SHIPPING AT THE MAURITIUS. 299 



bell in it, familiarly known as the Bell Buoy ; and 

 a little further in, the Powder Boat, into which all 

 vessels entering the harbor are compelled to deposit 

 their powder. The entrance to the harbor is mode- 

 rately wide, but still no vessels enter without the aid 

 of the steam tow-boat, which they may however dis- 

 pense with on leaving. Every vessel in the harbor is 

 compelled to anchor with two stream and two bower 



anchors. 



And now we were amongst the shipping : for the 

 most part, great, lumbering, unsightly sugar-boxes. 

 There, the aristocratic title, the Earl of Derby, pro- 

 claimed the Briton ; the Napoleon was undoubtedly 

 Monsieur's craft ; the Esperanza, the Don's ; and 

 Peter of Hamburg, Mynheer's. But amid them all 

 rose the lofty tapering spars of the brigantine Penney, 

 of New York ; and, on a nearer approach, we could 

 examine the beautiful lines of her symmetrical hull, 

 giving evidence of the handicraft of a Baltimore 

 shipbuilder — and such was her class: a Baltimore 

 clipper of the handsomest model. To-day she flew 

 our glorious ensign (the stars and stripes) for the last 

 time ; having been sold to the British government, 

 to be used as a revenue-cruiser. Her purchasers, a 

 few days before her delivery to them, having assidu- 

 ously substituted, for the Eagle on her stern, the 

 British Lion, desired to fly that ensign at her mizzen 

 peak; but the crew in charge of her (two full-blooded 

 Americans) would not allow them to do so whilst 

 they remained on board, and persisted in flying the 

 star-spangled banner until the last day, AA'hen they 

 left the vessel just before it was hauled down. 



Near the brigantine lay a three-masted schooner, 



