A CROWDED STEAMER. 195 
merciful Providence so ordered it, that we escaped entirely 
unharmed the perils of sickness and of the sea, and as our 
steamer had a clear bill of health, we were saved from numbering 
among our experiences, a practical acquaintance with the inde- 
scribable attractions of the quarantine system in southern ports 
in very warm weather. 
About four wecks afterwards we took passage in the screw 
steamer City of Austin, at Fernandina, for New York. She had 
just arrived from Nassau with a large number of passengers, in- 
cluding Mr. Morton, the proprictor of the Royal Victoria Hotel, 
together with his principal assistants. The children of the 
American Consul were also on board, and we learned that the 
Consul and his wife designed to follow them so soonas his official 
duties would admit of his leaving. We had also the Episcopal 
Bishop and his children. ‘The Bishop’s wife was one of the vic- 
tims of the fever, and we had no doubt he had left Nassau because 
he was not willing to incur the hazards incident to a residence 
there during the warm and wet season of the year. We could 
‘not but deeply sympathise with him in his great affliction, and 
half regret that we had allowed ourselves to be amused at the 
high sounding titles which, upon his arrival the year previous, 
helped so much to inspire the Bahamians with reverence, if not 
with awe. Upon ship-board there were certain peculiarities in 
his every day costume, as striking as a Chinaman’s pig-tail, which 
were well calculated to attract attention. They were strongly 
suggestive of the fact that the man whom they adorned was not 
an ordinary individual. But in the shadow of his great bereave- 
ment, surrounded, as he was, with his pretty but motherless little 
ones, we were not disposed to unfavorably criticise or inwardly 
smile at the peculiarities of his costume. We did not make the 
Bishop’s acquaintance, but he was dignified without seeming vain 
and conceited, and his intelligent, amiable and good natured 
countenance quite prepossessed us in his favor. 
