e school boys as a rendezvous for swimming, and many a summer's
afternoon and Saturday have I spent there in the good old days gone
by.

I shall now relate an incident of one of these expeditions to the
island by myself and three others. I can recollect the names of only
two members of the expedition of that Saturday, and I might say that
they were my schoolfellows of the Collegiate School, which occupied
the site of Mr. Ellis's residence on Church Hill, and was afterwards
burnt down. I left the Colonial School in 1860, and transferred to
the Collegiate School, which was conducted as a church institution.
Rev. C. T. Woods was principal, with Rev. Mr. Reese, "Cantab."
Williams, and Messrs. Vincent and Palmer, French and drawing and
music, as the full staff. Well, about the Deadman's Island affair.
One Saturday afternoon in midsummer four of us--Robert Branks, a
brother of Mrs. Doctor Powell, William Galley, James Estall and a
fourth whose name I cannot now remember hired a boat at Lachapelle's,
near James Bay Bridge, and made for Deadman's Island. We enjoyed the
luxury of running about the island like the savages on Robinson
Crusoe's island, then dived into deep water, swam around for a time
and landed to dry and warm ourselves at a fire we had made for that
purpose. All boys know that a fire is indispensable to swimming and
bathing.

While squatting on the ground around the fire the idea struck me that
by the way the wind was blowing it would not need much encouragement
for the fire to take hold of some of the boxes of bones, which may
have represented an Indian chief, his wife or child. I then proposed
that we accidentally on purpose "set fire to the whole lot." After a
council of war it was finally decided to carry out my suggestion, as
a grand wind-up of our day's outing. Time after time we dived off,
and swam around till tired, and then came ashore to dry ourselves at
the fire. This is the exact routine of boys' swimming expeditions of
these present days, and will be to the end of all time. We got tired
of it at last and dressed, preparing to go home, when the subject of
the firing of the Indian corpses was again discussed. Should we do it
or not? Robert Branks was with me all right, but one boy was fearful
of the consequences. "The chief and all the Indians on the Songhees
reserve would soon see the fire and would be after us." There was
something in this, for there were hundreds then, where there are now
dozens