day passed without bringing a letter from John, would be very difficult. The day after Mrs. M'Frederic's visit, Mrs. O'Hara and three of her daughters drove over to Finn Hill, to pour out their fears into Lucy's ear.

"What can have happened? Mr. O'Hara went up to Derry yesterday to inquire at the Anchor Line Office for news of the steamer, but she has not reached New York, and no vessel has passed her. The Cambria, which left Derry on the 21st of April, two days later than the Village Belle, arrived all safe on the 4th of May."

"So I have heard, Mrs. O'Hara; there was a letter from Margaret Jane Henderson yesterday morning; she went in the Cambria."

"Mr. O'Hara, poor man, came home last night in wretched spirits," proceeded his wife. "We all try to comfort him by telling him that a vessel of that description is not likely to be wrecked in a storm, but, to tell the truth, we need comfort ourselves-John is such a darling with us all-his poor Aunt Georgie is every bit as low as the master himself. I dreamt (but you'll call me very foolish, Lucy)-I dreamt one night lately that I saw the ship being crushed between two icebergs, and the passengers, some of them springing upon the ice, and others getting into the boats." "Springing upon the iceberg, Mrs. O'Hara! That would be destruction. I hope you saw John and Cecil getting into a

boat."

"I did not see them at all, my dear. I saw the icebergs come sailing on like a fleet of silver castles, and closing in the steamer; and I saw dark figures swarming over them just as the ship went down, while two or three boats were heaving up and down in the swell at some distance, but I could not distinguish John."

"Of course John would go in a boat if there was room for him. Catch him doing a foolish thing! He is far too wide awake and sensible for that!" cried Jane and Carrie in a breath.

"John is very brave and cool; he would be ready to do what was best under any emergency," admitted Lucy; "and he and Cecil, and Joe M'Frederic, would be sure to stand by one another; but after all we need not anticipate danger-a hundred things may have delayed the Village Belle, and you know, Mrs. O'Hara, there is not much in dreams," concluded she, speaking in her old established character for matter-of-fact common sense.

"I knew you would tell me so, my dear; you are a sensible girl."

"That's just what John says of you," put in Ellen; "he says you are a steady girl, with no humbug about you, and he wishes we girls would take pattern by you."

"The Village Belle was always a sure goer," resumed the anxious mother; "the usual length of her passage was fifteen days. Why this is the 28th of May, ten days ago we might have heard of the steamer's arrival at New York."

This was so true that Lucy could not think of any consolation to offer.

Days went by, and still no news of the missing ship, and there was sorrow throughout the length and breadth of the parish, so much respected were the O'Haras. Joe M'Frederic was mourned also, if not as widely, at least as sincerely as John.

Every newspaper brought speculations about the vessel's fate, but no trace of her was found, though homeward-bound ships told of several deserted hulls tossing hither and thither upon the ocean. A list of the passengers was published. Most of the names were but little known in earthly annals-children of toil, boys and girls of the labouring class, and sons of respectable Ulster farmers, brave and honest like Joe M'Frederic. Some tears fell upon the names of Captain Sinclair and John O'Hara both at Finn Hill and the Castle.

The poor O'Haras thought they should be somewhat comforted if they did but know how John had died-if the ship had indeed been crushed among icebergs, or if the boilers had burst; but the days went by, bringing no relief from their horrible suspense, and still the people, as they greeted one another at fairs and markets, or along the public roads, whispered, ere they spoke of their haymaking or potato crop, "Nae word of thon ship?"

"Nae word ava," was always the reply. Certainty, however, came at last. Lucy, entering the book-room one warm summer's day, found her mother and James in close conversation-so engrossed that they did not hear her step until she was beside them. Something in their manner made her exclaim:

"You have heard some news about the Village Belle !”

"Yes, there have been tidings of her at last. My uncle has got the paper just now; but stop a moment, Lucy, and I shall tell you all that is in it."

"Very well, James; but you must make haste. wrecked?"

Was she

"Don't look that way, darling," implored her mother. "Sit down, and James will tell you all.".

"The Hamburg and American steam-ship Westphalia arrived at Plymouth, from New York, yesterday, with a sick sailor on board, who had been handed over to her captain by the crew of the barque Fredolin from Halifax. The man is in the last stage of decline, but he was able to give an account of the hardships which have reduced him to his present condition. He, with ten com

panions, had been in an open boat for nineteen days, suffering the extremity of starvation, but enduring on in hopes of falling in with some ship."

"But who was he, James, and how did he come there?"

"He belonged to the Village Belle, which was burnt, and all on board perished except this man and his ten companions. All were lost, passengers and crew.'

"Oh, my God! Were they-was he burnt to death?" she asked, shuddering.

"No, Lucy, he was drowned. As soon as it was discovered that the vessel had taken fire, every effort was made to save her, but in vain, and when it was considered dangerous to remain in her any longer, the boats were lowered, and the passengers and crew got into them. This sailor says they were overcrowded, and he saw them go down-all-none escaped."

"How did he?"

