strong military fortress, though not a fortress looking magnificent
to the eyes of civilians, as do Malta and Gibraltar. There are also
here some six thousand white people and some six thousand black
people, eating, drinking, sleeping, and dying.

The convict establishment is the most notable feature of Bermuda to
a stranger, but it does not seem to attract much attention from the
regular inhabitants of the place. There is no intercourse between
the prisoners and the Bermudians. The convicts are rarely seen by
them, and the convict islands are rarely visited. As to the
prisoners themselves, of course it is not open to them--or should
not be open to them--to have intercourse with any but the prison
authorities.

There have, however, been instances in which convicts have escaped
from their confinement, and made their way out among the islands.
Poor wretches! As a rule, there is but little chance for any that
can so escape. The whole length of the cluster is but twenty miles,
and the breadth is under four. The prisoners are, of course, white
men, and the lower orders of Bermuda, among whom alone could a
runagate have any chance of hiding himself, are all negroes; so that
such a one would be known at once. Their clothes are all marked.
Their only chance of a permanent escape would be in the hold of an
American ship; but what captain of an American or other ship would
willingly encumber himself with an escaped convict? But,
nevertheless, men have escaped; and in one instance, I believe, a
convict got away, so that of him no farther tidings were ever heard.

For the truth of the following tale I will not by any means vouch.
If one were to inquire on the spot one might probably find that the