Forty years after, and maybe does now, the spot bore the name of “Keppel’s Folly.” [Illustration: _Keppel’s Folly._] [Sidenote: June 15.] We sailed for England. The _Rainbow_ had been on the Australian and New Zealand stations, which accounted for my seeing, when dining with my kind host, on removal of the dish-cover, the tattooed head of a Maori Chief. The ship was full of curios: game-cocks secured by the leg to alternate gun-carriages on main-deck. There were two Bengal tiger whelps, a ferocious-looking bull-dog as gentle as a lamb, and a monkey free to go where he chose. After evening quarters, a sail was spread on the forecastle, where some interesting sparring took place. In the cabin, I had each forenoon a lesson in backgammon, with the Captain, at the cost of a shilling per day. Among invalids was a Lieutenant, Jack Crosbie, who quarrelled with me because I made a remark about his sister in reply to one he made about me. I did not know then that he _had_ a sister, although he had five, all uncommonly good-looking--I married one! [Sidenote: June 25.] Arrived off St. Helena. Our Captain had served in one of the ships that had guarded the island during the residence of the great Napoleon. His Imperial Majesty had died May 5, 1821, and his remains rested in a spot chosen by himself--a garden at the foot of a deep ravine; the grave, between two willow-trees, close to a fountain, from which he had during life been specially supplied. To visit the spot with the Captain was a pleasant and interesting walk. [Illustration: _Napoleon’s Grave._] [Sidenote: July 2.] Called at Ascension, then little better than a huge cinder; there was a small spring some seven miles distant. Its redeeming point was the kind manner in which the finest turtle landed to deposit their eggs on the numerous sanded inlets; this they preferred doing on bright moonshiny nights, never dreaming that they were being watched. And having covered with sand as many or more than a hundred luscious eggs, the size and shape of a large orange, left them for the sun to hatch. Their own tracks carefully sprinkled with sand, on returning to the briny deep, they little thought they were to be turned on their backs, above high-water mark, by huge Royal Marines, there to await passage to the table of the First Lord of the Admiralty or his friends! Of course, the male turtle is never foolish enough to land if he knows of it. [Sidenote: Aug. 8] On our reaching soundings in the chops of the Channel, Captain Rous bought a bag of potatoes from a pilot boat; and having a live pig still left, he determined on a feast, and so make up my quarrel with Crosbie. [Sidenote: Aug. 10.] We arrived at Spithead, after the pleasantest voyage I ever made. CHAPTER VI ENGLAND [Sidenote: 1829. Aug. 12.]