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diff --git a/10669.txt b/10669.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8de4a8d --- /dev/null +++ b/10669.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15453 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, At Last, by Charles Kingsley + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + + + + +Title: At Last + +Author: Charles Kingsley + +Release Date: January 10, 2004 [eBook #10669] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT LAST*** + + +Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + +AT LAST: A CHRISTMAS IN THE WEST INDIES + + + + +TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE HON. SIR ARTHUR GORDON, GOVERNOR OF MAURITIUS + + + + +My Dear Sir Arthur Gordon, + +To whom should I dedicate this book, but to you, to whom I owe my +visit to the West Indies? I regret that I could not consult you +about certain matters in Chapters XIV and XV; but you are away again +over sea; and I can only send the book after you, such as it is, +with the expression of my hearty belief that you will be to the +people of Mauritius what you have been to the people of Trinidad. + +I could say much more. But it is wisest often to be most silent on +the very points on which one longs most to speak. + +Ever yours, + +C. KINGSLEY. + + + +CHAPTER I: OUTWARD BOUND + + + +At last we, too, were crossing the Atlantic. At last the dream of +forty years, please God, would be fulfilled, and I should see (and +happily, not alone) the West Indies and the Spanish Main. From +childhood I had studied their Natural History, their charts, their +Romances, and alas! their Tragedies; and now, at last, I was about +to compare books with facts, and judge for myself of the reported +wonders of the Earthly Paradise. We could scarce believe the +evidence of our own senses when they told us that we were surely on +board a West Indian steamer, and could by no possibility get off it +again, save into the ocean, or on the farther side of the ocean; and +it was not till the morning of the second day, the 3d of December, +that we began to be thoroughly aware that we were on the old route +of Westward-Ho, and far out in the high seas, while the Old World +lay behind us like a dream. + +Like dreams seemed now the last farewells over the taffrel, beneath +the chill low December sun; and the shining calm of Southampton +water, and the pleasant and well-beloved old shores and woods and +houses sliding by; and the fisher-boats at anchor off Calshot, their +brown and olive sails reflected in the dun water, with dun clouds +overhead tipt with dull red from off the setting sun--a study for +Vandevelde or Backhuysen in the tenderest moods. Like a dream +seemed the twin lights of Hurst Castle and the Needles, glaring out +of the gloom behind us, as if old England were watching us to the +last with careful eyes, and bidding us good speed upon our way. +Then had come--still like a dream--a day of pouring rain, of +lounging on the main-deck, watching the engines, and watching, too +(for it was calm at night), the water from the sponson behind the +paddle-boxes; as the live flame-beads leaped and ran amid the +swirling snow, while some fifteen feet beyond the untouched oily +black of the deep sea spread away into the endless dark. + +It took a couple of days to arrange our little cabin Penates; to +discover who was on board; and a couple of days, too, to become +aware, in spite of sudden starts of anxiety, that there was no post, +and could be none; that one could not be wanted, or, if one was +wanted, found and caught; and it was not till the fourth morning +that the glorious sense of freedom dawned on the mind, as through +the cabin port the sunrise shone in, yellow and wild through flying +showers, and great north-eastern waves raced past us, their heads +torn off in spray, their broad backs laced with ripples, and each, +as it passed, gave us a friendly onward lift away into the 'roaring +forties,' as the sailors call the stormy seas between 50 and 40 +degrees of latitude. + +These 'roaring forties' seem all strangely devoid of animal life--at +least in a December north-east gale; not a whale did we see--only a +pair of porpoises; not a sea-bird, save a lonely little kittiwake or +two, who swung round our stern in quest of food: but the seeming +want of life was only owing to our want of eyes; each night the wake +teemed more bright with flame-atomies. One kind were little +brilliant sparks, hurled helpless to and fro on the surface, +probably Noctilucae; the others (what they may be we could not guess +at first) showed patches of soft diffused light, paler than the +sparks, yet of the same yellow-white hue, which floated quietly +past, seeming a foot or two below the foam. And at the bottom, far +beneath, deeper under our feet than the summit of the Peak of +Teneriffe was above our heads--for we were now in more than two +thousand fathoms water--what exquisite forms might there not be? +myriads on myriads, generations on generations, people the eternal +darkness, seen only by Him to whom the darkness is as light as day: +and to be seen hereafter, a few of them--but how few--when future +men of science shall do for this mid-Atlantic sea-floor what Dr. +Carpenter and Dr. Wyville Thomson have done for the North Atlantic, +and open one more page of that book which has, to us creatures of a +day, though not to Him who wrote it as the Time-pattern of His +timeless mind, neither beginning nor end. + +So, for want of animal life to study, we were driven to study the +human life around us, pent up there in our little iron world. But +to talk too much of fellow-passengers is (though usual enough just +now) neither altogether fair nor kind. We see in travel but the +outside of people, and as we know nothing of their inner history, +and little, usually, of their antecedents, the pictures which we +might sketch of them would be probably as untruthfully as rashly +drawn. Crushed together, too, perforce, against each other, people +are apt on board ship to make little hasty confidences, to show +unawares little weaknesses, which should be forgotten all round the +moment they step on shore and return to something like a normal +state of society. The wisest and most humane rule for a traveller +toward his companion is to + + +'Be to their faults a little blind; +Be to their virtues very kind;' + + +and to consider all that is said and done on board, like what passes +among the members of the same club, as on the whole private and +confidential. So let it suffice that there were on board the good +steamship Shannon, as was to be expected, plenty of kind, courteous, +generous, intelligent people; officials, travellers--one, happy man! +away to discover new birds on the yet unexplored Rio Magdalena, in +New Grenada; planters, merchants, what not, all ready, when once at +St. Thomas's, to spread themselves over the islands, and the Spanish +Main, and the Isthmus of Panama, and after that, some of them, down +the Pacific shore to Callao and Valparaiso. The very names of their +different destinations, and the imagination of the wonders they +would see (though we were going to a spot as full of wonders as +any), raised something like envy in our breasts, all the more +because most of them persisted in tantalising us, in the hospitable +fashion of all West Indians, by fruitless invitations to islands and +ports, which to have seen were 'a joy for ever.' + +But almost the most interesting group of all was one of Cornish +miners, from the well-known old Redruth and Camborne county, and the +old sacred hill of Carn-brea, who were going to seek their fortunes +awhile in silver mines among the Andes, leaving wives and children +at home, and hoping, 'if it please God, to do some good out there,' +and send their earnings home. Stout, bearded, high-cheek-boned men +they were, dressed in the thick coats and rough caps, and, of +course, in the indispensable black cloth trousers, which make a +miner's full dress; and their faces lighted up at the old pass-word +of 'Down-Along'; for whosoever knows Down-Along, and the speech +thereof, is at once a friend and a brother. We had many a pleasant +talk with them ere we parted at St. Thomas's. + +And on to St. Thomas's we were hurrying; and, thanks to the north- +east wind, as straight as a bee-line. On the third day we ran two +hundred and fifty-four miles; on the fourth two hundred and sixty; +and on the next day, at noon, where should we be? Nearing the +Azores; and by midnight, running past them, and away on the track of +Columbus, towards the Sargasso Sea. + +We stayed up late on the night of December 7, in hopes of seeing, as +we passed Terceira, even the loom of the land: but the moon was +down; and a glimpse of the 'Pico' at dawn next morning was our only +chance of seeing, at least for this voyage, those wondrous Isles of +the Blest--Isles of the Blest of old; and why not still? They too +are said to be earthly paradises in soil, climate, productions; and +yet no English care to settle there, nor even to go thither for +health, though the voyage from Lisbon is but a short one, and our +own mail steamers, were it made worth their while, could as easily +touch at Terceira now as they did a few years since. + +And as we looked out into the darkness, we could not but recollect, +with a flush of pride, that yonder on the starboard beam lay Flores, +and the scene of that great fight off the Azores, on August 30, +1591, made ever memorable by the pen of Walter Raleigh--and of late +by Mr. Froude; in which the Revenge, with Sir Richard Grenville for +her captain, endured for twelve hours, before she struck, the attack +of eight great Spanish armadas, of which two (three times her own +burden) sank at her side; and after all her masts were gone, and she +had been three times boarded without success, defied to the last the +whole fleet of fifty-one sail, which lay around her, waiting, 'like +dogs around the dying forest-king,' for the Englishman to strike or +sink. Yonder away it was, that, wounded again and again, and shot +through body and through head, Sir Richard Grenville was taken on +board the Spanish Admiral's ship to die; and gave up his gallant +ghost with those once-famous words: 'Here die I, Richard Grenville, +with a joyful and quiet mind; for that I have ended my life as a +true soldier ought, fighting for his country, queen, religion, and +honour; my soul willingly departing from this body, leaving behind +the lasting fame of having behaved as every valiant soldier is in +his duty bound to do.' + +Yes; we were on the track of the old sea-heroes; of Drake and +Hawkins, Carlile and Cavendish, Cumberland and Raleigh, Preston and +Sommers, Frobisher and Duddeley, Keymis and Whiddon, which last, in +that same Flores fight, stood by Sir Richard Grenville all alone, +and, in 'a small ship called the Pilgrim, hovered all night to see +the successe: but in the morning, bearing with the Revenge, was +hunted like a hare amongst many ravenous houndes, but escaped' {4}-- +to learn, in after years, in company with hapless Keymis, only too +much about that Trinidad and Gulf of Paria whither we were bound. + +Yes. There were heroes in England in those days. Are we, their +descendants, degenerate from them? I, for one, believe not But they +were taught--what we take pride in refusing to be taught--namely, to +obey. + +The morning dawned: but Pico, some fifty miles away, was taking his +morning bath among the clouds, and gave no glimpse of his eleven +thousand feet crater cone, now capped, they said, with winter snow. +Yet neither last night's outlook nor that morning's was without +result. For as the steamer stopped last night to pack her engines, +and slipped along under sail at some three knots an hour, we made +out clearly that the larger diffused patches of phosphorescence were +Medusae, slowly opening and shutting, and rolling over and over now +and then, giving out their light, as they rolled, seemingly from the +thin limb alone, and not from the crown of their bell. And as we +watched, a fellow-passenger told how, between Ceylon and Singapore, +he had once witnessed that most rare and unexplained phenomenon of a +'milky sea,' of which Dr. Collingwood writes (without, if I remember +right, having seen it himself) in his charming book, A Naturalist's +Rambles in the China Seas. Our friend described the appearance as +that of a sea of shining snow rather than of milk, heaving gently +beneath a starlit but moonless sky. A bucket of water, when taken +up, was filled with the same half-luminous whiteness, which stuck to +its sides when the water was drained off. The captain of the +Indiaman was well enough aware of the rarity of the sight to call +all the passengers on deck to see what they would never see again; +and on asking our captain, he assured us that he had not only never +seen, but never heard of the appearance in the West Indies. One +curious fact, then, was verified that night. + +The next morning gave us unmistakable tokens that we were nearing +the home of the summer and the sun. A north-east wind, which would +in England keep the air at least at freezing in the shade, gave here +a temperature just over 60 degrees; and gave clouds, too, which made +us fancy for a moment that we were looking at an April thunder sky, +soft, fantastic, barred, and feathered, bright white where they +ballooned out above into cumuli, rich purple in their massive +shadows, and dropping from their under edges long sheets of inky +rain. Thanks to the brave North-Easter, we had gained in five days +thirty degrees of heat, and had slipped out of December into May. +The North-Easter, too, was transforming itself more and more into +the likeness of a south-west wind; say, rather, renewing its own +youth, and becoming once more what it was when it started on its +long journey from the Tropics towards the Pole. As it rushes back +across the ocean, thrilled and expanded by the heat, it opens its +dry and thirsty lips to suck in the damp from below, till, saturated +once more with steam, it will reach the tropic as a gray rain-laden +sky of North-East Trade. + +So we slipped on, day after day, in a delicious repose which yet was +not monotonous. Those, indeed, who complain of the monotony of a +voyage must have either very few resources in their own minds, or +much worse company than we had on board the Shannon. Here, every +hour brought, or might bring, to those who wished, not merely +agreeable conversation about the Old World behind us, but fresh +valuable information about the New World before us. One morning, +for instance, I stumbled on a merchant returning to Surinam, who had +fifty things to tell of his own special business--of the woods, the +drugs, the barks, the vegetable oils, which he was going back to +procure--a whole new world of yet unknown wealth and use. Most +cheering, too, and somewhat unexpected, were the facts we heard of +the improving state of our West India Colonies, in which the tide of +fortune seems to have turned at last, and the gallant race of +planters and merchants, in spite of obstacle on obstacle, some of +them unjust and undeserved, are winning their way back (in their own +opinion) to a prosperity more sound and lasting than that which +collapsed so suddenly at the end of the great French war. All spoke +of the emancipation of the slaves in Cuba (an event certain to come +to pass ere long) as the only condition which they required to put +them on an equal footing with any producers whatsoever in the New +World. + +However pleasant, though, the conversation might be, the smallest +change in external circumstances, the least break in the perpetual-- + + +'Quocumque adspicias, nil est nisi pontus et aer,' + + +even a passing bird, if one would pass, which none would do save +once or twice a stately tropic-bird, wheeling round aloft like an +eagle, was hailed as an event in the day; and, on the 9th of +December, the appearance of the first fragments of gulf-weed caused +quite a little excitement, and set an enthusiastic pair of +naturalists--a midland hunting squire, and a travelled scientific +doctor who had been twelve years in the Eastern Archipelago--fishing +eagerly over the bows, with an extemporised grapple of wire, for +gulf-weed, a specimen of which they did not catch. However, more +and more still would come in a day or two, perhaps whole acres, even +whole leagues, and then (so we hoped, but hoped in vain) we should +have our feast of zoophytes, crustacea, and what not. + +Meanwhile, it must be remembered that this gulf-weed has not, as +some of the uninitiated fancy from its name, anything to do with the +Gulf Stream, along the southern edge of which we were steaming. +Thrust away to the south by that great ocean-river, it lies in a +vast eddy, or central pool of the Atlantic, between the Gulf Stream +and the equatorial current, unmoved save by surface-drifts of wind, +as floating weeds collect and range slowly round and round in the +still corners of a tumbling-bay or salmon pool. One glance at a bit +of the weed, as it floats past, showed that it is like no Fucus of +our shores, or anything we ever saw before. The difference of look +is undefinable in words, but clear enough. One sees in a moment +that the Sargassos, of which there are several species on Tropical +shores, are a genus of themselves and by themselves; and a certain +awe may, if the beholder be at once scientific and poetical, come +over him at the first sight of this famous and unique variety +thereof, which has lost ages since the habit of growing on rock or +sea-bottom, but propagates itself for ever floating; and feeds among +its