ht from some chance hearing. The servants are
very tolerable, but they take so many to work. The prisoners do
the scouring, and fancy three or four men cleaning a room that
an old woman in England would do in an hour,--besides the
soldier who stands by, his bayonet drawn in his hand. All my
troubles have been of a housekeeping kind, and no one could
begin on a more plentiful stock of ignorance than myself.
However, like Sindbad the Sailor in the cavern, I begin to see
daylight. I have numbered and labelled my keys, (their name is
Legion,) and every morning I take my way to the store, give out
flour, sugar, butter, etc., and am learning to scold, if I see
any dust or miss customary polish on the tables. I am actually
getting the steward of the ship, who is my right hand, to teach
me how to make pastry. I will report progress in the next. We
live almost entirely on ducks and chickens; if a sheep be
killed, it must be eaten the same day. The bread is very good,
palm wine being used for yeast; and yams are an excellent
substitute for potatoes. The fruit generally is too sweet for
my liking; but the oranges and pine-apples are delicious. You
cannot think the complete seclusion in which I live; but I have
a great resource in writing, and I am very well and very happy.
But I think even more than I expected, if that be possible, of
my English friends."

Your truly affectionate

L. E. MACLEAN.

She had signed her name "L. E. Landon," but had erased "Landon," and
written in "Maclean," adding, "How difficult it is to leave off an old
custom!"

Poor girl! She thus fulfilled her own mournful prediction, though
speaking of another:--

Where my father's bones are lying,
There my bones will never lie!

* * * *

Mine shall be a lonelier ending,
Mine shall be a wilder grave,
Where the shout and shriek are blending,
Where the tempest meets the wave:
Or perhaps a fate more lonely,
In some drear and distant ward,
Where my weary eyes meet only
Hired nurse and sullen guard.

FOOTNOTES:

[B] She was married on the 7th of June, 1838, to Mr. Maclean, at St.
Mary's, Bryanston Square,--her brother, the Rev. Whittington Landon,
officiating. The bride was given away by her long and attached friend,
Sir Bulwer Lytton.

OUR OLDEST FRIEND.

REA