I at once ordered fifty double-barrelled rifles of Messrs Barnett & Sons, Tower Hill, London, and one hundred and fifty single barrels on the same principle, of Messrs Hall, Birmingham. The rifles were soon ready; but the military authorities insisted on lengthy trials to burst them--to prove, I suppose, that they would be more dangerous to those who used them than to those they were used against. The cartridges also underwent innumerable trials: it was supposed by long-headed gentlemen at Woolwich, that the iron caps in the base of the bullets might be so struck that a spark could be emitted, the cartridge explode, and the engineer be hoisted by his own petard. Colonel P---- of the 12th gravely surmised the possibility of one man communicating the danger to another; upon which Mr Jeffrey, of marine-blue fame, laughingly remarked that the battalion in that case would begin file-firing by shooting themselves off instead of their firelocks. These, and other equally reasonable suppositions, kept me in England, until I began to fear, from the accounts of slaughter sent home, that there would not be a Kaffir left to try my guns upon. However, as I knew from experience that despatches intended for a public a long way off were apt to be put in a very trumpet-speaking style, and how that through a little bit of brass a little puff can make a big noise, I started for the Cape in the good ship Harbinger, still in the hopes of proving the usefulness of this new weapon. CHAPTER II. LAND AT ST VINCENT--SHOOTING EXCURSION ON THE ISLAND--STRANGE DREAM--NARROWLY ESCAPE SHIPWRECK--ARRIVE AT SIERRA LEONE--INTERVIEW WITH THE GOVERNOR--OFFICIAL CEREMONIES--VISIT THE BISHOP--OFFICIAL INSIGNIA--ST HELENA--NEGLECTED STATE OF THE HOUSE WHERE NAPOLEON DIED. In the same ship were the newly-appointed Governor of the Cape, Mr Darling, and a Mr Macdonald, also recently appointed to the Gambia. The voyage was pleasant on all sides--ship, sea, and passengers--until we put into the Isle of St Vincent for coal. Here an event occurred which I should not relate had I been merely recording the actions of those around me; but I write these pages that others may learn the impulses that guide fellow-beings, who, from one cause or another, have in turn influenced many. As the ship was being coaled I had landed alone, and wandered about, gun in hand, to shoot, if I could, some snipe that were supposed now and again to visit the island. I could see nothing remarkable in this elevated spot but its geographical situation in the volcanic chain that runs from New Granada to St Eustache. As for the snipe, I had not the courage to fire at a poor solitary wanderer like myself that rose at my feet; so, towards evening, I returned to the ship, tired with my walk on this torrid, brick-kiln-looking island, that rose in layers to the clouds like an altar of earth’s burnt-offering reeking to the skies.