Ranging south of Abington, and quite out of sight behind the long spine of Albemarle, lies James’s Isle, so called by the early Buccaneers after the luckless Stuart, Duke of York.  Observe here, by the way, that, excepting the isles particularized in comparatively recent times, and which mostly received the names of famous Admirals, the Encantadas were first christened by the Spaniards; but these Spanish names were generally effaced on English charts by the subsequent christenings of the Buccaneers, who, in the middle of the seventeenth century, called them after English noblemen and kings.  Of these loyal freebooters and the things which associate their name with the Encantadas, we shall hear anon.  Nay, for one little item, immediately; for between James’s Isle and Albemarle, lies a fantastic islet, strangely known as “Cowley’s Enchanted Isle.”  But, as all the group is deemed enchanted, the reason must be given for the spell within a spell involved by this particular designation.  The name was bestowed by that excellent Buccaneer himself, on his first visit here.  Speaking in his published voyages of this spot, he says—­“My fancy led me to call it Cowley’s Enchanted Isle, for, we having had a sight of it upon several points of the compass, it appeared always in so many different forms; sometimes like a ruined fortification; upon another point like a great city,” etc.  No wonder though, that among the Encantadas all sorts of ocular deceptions and mirages should be met.

That Cowley linked his name with this self-transforming and bemocking isle, suggests the possibility that it conveyed to him some meditative image of himself.  At least, as is not impossible, if he were any relative of the mildly-thoughtful and self-upbraiding poet Cowley, who lived about his time, the conceit might seem unwarranted; for that sort of thing evinced in the naming of this isle runs in the blood, and may be seen in pirates as in poets.

Still south of James’s Isle lie Jervis Isle, Duncan Isle, Grossman’s Isle, Brattle Isle, Wood’s Isle, Chatham Isle, and various lesser isles, for the most part an archipelago of aridities, without inhabitant, history, or hope of either in all time to come.  But not far from these are rather notable isles—­Barrington, Charles’s, Norfolk, and Hood’s.  Succeeding chapters will reveal some ground for their notability.

* * * * *

SKETCH FIFTH.

THE FRIGATE, AND SHIP FLYAWAY.

  “Looking far forth into the ocean wide,
  A goodly ship with banners bravely dight,
  And flag in her top-gallant I espide,
  Through the main sea making her merry flight.”