously in all directions, blushing and glowing amid the clustered foliage. Orange and papawtrees, annonas, citrons, tamarinds, pomegranates, wild figs, palm dates, mangoes, and bananas, were to be seen at a little distance from each other, or growing together in tangled and inter woven tufts; while over every crag and shrub and tree, the supple-jack, and other parasite plants of extraordinary beauty and variety trailed their verdant net-work, hanging festoons of flowers from branch to branch of the loftiest trees, interlacing them above, and twining them together below in one embroidered mass of dense and redundant vegetation. Never was the inexhaustible opulence, the luxurious wantonness of Nature more conspicuously displayed; and, as if it were