branches a whole family of fish, crabs, cuttlefish, zoophytes, +mollusks, which, like the plant which shelters them, are found +nowhere else in the world. And that awe, springing from 'the +scientific use of the imagination,' would be increased if he +recollected the theory--not altogether impossible--that this +sargasso (and possibly some of the animals which cling to it) marks +the site of an Atlantic continent, sunk long ages since; and that, +transformed by the necessities of life from a rooting to a floating +plant, + + +'Still it remembers its august abodes,' + + +and wanders round and round as if in search of the rocks where it +once grew. We looked eagerly day by day for more and more gulf- +weed, hoping that + + +'Slimy things would crawl with legs + Upon that slimy sea,' + + +and thought of the memorable day when Columbus's ship first plunged +her bows into the tangled 'ocean meadow,' and the sailors, naturally +enough, were ready to mutiny, fearing hidden shoals, ignorant that +they had four miles of blue water beneath their keel, and half +recollecting old Greek and Phoenician legends of a weedy sea off the +coast of Africa, where the vegetation stopped the ships and kept +them entangled till all on board were starved. + +Day after day we passed more and more of it, often in long +processions, ranged in the direction of the wind; while, a few feet +below the surface, here and there floated large fronds of a lettuce- +like weed, seemingly an ulva, the bright green of which, as well as +the rich orange hue of the sargasso, brought out by contrast the +intense blue of the water. + +Very remarkable, meanwhile, and unexpected, was the opacity and +seeming solidity of the ocean when looked down on from the bows. +Whether sapphire under the sunlight, or all but black under the +clouds, or laced and streaked with beads of foam, rising out of the +nether darkness, it looks as if it could resist the hand; as if one +might almost walk on it; so unlike any liquid, as seen near shore or +inland, is this leaping, heaving plain, reminding one, by its +innumerable conchoidal curves, not of water, not even of ice, but +rather of obsidian. + +After all we got little of the sargasso. Only in a sailing ship, +and in calms or light breezes, can its treasures be explored. +Twelve knots an hour is a pace sufficient to tear off the weed, as +it is hauled alongside, all living things which are not rooted to +it. We got, therefore, no Crustacea; neither did we get a single +specimen of the Calamaries, {8} which may be described as cuttlefish +carrying hooks on their arms as well as suckers, the lingering +descendants of a most ancient form, which existed at least as far +back as the era of the shallow oolitic seas, x or y thousand years +ago. A tiny curled Spirorbis, a Lepraria, with its thousandfold +cells, and a tiny polype belonging to the Campanularias, with a +creeping stem, which sends up here and there a yellow-stalked bell, +were all the parasites we saw. But the sargasso itself is a curious +instance of the fashion in which one form so often mimics another of +a quite different family. When fresh out of the water it resembles +not a sea-weed so much as a sprig of some willow-leaved shrub, +burdened with yellow berries, large and small; for every broken bit +of it seems growing, and throwing out ever new berries and leaves-- +or what, for want of a better word, must be called leaves in a sea- +weed. For it must be remembered that the frond of a sea-weed is not +merely leaf, but root also; that it not only breathes air, but feeds +on water; and that even the so-called root by which a sea-weed holds +to the rock is really only an anchor, holding mechanically to the +stone, but not deriving, as the root of a land-plant would, any +nourishment from it. Therefore it is, that to grow while uprooted +and floating, though impossible to most land plants, is easy enough +to many sea-weeds, and especially to the sargasso. + +The flying-fish now began to be a source of continual amusement as +they scuttled away from under the bows of the ship, mistaking her, +probably, for some huge devouring whale. So strange are they when +first seen, though long read of and long looked for, that it is +difficult to recollect that they are actually fish. The first +little one was mistaken for a dragon-fly, the first big one for a +gray plover. The flight is almost exactly like that of a quail or +partridge--flight, I must say; for, in spite of all that has been +learnedly written to the contrary, it was too difficult as yet for +the English sportsmen on board to believe that their motion was not +a true flight, aided by the vibration of the wings, and not a mere +impulse given (as in the leap of the salmon) by a rush under water. +That they can change their course at will is plain to one who looks +down on them from the lofty deck, and still more from the paddle- +box. The length of the flight seems too great to be attributed to a +few strokes of the tail; while the plain fact that they renew their +flight after touching, and only touching, the surface, would seem to +show that it was not due only to the original impetus, for that +would be retarded, instead of being quickened, every time they +touched. Such were our first impressions: and they were confirmed +by what we saw on the voyage home. + +The nights as yet, we will not say disappointed us,--for to see new +stars, like Canopus and Fomalhaut, shining in the far south, even to +see Sirius, in his ever-changing blaze of red and blue, riding high +in a December heaven, is interesting enough; but the brilliance of +the stars is not, at least at this season, equal to that of a frosty +sky in England. Nevertheless, to make up for the deficiency, the +clouds were glorious; so glorious, that I longed again and again, as +I did afterwards in the West Indies, that Mr. Ruskin were by my +side, to see and to describe, as none but he can do. The evening +skies are fit weeds for widowed Eos weeping over the dying Sun; +thin, formless, rent--in carelessness, not in rage; and of all the +hues of early autumn leaves, purple and brown, with green and +primrose lakes of air between: but all hues weakened, mingled, +chastened into loneliness, tenderness, regretfulness, through which +still shines, in endless vistas of clear western light, the hope of +the returning day. More and more faint, the pageant fades below +towards the white haze of the horizon, where, in sharpest contrast, +leaps and welters against it the black jagged sea; and richer and +richer it glows upwards, till it cuts the azure overhead: until, +only too soon-- + + +'The sun's rim dips, the stars rush out, + At one stride comes the dark,' + + +to be succeeded, after the long balmy night, by a sunrise which +repeats the colours of the sunset, but this time gaudy, dazzling, +triumphant, as befits the season of faith and hope. Such imagery, +it may be said, is hackneyed now, and trite even to impertinence. +It might be so at home; but here, in presence of the magnificent +pageant of tropic sunlight, it is natural, almost inevitable; and +the old myth of the daily birth and death of Helios, and the bridal +joys and widowed tears of Eos, re-invents itself in the human mind, +as soon as it asserts its power--it may be, its sacred right--to +translate nature into the language of the feelings. + +And, meanwhile, may we not ask--have we not a right--founded on that +common sense of the heart which often is the deepest reason--to ask, +If we, gross and purblind mortals, can perceive and sympathise with +so much beauty in the universe, then how much must not He perceive, +with how much must not He sympathise, for whose pleasure all things +are, and were created? Who that believes (and rightly) the sense of +beauty to be among the noblest faculties of man, will deny that +faculty to God, who conceived man and all besides? + +Wednesday, the 15th, was a really tropic day; blazing heat in the +forenoon, with the thermometer at 82 degrees in the shade, and in +the afternoon stifling clouds from the south-west, where a dark band +of rain showed, according to the planters' dictum, showers over the +islands, which we were nearing fast. At noon we were only two +hundred and ten miles from Sombrero, 'the Spanish Hat,' a lonely +island, which is here the first outlier of the New World. We ought +to have passed it by sunrise on the 16th, and by the afternoon +reached St. Thomas's, where our pleasant party would burst like a +shell in all directions, and scatter its fragments about all coasts +and isles--from Demerara to Panama, from Mexico to the Bahamas. So +that day was to the crew a day of hard hot work--of lifting and +sorting goods on the main-deck, in readiness for the arrival at St. +Thomas's, and of moving forwards two huge empty boilers which had +graced our spar-deck, filled with barrels of onions and potatoes, +all the way from Southampton. But in the soft hot evening hours, +time was found for the usual dance on the quarter-deck, with the +band under the awning, and lamps throwing fantastic shadows, and +waltzing couples, and the crew clustering aft to see, while we old +folks looked on, with our 'Ludite dum lubet, pueri,' till the +captain bade the sergeant-at-arms leave the lights burning for an +extra half hour; and 'Sir Roger de Coverley' was danced out, to the +great amusement of the foreigners, at actually half-past eleven. +After which unexampled dissipation, all went off to rest, promising +to themselves and their partners that they would get up at sunrise +to sight Sombrero. + +But, as it befell, morning's waking brought only darkness, the heavy +pattering of a tropic shower, and the absence of the everlasting +roll of the paddle-wheels. We were crawling slowly along, in thick +haze and heavy rain, having passed Sombrero unseen; and were away in +a gray shoreless world of waters, looking out for Virgin Gorda; the +first of those numberless isles which Columbus, so goes the tale, +discovered on St. Ursula's day, and named them after the Saint and +her eleven thousand mythical virgins. Unfortunately, English +buccaneers have since then given to most of them less poetic names. +The Dutchman's Cap, Broken Jerusalem, The Dead Man's Chest, Rum +Island, and so forth, mark a time and a race more prosaic, but still +more terrible, though not one whit more wicked and brutal, than the +Spanish Conquistadores, whose descendants, in the seventeenth +century, they smote hip and thigh with great destruction. + +The farthest of these Virgin Islands is St. Thomas's. And there +ended the first and longer part of a voyage unmarred by the least +discomfort, discourtesy, or dulness, and full of enjoyment, for +which thanks are due alike to captain, officers, crew, and +passengers, and also to our much-maligned friend the North-East +wind, who caught us up in the chops of the Channel, helped us +graciously on nearly to the tropic of Cancer, giving us a more +prosperous passage than the oldest hands recollect at this season, +and then left us for a while to the delicious calms of the edge of +the tropic, to catch us up again as the North-East Trade. + +Truly, this voyage had already given us much for which to thank God. +If safety and returning health, in an atmosphere in which the mere +act of breathing is a pleasure, be things for which to be thankful, +then we had reason to say in our hearts that which is sometimes best +unsaid on paper. + +Our first day in a tropic harbour was spent in what might be taken +at moments for a dream, did not shells and flowers remain to bear +witness to its reality. It was on Friday morning, December 17th, +that we first sighted the New World; a rounded hill some fifteen +hundred feet high, which was the end of Virgin Gorda. That resolved +itself, as we ran on, into a cluster of long, low islands; St. +John's appearing next on the horizon, then Tortola, and last of all +St. Thomas's; all pink and purple in the sun, and warm-gray in the +shadow, which again became, as we neared them one after the other, +richest green, of scrub and down, with bright yellow and rusty +rocks, plainly lava, in low cliffs along the shore. The upper +outline of the hills reminded me, with its multitudinous little +coves and dry gullies, of the Vivarais or Auvergne Hills; and still +more of the sketches of the Chinese Tea-mountains in Fortune's book. +Their water-line has been exposed, evidently for many ages, to the +gnawing of the sea at the present level. Everywhere the lava cliffs +are freshly broken, toppling down in dust and boulders, and leaving +detached stacks and skerries, like that called the 'Indians,' from +its supposed likeness to a group of red-brown savages afloat in a +canoe. But, as far as I could see, there has been no upheaval since +the land took its present shape. There is no trace of raised +beaches, or of the terraces which would have inevitably been formed +by upheaval on the soft sides of the lava hills. The numberless +deep channels which part the isles and islets would rather mark +depression still going on. Most beautiful meanwhile are the winding +channels of blue water, like land-locked lakes, which part the +Virgins from each other; and beautiful the white triangular sails of +the canoe-rigged craft, which beat up and down them through strong +currents and cockling seas. The clear air, the still soft outlines, +the rich and yet delicate colouring, stir up a sense of purity and +freshness, and peace and cheerfulness, such as is stirred up by +certain views of the Mediterranean and its shores; only broken by +one ghastly sight--the lonely mast of the ill-fated Rhone, standing +up still where she sank with all her crew, in the hurricane of 1867. + +At length, in the afternoon, we neared the last point, and turning +inside an isolated and crumbling hummock, the Dutchman's Cap, saw +before us, at the head of a little narrow harbour, the scarlet and +purple roofs of St. Thomas's, piled up among orange-trees, at the +foot of a green corrie, or rather couple of corries, some eight +hundred feet high. There it was, as veritable a Dutch-oven for +cooking fever in, with as veritable a dripping-pan for the poison +when concocted in the tideless basin below the town, as man ever +invented. And we were not sorry when the superintendent, coming on +board, bade us steam back again out of the port, and round a certain +Water-island, at the back of which is a second and healthier +harbour, the Gri-gri channel. In the port close to the town we +could discern another token of the late famous hurricane, the +funnels and masts of the hapless Columbia, which lies still on the +top of the sunken floating clock, immovable, as yet, by the art of +man. + +But some hundred yards on our right was a low cliff, which was even +more interesting to some of us than either the town or the wreck; +for it was covered with the first tropic vegetation which we had +ever seen. Already on a sandy beach outside, we had caught sight of +unmistakable coconut trees; some of them, however, dying, dead, even +snapped short off, either by the force of the hurricane, or by the +ravages of the beetle, which seems minded of late years to +exterminate the coconut throughout the West Indies; belonging, we +are told, to the Elaters--fire-fly, or skipjack beetles. His grub, +like that of his cousin, our English wire-worm, and his nearer +cousin, the great wire-worm of the sugar-cane, eats into the pith +and marrow of growing shoots; and as the palm, being an endogen, +increases from within by one bud, and therefore by one shoot only, +when that is eaten out nothing remains for the tree but to die. And +so it happens that almost every coconut grove which we have seen has +a sad and shabby look as if it existed (which it really does) merely +on sufferance. + +But on this cliff we could see, even with the naked eye, tall Aloes, +gray-blue Cerei like huge branching candelabra, and bushes the +foliage of which was utterly unlike anything in Northern Europe; +while above the bright deep green of a patch of Guinea-grass marked +cultivation, and a few fruit trees round a cottage told, by their +dark baylike foliage, of fruits whose names alone were known to us. + +Round Water-island we went, into a narrow channel between steep +green hills, covered to their tops, as late as 1845, with sugar- +cane, but now only with scrub, among which the ruins of mills and +buildings stood sad and lonely. But Nature in this land of +perpetual summer hides with a kind of eagerness every scar which man +in his clumsiness leaves on the earth's surface; and all, though +relapsing into primeval wildness, was green, soft, luxuriant, as if +the hoe had never torn the ground, contrasting strangely with the +water-scene; with the black steamers snorting in their sleep; the +wrecks and condemned hulks, in process of breaking up, strewing the +shores with their timbers; the boatfuls of Negroes gliding to and +fro; and all the signs of our hasty, irreverent, wasteful, semi- +barbarous mercantile system, which we call (for the time being only, +it is to be hoped) civilisation. The engine had hardly stopped, +when we were boarded from a fleet of negro boats, and huge bunches +of plantains, yams, green oranges, junks of sugar-cane, were +displayed upon the deck; and more than one of the ladies went +through the ceremony of initiation into West Indian ways, which +consisted in sucking sugar-cane, first pared for the sake of their +teeth. The Negro's stronger incisors tear it without paring. Two +amusing figures, meanwhile, had taken up their station close to the +companion. Evidently privileged personages, they felt themselves on +their own ground, and looked round patronisingly