3 LEAVES FROM A LOG. 



mountain source was swollen by tropical rains it became broad and 

 rapid. At this time it was about three feet deep, and as limpid as 

 molten glass. My horse showed that he wanted to drink ; I slackened 

 the reins to allow him to do so, but as they were too short I was 

 obliged to incline forward, and, as it were, hang over his neck, while 

 in this position some one having turned from a road of communication 

 on the right came on me unperceived. 



"Ah, master Tropic, is that you?" said a well-known voice. 

 Looking up suddenly I perceived my friend, John Oldboy a gen- 

 tleman belonging to a species now nearly extinct ; that is to say, he 

 is one of the few West Indians of the old school remaining amongst 

 us. 



John Oldboy is a native of one of the virgin islands, descended 

 from a buccaneer family ; he was born in the year 1760, as he says, 

 but it is supposed he is older than he pretends ; he is about seven 

 feet long. 1 use this word in preference, because it is more applicable 

 to his gaunt and lean form. 



In his youth England was at war with her North American Colo- 

 nies, while those of the Caribbean Sea were faithful to the mother 

 country. Oldboy partook of the sentiments of his native isle ; he 

 detests the Yankees even to this day ; but his aversion to the French 

 is still more deadly. Some years ago a party of that nation, having 

 taken the island of which he is a native, behaved in a most brutal 

 and disgraceful manner, since which time his abhorrence of French- 

 men has been of the most determined kind ; so far has he been known 

 to carry this aversion, that a merchant once having committed the 

 enormous crime of mistaking Oldboy for a Frenchman, he never was 

 able to forget the atrocious offence. On seeing this person ride by 

 his estate, he was overheard thus to soliloquize " There goes that 



fellow Ledger ! Pshaw ! he looks like a Frenchman himself." 



This was only twenty years after Ledger perpetrated the crime of 

 mistaking Oldboy for a Frenchman. Nor was his dislike to France 

 vented merely in words, as every one knows who has heard him tell 

 the story of the capture of the privateer " Fleur-de-Lis" by the 

 Terrible a gallant affair enough in which he was concerned. The 

 Jiistory of it was this : The Fleur-de-Lis, or, as he called her, " the 

 Flower-de-Luce," having annoyed the trade of his native island to a 

 considerable extent, a party of young men, and amongst the rest him- 

 self, about forty in number, armed a small drogher,* went out, and, 

 as it was agreed upon, suffered the privateer to come alongside the 

 Terrible, such was the vessel called ; the French crew expected little 

 resistance, and boarded the Terrible, when the Creoles (the greater 

 part of whom were hid under the hatches) sprang up, and by surprise 

 and bravery drove the enemy from the deck with considerable loss, 

 and after firing a Licxt or two, boarded the Fleur-de-Lis and cap- 

 tured her. 



* Droghers are small craft employed in carrying produce and stores from one 

 part of an island to another. 



f Lick in the English West India patois has as extensive a signification as 

 coup in French, and in general has the same meaning. 



