If it was ' loaded with curses dark ' there would be some sense in it. I
recollect a case in point. It was said that old Commodore Ben Swain
never required any ballast, because he could curse his ship's hold full of
oaths, and bring her down to her heavy-load line in less than five min-
utes ; but rigging a ship with curses is a different matter. To be sure,
you can rattle 'em 07it fast enough ; but how can you rattle 'em down f "



KALOOLAH. 55

" Land ho ! " cut short the captain's criticism upon Milton's famous
■elegy. It proved to be the islands of Corvo and Floras, the most west-
erly of the Azores, or Western Islands. Corvo, a smalf rocky island, so
named from its resemblance to a crow, and on which it is said was
found by the first visitors, some time before the discovery of America,
an equestrian statue, with a hand pointing to the west, was too far to
the north of us for a distinct view. Flores we saw more distinctly.
Passing within a few miles of it we could plainly perceive the masses of
volcanic rock of which it is composed. As far inland as the eye could
reach along the verdant ravines and gorges the land appeared to be in
the highest state of cultivation. Every foot of the meagre soil seemed
to have been wrested by the hand of industry from the dominion of
nature, and made to subserve the interests of a poor, ignorant, super-
stitious, but honest and hard-working, population. We all concluded
from the distant, but tolerably distinct view that we had of it, that Flores
must be worthy of its name — the island of flowers.