on the passengers, +as ignorant foreigners who were too certain to be tempted by the +treasures which they displayed to need any solicitations. One went +by the name of Jamaica Joe, a Negro blacker than the night, in smart +white coat and smart black trousers; a tall courtly gentleman, with +the organ of self-interest, to judge from his physiognomy, very +highly developed. But he was thrown into the shade by a stately +brown lady, who was still very handsome--beautiful, if you will--and +knew it, and had put on her gorgeous turban with grace, and plaited +her short locks under it with care, and ignored the very existence +of a mere Negro like Jamaica Joe, as she sat by her cigars, and +slow-match, and eau-de-cologne at four times the right price, and +mats, necklaces, bracelets, made of mimosa-seeds, white negro hats, +nests of Curacoa baskets, and so forth. They drove a thriving trade +among all newcomers: but were somewhat disgusted to find that we, +though new to the West Indies, were by no means new to West Indian +wares, and therefore not of the same mind as a gentleman and lady +who came fresh from the town next day, with nearly a bushel of white +branching madrepores, which they were going to carry as coals to +Newcastle, six hundred miles down the islands. Poor Joe tried to +sell us a nest of Curacoa baskets for seven shillings; retired after +a firm refusal; came up again to R-----, after a couple of hours, +and said, in a melancholy and reproachful voice, 'Da--- take dem for +four shillings and sixpence. I give dem you.' + +But now--. Would we go on shore? To the town? Not we, who came to +see Nature, not towns. Some went off on honest business; some on +such pleasure as can be found in baking streets, hotel bars, and +billiard-rooms: but the one place on which our eyes were set was a +little cove a quarter of a mile off, under the steep hill, where a +white line of sand shone between blue water and green wood. A few +yards broad of sand, and then impenetrable jungle, among which we +could see, below, the curved yellow stems of the coconuts; and +higher up the straight gray stems and broad fan-leaves of Carat +palms; which I regret to say we did not reach. Oh for a boat to get +into that paradise! There was three-quarters of an hour left, +between dinner and dark; and in three-quarters of an hour what might +not be seen in a world where all was new? The kind chief officer, +bidding us not trust negro boats on such a trip, lent us one of the +ship's, with four honest fellows, thankful enough to escape from +heat and smoke; and away we went with two select companions--the +sportsman and our scientific friend--to land, for the first time, in +the New World. + +As we leaped on shore on that white sand, what feelings passed +through the heart of at least one of us, who found the dream of +forty years translated into fact at last, are best, perhaps, left +untold here. But it must be confessed that ere we had stood for two +minutes staring at the green wall opposite us, astonishment soon +swallowed up, for the time, all other emotions. Astonishment, not +at the vast size of anything, for the scrub was not thirty feet +high; nor at the gorgeous colours, for very few plants or trees were +in flower; but at the wonderful wealth of life. The massiveness, +the strangeness, the variety, the very length of the young and still +growing shoots was a wonder. We tried, at first in vain, to fix our +eyes on some one dominant or typical form, while every form was +clamouring, as it were, to be looked at, and a fresh Dryad gazed out +of every bush and with wooing eyes asked to be wooed again. The +first two plants, perhaps, we looked steadily at were the Ipomoea +pes caprae, lying along the sand in straight shoots thirty feet +long, and growing longer, we fancied, while we looked at it, with +large bilobed green leaves at every joint, and here and there a +great purple convolvulus flower; and next, what we knew at once for +the 'shore-grape.' {15a} We had fancied it (and correctly) to be a +mere low bushy tree with roundish leaves. But what a bush! with +drooping boughs, arched over and through each other, shoots already +six feet long, leaves as big as the hand shining like dark velvet, a +crimson mid-rib down each, and tiled over each other--'imbricated,' +as the botanists would say, in that fashion, which gives its +peculiar solidity and richness of light and shade to the foliage of +an old sycamore; and among these noble shoots and noble leaves, +pendent everywhere, long tapering spires of green grapes. This +shore-grape, which the West Indians esteem as we might a bramble, we +found to be, without exception, the most beautiful broad-leafed +plant which we had ever seen. Then we admired the Frangipani, {15b} +a tall and almost leafless shrub with thick fleshy shoots, bearing, +in this species, white flowers, which have the fragrance peculiar to +certain white blossoms, to the jessamine, the tuberose, the orange, +the Gardenia, the night-flowering Cereus; then the Cacti and Aloes; +then the first coconut, with its last year's leaves pale yellow, its +new leaves deep green, and its trunk ringing, when struck, like +metal; then the sensitive plants; then creeping lianes of a dozen +different kinds. Then we shrank back from our first glimpse of a +little swamp of foul brown water, backed up by the sand-brush, with +trees in every stage of decay, fallen and tangled into a doleful +thicket, through which the spider-legged Mangroves rose on stilted +roots. We turned, in wholesome dread, to the white beach outside, +and picked up--and, alas! wreck, everywhere wreck--shells--old +friends in the cabinets at home--as earnests to ourselves that all +was not a dream: delicate prickly Pinnae; 'Noah's-arks' in +abundance; great Strombi, their lips and outer shell broken away, +disclosing the rosy cameo within, and looking on the rough beach +pitifully tender and flesh-like; lumps and fragments of coral +innumerable, reminding us by their worn and rounded shapes of those +which abound in so many secondary strata; and then hastened on board +the boat; for the sun had already fallen, the purple night set in, +and from the woods on shore a chorus of frogs had commenced +chattering, quacking, squealing, whistling, not to cease till +sunrise. + +So ended our first trip in the New World; and we got back to the +ship, but not to sleep. Already a coal-barge lay on either side of +her, and over the coals we scrambled, through a scene which we would +fain forget. Black women on one side were doing men's work, with +heavy coal-baskets on their heads, amid screaming, chattering, and +language of which, happily, we understood little or nothing. On the +other, a gang of men and boys, who, as the night fell, worked, many +of them, altogether naked, their glossy bronze figures gleaming in +the red lamplight, and both men and women singing over their work in +wild choruses, which, when the screaming cracked voices of the women +were silent, and the really rich tenors of the men had it to +themselves, were not unpleasant. A lad, seeming the poet of the +gang, stood on the sponson, and in the momentary intervals of work +improvised some story, while the men below took up and finished each +verse with a refrain, piercing, sad, running up and down large and +easy intervals. The tunes were many and seemingly familiar, all +barbaric, often ending in the minor key, and reminding us much, +perhaps too much, of the old Gregorian tones. The words were all +but unintelligible. In one song we caught 'New York' again and +again, and then 'Captain he heard it, he was troubled in him mind.' + +'Ya-he-ho-o-hu'--followed the chorus. + +'Captain he go to him cabin, he drink him wine and whisky--' + +'Ya-he,' etc. + +'You go to America? You as well go to heaven.' + +'Ya-he,' etc. + +These were all the scraps of negro poetry which we could overhear; +while on deck the band was playing quadrilles and waltzes, setting +the negro shoveller dancing in the black water at the barge-bottom, +shovel in hand; and pleasant white folks danced under the awning, +till the contrast between the refinement within and the brutality +without became very painful. For brutality it was, not merely in +the eyes of the sentimentalist, but in those of the moralist; still +more in the eyes of those who try to believe that all God's human +children may be some-when, somewhere, somehow, reformed into His +likeness. We were shocked to hear that at another island the evils +of coaling are still worse; and that the white authorities have +tried in vain to keep them down. The coaling system is, no doubt, +demoralising in itself, as it enables Negroes of the lowest class to +earn enough in one day to keep them in idleness, even in luxury, for +a week or more, till the arrival of the next steamer. But what we +saw proceeded rather from the mere excitability and coarseness of +half-civilised creatures than from any deliberate depravity; and we +were told that, in the island just mentioned, the Negroes, when +forced to coal on Sunday, or on Christmas Day, always abstain from +noise or foul language, and, if they sing, sing nothing but hymns. +It is easy to sneer at such a fashion as formalism. It would be +wiser to consider whether the first step in religious training must +not be obedience to some such external positive law; whether the +savage must not be taught that there are certain things which he +ought never to do, by being taught that there is one day at least on +which he shall not do them. How else is man to learn that the Laws +of Right and Wrong, like the laws of the physical world, are +entirely independent of him, his likes or dislikes, knowledge or +ignorance of them; that by Law he is environed from his cradle to +his grave, and that it is at his own peril that he disobeys the Law? +A higher religion may, and ought to, follow, one in which the Law +becomes a Law of Liberty, and a Gospel, because it is loved, and +obeyed for its own sake; but even he who has attained to that must +be reminded again and again, alas! that the Law which he loves does +not depend for its sanction on his love of it, on his passing frames +or feelings; but is as awfully independent of him as it is of the +veriest heathen. And that lesson the Sabbath does teach as few or +no other institutions can. The man who says, and says rightly, that +to the Christian all days ought to be Sabbaths, may be answered, and +answered rightly, 'All the more reason for keeping one day which +shall be a Sabbath, whether you are in a sabbatical mood or not. +All the more reason for keeping one day holy, as a pattern of what +all days should be.' So we will be glad if the Negro has got thus +far, as an earnest that he may some day get farther still. + +That night, however, he kept no Sabbath, and we got no sleep; and +were glad enough, before sunrise, to escape once more to the cove we +had visited the evening before; not that it was prettier or more +curious than others, but simply because it is better, for those who +wish to learn accurately, to see one thing twice than many things +once. A lesson is never learnt till it is learnt over many times, +and a spot is best understood by staying in it and mastering it. In +natural history the old scholar's saw of 'Cave hominem unius libri' +may be paraphrased by 'He is a thoroughly good naturalist who knows +one parish thoroughly.' + +So back to our little beach we went, and walked it all over again, +finding, of course, many things which had escaped us the night +before. We saw our first Melocactus, and our first night-blowing +Cereus creeping over the rocks. We found our first tropic orchid, +with white, lilac, and purple flowers on a stalk three feet high. +We saw our first wild pines (Tillandsias, etc.) clinging parasitic +on the boughs of strange trees, or nestling among the angular limb- +like shoots of the columnar Cereus. We learnt to distinguish the +poisonous Manchineel; and were thankful, in serious earnest, that we +had happily plucked none the night before, when we were snatching at +every new leaf; for its milky juice, by mere dropping on the skin, +burns like the poisoned tunic of Nessus, and will even, when the +head is injured by it, cause blindness and death. We gathered a +nosegay of the loveliest flowers, under a burning sun, within ten +days of Christmas; and then wandered off the shore up a little path +in the red lava, toward a farm where we expected to see fresh +curiosities, and not in vain. On one side of the path a hedge of +Pinguin (Bromelia)--the plants like huge pine-apple plants without +the fruit--was but three feet high, but from its prickles utterly +impenetrable to man or beast; and inside the hedge, a tree like a +straggling pear, with huge green calabashes growing out of its bark- +-here was actually Crescentia Cujete--the plaything of one's +childhood--alive and growing. The other side was low scrub--prickly +shrubs like acacias and mimosas, covered with a creeping vine with +brilliant yellow hair (we had seen it already from the ship, gilding +large patches of the slopes), most like European dodder. Among it +rose the tall Calotropis procera, with its fleshy gray stems and +leaves, and its azure of lovely lilac flowers, with curious columns +of stamens in each--an Asclepiad introduced from the Old World, +where it ranges from tropical Africa to Afghanistan; and so on, and +so on, up to a little farmyard, very like a Highland one in most +things, want of neatness included, save that huge spotted Trochi +were scattered before the door, instead of buckies or periwinkles; +and in the midst of the yard grew, side by side, the common +accompaniment of a West India kitchen door, the magic trees, whose +leaves rubbed on the toughest meat make it tender on the spot, and +whose fruit makes the best of sauce or pickle to be eaten therewith- +-namely, a male and female Papaw (Carica Papaya), their stems some +fifteen feet high, with a flat crown of mallow-like leaves, just +beneath which, in the male, grew clusters of fragrant flowerets, in +the female, clusters of unripe fruit. On through the farmyard, +picking fresh flowers at every step, and down to a shady cove (for +the sun, even at eight o'clock in December, was becoming +uncomfortably fierce), and again into the shore-grape wood. We had +already discovered, to our pain, that almost everything in the bush +had prickles, of all imaginable shapes and sizes; and now, touching +a low tree, one of our party was seized as by a briar, through +clothes and into skin, and, in escaping, found on the tree +(Guilandina, Bonducella) rounded prickly pods, which, being opened, +proved to contain the gray horse-nicker-beads of our childhood. + +Up and down the white sand we wandered, collecting shells, as did +the sailors, gladly enough, and then rowed back, over a bottom of +white sand, bedded here and there with the short manati-grass +(Thalassia Testudinum), one of the few flowering plants which, like +our Zostera, or grass-wrack, grows at the bottom of the sea. But, +wherever the bottom was stony, we could see huge prickly sea- +urchins, huger brainstone corals, round and gray, and branching +corals likewise, such as, when cleaned, may be seen in any curiosity +shop. These, and a flock of brown and gray pelicans sailing over +our head, were fresh tokens to us of where we were. + +As we were displaying our nosegay on deck, on our return, to some +who had stayed stifling on board, and who were inclined (as West +Indians are) at once to envy and to pooh-pooh the superfluous energy +of newcome Europeans, R----- drew out a large and lovely flower, +pale yellow, with a tiny green apple or two, and leaves like those +of an Oleander. The brown lady, who was again at her post on deck, +walked up to her in silence, uninvited, and with a commanding air +waved the thing away. 'Dat manchineel. Dat poison. Throw dat +overboard.' R-----, who knew it was not manchineel, whispered to a +bystander, 'Ce n'est pas vrai.' But the brown lady was a linguist. +'Ah! mais c'est vrai,' cried she, with flashing teeth; and retired, +muttering her contempt of English ignorance and impertinence. + +And, as it befell, she was, if not quite right, at least not quite +wrong. For when we went into the cabin, we and our unlucky yellow +flower were flown at by another brown lady, in another gorgeous +turban, who had become on the voyage a friend and an intimate; for +she was the nurse of the baby who had been the light of the eyes of +the whole quarter-deck ever since we left Southampton--God bless it, +and its mother, and beautiful Mon Nid, where she dwells beneath the +rock, as exquisite as one of her own humming-birds. We were so +scolded about this poor little green apple that we set to work to +find put what it was, after promising at least not to eat it. And +it proved to be Thevetia neriifolia, and a very deadly poison. + +This was the first (though by no means the last) warning which we +got not to meddle rashly with 'poison-bush,' lest that should befall +us which befell a scientific West Indian of old. For hearing much +of the edible properties of certain European toadstools, he resolved +to try a few experiments in his own person on West Indian ones; +during the course of which he found himself one evening, after a +good toad-stool dinner, raving mad. The doctor was sent for, and +brought him round, a humbled man. But a heavier humiliation awaited +him, when his negro butler, who had long looked down on him for his +botanical studies, entered with his morning cup of coffee. 