Ifi3 iSLE!^ 01'" StrMMfiK. 



and more than usually lively; the soft white clouds moving so 

 majestically across the clear blue sky; the exquisite beauty of 

 the islands and keys, and of the city of Nassau, which quietly 

 rested upon the rocky hillside, spiced with an excitement pro- 

 duced by a sail designed to demonstrate ''what der Triton could 

 do '' in a free wind outside of the shelter which the natural break- 

 waters of Nassau afford — all combined to give us a very high 

 degree of exquisite and unalloved pleasure. 



After we had sailed in a northerly direction out into the ocean 

 to vindicate the truth of Sampson's claims in reference to the 

 good qualities of the Triton in rough water, we sailed in an 

 easterly or northeasterly direction along the windward side of 

 Hog Island, crossed Silver Key bar, entered water that seemed as 

 warm as any confined and heated by a July sun upon a northern 

 shore — skirted the southern line of Silver Key — j)assed through 

 "the Marine Garden," a region of submarine coral bowers of 

 marvelous and wondrous beauty, situated between the east end 

 of Hog Island and the west end of Atliol Island, — then, turning 

 to the west, Ave traversed the easterly portion of the harbor of 

 Nassau, and were landed safely at the stone steps of the wharf 

 which Ave had left some three hours before. The latter portion 

 of our sail having been in waters somewhat sheltered, Sampson 

 was better able to amuse us with a chapter or two taken from the 

 A'olume of his personal experience. 



The account he gave of his visit in the summer of 1878 to the 

 city of New York was particularly interesting. The impression 

 made upon his wondering and astonished mind, graphically and 

 faithfully described, furnished an entertainment of the most droll 

 and comical character. Quick to see, sensitive to feel, and gifted 

 to describe with a genius and eloquence all his own, this unlettered 

 and untraveled negro, mounted upon any northern platform,, 

 could not have failed to convulse and bring down the house.- 



