Bubbles will owe its popularity; but popularity it is sure to have. Before one has got half through its three hundred pages, one gets to like our goodhumoured lively authors almost as much as they liked the islanders. And when we read at last how the gallant yacht that introduced them to so many charming spots is wrecked, and all its tropic treasures-for it was full of interesting and valuable gifts from many an isle-sunk beneath the waves, we are almost inclined to shed tears of vexation. It is the brightest book of travel we have read for many a day. But somehow one does not see many books on Borneo, Java, New Guinea, or Celebes; and for that very reason, if for no other, I rejoiced unfeignedly in the prospect of going thither. But another and a stronger incentive was the prospect of forming a personal acquaintance with the islanders of the eastern ocean, concerning whom I had heard so many contradictory reports. My own preconceived idea, drawn from countless miscellaneous sources, from the immortal biographer of the Man Friday,' down to the entertaining author (whose name I have ungratefully forgotten) of A Fortnight in the Sandwich Islands,' represented them as a simple and inoffensive race, BESIEGED BY CATAMARANS. living in primitive happiness amid an eternal I REMEMBER to have heard a veteran traveller, just summer, feeding on baked pig and cocoa-nut, and returned from long wanderings in the wilder amusing themselves with paddling light periaguas regions of North America, sum up the results of (whatever they might be), swimming for hours the expedition as follows: When I left England, together without fatigue, and chanting in a mellow I was full of enthusiasm about "the noble red recitative the national songs of their ancestors. man," whom I privately considered to be the finest The darker shades of the picture-the ferocity, fellow breathing. Reckoning my esteem of him at cannibalism, and hideous superstition attributed to one hundred when I first started, I calculate that, them by various authorities-I persisted in regardon reaching New York, it had fallen to ninety-ing as the calumnies of European prejudice; and, eight. By the time I got to St Louis (thanks to what I learned on the road), the thermometer stood at seventy. At Denver City, where I first saw the red man in propria persona, it was as low as thirtyfive; and when we got fairly past the Indian country-which we crossed, with the scalpingknife hanging over our heads-I said to my fellowenthusiast: "Well, old boy, what do you think of the red man now?" "What do you?" "Well, I'll tell you; if there's a party going out to fight the Indians, we'll go too!" "By Jove," said he, so we will!"" ་ I am not mathematical enough to classify my emotions so accurately as this; but I must plead guilty to an exactly similar change of opinion, although it occurred not in the Far West, but in the Far East. To an indefatigable traveller, sighing over the pages of Mr Murray for more worlds to conquer, there can be no greater windfall than the suggestion of a perfectly novel route; and the offer of a passage in the good ship Antelope, bound on a prolonged cruise through the East Indian Archipelago, came to me like water to the thirsting camel,' or the loan of a five-pound note to a gentleman in difficulties. As the penny novelists would put it, 'to accept the offer, to pack two trunks and a carpet-bag, to call a cab and drive to the St Katharine Dock, was the work of a moment!' and the second morning after found us well down the river, bound for a (to me at least) perfectly unknown region. This, indeed, constituted the great charm of the expedition. In these days of perpetual motion, when one's only chance of finding an unexplored region is to stay at home, and when one's vis-à-vis at a dinner-party, or in a railway-carriage, cannot open his mouth without letting drop something about the hotel charges at Timbuctoo, the probable site of Kirjath-jearim, or the pleasure of a week's fly-fishing on the Amazon; in such an age it is no slight treat to discover a route not traversed every year by a million or so of one's fellow-creatures. We do travelling nowadays (like everything else) at racing speed; and we have already had A Fortnight in Russia,' A Week in Palestine,' 'A Day in Algeria;' to be followed, no doubt, by Half-an-hour on Cape Horn,' by the author of 'Twenty-five Minutes at the North Pole.' strong in my optimist creed, was ready to welcome the 'noble savage' as a man and a brother. This couleur-de-rose theory, however, found two redoubtable adversaries, even amid the limited circle of my fellow-travellers. The one was our skipper, Captain Darling, as fine a fellow as ever walked a quarter-deck; equally at home when shouting his orders amid the pelting spray, in tattered flannel shirt and trousers, or