e was.

"She is the keeper's wife; they say she's not altogether right in her
mind, so he brought her there, that she might be out of harm's way. My
idea is, she was fond of the bottle; but as she's kept on short
allowance out there, she is not likely to be the worse for liquor."

"Poor creature! what a terrible existence for her, to be compelled to
live from month to month surrounded by water, without seeing any one
except her husband and his mate!" observed the judge's wife.

"To my mind, marm, she's better off up there out of the way of
temptation than she would be if left at home alone hankering after the
grog bottle. Maybe by the time she gets ashore she'll be cured, and
happier than she was before," observed the skipper.

After making several tacks in sight of the lighthouse, we again kept
before the wind, and the skipper taking the helm, we dashed on boldly
towards the line of foaming breakers. The water bubbled and hissed
around us, sometimes leaping up and falling with a splash on our deck.
The schooner sailed on, and in a few minutes we were gliding calmly up
the Saint John River, here a mile broad. We kept to the south shore for
some time, till we came to a cliff some twenty feet in height, covered
at the summit with palmetto, pine, and cedar.

Lejoillie inquired of the skipper the name of the cliff, and was told it
was called Saint John Bluff; upon which he looked at it with great
interest.

"Ah! I thought so," he said; "it is the scene of the death of many of
my compatriots. Have you not heard the story?"

"No," I replied; "I thought the Spaniards were the only Europeans who
held possession of the country until it was taken from them by the
English, and being afterwards restored, was sold to the United States."

"Ah! but I speak of some centuries ago, as far back as the year 1562.
The brave Admiral Coligny wishing to found a settlement in the New
World, where his co-religionists might be freed from the persecutions to
which they were subjected, sent out a stout Breton navigator, Jean
Ribaut, to search for a suitable spot.

"Entering the Saint John River, he fixed on yonder bluff, and, taking
possession of it in the name of the King of France, he erected a stone
to mark the site, and returned home with a favourable report. In a
short time three ships were got ready to convey a large party of
colonists, under the command of a Huguenot gentleman, Rene de
Laudoniere. On their arrival in the ri