from them, in similar distress, for five years; these saw the fire, and upon a raft joined their fellow sufferers.  They now built a boat with the fragments of the wreck, made sails of calf-skins, and caulked her with their fat, mixed with charcoal:  one man and the boy went away in her:  Master John, and one whose name has not been preserved, would not venture in her:  they made themselves coracles with skins, and coasted round the shoals, which they estimated at twelve leagues long.  At low water there were seventeen islands, but only five which were not sometimes overflowed.  Fish, turtle, sea-calves, birds, and a root like purslane, was their food.  The whites of turtle-eggs, when dried and buried for a fortnight, turned to water, which they found good drink:  five months in the year these eggs were their chief food.  They clothed themselves and covered their huts with calf-skins, and made an enclosure to catch fish, twenty-two fathoms long, with stones brought out of the sea—­and raised two towers in the same laborious way, sixteen fathoms in circumference at the base, and four in height, at the north and south extremities of the island:  upon these they made fires as signals.  To avoid the crabs and snails which tormented them at night, they slept in the day time.

Three years after the other went way, John’s sufferings began to affect his reason:  in a fit of despair, he applied to the devil for that relief his prayers had failed to bring; and, rising in the dark, he fancied the devil was close to the hut.  John awakened his companion, and taking a crucifix for protection, ran praying to the other end of the island.  About a fortnight afterwards, John thought he heard his visiter again, but did not see him.  And it now pleased God to relieve them:  they saw a ship, and made a great smoke upon their tower, which was seen.  John and his companion were carried to the Havannah, where their appearance and story attracted great attention.  John was twice sick during the eight years, both times in August, and both times bled himself.—­Southey’s Chronological History of the West Indies.

* * * * *

FIRST APPEARANCES OF MISS STEPHENS AND MR. KEAN.

During this memorable era of the British Stage, Mr. Hazlit was engaged as theatrical reporter to the Morning Chronicle, newspaper, then conducted by Mr. Perry, and printed on the exact site of the MIRROR office:  in his Table Talk he gives the following portraiture of their theatrical successes:—­

What squabbles we used to have about Kean and Miss Stephens, the only theatrical favourites I ever had!  Mrs. Billington had got some notion that Miss Stephens would never make a singer, and it was the torment of Perry’s life (as he told me in confidence) that he could not get any two people to be of the same opinion on any one point.  I shall not easily forget bringing him my account of her first appearance