With my companion, one beautiful afternoon, rambling over the rocky cliffs at the back of the island, (New Providence, W.I.,) we came to a spot where the stillness and the clear transparency of the water invited us to bathe.  It was not deep.  As we stood above, on the promontory, we could see the bottom in every part.  Under the headland, which formed the opposite side of the cove, there was a cavern, to which, as the shore was steep, there was no access but by swimming, and we resolved to explore it.  We soon reached its mouth, and were enchanted with its romantic grandeur and wild beauty.  It extended, we found, a long way back, and had several natural baths, into all of which we successively threw ourselves; each, as they receded further from the mouth of the cavern, being colder than the last.  The tide, it was evident, had free ingress, and renewed the water every twelve hours.  Here we thoughtlessly amused ourselves for some time.

At length the declining sun warned us that it was time to take our departure from the cave, when, at no great distance from us, we saw the back or dorsal fin of a monstrous shark above the surface of the water, and his whole length visible beneath it.  We looked at him and at each other in dismay, hoping that he would soon take his departure, and go in search of other prey; but the rogue swam to and fro, just like a frigate blockading an enemy’s port.

The sentinel paraded before us, about ten or fifteen yards in front of the cave, tack and tack, waiting only to serve one, if not both of us, as we should have served a shrimp or an oyster.  We had no intention, however, in this, as in other instances, of “throwing ourselves on the mercy of the court.”  In vain did we look for relief from other quarters; the promontory above us was inaccessible; the tide was rising, and the sun touching the clear, blue edge of the horizon.

I, being the leader, pretended to a little knowledge in ichthyology, and told my companion that fish could hear as well as see, and that therefore the less we said, the better; and the sooner we retreated out of his sight, the sooner he would take himself off.  This was our only chance, and that a poor one for the flow of the water would soon have enabled him to enter the cave and help himself, as he seemed perfectly acquainted with the locale, and knew that we had no mode of retreat, but by the way we came.  We drew back out of sight, and I don’t know when I ever passed a more unpleasant quarter of an hour.  A suit in chancery, or even a spring lounge at Newgate, would have been almost a luxury to what I felt when the shades of night began to darken the mouth of our cave, and this infernal monster continued to parade, like a water-bailiff, before its door.  At last, not seeing the shark’s fin above the water, I made a sign to Charles, that cost what it might, we must swim for it, for we had notice to quit by the tide; and if we did not depart, should soon