JAMAICA. 201 



Philip Gosse, accompanied by the ever- faithful Sam, 

 took leave of his hospitable friend, and started from 

 Kingston in the coasting steamer The Wave. An 

 easterly breeze from Port Royal carried them roughly 

 but swiftly back to Bluefields, the captain making a 

 special exception in the naturalist's favour by dropping 

 the two passengers at Bluefields, instead of carrying them 

 on to Savannah-le-Mar. No one had ever enjoyed this 

 privilege before, and the wanderers were welcomed with 

 as much bewilderment as delight. They had been exactly 

 three weeks away from home, three weeks which formed 

 a delightful oasis of intellectual excitement in Philip 

 Gosse's monotonous existence. He had left Bluefields 

 dispirited and poorly ; he returned in buoyant health and 

 spirits. 



He once more fell into the regular and monotonous life 

 of the collector, riding out to shoot every day, sending 

 Sam, and other lads whom he had trained, into the forest 

 for plants and insects, and spending his evenings in pre- 

 paring his captives for the transit to England. On 

 June 1 8, 1846, he rather suddenly determined to bring 

 his stay at Bluefields to a close, and sent to the bay to 

 engage a passage for himself and Sam on board a sloop, or 

 drogger, which was just starting for Kingston. His parting 

 with the kind and faithful Colemans was a pathetic one, 

 and w hen he set foot on the vessel, he turned " to gaze for 

 the last time at a place where I have spent so many 

 pleasant months." The voyage occupied seven dreary 

 days, mitigated by a day agreeably spent on shore, at 

 Black River, with some friends. He had the pleasant 

 consciousness, while knocking about under Pedro Bluff, 

 that the English packet, which he had hoped to catch, must 

 be then just leaving Kingston. On the morning of the last 

 day (June 26) he had a curious and very embarrassing 



