BRAVA. 313 



CHAPTER XXII. 



GUINEA -FOWL SHOOTING IN THE ISLAND OP BRAVA, CAPE DE VERD 

 ISLANDS, 1853. 



THE morning was as bright in the early spring of 1852, and 

 the sky as radiant, as any one that these tropical islands 

 could boast of, still the Trade breezes that blow almost con- 

 tinually in these latitudes fanned the surface of the ocean, 

 and considerably moderated what otherwise might have been 

 considered oppressive heat. The good schooner Vibilia, in 

 which I was a passenger to Australia, was swinging to her 

 anchor in the quiet little harbour of Brava, and at a very 

 short distance from her lay a small Portuguese man-of-war 

 corvette, an acquaintance with the officers of which vessel I 

 had made in the following singular manner :-^- 



Upon our arrival and anchoring the previous day I ob- 

 served a number of large falcons hovering about, and darting 

 down upon every stray object that floated from the few 

 vessels then in the harbour. I could not resist the opportunity 

 that offered itself of getting a shot at one of these miniature 

 eagles, and was not long in winging one, which, to my great 

 annoyance, fell straight upon the person of a Portuguese 

 officer who was sitting upon the deck of the above-mentioned 

 corvette in a sort of dreamy abstraction, with his cup of 

 coffee beside him and his cigar in his mouth, upsetting the 

 former, and evidently very much disturbing the equanimity 

 of the latter. I was not long in jumping into our boat, 

 which was alongside, and on my way to apologize for the 

 inadvertent rudeness I had committed. My apologies were 

 not only received in good part, but an acquaintance and inter- 