'Now, +Massa,' said he, in a tone of triumphant pity, 'I think you no go +out any more cut bush and eat him.' + +If we had wanted any further proof that we were in the Tropics, we +might have had it in the fearful heat of the next few hours, when +the Shannon lay with a steamer on each side, one destined for 'The +Gulf,' the other for 'The Islands'; and not a breath of air was to +be got till late in the afternoon, when (amid shaking of hands and +waving of handkerchiefs, as hearty as if we the 'Island-bound,' and +they the 'Gulf-bound,' and the officers of the Shannon had known +each other fourteen years instead of fourteen days) we steamed out, +past the Little Saba rock, which was said (but it seems incorrectly) +to have burst into smoke and flame during the earthquake, and then +away to the south and east for the Islands: having had our first +taste, but, thank God, not our last, of the joys of the 'Earthly +Paradise.' + + + +CHAPTER II: DOWN THE ISLANDS + + + +I had heard and read much, from boyhood, about these 'Lesser +Antilles.' I had pictured them to myself a thousand times: but I +was altogether unprepared for their beauty and grandeur. For +hundreds of miles, day after day, the steamer carried us past a +shifting diorama of scenery, which may be likened to Vesuvius and +the Bay of Naples, repeated again and again, with every possible +variation of the same type of delicate loveliness. + +Under a cloudless sky, upon a sea, lively yet not unpleasantly +rough, we thrashed and leaped along. Ahead of us, one after +another, rose high on the southern horizon banks of gray cloud, from +under each of which, as we neared it, descended the shoulder of a +mighty mountain, dim and gray. Nearer still the gray changed to +purple; lowlands rose out of the sea, sloping upwards with those +grand and simple concave curves which betoken, almost always, +volcanic land. Nearer still, the purple changed to green. Tall +palm-trees and engine-houses stood out against the sky; the surf +gleamed white around the base of isolated rocks. A little nearer, +and we were under the lee, or western side, of the island. The sea +grew smooth as glass; we entered the shade of the island-cloud, and +slid along in still unfathomable blue water, close under the shore +of what should have been one of the Islands of the Blest. + +It was easy, in presence of such scenery, to conceive the exaltation +which possessed the souls of the first discoverers of the West +Indies. What wonder if they seemed to themselves to have burst into +Fairyland--to be at the gates of The Earthly Paradise? With such a +climate, such a soil, such vegetation, such fruits, what luxury must +not have seemed possible to the dwellers along those shores? What +riches too, of gold and jewels, might not be hidden among those +forest-shrouded glens and peaks? And beyond, and beyond again, ever +new islands, new continents perhaps, an inexhaustible wealth of yet +undiscovered worlds. + +No wonder that the men rose above themselves, for good and for evil; +that having, as it seemed to them, found infinitely, they hoped +infinitely, and dared infinitely. They were a dumb generation and +an unlettered, those old Conquistadores. They did not, as we do +now, analyse and describe their own impressions: but they felt them +nevertheless; and felt them, it may be, all the more intensely, +because they could not utter them; and so went, half intoxicated, by +day and night, with the beauty and the wonder round them, till the +excitement overpowered alike their reason and their conscience; and, +frenzied with superstition and greed, with contempt and hatred of +the heathen Indians, and often with mere drink and sunshine, they +did deeds which, like all wicked deeds, avenge themselves, and are +avenging themselves, from Mexico to Chili, unto this very day. + +I said that these islands resembled Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples. +Like causes have produced like effects; and each island is little +but the peak of a volcano, down whose shoulders lava and ash have +slidden toward the sea. Some carry several crater cones, +complicating at once the structure and scenery of the island; but +the majority carry but a single cone, like that little island, or +rather rock, of Saba, which is the first of the Antilles under the +lee of which the steamer passes. Santa Cruz, which is left to +leeward, is a long, low, ragged island, of the same form as St. +Thomas's and the Virgins, and belonging, I should suppose, to the +same formation. But Saba rises sheer out of the sea some 1500 feet +or more, without flat ground, or even harbour. From a little +landing-place to leeward a stair runs up 800 feet into the bosom of +the old volcano; and in that hollow live some 1200 honest Dutch, and +some 800 Negroes, who were, till of late years, their slaves, at +least in law. But in Saba, it is said, the whites were really the +slaves, and the Negroes the masters. For they went off whither and +when they liked; earned money about the islands, and brought it +home; expected their masters to keep them when out of work: and not +in vain. The island was, happily for it, too poor for sugar-growing +and the 'Grande Culture'; the Dutch were never tempted to increase +the number of their slaves; looked upon the few they had as friends +and children; and when emancipation came, no change whatsoever +ensued, it is said, in the semi-feudal relation between the black +men and the white. So these good Dutch live peacefully aloft in +their volcano, which it is to be hoped will not explode again. They +grow garden crops; among which, I understand, are several products +of the temperate zone, the air being, at that height pleasantly +cool. They sell their produce about the islands. They build boats +up in the crater--the best boats in all the West Indies--and lower +them down the cliff to the sea. They hire themselves out too, not +having lost their forefathers' sea-going instincts, as sailors about +all those seas, and are, like their boats, the best in those parts. +They all speak English; and though they are nominally Lutherans, are +glad of the services of the excellent Bishop of Antigua, who pays +them periodical visits. He described them as virtuous, shrewd, +simple, healthy folk, retaining, in spite of the tropic sun, the +same clear white and red complexions which their ancestors brought +from Holland two hundred years ago--a proof, among many, that the +white man need not degenerate in these isles. + +Saba has, like most of these islands, its 'Somma' like that of +Vesuvius; an outer ring of lava, the product of older eruptions, +surrounding a central cone, the product of some newer one. But even +this latter, as far as I could judge by the glass, is very ancient. +Little more than the core of the central cone is left. The rest has +been long since destroyed by rains and winds. A white cliff at the +south end of the island should be examined by geologists. It +belongs probably to that formation of tertiary calcareous marl so +often seen in the West Indies, especially at Barbadoes: but if so, +it must, to judge from the scar which it makes seaward, have been +upheaved long ago, and like the whole island--and indeed all the +islands--betokens an immense antiquity. + +Much more recent--in appearance at least--is the little isle of St. +Eustatius, or at least the crater-cone, with its lip broken down at +one spot, which makes up five-sixths of the island. St. Eustatius +may have been in eruption, though there is no record of it, during +historic times, and looks more unrepentant and capable of +misbehaving itself again than does any other crater-cone in the +Antilles; far more so than the Souffriere in St. Vincent which +exploded in 1812. + +But these two are mere rocks. It is not till the traveller arrives +at St. Kitts that he sees what a West Indian island is. + +The 'Mother of the Antilles,' as she is called, is worthy of her +name. Everywhere from the shore the land sweeps up, slowly at +first, then rapidly, toward the central mass, the rugged peak +whereof goes by the name of Mount Misery. Only once, and then but +for a moment, did we succeed in getting a sight of the actual +summit, so pertinaciously did the clouds crawl round it. 3700 feet +aloft a pyramid of black lava rises above the broken walls of an +older crater, and is, to judge from its knife-edge, flat top, and +concave eastern side, the last remnant of an inner cone which has +been washed, or more probably blasted, away. Beneath it, according +to the report of an islander to Dr. Davy (and what I heard was to +the same effect), is a deep hollow, longer than it is wide, without +an outlet, walled in by precipices and steep declivities, from +fissures in which steam and the fumes of sulphur are emitted. +Sulphur in crystals abounds, encrusting the rocks and loose stones; +and a stagnant pool of rain-water occupies the bottom of the +Souffriere. A dangerous neighbour--but as long as he keeps his +temper, as he has done for three hundred years at least, a most +beneficent one--is this great hill, which took, in Columbus's +imagination, the form of the giant St. Christopher bearing on his +shoulder the infant Christ, and so gave a name to the whole island. + +From the lava and ash ejected from this focus, the whole soils of +the island have been formed; soils of still unexhausted fertility, +save when--as must needs be in a volcanic region--patches of mere +rapilli and scoriae occur. The mountain has hurled these out; and +everywhere, as a glance of the eye shows, the tropic rains are +carrying them yearly down to the lowland, exposing fresh surfaces to +the action of the air, and, by continual denudation and degradation, +remanuring the soil. Everywhere, too, are gullies sawn in the +slopes, which terminate above in deep and narrow glens, giving, +especially when alternated with long lava-streams, a ridge-and- +furrow look to this and most other of the Antilles. Dr. Davy, with +his usual acuteness of eye and soundness of judgment, attributes +them rather to 'water acting on loose volcanic ashes' than to 'rents +and fissures, the result of sudden and violent force.' Doubtless he +is in the right. Thus, and thus only, has been formed the greater +part of the most beautiful scenery in the West Indies; and I longed +again and again, as I looked at it, for the company of my friend and +teacher, Colonel George Greenwood, that I might show him, on island +after island, such manifold corroborations of his theories in Rain +and Rivers. + +But our eyes were drawn off, at almost the second glance, from +mountain-peaks and glens to the slopes of cultivated lowland, +sheeted with bright green cane, and guinea-grass, and pigeon pea; +and that not for their own sakes, but for the sake of objects so +utterly unlike anything which we had ever seen, that it was not +easy, at first, to discover what they were. Gray pillars, which +seemed taller than the tallest poplars, smooth and cylindrical as +those of a Doric temple, each carrying a flat head of darkest green, +were ranged along roadsides and round fields, or stood, in groups or +singly, near engine-works, or towered above rich shrubberies which +shrouded comfortable country-houses. It was not easy, as I have +said, to believe that these strange and noble things were trees: +but such they were. At last we beheld, with wonder and delight, the +pride of the West Indies, the Cabbage Palms--Palmistes of the French +settlers--which botanists have well named Oreodoxa, the 'glory of +the mountains.' We saw them afterwards a hundred times in their own +native forests; and when they rose through tangled masses of richest +vegetation, mixed with other and smaller species of palms, their +form, fantastic though it was, harmonised well with hundreds of +forms equally fantastic. But here they seemed, at first sight, out +of place, incongruous, and artificial, standing amid no kindred +forms, and towering over a cultivation and civilisation which might +have been mistaken, seen from the sea, for wealthy farms along some +English shore. Gladly would we have gone on shore, were it but to +have stood awhile under those Palmistes; and an invitation was not +wanting to a pretty tree-shrouded house on a low cliff a mile off, +where doubtless every courtesy and many a luxury would have awaited +us. But it could not be. We watched kind folk rowed to shore +without us; and then turned to watch the black flotilla under our +quarter. + +The first thing that caught our eye on board the negro boats which +were alongside was, of course, the baskets of fruits and vegetables, +of which one of us at least had been hearing all his life. At St. +Thomas's we had been introduced to bananas (figs, as they are +miscalled in the West Indies); to the great green oranges, thick- +skinned and fragrant; to those junks of sugar-cane, some two feet +long, which Cuffy and Cuffy's ladies delight to gnaw, walking, +sitting, and standing; increasing thereby the size of their lips, +and breaking out, often enough, their upper front teeth. We had +seen, and eaten too, the sweet sop {25a}--a passable fruit, or +rather congeries of fruits, looking like a green and purple +strawberry, of the bigness of an orange. It is the cousin of the +prickly sour-sop; {25b} of the really delicious, but to me unknown, +Chirimoya; {25c} and of the custard apple, {25d} containing a pulp +which (as those who remember the delectable pages of Tom Cringle +know) bears a startling likeness to brains. Bunches of grapes, at +St. Kitts, lay among these: and at St. Lucia we saw with them, for +the first time, Avocado, or Alligator pears, alias midshipman's +butter; {26a} large round brown fruits, to be eaten with pepper and +salt by those who list. With these, in open baskets, lay bright +scarlet capsicums, green coconuts tinged with orange, great roots of +yam {26b} and cush-cush, {26c} with strange pulse of various kinds +and hues. The contents of these vegetable baskets were often as +gay-coloured as the gaudy gowns, and still gaudier turbans, of the +women who offered them for sale. + +Screaming and jabbering, the Negroes and Negresses thrust each +other's boats about, scramble from one to the other with gestures of +wrath and defiance, and seemed at every moment about to fall to +fisticuffs and to upset themselves among the sharks. But they did +neither. Their excitement evaporated in noise. To their 'ladies,' +to do them justice, the men were always civil, while the said +'ladies' bullied them and ordered them about without mercy. The +negro women are, without doubt, on a more thorough footing of +equality with the men than the women of any white race. The causes, +I believe, are two. In the first place there is less difference +between the sexes in mere physical strength and courage; and +watching the average Negresses, one can well believe the stories of +those terrible Amazonian guards of the King of Dahomey, whose boast +is, that they are no longer women, but men. There is no doubt that, +in case of a rebellion, the black women of the West Indies would be +as formidable, cutlass in hand, as the men. The other cause is the +exceeding ease with which, not merely food, but gay clothes and +ornaments, can be procured by light labour. The negro woman has no +need to marry and make herself the slave of a man, in order to get a +home and subsistence. Independent she is, for good and evil; and +independent she takes care to remain; and no schemes for civilising +the Negro will have any deep or permanent good effect which do not +take note of, and legislate for, this singular fact. + +Meanwhile, it was a comfort to one fresh from the cities of the Old +World, and the short and stunted figures, the mesquin and scrofulous +visages, which crowd our alleys and back wynds, to see everywhere +health, strength, and goodly stature, especially among women. +Nowhere in the West Indies are to be seen those haggard down-trodden +mothers, grown old before their time, too common in England, and +commoner still in France. Health, 'rude' in every sense of the +word, is the mark of the negro woman, and of the negro man likewise. +Their faces shine with fatness; they seem to enjoy, they do enjoy, +the mere act of living, like the lizard on the wall. It may be +said--it must be said--that, if they be human beings (as they are), +they are meant for something more than mere enjoyment of life. Well +and good: but are they not meant for enjoyment likewise? Let us +take the beam out of our own eye, before we take the mote out of +theirs; let us, before we complain of them for being too healthy and +comfortable, remember that we have at home here tens of thousands of +paupers, rogues, whatnot, who are not a whit more civilised, +intellectual, virtuous, or spiritual than the Negro, and are +meanwhile neither healthy nor comfortable. The Negro may have the +corpus sanum without the mens sana. But what of those whose souls +and bodies are alike unsound? + +Away south, along the low spit at the south end of the island, where +are salt-pans which, I suspect, lie in now extinguished craters; and +past little Nevis, the conical ruin, as it were, of a volcanic +island. It was probably joined to the low end of St. Kitts not many +years ago. It is separated from it now only by a channel called the +Narrows, some four to six miles across, and very shallow, there +being not more than four fathoms in many places, and infested with +reefs, whether of true coral or of volcanic rock I should be glad to +know. A single peak, with its Souffriere, rises to some 2000 feet; +right and left of it are two lower hills, fragments, apparently, of +a Somma, or older and larger crater. The lava and ash slide in +concave slopes of fertile soil down to the sea, forming an island +some four miles by three, which was in the seventeenth