If there is one sentiment that one hears more constantly repeated than another by the British tourist nowadays, it is that he "hates to travel without an object." He begins well enough, but in the course of time the objects become exhausted, and he wanders about the world blasé and discontented, or ceases to wander at all. I found myself fast approaching this stage, when I encountered a series of adventures which have provided me with an interest for life, and suggested to me an occupation which has enabled me to prove a blessing to a large and yearly-increasing class of my

fellow-creatures.

I remarked that in almost every country I had visited, I had been preceded by some unprotected female tourist, who had inspired terror and dismay by the sternness of her aspect, her thirst for information, and her invincible determination to engage in impracticable or dangerous enterprises. I had frequently witnessed the panic produced in a foreign community by the announcement that a literary spinster was expected to arrive, and perceived that the prejudices excited against her were so strong that when she did make her appearance she would be without a friend. When I came calmly to consider this state of affairs, all the chivalrous instincts of my nature became aroused, and I determined to travel about the world, as the professed protector and champion of this strong-minded but misunderstood class of persons. When I say that I am not afraid to face one of them quite alone in a savage country, I am aware that I lay claim to a very high order of courage; and if I go on to assert that I would even go out of my way to meet such an individual-that I extremely enjoy as much of her society as she will condescend to bestow upon me—the

fact that most of my readers will consider this mere empty swagger shall not deter me from describing the qualities which so eminently adapt me for my present noble mission. I need scarcely say, in passing, that I am totally indifferent to all considerations connected with personal appearance. There is no greater delusion than to imagine that these ladies can take care of themselves; circumstances are of necessity constantly arising in which they are utterly helpless, and all the consolation they then get is, "Serve them right! what business has a woman to go poking her nose into such places by herself? of course she will get into scrapes.' Decidedly, thought I, I will become a Knight-errant of the Nineteenth Century; and immediately I started off in chase of poor Ida Pfeiffer. I followed her to India, Ceylon, and the Straits, till she finally beat me in Borneo. Then I turned my attention to the authoress who writes a book about a country and calls herself "The Englishwoman." And here again I would remark casually, that, from my constant association with these remarkable and interesting specimens of their sex, many of the most striking features of my own style have been derived. For instance, now and then I find it has a tendency towards egotism. Frequently I enter into very profound disquisitions upon subjects I don't the least understand, nor do I think it necessary to dive very deeply into questions which present themselves for consideration, or to verify the accuracy of statements furnished to me by good-natured informants. Thus, even when I am profound I am amusing, and those who most thoroughly appreciate my descriptions of the countries I have visited are the inhabitants themselves.

There is hardly a country now

as the dreadful fate I pictured would overtake her. The forest abounded in wild animals. It was almost pathless; there were no habitations nearer than a village, from which we were separated by a river. As the country sloped down into a valley, I thought it not impossible she might endeavour to find her way by following the watercourses, and so I despondingly struggled along a muddy track towards the stream. It had become swollen by the rain, and the rushing of the torrent in the dusk was not an encouraging sound. Tying up the horse to a tree, I followed down the bank of the stream through wet tangled brushwood, giving periodically the shrill yell known to Indians by clapping my hand rapidly before my open mouth. To my intense relief I heard it answered by a plaintive cry, and following the sound I discovered Miss Smiththe Englishwoman is almost invariably unmarried-seated on a prostrate log, clinging tenaciously to a bundle of ferns, with her face marked with broad streaks of black loam, the result of rain, tears, and muddy fingers. When she threw herself into my arms with a cry of gratitude and relief, and burst into an agony of tears on my shoulder, I felt a glow of chivalrous enthusiasm. I was accomplishing my mission to protect the unprotected; to be the stay and solace of that “English woman" who created terror and dismay in society, but who was clinging to me now like a girl of sixteen; and I felt it was not "gushing"-it was genuine downright emotion. Tenderly I bore her along, for she was scratched and torn by struggling through brambles, and even the thick woollen petticoat and stout laced boots had suffered. For years, probably, this strong-minded woman had vanquished weakness. No other man, since that early history which I suppose she had in common with all of us, had ever seen her break

down but myself; but to me, in a thousand little acts, she revealed her womanhood. We gave up talking philosophy and science; indeed, she did little else but sob; and I revelled in the triumph of a situation I had hardly earned. When we reached the cart we pushed the old horse into the stream, but it was rapid, and I missed the ford in the dark, so he was carried off his legs, and the cart was upset. Fortunately, though deep, the river was narrow, and after whirling round two or three times I brought up on the shelving bank of shingle, one hand tightly clutching a handful of petticoat that I had seized at the critical moment. Our bath had the effect of washing my fair companion's face, and subduing her even more than she had been before the last episode. Meekly she draggled and stumbled after me, weighed down with the burden of her drenched habiliments. Geological collection, sketch-book, ferns, all had gone down the stream with the horse and cart, and nothing was ever found after, except the vehicle and the drowned animal in the shafts. At last, after more than an hour's wandering along a barely discernible footpath, from which we often strayed, and to find which I was sometimes obliged to feel with my hands, we heard the cheering sound of a dog's bark, and soon after saw the welcome glimmer of a light. It was a small native hut; and never did wattle and dab walls, a thatch of leaves, and a floor of cow-dung, offer a more grateful sight to benighted and famished mortals. An old man and woman were its sole tenants, and the accommodation consisted but of one apartment, one side of which was occupied by the fire-the smoke curled about over our heads, and found its way out between the leaves of the thatch as best it could. There were overhanging eaves so deep as almost to form a verandah