when sitting down, in spotless linen and trim blue coat, to discuss Marryat's novels or Longfellow's poetry with me over our after-dinner dates and bananas. He would listen to all my outpourings on the Aboriginal Question' with a smile of quiet indulgence more disconcerting than any argument, merely saying: 'You'll change your mind by-andby, Mr K The other and more formidable contravener of my opinions was old Sandy M'Pherson, the first-mate, a stalwart old fellow from the banks of the Clyde, with a square granite-hewn face, round which his short gray hair curled up defiantly, as if asserting itself against every wind that blew. He had been thirty-seven years on blue water, and was a perfect mine of racy anecdote and picturesque description; and it was no small treat to me to recline on a spare-sail under the glorious moonlight of the tropics, and listen to old Sandy's graphic sketches of the thousand strange places which he had seen. But on the Aboriginal Question I obtained from him no sympathy whatever; and the quaint, dry humour with which he dissected my Utopian creed was infinitely exasperating. 'It's no for me,' he would say, 'to joodge thae islanders, wha may be varra gude fallows in their ain way; but I canna jist say they 're the maist respectable company a mon cud meet wi'. Yon fawshion o' devoorin' a' their substance at ane gran' feast, and then stairvin' for days thegither, is clean contrairy to the laws o' poleetical economy; and thaat ither custom o' disposin' o' their preesoners by convairtin' them into mutton-choaps, although doobtless an auld and weel established usage, is no preceesely in accordance wi' the rules o' scienteefic warfare, nor yet o' scienteefic cookery; I'll aloo they hae gotten twa-three ceevileesed hawbits, sic as thievin', leein', and gettin' fou’ 屯 BESIEGED BY CATAMARANS. [drunk]; but I canna say that their national progress is muckle advaunced thereby.' 'Mr M'Pherson,' interrupted I indignantly, 'you are evidently prejudiced against these poor creatures, and I'm surprised that a man of your age and experience should be so.' Aweel, it may be e'en sae,' answered the old man slily; 'but I'm thinkin', sir, gin ye were ance to risk yer purse or yer life amang thae Babes o' Grace, ye wad maybe begin to be a wee bit prejudiced yersel'. 319 A few days later, we were caught by a storm, which drove us far out of our course, and for eightand-forty hours made our position sufficiently precarious. Well do I remember how, in the very thick of it, when sea and air alike seemed one boiling whirl of foam, and every one was clinging to whatever he could seize, old M'Pherson came close to me, and said coolly: Dinna be feared, sir; we'll do yet, gin the wind fa". And if the wind keeps up, what then?' asked I tentatively. utes!' And so week rolled after week, and at length Sandy eyed me for a moment in silence, with we came fairly into the midst of the Eastern that air of pitying contempt wherewith one might Archipelago. What I saw there I will not attempt look at a child asking why it might not set fire to to describe. Far abler writers have made the a powder-magazine, and then answered in slow same attempt, and failed signally. We of the tem- monosyllabic tones: 'Gin-the-wind-keep-up, perate zone have no standard of comparison by we'll-a'-be-wi'-the-deil-in-five-minwhich to measure the workings of nature in the tropics, where the fiery fulness of life that abounds on every side makes all things alike gigantic and overwhelming. Long reefs of coral, displaying their fairy tracery through the clear smooth water for miles together; floating masses of dark, glossy sea-weed, hundreds of acres in extent; birds and fishes of new and marvellous aspect; butterflies as large as sparrows, gorgeous with every variety of colour; mighty forests, rank with all the luxuriance of tropical vegetation, and filled with a chorus of all imaginable notes of beast or bird, sinking at times into a weird, ghastly silence, broken only by mysterious voices, like those of unseen spirits: all this, seen under the glorious sunshine of the equatorial seas, made up a picture to which no tongue or pen can do justice. 