century a +little paradise, containing 4000 white citizens, who had dwindled +down in 1805, under the baneful influences of slavery, to 1300; in +1832 (the period of emancipation) to 500; and in 1854 to only 170. +{27a} A happy place, however, it is said still to be, with a +population of more than 10,000, who, as there is happily no Crown +land in the island, cannot squat, and so return to their original +savagery; but are well-ordered and peaceable, industrious, and well- +taught, and need, it is said, not only no soldiers, but no police. + +One spot on the little island we should have liked much to have +seen: the house where Nelson, after his marriage with Mrs. Nisbet, +a lady of Nevis, dwelt awhile in peace and purity. Happier for him, +perhaps, though not for England, had he never left that quiet nest. + +And now, on the leeward bow, another gray mountain island rose; and +on the windward another, lower and longer. The former was +Montserrat, which I should have gladly visited, as I had been +invited to do. For little Montserrat is just now the scene of a +very hopeful and important experiment. {27b} The Messrs. Sturge +have established there a large plantation of limes, and a +manufactory of lime-juice, which promises to be able to supply, in +good time, vast quantities of that most useful of all sea-medicines. + +Their connection with the Society of Friends, and indeed the very +name of Sturge, is a guarantee that such a work will be carried on +for the benefit, not merely of the capitalists, but of the coloured +people who are employed. Already, I am assured, a marked +improvement has taken place among them; and I, for one, heartily bid +God-speed to the enterprise: to any enterprise, indeed, which tends +to divert labour and capital from that exclusive sugar-growing which +has been most injurious, I verily believe the bane, of the West +Indies. On that subject I may have to say more in a future chapter. +I ask the reader, meanwhile, to follow, as the ship's head goes +round to windward toward Antigua. + +Antigua is lower, longer, and flatter than the other islands. It +carries no central peak: but its wildness of ragged uplands forms, +it is said, a natural fortress, which ought to be impregnable; and +its loyal and industrious people boast that, were every other West +Indian island lost, the English might make a stand in Antigua long +enough to enable them to reconquer the whole. I should have feared, +from the look of the island, that no large force could hold out long +in a country so destitute of water as those volcanic hills, rusty, +ragged, treeless, almost sad and desolate--if any land could be sad +and desolate with such a blue sea leaping around and such a blue sky +blazing above. Those who wish to know the agricultural capabilities +of Antigua, and to know, too, the good sense and courage, the +justice and humanity, which have enabled the Antiguans to struggle +on and upward through all their difficulties, in spite of drought, +hurricane, and earthquake, till permanent prosperity seems now +become certain, should read Dr. Davy's excellent book, which I +cannot too often recommend. For us, we could only give a hasty look +at its southern volcanic cliffs; while we regretted that we could +not inspect the marine strata of the eastern parts of the island, +with their calcareous marls and limestones, hardened clays and +cherts, and famous silicified trees, which offer important problems +to the geologist, as yet not worked out. {28} + +We could well believe, as the steamer ran into English Harbour, that +Antigua was still subject to earthquakes; and had been shaken, with +great loss of property though not of life, in the Guadaloupe +earthquake of 1843, when 5000 lives were lost in the town of Point- +a-Pitre alone. The only well-marked effect which Dr. Davy could +hear of, apart from damage to artificial structures, was the partial +sinking of a causeway leading to Rat Island, in the harbour of St. +John. No wonder: if St. John's harbour be--as from its shape on +the map it probably is--simply an extinct crater, or group of +craters, like English Harbour. A more picturesque or more uncanny +little hole than that latter we had never yet seen: but there are +many such harbours about these islands, which nature, for the time +being at least, has handed over from the dominion of fire to that of +water. Past low cliffs of ash and volcanic boulder, sloping +westward to the sea, which is eating them fast away, the steamer +runs in through a deep crack, a pistol-shot in width. On the east +side a strange section of gray lava and ash is gnawn into caves. On +the right, a bluff rock of black lava dips sheer into water several +fathoms deep; and you anchor at once inside an irregular group of +craters, having passed through a gap in one of their sides, which +has probably been torn out by a lava flow. Whether the land, at the +time of the flow, was higher or lower than at present, who can tell? +This is certain, that the first basin is for half of its +circumference circular, and walled with ash beds, which seem to +slope outward from it. To the left it leads away into a long creek, +up which, somewhat to our surprise, we saw neat government-houses +and quays; and between them and us, a noble ironclad and other ships +of war at anchor close against lava and ash cliffs. But right +ahead, the dusty sides of the crater are covered with strange +bushes, its glaring shingle spotted with bright green Manchineels; +while on the cliffs around, aloes innumerable, seemingly the +imported American Agave, send up their groups of huge fat pointed +leaves from crannies so arid that one would fancy a moss would +wither in them. A strange place it is, and strangely hot likewise; +and one could not but fear a day--it is to be hoped long distant-- +when it will be hotter still. + +Out of English Harbour, after taking on board fruit and bargaining +for beads, for which Antigua is famous, we passed the lonely rock of +Redonda, toward a mighty mountain which lay under a sheet of clouds +of corresponding vastness. That was Guadaloupe. The dark +undersides of the rolling clouds mingled with the dark peaks and +ridges, till we could not see where earth ended and vapour began; +and the clouds from far to the eastward up the wind massed +themselves on the island, and then ceased suddenly to leeward, +leaving the sky clear and the sea brilliant. + +I should be glad to know the cause of this phenomenon, which we saw +several times among the islands, but never in greater perfection +than on nearing Nevis from the south on our return. In that case, +however, the cloud continued to leeward. It came up from the east +for full ten miles, an advancing column of tall ghostly cumuli, +leaden, above a leaden sea; and slid toward the island, whose lines +seemed to leap up once to meet them; fail; then, in a second leap, +to plunge the crater-peak high into the mist; and then to sink down +again into the western sea, so gently that the line of shore and sea +was indistinguishable. But above, the cloud-procession passed on, +shattered by its contact with the mountain, and transfigured as it +neared the setting sun into long upward streaming lines of rack, +purple and primrose against a saffron sky, while Venus lingered low +between cloud and sea, a spark of fire glittering through dull red +haze. + +And now the steamer ran due south, across the vast basin which is +ringed round by Antigua, Montserrat, and Guadaloupe, with St. Kitts +and Nevis showing like tall gray ghosts to the north-west. Higher +and higher ahead rose the great mountain mass of Guadaloupe, its +head in its own canopy of cloud. The island falls into the sea +sharply to leeward. But it stretches out to windward in a long line +of flat land edged with low cliff, and studded with large farms and +engine-houses. It might be a bit of the Isle of Thanet, or of the +Lothians, were it not for those umbrella-like Palmistes, a hundred +feet high, which stand out everywhere against the sky. At its +northern end, a furious surf was beating on a sandy beach; and +beyond that, dim and distant, loomed up the low flat farther island, +known by the name of Grande Terre. + +Guadaloupe, as some of my readers may know, consists, properly +speaking, of two islands, divided by a swamp and a narrow salt-water +river. The eastward half, or Grande Terre, which is composed of +marine strata, is hardly seen in the island voyage, and then only at +a distance, first behind the westward Basse Terre, and then behind +other little islands, the Saintes and Mariegalante. But the +westward island, rising in one lofty volcanic mass which hides the +eastern island from view, is perhaps, for mere grandeur, the +grandest in the Archipelago. The mountains--among which are, it is +said, fourteen extinct craters--range upward higher and higher +toward the southern end, with corries and glens, which must be, when +seen near, hanging gardens of stupendous size. The forests seem to +be as magnificent as they were in the days of Pere Labat. Tiny +knots on distant cliff-tops, when looked at through the glass, are +found to be single trees of enormous height and breadth. Gullies +hundreds of feet in depth, rushing downwards toward the sea, +represent the rush of the torrents which have helped, through +thousands of rainy seasons, to scoop them out and down. + +But all this grandeur and richness culminates, toward the southern +end, in one great crater-peak 5000 feet in height, at the foot of +which lies the Port of Basse Terre, or Bourg St. Francois. + +We never were so fortunate as to see the Souffriere entirely free +from cloud. The lower, wider, and more ancient crater was generally +clear: but out of the midst of it rose a second cone buried in +darkness and mist. Once only we caught sight of part of its lip, +and the sight was one not to be forgotten. + +The sun was rising behind the hills. The purple mountain was backed +by clear blue sky. High above it hung sheets of orange cloud +lighted from underneath; lower down, and close upon the hill-tops, +curved sheets of bright white mist + + +'Stooped from heaven, and took the shape, +With fold on fold, of mountain and of cape.' + + +And under them, again, the crater seethed with gray mist, among +which, at one moment, we could discern portions of its lip; not +smooth, like that of Vesuvius, but broken into awful peaks and +chasms hundreds of feet in height. As the sun rose, level lights of +golden green streamed round the peak right and left over the downs: +but only for a while. As the sky-clouds vanished in his blazing +rays, earth-clouds rolled up below from the valleys behind; wreathed +and weltered about the great black teeth of the crater; and then +sinking among them, and below them, shrouded the whole cone in +purple darkness for the day; while in the foreground blazed in the +sunshine broad slopes of cane-field: below them again the town, +with handsome houses and old-fashioned churches and convents, dating +possibly from the seventeenth century, embowered in mangoes, +tamarinds, and palmistes; and along the beach a market beneath a row +of trees, with canoes drawn up to be unladen, and gay dresses of +every hue. The surf whispered softly on the beach. The cheerful +murmur of voices came off the shore, and above it the tinkling of +some little bell, calling good folks to early mass. A cheery, +brilliant picture as man could wish to see: but marred by two ugly +elements. A mile away on the low northern cliff, marked with many a +cross, was the lonely cholera cemetery, a remembrance of the fearful +pestilence which a few years since swept away thousands of the +people: and above frowned that black giant, now asleep; but for how +long? + +In 1797 an eruption hurled out pumice, ashes, and sulphureous +vapours. In the great crisis of 1812, indeed, the volcano was +quiet, leaving the Souffriere of St. Vincent to do the work; but +since then he has shown an ugly and uncertain humour. Smoke by day, +and flame by night--or probably that light reflected from below +which is often mistaken for flame in volcanic eruptions--have been +seen again and again above the crater; and the awful earthquake of +1843 proves that his capacity for mischief is unabated. The whole +island, indeed, is somewhat unsafe; for the hapless town of Point-a- +Pitre, destroyed by that earthquake, stands not on the volcanic +Basse Terre, but on the edge of the marine Grande Terre, near the +southern mouth of the salt-water river. Heaven grant these good +people of Guadaloupe a long respite; for they are said to deserve +it, as far as human industry and enterprise goes. They have, as +well, I understand, as the gentlemen of Martinique, discovered the +worth of the 'division of labour.' Throughout the West Indies the +planter is usually not merely a sugar-grower, but a sugar-maker +also. He requires, therefore, two capitals, and two intellects +likewise, one for his cane-fields, the other for his 'ingenio,' +engine-house, or sugar-works. But he does not gain thereby two +profits. Having two things to do, neither, usually, is done well. +The cane-farming is bad, the sugar-making bad; and the sugar, when +made, disposed of through merchants by a cumbrous, antiquated, and +expensive system. These shrewd Frenchmen, and, I am told, even +small proprietors among the Negroes, not being crippled, happily for +them, by those absurd sugar-duties which, till Mr. Lowe's budget, +put a premium on the making of bad sugar, are confining themselves +to growing the canes, and sell them raw to 'Usines Centrales,' at +which they are manufactured into sugar. They thus devote their own +capital and intellect to increasing the yield of their estates; +while the central factories, it is said, pay dividends ranging from +twenty to forty per cent. I regretted much that I was unable to +visit in crop-time one of these factories, and see the working of a +system which seems to contain one of the best elements of the co- +operative principle. + +But (and this is at present a serious inconvenience to a traveller +in the Antilles) the steamer passes each island only once a +fortnight; so that to land in an island is equivalent to staying +there at least that time, unless one chooses to take the chances of +a coasting schooner, and bad food, bugs, cockroaches, and a bunk +which--but I will not describe. 'Non ragionam di lor, ma guarda' +(down the companion) 'e passa.' + +I must therefore content myself with describing, as honestly as I +can, what little we saw from the sea, of islands at each of which we +would gladly have stayed several days. + +As the traveller nears each of them--Guadaloupe, Dominica, +Martinique (of which two last we had only one passing glance), St. +Vincent, St. Lucia, and Grenada--he will be impressed, not only by +the peculiarity of their form, but by the richness of their colour. + +All of them do not, like St. Kitts, Guadaloupe, and St. Vincent, +slope up to one central peak. In Martinique, for instance, there +are three separate peaks, or groups of peaks--the Mont Pelee, the +Pitons du Carbet, and the Piton du Vauclain. But all have that +peculiar jagged outline which is noticed first at the Virgin +Islands. + +Flat 'vans' or hog-backed hills, and broad sweeps of moorland, so +common in Scotland, are as rare as are steep walls of cliff, so +common in the Alps. Pyramid is piled on pyramid, the sides of each +at a slope of about 45 degrees, till the whole range is a congeries +of multitudinous peaks and peaklets, round the base of which spreads +out, with a sudden sweep, the smooth lowland of volcanic ash and +lava. This extreme raggedness of outline is easily explained. The +mountains have never been, as in Scotland, planed smooth by ice. +They have been gouged out, in every direction, by the furious tropic +rains and tropic rain-torrents. Had the rocks been stratified and +tolerably horizontal, these rains would have cut them out into +tablelands divided by deep gullies, such as may be seen in +Abyssinia, and in certain parts of the western United States. But +these rocks are altogether amorphous and unstratified, and have been +poured or spouted out as lumps, dykes, and sheets of lava, of every +degree of hardness; so that the rain, in degrading them, has worn +them, not into tables and ranges, but into innumerable cones. And +the process of degradation is still going on rapidly. Though a +cliff, or sheet of bare rock, is hardly visible among the glens, yet +here and there a bright brown patch tells of a recent landslip; and +the masses of debris and banks of shingle, backed by a pestilential +little swamp at the mouth of each torrent, show how furious must be +the downpour and down-roll before the force of a sudden flood, along +so headlong an incline. + +But in strange contrast with the ragged outline, and with the wild +devastation of the rainy season, is the richness of the verdure +which clothes the islands, up to their highest peaks, in what seems +a coat of green fur; but when looked at through the glasses, proves +to be, in most cases, gigantic timber. Not a rock is seen. If +there be a cliff here and there, it is as green as an English lawn. +Steep slopes are gray with groo-groo palms, {33} or yellow with +unknown flowering trees. High against the sky-line, tiny knots and +lumps are found to be gigantic trees. Each glen has buried its +streamlet a hundred feet in vegetation, above which, here and there, +the gray stem and dark crown of some palmiste towers up like the +mast of some great admiral. The eye and the fancy strain vainly +into the green abysses, and wander up and down over the wealth of +depths and heights, compared with which European parks and woodlands +are but paltry scrub and shaugh. No books are needed to tell that. +The eye discovers it for itself, even before it has learnt to judge +of the great size of the vegetation, from the endless variety of +form and colour. For the islands, though green intensely, are not +of one, but of every conceivable green, or rather of hues ranging +from pale yellow through all greens into cobalt blue; and as the +wind stirs the leaves, and sweeps the lights and shadows over hill +and glen, all is ever-changing, iridescent, like a peacock's neck; +till the whole island, from peak to shore, seems some glorious +jewel--an emerald with tints of sapphire and topaz, hanging between +blue sea and white surf below, and blue sky and white cloud above. + +If the reader fancies that I exaggerate, let him go and see. Let +him lie for one hour off the Rosseau at Dominica. Let him sail down +the leeward side of Guadaloupe, down the leeward side of what island +he will, and judge for himself how poor, and yet how tawdry, my +words are, compared with the luscious yet magnificent colouring of +the Antilles. + +The traveller, at least so I think, would remark also, with some +surprise, the seeming smallness of these islands. The Basse Terre +of Guadaloupe, for instance, is forty miles in length. As you lie +off it, it does not look half, or even a quarter, of that length; +and that, not merely because the distances north and south are +foreshortened, or shut in by nearer headlands. The causes, I +believe, are more subtle and more complex. First, the novel +clearness of the air, which makes the traveller, fresh from misty +England, fancy every object far nearer, and therefore far smaller, +than it actually is. Next the simplicity of form. Each outer line +trends upward so surely toward a single focus; each whole is so +sharply defined between its base-line of sea and its background of +sky, that, like a statue, each island is compact and complete in +itself, an isolated and self-dependent organism; and therefore, like +every beautiful statue, it looks much smaller than it is. So +perfect this isolation seems, that one fancies, at moments, that the +island does not rise out of the sea, but floats upon it; that it is +held in place, not by the roots of the mountains, and deep miles of +lava-wall below, but by the cloud which has caught it by the top, +and will not let it go. Let that cloud but rise, and vanish, and +the whole beautiful thing will be cast adrift; ready to fetch way +before the wind, and (as it will seem often enough to do when viewed +through a cabin-port) to slide silently past you, while you are +sliding past it. + +And yet, to him who knows the past, a dark shadow hangs over all +this beauty; and the air--even in clearest blaze of sunshine--is +full of ghosts. I do not speak of the shadow of negro slavery, nor +of the shadow which, though abolished, it has left behind, not to be +cleared off for generations to come. I speak of the shadow of war, +and the ghosts of gallant soldiers and sailors. Truly here + + +'The spirits of our fathers + Might start from every wave; +For the deck it was their field of fame, + And ocean was their grave,' + + +and ask us: What have you done with these islands, which we won for +you with precious blood? What could we answer? We have misused +them, neglected them; till now, ashamed of the slavery of the past, +and too ignorant and helpless to govern them now slavery is gone, we +are half-minded to throw them away again, or to allow them to annex +themselves, in sheer weariness at our imbecility, to the Americans, +who, far too wise to throw them away in their turn, will accept them +gladly as an instalment of that great development of their empire, +when 'The stars and stripes shall float upon Cape Horn.' + +But was it for this that these islands were taken and retaken, till +every gully held the skeleton of an Englishman? Was it for this +that these seas were reddened with blood year after year, till the +sharks learnt to gather to a sea-fight, as eagle, kite, and wolf +gathered of old to fights on land? Did all those gallant souls go +down to Hades in vain, and leave nothing for the Englishman but the +sad and proud memory of their useless valour? That at least they +have left. + +However we may deplore those old wars as unnecessary; however much +we may hate war in itself, as perhaps the worst of all the +superfluous curses with which man continues to deface himself and +this fair earth of God, yet one must be less than Englishman, less, +it may be, than man, if one does not feel a thrill of pride at +entering waters where one says to oneself,--Here Rodney, on the +glorious 12th of April 1782, broke Count de Grasse's line (teaching +thereby Nelson to do the same in like case), took and destroyed +seven French ships of the line and scattered the rest, preventing +the French fleet from joining the Spaniards at Hispaniola; thus +saving Jamaica and the whole West Indies, and brought about by that +single tremendous blow the honourable peace of 1783. On what a +scene of crippled and sinking, shattered and triumphant ships, in +what a sea, must the conquerors have looked round from the +Formidable's poop, with De Grasse at luncheon with Rodney in the +cabin below, and not, as he had boastfully promised, on board his +own Fills de Paris. Truly, though cynically, wrote Sir Gilbert +Blane, 'If superior beings make a sport of the quarrels of mortals, +they could not have chosen a better theatre for this magnificent +exhibition, nor could they ever have better entertainment than this +day afforded.' + +Yon lovely roadstead of Dominica--there it was that Rodney first +caught up the French on the 9th of April, three days before, and +would have beaten them there and then, had not a great part of his +fleet lain becalmed under these very highlands, past which we are +steaming through water smooth as glass. You glance, again, running +down the coast of Martinique, into a deep bay, ringed round with gay +houses embowered in mango and coconut, with the Piton du Vauclain +rising into the clouds behind it. That is the Cul-de-sac Royal, for +years the rendezvous and stronghold of the French fleets. From it +Count de Grasse sailed out on the fatal 8th of April; and there, +beyond it, opens an isolated rock, of the shape, but double the +size, of one of the great Pyramids, which was once the British sloop +of war Diamond Rock. + +For, in the end of 1803, Sir Samuel Hood saw that French ships +passing to Fort Royal harbour in Martinique escaped him by running +through the deep channel between Pointe du Diamante and this same +rock, which rises sheer out of the water 600 feet, and is about a +mile round, and only accessible at a point to the leeward, and even +then only when there is no surf. He who lands, it is said, has then +to creep through crannies and dangerous steeps, round to the +windward side, where the eye is suddenly relieved by a sloping grove +of wild fig-trees, clinging by innumerable air-roots to the cracks +of the stone. + +So Hood, with that inspiration of genius so common then among +sailors, laid his seventy-four, the Centaur, close alongside the +Diamond; made a hawser, with a traveller on it, fast to the ship and +to the top of the rock; and in January 1804 got three long 24's and +two 18's hauled up far above his masthead by sailors who, as they +'hung like clusters,' appeared 'like mice hauling a little sausage. +Scarcely could we hear the Governor on the top directing them with +his trumpet; the Centaur lying close under, like a cocoa-nut shell, +to which the hawsers are affixed.' {36} In this strange fortress +Lieutenant James Wilkie Maurice (let his name be recollected as one +of England's forgotten worthies) was established, with 120 men and +boys, and ammunition, provisions, and water, for four months; and +the rock was borne on the books of the Admiralty as His Majesty's +ship Diamond Rock, and swept the seas with her guns till the 1st of +June 1805, when she had to surrender, for want of powder, to a +French squadron of two 74's, a frigate, a corvette, a schooner, and +eleven gunboats, after killing and wounding some seventy men on the +rock alone, and destroying three gunboats, with a loss to herself of +two men killed and one wounded. Remembering which story, who will +blame the traveller if he takes off his hat to His Majesty's quondam +corvette, as he sees for the first time its pink and yellow sides +shining in the sun, above the sparkling seas over which it +domineered of old? You run onwards toward St. Lucia. Across that +channel Rodney's line of frigates watched for the expected +reinforcement of the French fleet. The first bay in St. Lucia is +Gros islet; and there is the Gros islet itself--Pigeon Rock, as the +English call it--behind which Rodney's fleet lay waiting at anchor, +while he himself sat on the top of the rock, day after day, spy- +glass in hand, watching for the signals from his frigates that the +French fleet was on the move. + +And those glens and forests of St. Lucia--over them and through them +Sir John Moore and Sir Ralph Abercrombie fought, week after week, +month after month, not merely against French soldiers, but against +worse enemies; 'Brigands,' as the poor fellows were called; Negroes +liberated by the Revolution of 1792. With their heads full (and who +can blame them?) of the Rights of Man, and the democratic teachings +of that valiant and able friend of Robespierre, Victor Hugues, they +had destroyed their masters, man, woman, and child, horribly enough, +and then helped to drive out of the island the invading English, who +were already half destroyed, not with fighting, but with fever. And +now 'St. Lucia the faithful,' as the Convention had named her, was +swarming with fresh English; and the remaining French and the +drilled Negroes made a desperate stand in the earthworks of yonder +Morne Fortunee, above the harbour, and had to surrender, with 100 +guns and all their stores; and then the poor black fellows, who only +knew that they were free, and intended to remain free, took to the +bush, and fed on the wild cush-cush roots and the plunder of the +plantations, man-hunting, murdering French and English alike, and +being put to death in return whenever caught. Gentle Abercrombie +could not coax them into peace: stern Moore could not shoot and +hang them into it; and the 'Brigand war' dragged hideously on, till +Moore--who was nearly caught by them in a six-oared boat off the +Pitons, and had to row for his life to St. Vincent, so saving +himself for the glory of Corunna--was all but dead of fever; and +Colonel James Drummond had to carry on the miserable work, till the +whole 'Armee Francaise dans les bois' laid down their rusty muskets, +on the one condition, that free they had been, and free they should +remain. So they were formed into an English regiment, and sent to +fight on the coast of Africa; and in more senses than one 'went to +their own place.' Then St. Lucia was ours till the peace of 1802; +then French again, under the good and wise Nogues; to be retaken by +us in 1803 once and for all. + +I tell this little story at some length, as an instance of what +these islands have cost us in blood and treasure. I have heard it +regretted that we restored Martinique to the French, and kept St. +Lucia instead. But in so doing, the British Government acted at +least on the advice which Rodney had given as early as the year +1778. St. Lucia, he held, would render Martinique and the other +islands of little use in war, owing to its windward situation and +its good harbours; for from St. Lucia every other British island +might receive speedy succour. He advised that the Little Carenage +should be made a permanent naval station, with dockyard and +fortifications, and a town built there by Government, which would, +in his opinion, have become a metropolis for the other islands. And +indeed, Nature had done her part to make such a project easy of +accomplishment. But Rodney's advice was not taken--any more than +his advice to people the island, by having a considerable quantity +of land in each parish allotted to ten-acre men (i.e. white yeomen), +under penalty of forfeiting it to the Crown should it be ever +converted to any other use than provision ground (i.e. thrown into +sugar estates). This advice shows that Rodney's genius, though, +with the prejudices of his time, he supported not only slavery, but +the slave-trade itself, had perceived one of the most fatal +weaknesses of the slave-holding and sugar-growing system. And well +it would have been for St. Lucia if his advice had been taken. But +neither ten-acre men nor dockyards were ever established in St. +Lucia. The mail-steamers, if they need to go into dock, have, I am +ashamed to say, to go to Martinique, where the French manage matters +better. The admirable Carenage harbour is empty; Castries remains a +little town, small, dirty, dilapidated, and unwholesome; and St. +Lucia itself is hardly to be called a colony, but rather the nucleus +of a colony, which may become hereafter, by energy and good +government, a rich and thickly-peopled garden up to the very +mountain-tops. + +We went up 800 feet of steep hill, to pay a visit on that Morne +Fortunee which Moore and Abercrombie took, with terrible loss of +life, in May 1796; and wondered at the courage and the tenacity of +purpose which could have contrived to invest, and much more to +assault, such a stronghold, 'dragging the guns across ravines and up +the acclivities of the mountains and rocks,' and then attacking the +works only along one narrow neck of down, which must be fat, to this +day, with English blood. + +All was peaceful enough now. The forts were crumbling, the barracks +empty, and the 'neat cottages, smiling flower gardens, smooth grass- +plats and gravel-walks,' which were once the pride of the citadel, +replaced for the most part with Guava-scrub and sensitive plants. +But nothing can destroy the beauty of the panorama. To the north +and east a wilderness of mountain peaks; to the west the Grand Cul- +de-sac and the Carenage, mapped out in sheets of blue between high +promontories; and, beyond all, the open sea. What a land: and in +what a climate: and all lying well-nigh as it has been since the +making of the world, waiting for man to come and take possession. +But there, as elsewhere, matters are mending steadily; and in +another hundred years St. Lucia may be an honour to the English +race. + +We were, of course, anxious to obtain at St. Lucia specimens of that +abominable reptile, the Fer-de-lance, or rat-tailed snake, {38} +which is the pest of this island, as well as of the neighbouring +island of Martinique, and, in Pere Labat's time, of lesser +Martinique in the Grenadines, from which, according to Davy, it +seems to have disappeared. It occurs also in Guadaloupe. In great +Martinique--so the French say--it is dangerous to travel through +certain woodlands on account of the Fer-de-lance, who lies along a +bough, and strikes, without provocation, at horse or man. I suspect +this statement, however, to be an exaggeration. I was assured that +this was not the case in St. Lucia; that the snake attacks no +oftener than other venomous snakes,--that is, when trodden on, or +when his retreat is cut off. At all events, it seems easy enough to +kill him: so easy, that I hope yet it may be possible to catch him +alive, and that the Zoological Gardens may at last possess--what +they have long coveted in vain--hideous attraction of a live Fer-de- +lance. The specimens which we brought home are curious enough, even +from this aesthetic point of view. Why are these poisonous snakes +so repulsive in appearance, some of them at least, and that not in +proportion to their dangerous properties? For no one who puts the +mere dread out of his mind will call the Cobras ugly, even anything +but beautiful; nor, again, the deadly Coral snake of Trinidad, whose +beauty tempts children, and even grown people, to play with it, or +make a necklace of it, sometimes to their own destruction. But who +will call the Puff Adder of the Cape, or this very Fer-de-lance, +anything but ugly and horrible: not only from the brutality +signified, to us at least, by the flat triangular head and the heavy +jaw, but by the look of malevolence and craft signified, to us at +least, by the eye and the lip? 'To us at least,' I say. For it is +an open question, and will be one, as long as the nominalist and the +realist schools of thought keep up their controversy--which they +will do to the world's end--whether this seeming hideousness be a +real fact: whether we do not attribute to the snake the same +passions which we should expect to find--and to abhor--in a human +countenance of somewhat the same shape, and then justify our +assumption to ourselves by the creature's bites, which are actually +no more the result of craft and malevolence than the bite of a +frightened mouse or squirrel. I should be glad to believe that the +latter theory were the true one; that nothing is created really +ugly, that the Fer-de-lance looks an hideous fiend, the Ocelot a +beautiful fiend, merely because the outlines of the Ocelot approach +more nearly to those which we consider beautiful in a human being: +but I confess myself not yet convinced. 