“And that’s how Harry Bolton came to be a neighbour of mine,” concluded Long Lumley; “and a nice place he has here, and a capital neighbour he is.”
We discussed the whole story over Lumley’s wine after dinner the next day, when the Hon. and Rev. Mr Luttridge, who had since married the bishop’s niece, and was said to have been a disappointed expectant of the living given to Bolton, made one of our party.
“A very odd man, certainly, the bishop is,” was that gentleman’s remark; “very strange, you know, to go poking about the country in that kind of way. Scarcely the thing, in fact, I must say.”
“Upon my honour,” said Lumley, “you parsons ought to be better judges of what is or is not ‘the thing’ for a bishop, than I can be; but if the Bishop of F—— is an odd man, I know, if I had the making of bishops, I’d look out for a match for him.”
THE FLORIDA PIRATE.
[MAGA. August 1821.]
A series of misfortunes had unexpectedly thrown me upon a foreign land, and entirely deprived me of the means of subsistence. I knew not where to apply for relief, or how to avoid the alarming evils that threatened me on every side. I was on one of the Bahama islands. I could not enjoy the temporary asylum I then possessed longer than two days, without involving myself in debts which I was unable to pay, and consequently bringing my person under the power of individuals, who, I was inclined to suspect, had nothing humane or generous in their characters. I wandered along the seashore, sometimes shuddering at the dreariness of my prospects, and sometimes trembling lest the horrors of want should urge me to obtain the necessaries of life by concealing from others that I was in absolute poverty.
When about a mile distant from the small town where I lodged, my attention was attracted by a schooner lying at anchor behind a projecting point of land. I knew that vessels did not usually moor in such a situation, and inquired at a fisherman, whom I met on the beach, if he could tell me what the schooner did there? “I am not quite sure,” returned he, “but I rather suspect she’s a pirate. Those on board of her are mostly blacks, and they seem very anxious to keep out of sight. Had she been a fair trader, she would have come into the harbour at once.”