"There were only eleven men in his boat; but he says they often wished it had been their lot to sink with the rest, so dreadful were their sufferings from hunger and thirst, for the cask of water and store of biscuit which they took on board the boat was soon expended. One after another had to leave the oar, and before the nineteen days were out, Tom Mahon (that's his name) and two others were left alone, but they were now too weak to attempt to row, and the boat was adrift on the ocean when the Fridolin came across her. The Fridolin is a very slow sailer. It was a long time before the Westphalia appeared in sight. Mahon was then getting better, and very anxious to reach England, thinking it his only chance of life, so he was glad to be taken into the steamer; but he is too far gone to recover. He is in an hospital at Plymouth."

"And the other two?"

"Dead. They died the day after they were rescued by the Fridolin."

"But you have not told me the date, James. When was the Village Belle burnt? Was it long ago?"

"Oh, it happened a considerable time ago," replied he, evasively, giving a furtive glance of warning at Mrs. Fitzpatrick-a glance that was, however, quite lost upon her.

"The date, James," persisted Lucy. "Surely the paper must mention what day it happened?"

She turned from him impatiently, receiving no answer, and looked at her mother, who replied, after a moment's consideration: "It was the morning of the 27th of April."

(To be continued.)

THE DELAGOA BAY ARBITRATION CASE.

THE Bay of Delagoa, the joint possession of which by the Portuguese and the English has become the last subject of arbitration, was formerly called Formosa Bay, from (notwithstanding its reputed unhealthiness) the beauty of its scenery and the security of the anchorage. It is a deep inlet of the Indian Ocean, formed by the current so constantly setting to the southward along the east coast of Africa. The abrading influence of this current has been arrested in the south part of the bay by the firmer and loftier formation of the country, assisted by the continual deposits to their mouths by the numerous rivers, including the Limpopo, the Umkomagazi, or King George's River; the Matollo, or Lorenzo Marques River; the Dundas, or English River; the Tembe, or Ka Tembe River; and the Umzuti, or Maputa, all of which flow into this fine bay. According to some, the so-called English River comprises the whose estuary of the Matolla, the Dundas, and the Tembe rivers. The current having been deflected thus from the mainland, in its easterly set, while returning to the ocean, has formed for itself a channel, by separating a lofty headland from the main, and forming of it the island now called Inyak.

The bay thus forms an arc, on the chord of which may be found large shoals, and even islands, formed by the action of this great stream, and the deposits of the great river Limpopo, which discharges itself into the upper or northern portion of the bay. This is quite a recent discovery effected by Mr. St. Vincent Erskine, who has traced the Limpopo from the junction of the Lipalule to the sea, proving it to be the river laid down in Captain Owen's chart as the Inhampura. Still more recently Captain Elton, constructing a boat at the Tati settlement, and carrying it overland some two hundred and fifty miles, launched it on the Limpopo at the junction of the Shasha stream, whence he descended about four hundred miles to the junction of the Lipalule, discovering on his way very remarkable falls, determining the navigability of the river in its lower portion, even in the driest season of the year, and connecting his exploration with the work of Mr. St. Vincent Erskine. The Limpopo is, unfortunately, like all the rivers on the east coast of Africa, however large they may be in the interior, almost lost at its embouchure. It is indeed said to be so blocked by sandbanks across the entrance as to be only open to boats.

The anchorage of the bay lies mainly in the mouth of the

English River, which there runs due east and west, and it may, therefore, be imagined how secure is this anchorage, land-locked from all winds, and protected from the sea by a number of islands and shoals placed as natural breakwaters. Nature could not well have formed a bay more admirably adapted for the purpose of holding communication with the interior of the adjoining country.

Inyak Island is two hundred and forty feet in height, and shows no indication of a sickly climate, but, on the contrary, has been always used by the people dwelling in the low country of Tembe as a sanitarium. The Portuguese claims to territory on the east coast of Africa begin at Lorenzo Marques, on the north side of the river known by the same name by the Portuguese, but always designated as English River by Mr. Lyons M'Leod in his "Travels in Eastern Africa;" and that gentleman, who visited the bay in July, 1857, in Her Majesty's ship Hermes, describes it as the most southern point on the coast where the Portuguese flag is permitted to fly."

Formerly," says the same writer, "the authorities of Lorenzo Marques claimed the whole of Delagoa Bay; but the southern portion of the bay, comprehending Tembe and its dependency, Inyak Island, having been ceded to Captain W. F. Owen, R.N., by King' Keppel, in 1822, we have been in possession of a tract of country which affords us access to the Zulu country by way of the British river Maputa, while the English River gives us access into the interior, even, it is believed (for this country is very little known), to the Transvaal Republic."

There is an opening here for discussion as to the rights of the so-called "King" Keppel, or Mayetta, to dispose of territory on the Bay of Delagoa. They appear to have been quite as well founded as those possessed by Lorenzo Marques when he first established himself at the unhealthy spot still bearing his name, to carry on the ivory and slave trade with the natives; but the Portuguese can claim priority of occupation, at all events, upon the mainland north of English River; the territory of Tembe south of that river, having been nearly up to the period of its occupancy by the English in the possession of the Dutch. Still, this is a stronger claim, were it not for the Portuguese occupancy of the east coast having been defined from the earliest times by the said river, than that of the very secondary occupation by which the Americans claimed to convert what were New Albion and New Hanover into Oregon and Washington States.

The Boers of the Orange Free State and of the Transvaal or South African Republics have no port, and consequently no outlet for their commerce. Their products have, therefore, to find