all round to protect the walls. The costume of our entertainers consisted of nothing but petticoats reaching from the waist to the ankles; the man's was drawn up between his legs, and the end tucked in at the small of his back. The old woman's hung down. She wore nothing above her waist. It was absolutely necessary that we should get rid of our drenched garments; but the difficulty was what to put on, and how to put it on. It was evident that we were destined to pass the night here. The black darkness, the fearful storms that threatened to carry away the little cottage bodily, our own exhaustion, rendered the idea of going farther impossible; besides, we might fare worse. What we wanted was, first to dry ourselves; second, to fill ourselves; third, to rest ourselves. Some bruised Indian corn was being kneaded with milk into a paste; some chickens running about suggested the idea of a boiled fowl and eggs. I also espied some honey in a honeycomb, so I mixed the milk, eggs, Indian corn, and honey in one pot, and put the fowl into some hot water in another, and then recurred to the difficult subject of attire; for by this time our teeth were chattering, and fever and ague were becoming imminent. In spite of my companion being strong-minded, I had some difficulty in inducing her to entertain the idea of divesting herself entirely of her dripping clothing, and of appearing in a costume improvised out of the materials which our semi-civilised entertainers could supply. At last she consented to judge of the nature of the experiment by the result as illustrated by myself. I therefore retired from the interior of the cabin, and, standing under the dripping eaves, took off my wet raiment. I found that the old man's petticoat, which was not unlike what the Malays call a sarong, only reached a little below my knee; the second petticoat I

VOL. XCVII.-NO. DXCII.

threw round my shoulders, somewhat after the fashion of a plaid, leaving the arms free. Thus attired, and feeling I represented a pretty fair combination of the Scotch shepherd and the Roman gladiator, I re-entered the cabin with as much dignity as circumstances permitted me to assume. Miss Smith had taken off her spectacles in anticipation of too great a shock, and I was thus enabled, so to speak, to break myself to her gradually. So much encouraged was she by the modesty of my aspect, and so wretchedly uncomfortable did she feel in her then plight, that she requested me to take the old man back with me under the eaves, while she performed her toilet under the supervision of his wife. It was like a game where you are told to go out of a room and come back when they are all ready. In a quarter of an hour the old woman summoned me, and I found my fair friend swaddled like a mummy; not a vestige of her skin, except her face, was visible anywhere. So clumsily had she arranged it that both her hands were occupied holding her things together from the inside; thus the appearance she presented was irreproachable so long as she remained still, but the slightest movement was attended with the most frightful risk. One of the most delightful sensations I ever experienced was feeding this dear creature with mouthfuls of tough boiled chicken and Indian-corn pudding, and then holding to her lips a huge can of water, the only drinking utensil in the establishment, and supporting her head with one hand as she tilted it gently back. Then I put on her spectacles for her, and finally tied a line in front of the fire, upon which I strung all her garments as well as my own. Once I had to scratch her ear, and ultimately to help her to bed. This, however, is a figure of speech. I should more properly say to "hammock." The task of hoisting her gracefully into

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it without disarranging her wrappers, was one of the most difficult operations I ever performed. We slung her in a corner by herself, near the fire, and the old man and his wife and I huddled together on the floor, in the other utmost extremity. In spite of an airy feeling about the legs, and a virulent attack from fleas, I slept so soundly and so far on into the morning, that I found my friend dressed in her own garments and looking quite blooming; but there was an expression of shy timidity on her face which was quite foreign to it. I, on the contrary, who am constitutionally modest, swaggered about in my short petticoat, and felt every inch a true errant knight.

I have frequently met Miss Smith in society since then. She is as learned and strong-minded as ever, except when I appear; but she quails before a single glance from me. She is now considerably over sixty; but I alone possess the secret of calling into those somewhat thin cheeks a roseate hue, and of causing those sharp grey eyes to disappear temporarily beneath their lids. Dear Miss Smith! she never travelled in savage countries by herself after that; but she will tell you unending stories about her adventures and experiences. The only one her friends don't know, and never will know-for I have never betrayed our secret to a living soul-is the one I have now recounted. Nor would I have told it now, did I not feel sure that it would be impossible for any one to recognise in my " Englishwoman in Venezuela" the heroine of the adventure.

Besides the Englishwomen who travel in quest of information, are those who are actuated by motives of philanthropy or political enthusiasm. Oppressed nationalities act as a powerful stimulus to the formation of this class. No sooner do Italy, or Poland, or Hungary rise, than your Englishwoman packs up her portmanteau, furnishes her

self with letters of introduction of the most compromising character, and starts off on a mission to suffering humanity. With unreasoning impulse she flings herself heart and soul into the cause she has espoused, and induces the unfor tunate people to whom she has accredited herself to believe that the whole British nation is as wildly enthusiastic in their behalf as she is. She probably makes her début by two or three indiscretions; for she is totally unused in her own country to act under the everpresent consciousness that all her movements are watched. When, however, she is once initiated into the mysteries of a national conspiracy, it cannot be charged against her that she is wanting in resource. On the whole, it is my conviction that your philanthropico-political Englishwoman does more good than harm, and is a credit to the country that produces her. By such experiences do they fit themselves to become the mothers of heroesonly, as I said before, they so rarely marry. There are, however, brilliant exceptions to this rule. remember, during the recent insurrection in Poland, attending as knight-errant upon two Miss Browns at Cracow. I don't know which created most sensation-Mademoiselle Pustovoytov, Langiewicz's female aide-de-camp, who was captured on the day of their arrival, or my two charming compatriots themselves. It was a refreshing sight to watch them, in little pork-pie hats and tucked-upskirts, paddling about the muddy streets of Cracow, and one that cheered the hearts of the poor people they came to comfort. And then to go with them through wards of wounded youths, and see how the presence of the "Englishwoman would cause the wasted features to light up with a glow of gratitude and pleasure, and how the poor lads would look with wonder and astonishment at these two unprotected beings who had come all the way from England for no

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