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curiosity "to assist at one of their funerals" which she describes 

 with somewhat grewsome details. 



On the sixth of May they sailed for the island of St. Christopher. 

 The passage was enlivened with "Tropic birds and flying fishes" 

 and the "phenomenon of the luminous sea "; even the excite- 

 ment of being " chaced by an Algerine " was not omitted. On 

 the first of June, the Britannia struck a coral rock just under the 

 lee of Nevis and Mrs. Riddell tells us that " the shock was far 

 more violent 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." On the first of 

 June they landed on the island of St. Christopher, and she pro- 

 ceeds to give quite an elaborate description of the island, of Mt. 

 Misery, " the summit of which is lost in the clouds," of its fogs 

 and mists, of its craters, and of the stream of water " which takes 

 its rise higher up the side of the grand crater, is partly absorbed 

 in the chasms and thrown out with a furious boiling noise and 

 steam." She describes various views on the mountains and the 

 " cataracts that are seen descending in vast torrents from the sum- 

 mits of these mountains in the rainy season." There seems little 

 that has escaped her inquisitive eye. She tells of the " mischiev- 

 ous" monkeys that inhabit the high-lands, the birds, that she 

 considers as being much the same as in Antigua, and she enjoys 

 the supreme "pleasure of seeing the phenomenon of a water- 

 spout." In 1 790 she made a tour through Antigua and Barbuda, 

 travelling with her father, mother, brother, and three gentlemen 

 from Antigua. They visited Nevis on the way, and arrived at 

 Barbuda "after a most unpleasant navigation." In Barbuda 

 they " took a ride to see the island," and among other excursions 

 embarked in a barge on a lake bordered with mangrove trees. 

 Again a careful description of the trees and the effect they pro- 

 duced, and she also notes the oysters that cling to the roots of 

 the trees. 



On a Sunday morning they were "entertained with a diversion 

 of a wild bull hunt " by a family of Caribs, and the following 

 day investigated a spacious cavern on the eastern side of the 

 mountain, which again brings forth a minute narration. 



