Maria Riddell, the Friend of Burxs. 21 



teresling, perhaps, from the fact that Robert Burns found a 

 publisher for it. Still there are some pleasing descriptions. 

 .After leaving- Madeira, the ship in which the W'oodleys 

 sailed — " the Britannia, a merchant ship commanded by 

 Captain Woodyear " — \\as " chaced by an Algerine pirate 

 who did not give up his pursuit till we happened lo fall in 

 with another English ship, when the Corsair, fearful of en- 

 countering a foe so much superior to his own, gave up the 

 chace. " A week or two later, after passing- Guadeltnipe and 

 Antigua, on the way to St. Kitts, the Britannia struck on a 

 coral rock just under the lee of Nevis. " The shock was far 

 more violent," the authoress writes, " than any earthquake 

 I ever experienced ; but we sustained very little damage and 

 found ourselves in deep water again almost as soon as we 

 heard the crash." After these perils they landed, on June 

 ist, at Basseterre, the chief place in the island of St. Kilts, 

 which the authoress proceeds to describe with painstaking 

 minuteness. Amongst other things, she notes that in the 

 previous year three hardy Scotsmen had boldly adventured 

 to climb to the peak of Mount Misery, until this time deemed 

 inaccessible. " They proceeded, as justly as they could 

 ascertain, to the height of 3711 feet, by fastening ropes to 

 the branches of trees, and the craggy points of the rocks, 

 and climbing thus with a thousand hazards and difficulties, 

 till they found it taper to a pinnacle of one immense solid 

 rock; at the foot of which they erected a flag staff (which is 

 now visible in a clear day with a telescope), and here con- 

 cluded their perilous undertaking, finding it totally impos- 

 sible to ascend any higher." 



On November 4th, 1788, Miss Woodley attained the 

 sentimental age of sixteen. The exact date is really of 

 importance, because it was when she " was then but six- 

 teen " that she composed a poem, entitled " Inscription 

 written on an Hermitage in one of the Islands of the West 

 Indies. "^5 Something further about the young lady's tastes, 



15 The Metrical Mi.'.cpllnny (1802), p. 69; (2nd ed. 1803), p. 75. 

 At the end of the eighteenth century there seems to have been a 

 natural weakness for " Hermitages " ; cp. TJir Xrthiral TTisfnri/ 



