walked on along the beach, past the remains of an English schooner that caught fire not far from this island, and was run ashore by her captain, thirty years ago.  Her iron anchor, chain, and wheel still remained, together with two queer little iron cannon, which I should have much liked to carry off as a memorial of our visit.  We then turned up a narrow shadeless path, bordered by stone walls, leading away from the sea, past a sugar-mill and a ruin.  A few almond, castor-oil, and fig trees were growing amongst the sugar-canes, and as we mounted the hill we could see some thirty round straw huts, like beehives, on the sandy slopes beside the little stream.  An abrupt turn in the mountains, amid which, at a distance of three leagues, this tiny river takes its rise, hides it from the sea, so that the narrow valley which it fertilises looks like a small oasis in the desert of rocks and sand.

Mr. Martinez’s house, where we sat for some time, and beneath the windows of which the one stream of the island runs, was comparatively cool.  Outside, the negro washerwomen were busy washing clothes in large turtle-shell tubs, assisted, or hindered, by the ‘washerwoman-bird,’ a kind of white crane, who appeared quite tame, playing about just like a kitten, pecking at the clothes or the women’s feet, and then running away and hiding behind a tree.  The stream was full of water-cresses, while the burnt-up little garden contained an abundance of beautiful flowers.  There were scarlet and yellow mimosas, of many kinds, combining every shade of exquisite green velvety foliage, alpinias, with pink, waxy flowers and crimson and gold centres, oleanders, begonias, hibiscus, allamandas, and arum and other lilies.

[Illustration:  Tarafal Bay, St. Antonio.]

Mr. Bingham sketched, I took some photographs, Dr. Potter and the children caught butterflies, and the rest of our party wandered about.  Every five minutes a negro arrived with a portion of our supplies.  One brought a sheep, another a milch-goat for baby, while the rest contributed, severally, a couple of cocoa-nuts, a papaya, three mangoes, a few water-cresses, a sack of sweet potatoes, a bottle of milk, three or four quinces, a bunch of bananas, a little honey, half-a-dozen cabbages, some veal and pork, and so on; until it appeared as if every little garden on either side of the three leagues of stream must have yielded up its entire produce, and we had accumulated sacks full of cocoa-nuts and potatoes, hundreds of eggs, and dozens of chickens and ducks.  It was very amusing to see the things arrive.  They were brought in by people varying in colour from dark yellow to the blackest ebony, and ranging in size from fine stalwart men, over six feet in height, to tiny little blackies of about three feet six, with curly hair, snowy teeth, and mischievous, beady eyes.  The arrival of the provision boat and the transfer of its miscellaneous cargo to the ‘Sunbeam’ was quite an amusing sight.  The pretty black goat