The Lesser Antilles 349 



To the south the peaks on Guadeloupe were just dimly 

 visible as points above the horizon. Nearer at hand, 

 silhouetted against the glory of the coming day, were 

 the outlines of Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, and St. 

 Eustatius. The first three islands belong to Great 

 Britain, the latter to the Dutch. On Nevis Alexander 

 Hamilton was born on January u, 1757, and a little 

 more than thirty years afterwards a young English 

 captain by the name of Horatio Nelson yielded to the 

 charms of a bright young widow, Mistress Fanny Nisbet, 

 whose husband, a physician, had not long before gone 

 to the better world. They were married on March 

 n, 1787, very quietly. As little as Josephine de La 

 Pagerie thought- of playing a part in the history of the 

 w r orld when she married Alexandre Beauharnais, so 

 little thought the widow of Dr. Nisbet, when she married 

 the slight and boyish English captain, that she was 

 wedding one of the heroes of all time. And neither she 

 nor Josephine on their wedding day suspected the 

 domestic infelicity and the terrible heartaches which 

 awaited them. Napoleon had, as he thought, reasons 

 of state for deserting the noble woman who had been his 

 guiding star in the early years of his success. Nelson 

 had no reason for conjugal infidelity. It is a foul blot 

 upon his career. Great as were his achievements, his 

 personal character was not such as to make him worthy 

 to be held up as an example to his fellow-men. 



Dead ahead of us was Saba, and we soon came along- 

 side of it. This island, which is almost circular in out- 

 line and scarcely three miles in diameter, rises more than 

 half a mile in height above the ocean. There is no 

 anchorage, except at the very foot of the tall rocky 

 steeps which guard it on all sides. The Admiralty 

 chart shows three hundred and seventv-five fathoms of 