'There is a great deal of +human nature in man,' said the wise Yankee; and one's human nature, +perhaps one's common-sense also, will persist in considering beauty +and ugliness as absolute realities, in spite of one's efforts to be +fair to the weighty arguments on the other side. + +These Fer-de-lances, be that as it may, are a great pest in St. +Lucia. Dr. Davy says that he 'was told by the Lieutenant-Governor +that as many as thirty rat-tailed snakes were killed in clearing a +piece of land, of no great extent, near Government House.' I can +well believe this, for about the same number were killed only two +years ago in clearing, probably, the same piece of ground, which is +infested with that creeping pest of the West Indies, the wild Guava- +bush, from which guava-jelly is made. The present Lieutenant- +Governor has offered a small reward for the head of every Fer-de- +lance killed: and the number brought in, in the first month, was so +large that I do not like to quote it merely from memory. Certainly, +it was high time to make a crusade against these unwelcome denizens. +Dr. Davy, judging from a Government report, says that nineteen +persons were killed by them in one small parish in the year 1849; +and the death, though by no means certain, is, when it befalls, a +hideous death enough. If any one wishes to know what it is like, +let him read the tragedy which Sir Richard Schomburgk tells--with +his usual brilliance and pathos, for he is a poet as well as a man +of science--in his Travels in British Guiana, vol. ii. p. 255--how +the Craspedocephalus, coiled on a stone in the ford, let fourteen +people walk over him without stirring, or allowing himself to be +seen: and at last rose, and, missing Schomburgk himself, struck the +beautiful Indian bride, the 'Liebling der ganzen Gesellschaft;' and +how she died in her bridegroom's arms, with horrors which I do not +record. + +Strangely enough, this snake, so fatal to man, has no power against +another West Indian snake, almost equally common, namely, the Cribo. +{40} This brave animal, closely connected with our common water- +snake, is perfectly harmless, and a welcome guest in West Indian +houses, because he clears them of rats. He is some six or eight +feet long, black, with more or less bright yellow about the tail and +under the stomach. He not only faces the Fer-de-lance, who is often +as big as he, but kills and eats him. It was but last year, I +think, that the population of Carenage turned out to see a fight in +a tree between a Cribo and a Fer-de-lance, of about equal size, +which, after a two hours' struggle, ended in the Cribo swallowing +the Fer-de-lance, head foremost. But when he had got his adversary +about one-third down, the Creoles--just as so many Englishmen would +have done--seeing that all the sport was over, rewarded the brave +Cribo by killing both, and preserving them as a curiosity in +spirits. How the Fer-de-lance came into the Antilles is a puzzle. +The black American scorpion--whose bite is more dreaded by the +Negroes than even the snake's--may have been easily brought by ship +in luggage or in cargo. But the Fer-de-lance, whose nearest home is +in Guiana, is not likely to have come on board ship. It is +difficult to believe that he travelled northward by land at the +epoch--if such a one there ever was--when these islands were joined +to South America: for if so, he would surely be found in St. +Vincent, in Grenada, and most surely of all in Trinidad. So far +from that being the case, he will not live, it is said, in St. +Vincent. For (so goes the story) during the Carib war of 1795-96, +the savages imported Fer-de-lances from St. Lucia or Martinique, and +turned them loose, in hopes of their destroying the white men: but +they did not breed, dwindled away, and were soon extinct. It is +possible that they, or their eggs, came in floating timber from the +Orinoco: but if so, how is it that they have never been stranded on +the east coast of Trinidad, whither timber without end drifts from +that river? In a word, I have no explanation whatsoever to give; as +I am not minded to fall back on the medieval one, that the devil +must have brought them thither, to plague the inhabitants for their +sins. + +Among all these beautiful islands, St. Lucia is, I think, the most +beautiful; not indeed on account of the size or form of its central +mass, which is surpassed by that of several others, but on account +of those two extraordinary mountains at its south-western end, +which, while all conical hills in the French islands are called +Pitons, bear the name of The Pitons par excellence. From most +elevated points in the island their twin peaks may be seen jutting +up over the other hills, like, according to irreverent English +sailors, the tips of a donkey's ears. But, as the steamer runs +southward along the shore, these two peaks open out, and you find +yourself in deep water close to the base of two obelisks, rather +than mountains, which rise sheer out of the sea, one to the height +of 2710, the other to that of 2680 feet, about a mile from each +other. Between them is the loveliest little bay; and behind them +green wooded slopes rise toward the rearward mountain of the +Souffriere. The whole glitters clear and keen in blazing sunshine: +but behind, black depths of cloud and gray sheets of rain shroud all +the central highlands in mystery and sadness. Beyond them, without +a shore, spreads open sea. But the fantastic grandeur of the place +cannot be described in words. The pencil of the artist must be +trusted. I can vouch that he has not in the least exaggerated the +slenderness and steepness of the rock-masses. One of them, it is +said, has never been climbed; unless a myth which hangs about it is +true. Certain English sailors, probably of Rodney's men--and +numbering, according to the pleasure of the narrator, three hundred, +thirty, or three--are said to have warped themselves up it by lianes +and scrub; but they found the rock-ledges garrisoned by an enemy +more terrible than any French. Beneath the bites of the Fer-de- +lances, and it may be beneath the blaze of the sun, man after man +dropped; and lay, or rolled down the cliffs. A single survivor was +seen to reach the summit, to wave the Union Jack in triumph over his +head, and then to fall a corpse. So runs the tale, which, if not +true, has yet its value, as a token of what, in those old days, +English sailors were believed capable of daring and of doing. + +At the back of these two Pitons is the Souffriere, probably the +remains of the old crater, now fallen in, and only 1000 feet above +the sea: a golden egg to the islanders, were it but used, in case +of war, and any difficulty occurring in obtaining sulphur from +Sicily, a supply of the article to almost any amount might be +obtained from this and the other like Solfaterras of the British +Antilles; they being, so long as the natural distillation of the +substance continues active as at present, inexhaustible. But to +work them profitably will require a little more common-sense than +the good folks of St. Lucia have as yet shown. In 1836 two +gentlemen of Antigua, {43a} Mr. Bennett and Mr. Wood, set up sulphur +works at the Souffriere of St. Lucia, and began prosperously enough, +exporting 540 tons the first year. 'But in 1840,' says Mr. Breen, +'the sugar-growers took the alarm,' fearing, it is to be presumed, +that labour would be diverted from the cane-estates, 'and at their +instigation the Legislative Council imposed a tax of 16s. sterling +on every ton of purified sulphur exported from the colony.' The +consequence was that 'Messrs. Bennett and Wood, after incurring a +heavy loss of time and treasure, had to break up their establishment +and retire from the colony.' One has heard of the man who killed +the goose to get the golden egg. In this case the goose, to avoid +the trouble of laying, seems to have killed the man. + +The next link in the chain, as the steamer runs southward, is St. +Vincent; a single volcano peak, like St. Kitts, or the Basse Terre +of Guadaloupe. Very grand are the vast sheets, probably of lava +covered with ash, which pour down from between two rounded mountains +just above the town. Rich with green canes, they contrast strongly +with the brown ragged cliffs right and left of them, and still more +with the awful depths beyond and above, where, underneath a canopy +of bright white clouds, scowls a purple darkness of cliffs and +glens, among which lies, unseen, the Souffriere. + +In vain, both going and coming, by sunlight, and again by moonlight, +when the cane-fields gleamed white below and the hills were pitch- +black above, did we try to catch a sight of this crater-peak. One +fact alone we ascertained, that like all, as far as I have seen, of +the West Indian volcanoes, it does not terminate in an ash-cone, but +in ragged cliffs of blasted rock. The explosion of April 27, 1812, +must have been too violent, and too short, to allow of any +accumulation round the crater. And no wonder; for that single +explosion relieved an interior pressure upon the crust of the earth, +which had agitated sea and land from the Azores to the West Indian +islands, the coasts of Venezuela, the Cordillera of New Grenada, and +the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio. For nearly two years the +earthquakes had continued, when they culminated in one great +tragedy, which should be read at length in the pages of Humboldt. +{43b} On March 26, 1812, when the people of Caraccas were assembled +in the churches, beneath a still and blazing sky, one minute of +earthquake sufficed to bury, amid the ruins of churches and houses, +nearly 10,000 souls. The same earthquake wrought terrible +destruction along the whole line of the northern Cordilleras, and +was felt even at Santa Fe de Bogota, and Honda, 180 leagues from +Caraccas. But the end was not yet. While the wretched survivors of +Caraccas were dying of fever and starvation, and wandering inland to +escape from ever-renewed earthquake shocks, among villages and +farms, which, ruined like their own city, could give them no +shelter, the almost forgotten volcano of St. Vincent was muttering +in suppressed wrath. It had thrown out no lava since 1718; if, at +least, the eruption spoken of by Moreau de Jonnes took place in the +Souffriere. According to him, with a terrific earthquake, clouds of +ashes were driven into the air with violent detonations from a +mountain situated at the eastern end of the island. When the +eruption had ceased, it was found that the whole mountain had +disappeared. Now there is no eastern end to St. Vincent, nor any +mountain on the east coast: and the Souffriere is at the northern +end. It is impossible, meanwhile, that the wreck of such a mountain +should not have left traces visible and notorious to this day. May +not the truth be, that the Souffriere had once a lofty cone, which +was blasted away in 1718, leaving the present crater-ring of cliffs +and peaks; and that thus may be explained the discrepancies in the +accounts of its height, which Mr. Scrope gives as 4940 feet, and +Humboldt and Dr. Davy at 3000, a measurement which seems to me to be +more probably correct? The mountain is said to have been slightly +active in 1785. In 1812 its old crater had been for some years (and +is now) a deep blue lake, with walls of rock around 800 feet in +height, reminding one traveller of the Lake of Albano. {44} But for +twelve months it had given warning, by frequent earthquake shocks, +that it had its part to play in the great subterranean battle +between rock and steam; and on the 27th of April 1812 the battle +began. + +A negro boy--he is said to be still alive in St. Vincent--was +herding cattle on the mountain-side. A stone fell near him; and +then another. He fancied that other boys were pelting him from the +cliffs above, and began throwing stones in return. But the stones +fell thicker: and among them one, and then another, too large to +have been thrown by human hand. And the poor little fellow woke up +to the fact that not a boy, but the mountain, was throwing stones at +him; and that the column of black cloud which was rising from the +crater above was not harmless vapour, but dust, and ash, and stone. +He turned, and ran for his life, leaving the cattle to their fate, +while the steam mitrailleuse of the Titans--to which all man's +engines of destruction are but pop-guns--roared on for three days +and nights, covering the greater part of the island in ashes, +burying crops, breaking branches off the trees, and spreading ruin +from which several estates never recovered; and so the 30th of April +dawned in darkness which might be felt. + +Meanwhile, on that same day, to change the scene of the campaign two +hundred and ten leagues, 'a distance,' as Humboldt says, 'equal to +that between Vesuvius and Paris,' 'the inhabitants, not only of +Caraccas, but of Calabozo, situate in the midst of the Llanos, over +a space of four thousand square leagues, were terrified by a +subterranean noise, which resembled frequent discharges of the +loudest cannon. It was accompanied by no shock: and, what is very +remarkable, was as loud on the coast as at eighty leagues' distance +inland; and at Caraccas, as well as at Calabozo, preparations were +made to put the place in defence against an enemy who seemed to be +advancing with heavy artillery.' They might as well have copied the +St. Vincent herd-boy, and thrown their stones, too, at the Titans; +for the noise was, there can be no doubt, nothing else than the +final explosion in St. Vincent far away. The same explosion was +heard in Venezuela, the same at Martinique and Guadaloupe: but +there, too, there were no earthquake shocks. The volcanoes of the +two French islands lay quiet, and left their English brother to do +the work. On the same day a stream of lava rushed down from the +mountain, reached the sea in four hours, and then all was over. The +earthquakes which had shaken for two years a sheet of the earth's +surface larger than half Europe were stilled by the eruption of this +single vent. + +No wonder if, with such facts on my memory since my childhood, I +looked up at that Souffriere with awe, as at a giant, obedient +though clumsy, beneficent though terrible, reposing aloft among the +clouds when his appointed work was done. + +The strangest fact about this eruption was, that the mountain did +not make use of its old crater. The original vent must have become +so jammed and consolidated, in the few years between 1785 and 1812, +that it could not be reopened, even by a steam-force the vastness of +which may be guessed at from the vastness of the area which it had +shaken for two years. So when the eruption was over, it was found +that the old crater-lake, incredible as it may seem, remained +undisturbed, as far as has been ascertained. But close to it, and +separated only by a knife-edge of rock some 700 feet in height, and +so narrow that, as I was assured by one who had seen it, it is +dangerous to crawl along it, a second crater, nearly as large as the +first, had been blasted out, the bottom of which, in like manner, is +now filled with water. I regretted much that I could not visit it. +Three points I longed to ascertain carefully--the relative heights +of the water in the two craters; the height and nature of the spot +where the lava stream issued; and lastly, if possible, the actual +causes of the locally famous Rabacca, or 'Dry River,' one of the +largest streams in the island, which was swallowed up during the +eruption, at a short distance from its source, leaving its bed an +arid gully to this day. But it could not be, and I owe what little +I know of the summit of the Souffriere principally to a most +intelligent and gentleman-like young Wesleyan minister, whose name +has escaped me. He described vividly as we stood together on the +deck, looking up at the volcano, the awful beauty of the twin lakes, +and of the clouds which, for months together, whirl in and out of +the cups in fantastic shapes before the eddies of the trade-wind. + +The day after the explosion, 'Black Sunday,' gave a proof of, though +no measure of, the enormous force which had been exerted. Eighty +miles to windward lies Barbadoes. All Saturday a heavy cannonading +had been heard to the eastward. The English and French fleets were +surely engaged. The soldiers were called out; the batteries manned: +but the cannonade died away, and all went to bed in wonder. On the +1st of May the clocks struck six: but the sun did not, as usual in +the tropics, answer to the call. The darkness was still intense, +and grew more intense as the morning wore on. A slow and silent +rain of impalpable dust was falling over the whole island. The +Negroes rushed shrieking into the streets. Surely the last day was +come. The white folk caught (and little blame to them) the panic; +and some began to pray who had not prayed for years. The pious and +the educated (and there were plenty of both in Barbadoes) were not +proof against the infection. Old letters describe the scene in the +churches that morning as hideous--prayers, sobs, and cries, in +Stygian darkness, from trembling crowds. And still the darkness +continued, and the dust fell. + +I have a letter, written by one long since dead, who had at least +powers of description of no common order, telling how, when he tried +to go out of his house upon the east coast, he could not find the +trees on his own lawn, save by feeling for their stems. He stood +amazed not only in utter darkness, but in utter silence. For the +trade-wind had fallen dead; the everlasting roar of the surf was +gone; and the only noise was the crashing of branches, snapped by +the weight of the clammy dust. He went in again, and waited. About +one o'clock the veil began to lift; a lurid sunlight stared in from +the horizon: but all was black overhead. Gradually the dust-cloud +drifted away; the island saw the sun once more; and saw itself +inches deep in black, and in this case fertilising, dust. The +trade-wind blew suddenly once more out of the clear east, and the +surf roared again along the shore. + +Meanwhile, a heavy earthquake-wave had struck part at least of the +shores of Barbadoes. The gentleman on the east coast, going out, +found traces of the sea, and boats and logs washed up, some 10 to 20 +feet above high-tide mark: a convulsion which seems to have gone +unmarked during the general dismay. + +One man at least, an old friend of John Hunter, Sir Joseph Banks and +others their compeers, was above the dismay, and the superstitious +panic which accompanied it. Finding it still dark when he rose to +dress, he opened (so the story used to run) his window; found it +stick, and felt upon the sill a coat of soft powder. 