'Job's comfort!' thought I, as I turned away; but happily the event proved otherwise. The wind did go down, all of a sudden; and on the third morning, we found ourselves in a very ragged condition, becalmed off a projecting headland, which the captain pronounced to be the western extremity of New Guinea. But even in this limitless enjoyment there was one drop of gall. We touched, in passing, at several of the smaller islands; and it was now that, for the first time, my cherished theory began to give way before the shock of actual observation. The moment we cast anchor, the water around us literally swarmed with natives, some in canoes, some on rafts, and many actually swimming, while the air rang with barbarous Sooloo and still more barbarous broken English, as cocoa-nuts, bananas, pieces of carved wood, mats, conch-shells, and other native products, were eagerly offered for sale. My first bond-fide view of the islanders did more to disillusionise me than all the rhetoric of old M'Pherson, the lurking smile on whose grim visage shewed how fully he appreciated the situation. Their long, gaunt, lithe, snaky frames, reeking with filth and rancid oil; their harsh, grating voices, and uncouth gestures; their flat, ape-like skulls, and coarse, chinless faces; their small, deep-set, rat-like eyes, out of which theft and murder looked greedily ever and anon-all inspired me with an indescribable aversion, which my second glimpse, a few days later, increased rather than diminished; and when, on the seventh day after my first introduction to my ideal, I saw a noble savage' getting soundly thrashed by one of our tars for attempting to purloin his tobacco-pouch, I was startled to find myself sympathising with the chastiser instead of the chastised, and feeling a strong inclination to go and do likewise. Nevertheless, I strove hard to believe that these monsters could not be of the same race with the magnificent children of nature whom I had imagined. 'It is easier,' says the old proverb, 'to convince a man against his senses than against his will;' and my conversion (as will be seen) required a stronger agent to effect it. 'Dampier's Straits!' said he, looking up from his chart: the very last place I should have chosen to be becalmed in, considering the sort of gentry that we're among. These confounded tropics do everything in extremes; one either gets too much wind, or none at all!' Fortunately, we had carried away none of our masts; but our spars and rigging had suffered grievously, and the first thing to be done was to set all hands to repair damages. The work was going briskly on, when the look-out at the masthead reported Boats coming off shore!' On a nearer view, however, they turned out to be not boats, but 'catamarans '-upon which, made as they are merely of a few light planks lashed together, these amphibious monsters will sometimes face a surf that would try the quality of a lifeboat. Captain Darling levelled his telescope at the advancing flotilla; and I, watching him without knowing why I did so, saw his lips set all at once, and his whole face harden like congealed metal. 'Mr M'Pherson,' said he quietly, 'call all the hands down from aloft, and get up the cutlasses and boarding-pikes. Sharp now!' 'Are they going to attack us, then?' asked I, somewhat startled at this new feature in the moral aspect of my black brethren.' 'They don't come by a hundred at a time only to trade,' answered the skipper decisively; 'and besides, they've got no women with them to-day, and every man-jack of 'em has a bit of matting round his neck. There's a crease or a hatchet under every one of those mats, take my word for it. They see that we 're becalmed, and they're coming out to make a show of trading, and then tackle us unawares; and we haven't a single musket on board, worse luck!' As he spoke, the foremost catamarans drew up alongside, and some of those upon them shouted to us to heave them a rope, while others held up bananas and cocoa-nuts, as if wishing to trade. Others, again, offered cane-spears, or carved bows and arrows; but the number of these weapons (with which the flotilla literally bristled) made me suspect that they were meant for other purposes than traffic. Meanwhile, a fresh line of catamarans had come up to leeward, forming a complete cordon around the vessel; and we were fairly besieged. It is always difficult to tell how one may be affected by the sudden appearance of a deadly peril. I have seen a man whose life hung by a thread, watching, with the greatest apparent interest, the movements of a spider on his window. I myself, about three years before the time of which I am writing, found leisure, in the crisis of the worst danger I have ever encountered, to note the peculiar shape of a cloud in the sky. It seems to me that whatever fear one feels on such occasions comes after the peril; in the actual crisis there is no time for it. My first feeling at sight | of the savage host gathering round us was one of rage--a kind of angry disgust at the idea of these miserable creatures daring to molest us at all. At that moment old Sandy M'Pherson came aft with a cutlass in his hand, and his face set like a flint, muttering as he passed me: "The Lord forgie us if we kill thae puir haythens, wha ken nae better!' Involuntarily I called to mind big Tregarva's truculent prayer just before encountering the poachers, and began to realise that this quiet, pleasant, Bible-reading old man might prove a very ugly