Man's Chest." Before seeing it I had always thought that the eternal
chant of the old pirate at the "Admiral Benbow," in _Treasure Island_:

"Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest,
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"

referred literally to a seaman's chest, though reflection might have
shown that one chest would afford rather scanty seating-ground for
fifteen men.

At Nevis, the curious can see in Fig Tree Church the register
attesting the marriage of "Horatio Nelson, Captain of H.M.S.
_Boreas_, to Frances Nisbet, widow," on March 11, 1789. William
IV., at that time Duke of Clarence, was Nelson's best man on that
occasion.

Nevis possesses powerful hot mineral springs, and a hundred years ago
and more was the great health resort of white people in the West
Indies. Here the planters endeavoured to get their torpid livers into
working order again, and the local boast was that for every pearl
necklace and pair of diamond shoe-buckles to be seen at the English
Bath, there were three to be seen in Nevis. To add to its attractions
it was asserted that the drinking, gambling, and duelling in Nevis
left Bath completely in the shade.

Though one was constantly hearing of diminishing trade in the Lesser
Antilles, certain questions kept suggesting themselves to me. For
instance, in islands abounding in water power, why ship copra in bulk
to England or the United States, instead of crushing it locally and
exporting the oil, which would occupy one-tenth of the cargo-space?