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.

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

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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comes in sight, is singularly striking, from the batteries planted high on its very face, and occupying every nook and crevice in which a gun can be secured-presenting in one spot a projecting rock, and in another a wide mouthed port, with a heavy piece of artillery pointed towards you, here a short stretch of artificial wall, and there a breast-work of the original cliff-without any plan or order, other than that of the natural formation. The mouths of cannon project at irregular intervals and distances, from the top to the bottom, among which, the heads of a half dozen guards were seen peering over the parapets upon us, like eagles from the midst of their aeries.

This aspect is, in a greater or less degree, characteristic of the cliffs the remaining distance of a mile to James Town; in front of which, we were soon moored within a quarter of a mile of the shore. The glen, in the narrow mouth of which it stands, is wedged in between two almost perpendicular walls of brown lava near a thousand feet in height, approaching each other as they run inland, till at the distance of a couple of miles, they shut out all farther view. An esplanade in front, of a few hundred yards extent-formed by a massive wall ten or twelve feet high, running across the glen to guard the beach from the encroachment of a heavy surf-is planted with a battery, and ornamented with a double row of trees of the banian tribe, skirting the walls of the town. The first buildings above the tops of these, that catch the eye, are a neat church of light yellow, with a square tower on the right side of the gate in the centre of the wall, and the government-house, or

castle, a large heavy looking mansion surrounded by trees and gardens, on the other. Between these, from the rapid ascent of the ground, a full view is presented of an open, unplanted square, surrounded by residences of good size and comfortable appearance, beyond which the roofs of numerous habitations interspersed with a few trees, a lofty building or two-a barrack and hospitals are seen-stretching up the narrow defile for a mile or more, till they terminate in a view of some neat cottages and gardens overlooking the whole, at the extreme point in sight.

This morning at eleven o'clock, Captain Finch, accompanied by Dr. Malone and myself, went on shore to wait upon the governor, the Honorable Brigadier General Dallas-as many others of the officers as could be spared from the ship, having already started for Longwood.

The only landing is close beneath a projection of the cliff, on the left of the anchorage, under the bastions of a fort planted on the face of the rock, some eighty or a hundred feet above the water. Though more sheltered from the swell of the sea than any other spot, still caution is requisite in getting from a boat on the abutment and steps of massive stone with which it is furnished; as the water is of great depth, and its rise and fall in the eddy and whirl of the surf at all times several feet, and often so great as altogether to interrupt the communication between the shipping and town. A causeway, hewn from the rock, leads along the base of the hill-from the perpendicular surface of which on the one hand, enormous masses projecting in frowning deformity,

threaten momentarily to crush you beneath their tremendous weight, while on the other, are the roar, and lashing against the parapet, of a deadly surf. An irresistible query, as we trod this fearful way, was-what must have been the thoughts and the feelings of the imperial captive, when, for the first and the last time, he paced this same ground, and gazed above and around him, on the horrid features of his appointed prison? For the moment, at least, I suspect the firmness of the philosopher must have been shaken, and the nerve of the hero unmanned.

On passing the gate, an air of comfort, of quietness, and of leisure, is visible in every thing: there is nothing of the stir and bustle of business, but, on every side, evidence of indolence and inactivity— soldiers in handsome uniform lounging around— officers in rich undress-and clusters of gentlemen in citizen's garb, seated in the shade beside the houses, or in verandas in front.

Mr. Solomon, a merchant of wealth, kindly threw open his house to the officers of the ship, immediately on our arrival; and we availed ourselves of his hospitality till the governor should arrive from Plantation House, the govermental country seat, three miles inland, where his family exclusively reside. He visits the castle in town, however, almost daily on business; and when informed of his presence there, under the guidance of Mr. Solomon, we paid our respects to him.

Our reception by the General and his son, a Captain in the Hon. East India Company's service, and by Captain Knipe, civil aid, or secretary, was most