customer on occasion. Meanwhile, our men, in obedience to the skipper's orders, were making a pretence of trading with the savages, in order to prevent the latter from suspecting our knowledge of their intentions, and to delay the attack as long as possible. Strange, indeed, it seemed to be joking and huckstering with these bloodthirsty fiends, whose arrows might at any moment strike us down; but such a farce could not last long. The savages, irritated by our refusal to allow them on board, and beginning to suspect that we saw through their design, grew angry and menacing. Hands were clenched, weapons brandished, threatening cries uttered; and at length one of them gave a short, sharp screech, like the scream of a raven, at which, as at a concerted signal, a volley of arrows came rushing into our midst. 'Down, every man, fore and aft!' roared the skipper; and in an instant the crew lay crouched on the deck. The captain and mate were close to me, and I heard the former mutter: "If the calm lasts till nightfall, they'll climb on board in the dark, over each other's shoulders. God help us!' This was the only complaint uttered by our stout commander, the first and last weakness of a brave man, face to face with apparently certain destruction. As I write, the long, weary hours of that terrible afternoon come back to me like a hideous dream, the main features of which are fearfully vivid, though the whole is unreal and impossible. I can remember the set, grim faces of our crew, as they lay doggedly awaiting their doom. I can remember hearing the shouts of the savages, and watching the arrows as they quivered in the rigging, or fell rattling on the deck. More clearly than all, I can remember the strange longing which kept urging me to start up and look over the side at our unseen enemies, as if to see my death before it came. The western sky reddened-the light began to fade-and still we were there. Hoarse yells of triumph came echoing from below; our * In Mr Kingsley's Yeast. enemies knew as well as we what the sunset must bring with it. The captain and mate griped one another's hands, without a word, and then sat motionless as before. It must have been some little time after this (how long, I cannot say it seemed an age) that the captain, rising cautiously, for the twentieth time, to glance over the sea, gave a sudden start, bent eagerly forward, and then drew a long, deep breath, like a thirsty man after his first draught of water; and then came, as if heaved up from the very depths of his chest, the two words: 'Thank God!' 'What is it?' whispered I, creeping up beside him. He answered by pointing far away to the southward, where, through my glass, I could just descry a barely perceptible ruffle on the surface of the water-what sailors call a cat's-paw.' Moment by moment it grew more distinct, and steadily approached us. Presently, one of the huge sails that hung drooping overhead gave a long lazy heave-flapped back against the mast-heaved again-and then began slowly to fill out. Cries of rage burst from the savages below; fresh flights of arrows were shot on board-but it was too late -sail after sail filled out, and the spell-bound ship lived once more. Slowly, calmly, grandly, the great hull moved on, the rafts scattering before it like shadows; there was one last howl of impotent fury-one more discharge of arrows-and our vessel left her assailants behind, and glided away toward the open sea. We were saved. And when the black ring of the besiegers was but a speck on the darkening horizon, old M Pherson stalked up to me, and asked, with the very ghost of a smile glimmering on his iron features: Weel, sir, hae ye no begun to be a wee bit prejudiced against yer black brithers?' I had indeed-once and for ever. INVALIDED. An! to be able to rise, And leave the wearisome room, I dream of lying at ease Among the fern and the grass, And looking up through the long-branched trees, Watching the small clouds pass. I pull the blossoms that grow In the soft moss under my hand, And welcome the health-giving winds that blow, Cooling the summer land. And ah! it is all so bright, And the happiness is so great!— On Saturday, 1st June, will be commenced a NOVEL, entitled A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE By the Author of Cecil's Tryst, &c. Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH Also sold by all Booksellers. CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL No. 439. POPULAR LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART. CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS. SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1872. THROUGH FIRE. DURING a residence of several years in New York, I was in the habit of passing some months every summer at one or other of the various wateringplaces in the vicinity of that city. In 1848, I spent a few weeks at Babylon, a village on the south side of Long Island, in order to enjoy the Blue fishing, for which that part of the coast is famous. PRICE 1d. my fishing expeditions. But it was rather reluctantly that I did so, for I felt a species of antipathy to the man, which found some justification in the singularly repulsive expression of his countenance. When one looked at him, indeed, one was reminded of what Quin said of Macklin, 'that if Nature wrote a legible hand, he must be a scoundrel.' He was a surly, sullen fellow too, rarely speaking except in monosyllables, or evincing the slightest interest in what was going on around him. I was, therefore, the more surprised at a little incident which occurred on one occasion when I found myself alone in the boat with him. We had been fishing for some time with indif In most small country places in the United States, there will be found some lazy ne'er-do-weel, some 'shiftless loafer,' to use an American idiom, who neither obtains, nor seeks for, regular employment, but is content to pick up a precarious sub-ferent success, when, thinking that we might do sistence by fishing and shooting, after the manner of our old friend Rip Van Winkle, leaving his wife and family-if he have any-to get a living as they best may. The individual in Babylon who enjoyed a monopoly of the advantages to be derived from being the only loafer in the village, was a half-breed, known as 'Indian John.' He was a bachelor, and so expert with both rod and gun, thathaving no one to provide for but himself-he might have done very well, but for his incorrigible laziness and his love of 'fire-water.' So long as he had a dime in his pocket, or, failing that, could get credit at the village store for a pint of rum or whisky (the time of which I speak was before the Maine Law had been introduced into the state of New York), no money would tempt him to exertion of any kind. Yet, when absolutely driven to it by necessity, he would work, and work hard too, for a brief period; enduring, without a murmur, far more toil and fatigue than a white man would have borne under the same circumstances. But, like all his race, he was, as I have said, incapable of habitual labour. John,' he would say, as soon as he had a piece of silver in his possession, earned or given him-John no work to-day; John got dollar; John gentl'man.' On two or three occasions, when I had been unable to secure the services of one of the regular boatmen, I had engaged John to accompany me on better by putting farther out to sea, I took out my watch, for the purpose of ascertaining how long it would be before the tide turned. As I did so, I observed the eyes of the half-breed fixed admiringly upon it. It was indeed a very pretty trinket, the face being engraved with much taste, while on the back there was a butterfly in blue enamel incrusted with small diamonds. It was, in fact, a lady's watch, and belonged to my sister, who had lent it to me the day I left New York, to replace my own, of which I had broken the spring that same morning-a misadventure there had not been time to repair before my departure. Even the proverbial stoicism of his race, apparently, had not power to steel the half-breed against the fascinations of the object of his admiration. After a brief struggle to maintain his dignity, he gave way, and asked to be allowed to look at the watch. I, of course, complied with his request, and placed it in his hand that he might examine it at his leisure. He kept it for some minutes, and it was, finally, with manifest reluctance that he returned it. I observed him closely, and could see, by the expression of his eyes, that he had become possessed by one of those almost uncontrollable desires, to which savages, like children, are occasionally subject-it being, obviously, a positive pain to him to part with the watch. However, he had no alternative but to do so; and there the matter ended for the time. On the morning I had arranged to return to New York, the heat was almost intolerable, and had not important business required my presence in the city the following day, I should most certainly have deferred my journey until the weather was somewhat more endurable. However, I decided to compromise the matter; and instead of taking the 11 A.M. train for Brooklyn, as I had originally intended, I resolved to return to town by the one which left Centreville (the nearest station), at 8 P.M.; by which hour the sea-breeze would have somewhat cooled the atmosphere. The railway runs as nearly as possible through the centre of Long Island from Brooklyn to Montauk Point. Thus travellers from any of the villages on the Atlantic are, or rather were-for the facilities of communication have been greatly improved since the time of which I speak-conveyed to the dépôts, as stations are termed in the United States, by means of omnibuses owned by the proprietors of the various hotels. I happened to be the only passenger from the hotel that evening for the train. It was not thought worth while, therefore, to make use of the omnibus; but Snedicor, the landlord, promised that a light wagon, Anglice chaise, should be in readiness to convey me to the dépôt. At the last moment, however, an unexpected difficulty presented itself. Who was to drive me? Most of the inhabitants of the village had gone over to Fire Island, it being a gala day in those parts, and amongst them the men belonging to the hotel. 