ago, driven rheumatism clean out of the United Kingdom. I never met with any of these redeemed ones, but, as Sancho says, he, who told me the story, said that it was so certain and true, that I might well, whenever I told it to another, affirm and swear that I had seen them all myself. There was, indeed, no resisting the kindness of my friends; I was all things to all men and to all women; I ate this to please my aunt Lucy, and drank that to oblige my aunt Margaret; I was steamed by one, showered by another, just escaped needling by a third, and was nearly boiled to the consistency of a pudding for the love of an oblong gentleman of Ireland, who had cured so many of his tenants on a bog in Tipperary by that process, that he offered to stake his salvation upon the success of the experiment. It failed, and, the benefit of the obligation not being transferable, I forgave him the debt.

If this little book had been one of the thousand and one journals of tours in France or Italy or Switzerland; or if it had been a true and authentic history of Loo-Choo, of the Ashantees, or of a Polar expedition, I should not have taken the trouble of writing this preliminary chapter. But the West Indies are quite another thing. I have seen men set down as fanatics or tyrants before

their speech has been listened to, and as I have a creditable anxiety for the sale of my work, it imports me much that I should make myself well understood on this head. I do not wish any one to entertain a good opinion of me, but I shall feel deeply indebted to any person who will be kind enough to have no opinion whatever of me or about me. I am in perfect charity with all mankind, that is to say, I care infinitely nothing about any of them, except some dozen and a half good folks of my own sort. I bow to the African Institution,...they do their work, as is fitting, in a truly African manner; I bend as low to the Planters,... they are a trifle choleric or so, but I remember that the nerves become excessively irritable under the rays of a vertical sun. I pro

test in print that I had not the honor to travel as an agent of either of these amicable societies. I went simply and sheerly on my own account, or rather on account of the aforesaid rheumatism; for as every other sort of chemical action had failed, I was willing to try if fusion would succeed. This was my main reason for going abroad, to which perhaps I must add a certain vagabond humor which I inherited from my mother. If Yorick had written after me, he would have mentioned the Rheumatic Traveller. This book is rheumatic

from beginning to end; all its peculiarities, its diverse affections, its irregular spirits flow from that respectable source. I picked up so plentiful a lack of science at Eton, the first of all schools, and at Cambridge, the first of all universities, except the London, that no one need be of my opinion unless he likes it. I rarely argue a matter unless my shoulders or knees ache; and if I should have the misfortune upon any such occasion to be overearnest with any of my readers, I trust they will think it is my rheumatism that chides, leave me so, and peacefully pass on to the next chapter.

MADEIRA.

IMAGINATIVE reader! have you ever been in a gale of wind on the edge of the Bay of Biscay? If not, and you are fond of variety, it is really worth your while to take a trip to Lisbon or Madeira for the chance of meeting with one. Calculate your season well in December or January, when the south-wester has properly set in, and you will find it one of the finest and most uncomfortable things in the world. My gale lasted from Sunday till Wednesday evening, which is something long perhaps for amusement, but it gave ample room for observation and philosophy. I think I still hear that ineffable hubbub of plates and glasses breaking, chairs and tables falling, women screaming, sailors piping, officers swearing, the wind whistling, and the sea roaring, which awakened me about two o'clock on Monday morning from one of those sweet dreams, wherein, through infinite changes and indistinct combinations of imagery, thy loved form, Eugenia, for

ever prevails in its real and natural beauty. The Atlantic was gushing in through my port in a very refreshing manner, and ebbing and flowing under and around my bed with every roll of the ship. My clothes were floating on the face of the waters. I turned to sleep again, but the sea came with that awful dead sledge-hammer beat, which makes a landsman's heart tremble, and the impertinent quotation of some poor scholar in the next cabin about quatuor aut septem digitos brushed every atom of Morphic dust from my eyes. I sat bolt upright, and for some time contemplated, by the glimmering of the sentry's lantern, the huge disarray of my pretty den; I fished for my clothes, but they were bathing; I essayed to rise, but I could find no resting-place for the sole of a rheumatic foot. However, I was somewhat consoled by a sailor who came to bale out the water at daybreak;-" a fine breeze, Sir, only it's dead on end for us; and to be sure, I minds the Apollo and thirty-two marchmantmen were lost somewhere in these here parts." It was kindly meant of Jack, no doubt, though he was out in his latitude by eight degrees at least.

I think I never shall forget the scene of beauty and terror which presented itself to me on deck. Every thing, indeed, becomes tame by long fami