Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



One was the European^ a steamer of the Union 

 line ; the other was the Eurydice^ a man-of-war. 

 Neither reached its destination. The former 

 was wrecked on Ushant ; the latter capsized in 

 a squall off the Isle of Wight, and was lost 

 with all hands. 



During the South African War our feelings 

 were harrowed with stories of privateers which 

 were being fitted out in the Canary Isles with 

 the especial object of attacking the Cape mail- 

 boats. And there were circumstantial accounts 

 of such and such a liner having received a 

 warning, and travelling night after night with 

 no lights, to the great inconvenience, not to 

 mention the alarm, of her passengers. But 

 such tales were no doubt apocryphal. Towards 

 the close of the war some members of the former 

 Transvaal Government resided here, and acted 

 as a kind of post-office between their comrades 

 who were still in the field and their friends in 

 Europe. Certain very curious proceedings took 

 place in this connection. It is still a little too 

 near the events to record what happened ; but 

 there is reason to believe that our own Govern- 

 ment was fully alive to what was going on, and 

 took its own measures to deal with the matter. 



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