The above number applies to the port of Honolulu alone. At Maui, and from other parts and ports of the Islands, perhaps an equal number have been shipped during the same period.

The wages paid these men varies from 5 to 12 dollars, except where paid by "lays" in whaling vessels; but taking 8 dollars as a low average, and on the assumption that 550 is the number of native seamen so einployed, their collective earnings will amount to 4400 dollars yearly. There is little doubt that part of that sum, sooner or later, finds its way back to these islands, as happens with the migratory labourers of the Duchy of Lucca, Ireland, and the Highlands of Scotland.

The "lays" or shares allowed in whalers vary from a 120th to a 250th, though perhaps three-fourths of the kanakas get a 140th or a 150th, the same as allowed to European or American seamen.

There are from 300 to 400 natives employed on the Columbia River in the service and vessels of the Hon. Hudson's Bay Co. on that coast. They are generally engaged for a period of three years, and gain 10 dollars per month. They are never sent east of the Rocky Mountains.

Along the coast of California, the natives are preferred to European or American seamen, as they are eminently useful in taking in hides in high surfs. Some are taken for domestic servants. The wages are from 10 to 12 dollars per month.

Post-office.-Hitherto the receipt of letters from and their transmission to foreign parts, and the circulation of letters within the Islands, has been free from any charge. This exemption is commendably liberal; but if regular posts are established, certain rates of postage must be charged to defray the necessary expenses. The regularity of epistolary communication tends greatly to promote the civilisation and prosperity of any community. Heretofore the want of it has been but little felt, but the number of natives who can correspond by letter is already large; that of foreigners, engaged in the trade of the Islands, is daily augmenting, and in the same proportion increases the necessity for something like a post-office establishment.

But, in the present state of the Islands, I would not recommend one with a view to revenue-I would recommend it only as a matter of public convenience, and hence I would impose on each single letter a rate much smaller than any coin here current. A few cents would suffice to begin with. Any postage beyond that would be like the high Mexican duties, great on paper, but in reality uncollectable. It would either be evaded by the natives, or discourage them from corresponding altogether.

Currency.In the progress of the Islands will arrive, and may arrive

not long hence, a time when a national coinage may be established. But as the Spanish, Spanish American, and North American dollars, with their subdivisions, are regularly introduced, and already known. to the natives, the expenses of a mint are at present wisely dispensed with. But as any coin less than the one-sixteenth part of a dollar, or 6 cents, is seldom met with, I have often thought that a supply of copper cents would be a great advantage to the poor in facilitating their little traffic and exchanges. It would be no difficult matter to have a few thousand dollars in cents, bearing some national device, coined at Birmingham, and sent out here; but in that case they could only be current here, while the same value of North American cents, by being receivable there also, would be less liable to a depreciation, which generally attends the introduction of a copper coin.

(To be continued.)

REMINISCENCES OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA.

BY CHARLES F. ELLERMAN, ESQ.,

AUTHOR OF THE AMNESTY; OR, THE DUKE OF ALBA IN FLANDERS;" &c. &c.

CHAPTER XI.

Mrs. Smith wants to know what they are to do with themselves---The Citizen, on being reminded that it was "Lord Mayor's Day," or the 9th of November, resolves to treat his Friends with the sight of a Bull-fight---The Poet M'Guinness, and his Poem descriptive of a Cold Day in London.

"I SHOULD very much like to know, Mr. Smith, what we are to do with ourselves this blessed day?"

"Do?-why the best thing you can do, Mrs. Smith, is to sit still and keep yourself cool."

"Ah! that's always the way with you, Peter. When we were in London, you refused to take me out, because it was windy, muddy, foggy, or rainy: now that we are here, it's always too hot. I'd better by far have remained in Bishopsgate-street after all, than have come to the Awana to be fried like whitebait, and heten hup with musketers and sand-flies."

Mr. Smith made no reply, but drank a tumblerful of iced water. "You'll get the cramp in your stomach, Mr. Smith, that you will." The common-councilman muttered something which sounded like "he wouldn't."

