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The next evening I was engaged to dine at the cottage of Governor Cole, ten miles in the country, with Captain Finch, Dr. Malone, and Captain Bance: and at half past six we took our seats in a landau and four, to meet the appointment. Just before night a southeast wind, the sirocco of the Cape, had suddenly risen, and was sweeping around and over every thing, almost with the power of a hurricane, driving and whirling the dust before it like the snow of a winter's storm in Otsego; and, had not the accompanying temperature been sufficiently cool to admit of having the carriage closed, the ride would have been exceedingly unpleasant. With this advantage, however, and a knowledge of the excellence of the road-it being the same excepting two miles, that we had traveled to Constantia-we suffered no inconvenience, notwithstanding the darkness and the storm; and, in little more than an hour, found ourselves whirling through the gates of Protea, the name given by Sir Lowry to the estate, from the abundance of the silver tree rurrounding it.

The former country-seat of the governor of the colony, the Newlands, in the same vicinity, was a splendid establishment, costing the British government, it is said, during the administration of Lord Charles Somerset, the predecessor of General Cole, £80,000 sterling; but this has been sold, and Protea is the private property of the governor; upon which improvements are but just commencing, it having been in his possession only a short time. It seemed an unpretending establishment, for a captain general, though the opportunity of judging of its appearance

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FAMILY OF THE GOVERNOR.

was very imperfect, from the darkness of the nightthe range of lights at the portico, with those of three or four chariots in waiting, throwing only a limited and flickering glare around.

We had been apprised that it was but a family party we were to join; and on entering the drawing room found just the circle that those long cut off from the enjoyment of refined and polished society would wish to meet-divested of every thing like the formality and etiquette of an entertainment of state. Lady Frances, with two or three female companions, and four lovely daughters, from five to twelve years of age; the governor and his aids, military and civil; the attorney general and lady; the surgeon of the household; and one or two young officers in the uniform of the Scotch regiments, constituting the number. The general, in the full uniform of his rank, scarlet--with epaulets and cordons of gold-received us in the centre of the room, and after an interchange of salutations, presented each of our company in order to his lady, and then to the party in general.

Nothing in a family circle has a greater charm for me than a group of intelligent, well managed, and lovely children; and the daughters of the household, in a uniform of scarlet crape, with blue ribbons on their necks to match their bright eyes, attracted my first attention. The younger two quickly threw off the reserve imposed by the entrance of strangers, and, while every look and every action told that they had been trained by no inferior hand, by their vivacity and playfulness presented a delightful picture of

LADY FRANCES COLE.

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the happiness of childhood in the bosom of those it loves; and it was with sincere regret that I perceived the whole number, when dinner was announced, kissing good night to Lady Frances, as she gave her hand to Captain Finch to be led to the salle à manger.

The entertainment in the dining room was all that elegance and taste could desire. On rejoining the ladies, however, at ten o'clock, for a cup of tea, I was gratified with a richer enjoyment--in addition to the conversation taking place-in the privilege of looking over the sketch book of Lady Cole, filled with drawings from nature, manifesting a high degree of native and cultivated talent in the art. The subjects, especially those in landscape, were of local interest to the family, in Ireland, France, and Spain, where Sir Lowry served in the peninsular war, in the Mauritius, where he was for several years governor, &c., &c., pointed out to me by Mr. Balfour, a nephew, and private secretary of the general, one of the most pleasing of the acquaintances I have formed during our voyage. Both Lady Frances and her sister Lady Catharine Bell, are distinguished for their high mental endowments, and for the various accomplishments of their education; and I was happy to learn, that the influence of their rank and talents in the colony, is cast in favor of rational enjoyments and of piety. Lady Frances is not only the patroness, but a superintendent of the Sabbath School in the Episcopal Church.

The general and his family take possession of the government-house in town, in a few days, for the

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winter; and on the 23d inst. a grand fête, in honor of the birthday of His Britannic Majesty, is to be given by them. Invitations were early issued to the officers of the Vincennes; and both the governor and his lady expressed a cordial wish, before taking our leave, that we might remain to the entertainment.

LETTER III.

ARRIVAL AT ST. HELENA, AND INTERVIEW WITH
GOVERNOR DALLAS.

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WE left our anchorage in Table Bay on the 19th ult., and on the morning of the 1st inst. descried St. Helena, at a distance of fifty miles-seeming only a small jagged-topped cloud of deep blue, on the verge of the horizon.

The night closed round us, while yet twenty-five or thirty miles distant. The evening was tranquil, and beautifully clear; but strong and irresistible associations on the fate of the man, whose name and end have stamped eternal celebrity on the island before us, shrouded it in our eyes, with a gloom that rendered doubly sombre the deep neutral tint spread in an unvarying shade, over its precipitous coast. Every other emotion was lost in the feeling, that we were gazing on a mausoleum, in the midst of the mighty deep, appropriate in its features of dreariness

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and gloom to the later destinies of the genius whose remains repose within it. And with the pall and the bier, and all the saddening appendages of the grave floating in my imagination, I could compare the outline of the island, as seen against the sky in its bearings at the time, to nothing more descriptive of its general form, than a gigantic coffin-to which, in reality, the perpendicular headlands on either end, the proportionate length and heigth, and an unvaried sable hue, gave it no slight resemblance.

The light of the following morning, converted the blackness of the bare walls of rock bounding the whole island, as seen in the preceding evening, into a reddish brown, but without diminishing the general aspect of dreariness and desolation. Nothing like freshness or verdure was to be seen, except a few pointed hills, rising in the centre, above the general mass of sterility, and belted beneath by a narrow strip of cultivated country, sprinkled with a cottage and plantation here and there-beautiful indeed, but only like the oasis of the desert, from a strength of contrast with every thing around.

Every headland and craggy peak is surmounted by its flag staff and signal station, from one to another of which, communications were constantly making, as we approached. In doubling the north end, we neared the shore so closely, that the monstrous cliffs composing it—becoming more and more lofty and precipitous in the vicinity of James Town, on the northwest-towered hundreds of feet perpendicularly above our mastheads. The first view of Buttermilk Point, on passing which the anchorage

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