'You couldn't drive yourself, Mr Wilson, noheow, I suppose?' said Snedicor to me interrogatively. You could leave the wagon,' he added, 'at Van Riper's; his store is just alongside the dépôt, and one of the boys would bring it back in the morning.' 'Well,' I replied, 'I am afraid not. I have only travelled the road once, and there are so many turnings, that I think it not unlikely I might lose myself in these interminable pineforests of yours.' 'Waal, now,' rejoined the old man, 'I don't know but what I'll hev tu go myself; but it's mighty orkard too, I tell you, for I've a big supper tu fix tu-night for the crowd that's coming.' We were standing on the piazza of the hotel, and while Snedicor was speaking, the half-breed, rifle in hand, but with an empty game-bag, came down the road with the slow slouching gait peculiar to him. As soon as the landlord saw the man, his face brightened up. 'Oh, here's John,' he said; ‘I thought he had gone over tu the island. He doesn't seem to have had much luck; he'll be glad to drive you over tu Centreville, I guess, Mr Wilson.-John,' he called out, I want you to take this gentleman tu the dépôt, right away. Can you go?' 'Me go!' said the half-breed. 'How much give?' 'A silver quarter!' [twenty-five cents] was the reply. 'And glass rum?' added John. 'Yes, and a glass of rum,' rejoined the landlord. 'Rum now?' said the other interrogatively. 'No! When you return,' replied Snedicor, adding to me, sotto voce: If I gave it tu him now, very probably he would not stir an inch afterwards, but lie right down on the ground, and go tu sleep.' The half-breed nodded sullenly, to intimate that he accepted the proffered conditions; and as soon as my luggage had been deposited in the wagon, we drove off, John placing his rifle beside him on the front seat. That John had been drinking already was tolerably obvious-not that his speech was thick, or his carriage unsteady; intoxication rarely manifests itself in this form in the Indian-but there was a ludicrous assumption of dignity about the fellow-characteristic of his race when drunkwhich at once revealed to me his condition. I pause here to observe, that the motives which induce the white man and the Indian to drink are totally opposite in character. The former drinks from good-fellowship, or because he likes the liquor; with him, as a rule, intoxication is the accidental result of over-indulgence. The Indian, on the contrary, drinks simply to get drunk: it is but a means to an end. Hence the story of the Comanche brave, who, after imbibing as many glasses of well-watered whisky as his stomach would hold, went to the seller, and, in an aggrieved tone, said: 'Me full up, and drunk no come yet!' about three-quarters of a mile, branched off, nearly The road, after running along the shore for at a right angle, into the woods; at the expiration of half-an-hour, we came to a spot where it divided into two forks. The half-breed, somewhat to my surprise-for I had an impression that Centreville lay in the opposite direction-took the road to the right. Still I said nothing, knowing that he must necessarily be better acquainted with the way than I was. Before long, however, I became convinced that we were going wrong. The road, or rather lane, we had entered upon seemed but little travelled, the grass growing in many places in the wheelruts, which it was scarcely credible to suppose could be the case with a road traversed so frequently as the one between Babylon and Centreand denser. Even at mid-day, the sunlight peneville. The forest, too, seemed to become denser trates but feebly through the masses of foliage which crown the heads of the tall pine-trees in these woods; and now, as the evening began to draw in, the darkness was very perceptible. I was half-disposed to believe that John was really more intoxicated than he appeared to be, and that, notwithstanding the proverbial sagacity of his race in such matters, he had taken the to speak to him without further delay. I said wrong road unconsciously. I therefore decided that it was evident we were going in the wrong direction, and I desired him to turn back at once. The fellow evinced not the slightest disposition to |