"Ah! that's the way with you men. You're all as obstinate as mules, and regret, when too late, not having taken your poor wife's hadvice. I see what it will be. I've my persentiments, as the French call it, and you know, Mr. Smith, they so hoften come true. why did you bring me to the Awana? Am I to see you locked up in a box a dead man, and return to London with the key of your coffin in my purse, and the weeds on my brow?"

Mr. Smith rang the bell.

Alas!

Bring me a bottle of rum quickly, and some sugar," said he to the waiter.

66

The negro returned with the spirits, and the citizen deliberately filled a small tumbler with the raw article, which he drank at one draught. "Well, I never!" exclaimed Mrs. Smith; "just like you men, going from one extreme to the t'other. If Doctor Thingeme were here, he'd

say you'll get the calentura or the dropsy, maybe."

"Don't maybe me," Mrs. Smith.

66

No, don't," said I, "for you cannot provide for them, any more than the matron of the Dorcas Society could."

"What was that?" inquired Mrs. Smith.

"Oh, it's an old story," said I, "maybe a Joe Miller for aught I know. It happened one day that a lovely spinster, about sixty years of age, who had long listened to the outpourings of an old suitor, a Mr. Bee, resolved to make him happy by tying the Gordian knot. As a matter of course, the old drone proposed to his hivy queen, that they should spend their honeymoon at some neighbouring village on their return. Mrs. Bee, who did not despair of presenting her lord and master with a bairn, called, as if anticipating such an event, upon one of the Lady Patronesses of the Dorcas Society."

"Ma'am," said she, "I've taken the liberty of calling to ask for a ticket."

"And where is the young woman, who, I presume, is your daughter?"

"Daughter! I'se the young woman, ma'am."

"You! and what do you want a ticket for?" exclaimed the astounded matron, looking through her spectacles.

"For the maybe, ma'am!"

"The-the-my good woman, I am very sorry to have to tell you, that according to our regulations and bye-laws, we are not compelled to provide for maybe's."

"Well, I never! did you, Peter?"

"No, my dear; you never had any maybe's, thank Heaven, and times are too bad to enable us to provide for them. There's a great falling off in the sugar crop this year; and as to the coffee crop, it only proves ordinary to middling. We shall lose a sight of money this year, and these articles will be up in Mincing-lane before long. I shall give orders to my broker to buy all the stock he can lay hands on." "I wish, uncle, you would give up talking of business. Do you know what day this is?"

"Lor, so it is!-don't you remember, Peter, dear?-why it's the 9th of November! I wish I was in London to see the procession." "And I to eat turtle-soup," said Mr. Smith.

"You can have turtle here," said I.

"And have it we will. Yes, I'll order a glorious supper, and we will have Peabody and M'Guinness to join us. Let me see-this is Monday, and if I remember rightly, a grand bull-fight is to take place -fifteen bulls to be slaughtered; it must be a glorious sight!"

66

"I won't go to the bull-fight," said Miss H.; 'no, uncle, it's a barbarous amusement."

"Not a jot worse than our prize-fights, or German battues," was my reply.

"There is something manly in boxing," observed Mrs. Smith.

"Had you seen a fight, my dear, you could not say so. I think it is anything but amusing to see two rational beings bang one another about, smashing noses, putting out eyes, and knocking their teeth down each other's throats. But you shall see this bull-fight, I insist upon it." "Well, Clarissa dear, I suppose we must do at Rome as Rome does, and Peter is so obstinate."

At this moment Mr. Peabody entered. He readily consented to be one of the party, and inquired where the poet M'Guinness was. "I saw him writing away like fury," said Mr. Smith. "Ah! composin, I guess. Well, I never could see much fun, 'specially in the tropics, to sit poring over pens and ink. Let us go and see what he is about, and tell him of our plans."

As it was near the dinner-hour, Mrs. Smith and her niece withdrew to dress for dinner, while Mr. Peabody, Mr. Sinith, and myself repaired to the poet's apartment. We found him seated before a pile of books and manuscripts; and so absorbed was he in composition, that he heeded not our presence, until Mr. Peabody exclaimed,

"Tarnel death! M'Guinness, what puts you in such a stew? You look like a drowned rat, anyhow."

