e on,
the island sent forth multitudes of snakes from their lurking-
places, which infested the camp, making their way in some
instances into our very beds. This was bad enough, but it was
not the only nuisance to which we were subject. The alligators,
which during the winter months lie in a dormant state, now began
to awaken, and prowling about the margin of the pool, created no
little alarm and agitation. Apparently confounded at our
invasion of their territories, these monsters at first confined
themselves to the marshy part of the island, but becoming by
degrees more familiar, they soon ventured to approach the very
precincts of the camp. One of them at length entered a tent; in
which only a woman and child chanced to be, and having stared
round as if in amazement, walked out again without offering to
commit any violence. But the visit was of too serious a nature
to be overlooked. Parties were accordingly formed for their
destruction, and it was usual on the return of each from an
excursion, instead of asking how many birds, to demand how many
snakes and alligators they had shot. Of the former, indeed,
great numbers were killed,`and of the latter not a few, the
largest of which measured about nine feet from the snout to the
tail.

Another employment, also, deserves to be noted, because it is
truly characteristic of the boyish jollity of young soldiers.
Wearied with a state of idleness, the officers of the 7th, 43rd,
and 14th dragoons made an attack with fir-apples upon those of
the 85th, 93rd, and 95th. For the space of some days they pelted
each other from morning till night, laying ambuscades and
exhibiting, on a small scale, all the stratagems of war; whilst
the whole army, not even excepting the Generals themselves, stood
by and spurred them on.

But to continue a detail of such proceedings would only swell my
narrative, without amusing my reader; I shall therefore content
myself with observing, that things remained in this state till
the 14th of March, when the long-looked for frigate at length
arrived, and on the 15th, the first division of the army
embarking, set sail for England. The wind, however, was foul,
nor did the ships make any way till the 17th, when a fresh breeze
springing up, we stood our course, and by ten o'clock on the 21st
could distinguish the high land of Cuba. But the violence of the
gale having driven us considerably to leeward, we were forced to
bear up, and beat along the