“——If thou dost love me, Shew me thy thought?” Accosted in this sudden manner, and surprised by his serious demeanour, Zulmiera’s caution forsook her, and bursting into tears, confessed to her lover, as best she could, the following facts. Having been treated with great scorn and harshness by the governor, and looking upon herself as the descendant of a line of chieftains, and consequently entitled to respect, a deep and irresistible feeling of revenge sprang up in her breast, and absorbed her every thought. Roaming, as she had ever been wont, amid the romantic dells and leafy labyrinths of her native islands, she came one evening upon a curious cavern; her love of novelty led her to inspect it, but in the act of doing so, she was driven back in alarm by the sight of a flashing pair of eyes. Unable to suppress her fears, yet too much overcome by the encounter to fly, she leant against the rocky opening of the cave; when, rushing from his concealment, a powerful man, whom she immediately recognised as a Carib, darted upon her, and placing his hand upon her mouth to prevent her screams from being heard, was about to bear her away as his captive. Terrified as she was, she still had the presence of mind to declare her origin, and claim his forbearance, on the score of their allied blood. To such a plea, a Carib’s heart is never deaf; the grasp upon the shoulder was relaxed; the armed warrior stood quietly by her side; and a conversation in the Carib tongue (which Zulmiera had acquired from her mother) was carried on between them. The stranger declared himself to be a Carib chief, named Cuanaboa, and with the openness for which that people were noted among their friends, acquainted Zulmiera with the cause of his appearance in that lone cave. Following the example of his fathers, Cuanaboa said he had resolved to make an attack upon Antigua, accompanied by a neighbouring chief and their several tribes; but in a war-council held by them, it had been arranged for him to pay a secret visit to the island, in order to inspect it, and endeavour to find out its weakest parts. Accordingly, leaving his mountain home in Dominica, he had paddled himself over in a slight canoe, and easily discovering the cave, which had been well-known to the tribe in their former predatory visits, he took up his abode there.