"I've done," said the poet, wiping his brow.

"Done what? for I'm fairly onswaggled."

"Finished my verses."

"Tow and fire! you'll do for yourself, I guess. Put away your papers, or you'll die of apperplexy, that's a fact."

"Don't frighten him," said Mr. Smith.

'Frighten him!-why he looks like a scalded nigger now; and if he goes on composin as he does with the theremometer at 77, he'll be as dead as a smoked herrin, upon my soul!"

"What have you done, M'Guinness," inquired I, "that makes you look so dewy?"

M'Guinness proceeded to tell us that he had received a very polite letter from the Secretary of the Society for Diffusing Knowledge and Promoting the Arts and Sciences in the Island of Cuba, offering him the fellowship of that institution on condition of his furnishing his mite in the shape of a contribution. Anxious to add few more additions to those already affixed to his name, he resolved to comply with their request, and after various vain attempts at odes upon slavery, lovely Creoles, &c., &c., he resolved to indite a poem entitled "A Winter's Day in London," which he proposed to dedicate to the ladies of the Havana;-for it struck him very forcibly, that although whole cargoes of ice were shipped from Boston to Cuba, very few of those good people could have any idea whatever of a cold day in London. M'Guinness took up his MS., and read as follows:-" A Winter's Day in London. By Torquato M'Guinness, A.M., F.A.S.S., &c. &c., Author of various Articles on Political Economy, Railway Bubbles; Contributor to Punch, and various other Scientific Periodi

Dedicated, with every sentiment of respect, to the

cals; &c. &c. Havanese Ladies."

"Now seated on his icy throne,

Old Winter rules the day;

His breath turns water into stone-
His is a frigid sway.'

At this moment the negro waiter entered the room, stating that dinner was on the table.

"We'll hear the conclusion some other day," said Mr. Peabody. "I dare say it's a pretty piece of composin, anyhow; but the cook's is irresistible, quite, I reckon."

M'Guinness was loth to leave his MS., being in the cue to read it -notwithstanding which he followed our example, and directed his steps towards the gallery, where a sumptuous repast gladdened the eye, and the fumes of the dishes sharpened our appetites.

CHAPTER XII.

The Amphitheatre---Mr. Smith gives a Supper in honour of the 9th of November, and sings a Song entitled "The Citizen's Progress, or Domine, Dirige Nos." TOWARDS four o'clock we got into our quitrins. The calesseros rattled through the streets at a rapid pace, endangering the limbs of the pedestrians who were treading their way towards the quay, near the church of Santa Clara, where lay the steamboat that was to paddle them across the noble harbour to Regla, where the amphitheatre was constructed. We did not alight, for the steamers are so arranged that they can carry several quitrins with the greatest convenience. The boats were crowded to excess, and presented a most animated appearance, with the conflux of white and coloured men and women-the latter dressed in gaudy and flaming-coloured cotton and silk gowns, and wearing Madras handkerchiefs, which were tastefully bound round their heads. Almost all the boats plying for hire were filled with people hurrying on towards the scene of action, and the broad expanse of the estuary was completely dotted with skiffs of various sizes, covered with milk-white or gaily-striped awnings, beneath which all, save the rowers, weve indulging in the dolce far niente, the greatest luxury in tropical regions.

The passage only lasted a few minutes, and the species of drawbridge fixed to the deck of the steamer was lowered, when the hawser was made taught to the floating pier. With the help of whip and spur the horses darted up the acclivity, and, heedless of ruts, projecting stones, or other impediments, the calesseros galloped on, nor did they stop until we reached the doors of the amphitheatre.

We were disappointed with the appearance of this building, which was constructed entirely of wood, rather clumsily put together.

As it is the author's intention to republish these Reminiscences, under the title of "The Smiths on their Travels, or Reminiscences of Cuba and Belgium," he has cut the poem short at the first stanza, as it would occupy too much space in the Magazine this month.-C. F. E.