When the preliminaries of business were transacted, my consignee kindly invited me to reside at his house, and I enjoyed the change from a cabin to a luxurious home. At day-light I visited the vessel, returning on shore after breakfast. The house was built of wood with wide verandahs in front and rear. Posts about six feet high supported it from the ground, leaving a space under the house for air to circulate, and rogues also as it proved; for a few weeks before my arrival a robbery occurred, and it is supposed, in this way. The thieves went under the house and bored holes in the floor of the sleeping room, through which they introduced the smoke obtained by burning the leaves of a narcotic plant. The inmate being stupefied, the thieves broke in at the front door, robbed the house and took away an iron safe that was chained to the bed of the sleeper. They were so sure of their work that they stopped in the garden to open the safe, but being unable to do this, they carried it to the beach and buried it in the sand, where it was found the next day with its contents intact, except a few small articles of jewelry, which the thieves had managed to shake out through a small opening they had made. New York or London could hardly surpass this. Many thought the house servants must have been abettors, as they were accustomed to sleep on the verandahs outside the thresholds of three entrances to the house, so that anyone entering must step over them. Nothing could be proved against them, and we repeatedly had occasion to step over their bodies at night and open the doors when returning at late hours, and at such times entrance was often effected without disturbing their sound slumbers.