black boy, who showed his white teeth as we entered. In her right hand
she carried a human skull. The queen, though very beautiful, looked
sad. She could not have been more than eighteen years old, and it was
evident she came from European descent, and was in no way related to
the savages by whom she was surrounded.

And now I bethought me if I would gain favour I must make a present to
the queen, and remembering a small mirror I had with me, set in a
silver frame, which Anna had given me as a parting gift, I took it from
my pocket and presented it to Queen Melannie, the name by which her
people addressed her. It cost me a pang to part with it, but I
reflected that if these savages killed me, as seemed likely unless I
could ingratiate myself with them, the mirror would, with equal
certainty, pass into their hands as if I voluntarily surrendered it.

The queen uttered an exclamation of surprise when she caught sight of
her face in the looking glass, nor could some of her attendants who
stood near resist the temptation to look over her shoulder in order to
see the reflection of their own faces also. Nothing that I could have
given the queen would have pleased her more. My present at once brought
me into favour, for all appeared to regard such a prodigy as the work
of immortals.

Queen Melannie, having appropriated Anna's mirror, and finding I
understood what she said to me, then dismissed her attendants and
invited me to a private audience. I asked her how she, a white lady,
came to be among savages, but she could tell me nothing except that she
remembered standing upon the beach as a child, alone, when it was very
cold, and that she cried very much, until the natives had brought her
into this house, where she had been reared and cared for ever since.