'The volcano +in St. Vincent has broken out at last,' said the wise man, 'and this +is the dust of it.' So he quieted his household and his Negroes, +lighted his candles, and went to his scientific books, in that +delight, mingled with an awe not the less deep because it is +rational and self-possessed, with which he, like other men of +science, looked at the wonders of this wondrous world. + +Those who will recollect that Barbadoes is eighty miles to windward +of St. Vincent, and that a strong breeze from E.N.E. is usually +blowing from the former island to the latter, will be able to +imagine, not to measure, the force of an explosion which must have +blown this dust several miles into the air, above the region of the +trade-wind, whether into a totally calm stratum, or into that still +higher one in which the heated south-west wind is hurrying +continually from the tropics toward the pole. As for the cessation +of the trade-wind itself during the fall of the dust, I leave the +fact to be explained by more learned men: the authority whom I have +quoted leaves no doubt in my mind as to the fact. + +On leaving St. Vincent, the track lies past the Grenadines. For +sixty miles, long low islands of quaint forms and euphonious names-- +Becquia, Mustique, Canonau, Carriacou, Isle de Rhone--rise a few +hundred feet out of the unfathomable sea, bare of wood, edged with +cliffs and streaks of red and gray rock, resembling, says Dr. Davy, +the Cyclades of the Grecian Archipelago: their number is counted at +three hundred. The largest of them all is not 8000 acres in extent; +the smallest about 600. A quiet prosperous race of little yeomen, +beside a few planters, dwell there; the latter feeding and exporting +much stock, the former much provisions, and both troubling +themselves less than of yore with sugar and cotton. They build +coasting vessels, and trade with them to the larger islands; and +they might be, it is said, if they chose, much richer than they +are,--if that be any good to them. + +The steamer does not stop at any of these little sea-hermitages; so +that we could only watch their shores: and they were worth +watching. They had been, plainly, sea-gnawn for countless ages; and +may, at some remote time, have been all joined in one long ragged +chine of hills, the highest about 1000 feet. They seem to be for +the most part made up of marls and limestones, with trap-dykes and +other igneous matters here and there. And one could not help +entertaining the fancy that they were a specimen of what the other +islands were once, or at least would have been now, had not each of +them had its volcanic vents, to pile up hard lavas thousands of feet +aloft, above the marine strata, and so consolidate each ragged chine +of submerged mountain into one solid conical island, like St. +Vincent at their northern end, and at their southern end that +beautiful Grenada to which we were fast approaching, and which we +reached, on our outward voyage, at nightfall; running in toward a +narrow gap of moonlit cliffs, beyond which we could discern the +lights of a town. We did not enter the harbour: but lay close off +its gateway in safe deep water; fired our gun, and waited for the +swarm of negro boats, which began to splash out to us through the +darkness, the jabbering of their crews heard long before the flash +of their oars was seen. + +Most weird and fantastic are these nightly visits to West Indian +harbours. Above, the black mountain-depths, with their canopy of +cloud, bright white against the purple night, hung with keen stars. +The moon, it may be on her back in the west, sinking like a golden +goblet behind some rock-fort, half shrouded in black trees. Below, +a line of bright mist over a swamp, with the coco-palms standing up +through it, dark, and yet glistering in the moon. A light here and +there in a house: another here and there in a vessel, unseen in the +dark. The echo of the gun from hill to hill. Wild voices from +shore and sea. The snorting of the steamer, the rattling of the +chain through the hawse-hole; and on deck, and under the quarter, +strange gleams of red light amid pitchy darkness, from engines, +galley fires, lanthorns; and black folk and white folk flitting +restlessly across them. + +The strangest show: 'like a thing in a play,' says every one when +they see it for the first time. And when at the gun-fire one +tumbles out of one's berth, and up on deck, to see the new island, +one has need to rub one's eyes, and pinch oneself--as I was minded +to do again and again during the next few weeks--to make sure that +it is not all a dream. It is always worth the trouble, meanwhile, +to tumble up on deck, not merely for the show, but for the episodes +of West Indian life and manners, which, quaint enough by day, are +sure to be even more quaint at night, in the confusion and bustle of +the darkness. One such I witnessed in that same harbour of Grenada, +not easily to be forgotten. + +A tall and very handsome middle-aged brown woman, in a limp print +gown and a gorgeous turban, stood at the gangway in a glare of +light, which made her look like some splendid witch by a Walpurgis +night-fire. 'Tell your boatman to go round to the other side,' +quoth the officer in charge. + +'Fanqua! (Francois) You go round oder side of de ship!' + +Fanqua, who seemed to be her son, being sleepy, tipsy, stupid, or +lazy, did not stir. + +'Fanqua! You hear what de officer say? You go round.' + +No move. + +'Fanqua! You not ashamed of youself? You not hear de officer say +he turn a steam-pipe over you?' + +No move. + +'Fanqua!' (authoritative). + +'Fanqua!' (indignant). + +'Fanqua!' (argumentative). + +'Fanqua!' (astonished). + +'Fanqua!' (majestic). + +'Fanqua!' (confidentially alluring). + +'Fanqua!' (regretful). And so on, through every conceivable tone of +expression. + +But Fanqua did not move; and the officer and bystanders laughed. + +She summoned all her talents, and uttered one last 'Fanqua!' which +was a triumph of art. + +Shame and surprise were blended in her voice with tenderness and +pity, and they again with meek despair. To have been betrayed, +disgraced, and so unexpectedly, by one whom she loved, and must love +still, in spite of this, his fearful fall! + +It was more than heart could bear. Breathing his name but that once +more, she stood a moment, like a queen of tragedy, one long arm +drawing her garments round her, the other outstretched, as if to +cast off--had she the heart to do it--the rebel; and then stalked +away into the darkness of the paddle-boxes--for ever and a day to +brood speechless over her great sorrow? Not in the least. To begin +chattering away to her acquaintances, as if no Fanqua existed in the +world. + +It was a piece of admirable play-acting; and was meant to be. She +had been conscious all the while that she was an object of +attention--possibly of admiration--to a group of men; and she knew +what was right to be done and said under the circumstances, and did +it perfectly, even to the smallest change of voice. She was +doubtless quite sincere the whole time, and felt everything which +her voice expressed: but she felt it, because it was proper to feel +it; and deceived herself probably more than she deceived any one +about her. + +A curious phase of human nature is that same play-acting, effect- +studying, temperament, which ends, if indulged in too much, in +hopeless self-deception, and 'the hypocrisy which,' as Mr. Carlyle +says, 'is honestly indignant that you should think it hypocritical.' +It is common enough among Negresses, and among coloured people too: +but is it so very uncommon among whites? Is it not the bane of too +many Irish? of too many modern French? of certain English, for that +matter, whom I have known, who probably had no drop of French or +Irish blood in their veins? But it is all the more baneful the +higher the organisation is; because, the more brilliant the +intellect, the more noble the instincts, the more able its victim is +to say--'See: I feel what I ought, I say what I ought, I do what I +ought: and what more would you have? Why do you Philistines +persist in regarding me with distrust and ridicule? What is this +common honesty, and what is this "single eye," which you suspect me +of not possessing?' + +Very beautiful was that harbour of George Town, seen by day. In the +centre an entrance some two hundred yards across: on the right, a +cliff of volcanic sand, interspersed with large boulders hurled from +some volcano now silent, where black women, with baskets on their +heads, were filling a barge with gravel. On the left, rocks of hard +lava, surmounted by a well-lined old fort, strong enough in the days +of 32-pounders. Beyond it, still on the left, the little city, +scrambling up the hillside, with its red roofs and church spires, +among coconut and bread-fruit trees, looking just like a German toy +town. In front, at the bottom of the harbour, villa over villa, +garden over garden, up to the large and handsome Government House, +one of the most delectable spots of all this delectable land; and +piled above it, green hill upon green hill, which, the eye soon +discovers, are the Sommas of old craters, one inside the other +towards the central peak of Mount Maitland, 1700 feet high. On the +right bow, low sharp cliff-points of volcanic ash; and on the right +again, a circular lake a quarter of a mile across and 40 feet in +depth, with a coral reef, almost awash, stretching from it to the +ash-cliff on the south side of the harbour mouth. A glance shows +that this is none other than an old crater, like that inside English +Harbour in Antigua, probably that which has hurled out the boulders +and the ash; and one whose temper is still uncertain, and to be +watched anxiously in earthquake times. The Etang du Vieux Bourg is +its name; for, so tradition tells, in the beginning of the +seventeenth century the old French town stood where the white coral- +reef gleams under water; in fact, upon the northern lip of the +crater. One day, however, the Enceladus below turned over in his +sleep, and the whole town was swallowed up, or washed away. The +sole survivor was a certain blacksmith, who thereupon was made--or +as sole survivor made himself--Governor of the island of Grenada. +So runs the tale; and so it seemed likely to run again, during the +late earthquake at St. Thomas's. For on the very same day, and +before any earthquake-wave from St. Thomas's had reached Grenada--if +any ever reached it, which I could not clearly ascertain--this Etang +du Vieux Bourg boiled up suddenly, hurling masses of water into the +lower part of the town, washing away a stage, and doing much damage. +The people were, and with good reason, in much anxiety for some +hours after: but the little fit of ill-temper went off, having +vented itself, as is well known, in the sea between St. Thomas's and +Santa Cruz, many miles away. + +The bottom of the crater, I was assured, was not permanently +altered: but the same informant--an eye-witness on whom I can fully +depend--shared the popular opinion that it had opened, sucked in +sea-water, and spouted it out again. If so, the good folks of +George Town are quite right in holding that they had a very narrow +escape of utter destruction. + +An animated and picturesque spot, as the steamer runs alongside, is +the wooden wharf where passengers are to land and the ship to coal. +The coaling Negroes and Negresses, dressed or undressed, in their +dingiest rags, contrast with the country Negresses, in gaudy prints +and gaudier turbans, who carry on their heads baskets of fruit even +more gaudy than their dresses. Both country and town Negroes, +meanwhile, look--as they are said to be--comfortable and prosperous; +and I can well believe the story that beggars are unknown in the +island. The coalers, indeed, are only too well off, for they earn +enough, by one day of violent and degrading toil, to live in +reckless shiftless comfort, and, I am assured, something very like +debauchery, till the next steamer comes in. + +No sooner is the plank down, than a struggling line getting on board +meets a struggling line getting on shore; and it is well if the +passenger, on landing, is not besmirched with coal-dust, after a +narrow escape of being shoved into the sea off the stage. But, +after all, civility pays in Grenada, as in the rest of the world; +and the Negro, like the Frenchman, though surly and rude enough if +treated with the least haughtiness, will generally, like the +Frenchman, melt at once at a touch of the hat, and an appeal to +'Laissez passer Mademoiselle.' On shore we got, through be-coaled +Negroes, men and women, safe and not very much be-coaled ourselves; +and were driven up steep streets of black porous lava, between lava +houses and walls, and past lava gardens, in which jutted up +everywhere, amid the loveliest vegetation, black knots and lumps +scorched by the nether fires. The situation of the house--the +principal one of the island--to which we drove, is beautiful beyond +description. It stands on a knoll some 300 feet in height, +commanded only by a slight rise to the north; and the wind of the +eastern mountains sweeps fresh and cool through a wide hall and +lofty rooms. Outside, a pleasure-ground and garden, with the same +flowers as we plant out in summer at home; and behind, tier on tier +of green wooded hill, with cottages and farms in the hollows, might +have made us fancy ourselves for a moment in some charming country- +house in Wales. But opposite the drawing-room window rose a +Candelabra Cereus, thirty feet high. On the lawn in front great +shrubs of red Frangipani carried rose-coloured flowers which filled +the air with fragrance, at the end of thick and all but leafless +branches. Trees hung over them with smooth greasy stems of bright +copper--which has gained them the name of 'Indian skin,' at least in +Trinidad, where we often saw them wild; another glance showed us +that every tree and shrub around was different from those at home: +and we recollected where we were; and recollected, too, as we looked +at the wealth of flower and fruit and verdure, that it was sharp +winter at home. We admired this and that: especially a most lovely +Convolvulus--I know not whether we have it in our hothouses {52a}-- +with purple maroon flowers; and an old hog-plum {52b}--Mombin of the +French--a huge tree, which was striking, not so much from its size +as from its shape. Growing among blocks of lava, it had assumed the +exact shape of an English oak in a poor soil and exposed situation; +globular-headed, gnarled, stunted, and most unlike to its giant +brethren of the primeval woods, which range upward 60 or 80 feet +without a branch. We walked up to see the old fort, commanding the +harbour from a height of 800 feet. We sat and rested by the +roadside under a great cotton-wood tree, and looked down on gorges +of richest green, on negro gardens, and groo-groo palms, and here +and there a cabbage-palm, or a huge tree at whose name we could not +guess; then turned through an arch cut in the rock into the interior +of the fort, which now holds neither guns nor soldiers, to see at +our feet the triple harbour, the steep town, and a very paradise of +garden and orchard; and then down again, with the regretful thought, +which haunted me throughout the islands--What might the West Indies +not have been by now, had it not been for slavery, rum, and sugar? + +We got down to the steamer again, just in time, happily, not to see +a great fight in the water between two Negroes; to watch which all +the women had stopped their work, and cheered the combatants with +savage shouts and laughter. At last the coaling and the cursing +were over; and we steamed out again to sea. + +I have antedated this little episode--delightful for more reasons +than I set down here--because I do not wish to trouble my readers +with two descriptions of the same island--and those mere passing +glimpses. + +There are two craters, I should say, in Grenada, beside the harbour. +One, the Grand Etang, lies high in the central group of mountains, +which rise to 3700 feet, and is itself about 1740 feet above the +sea. Dr. Davy describes it as a lake of great beauty, surrounded by +bamboos and tree-ferns. The other crater-lake lies on the north- +east coast, and nearer to the sea-level: and I more than suspect +that more would be recognised, up and down the island, by the eye of +a practised geologist. + +The southern end of Grenada--of whatsoever rock it may be composed-- +shows evidence of the same wave-destruction as do the Grenadines. +Arches and stacks, and low horizontal strata laid bare along the +cliff, in some places white with guano, prove that the sea has been +at work for ages, which must be many and long, considering that the +surf, on that leeward side of the island, is little or none the +whole year round. With these low cliffs, in strongest contrast to +the stately and precipitous southern point of St. Lucia, the +southern point of Grenada slides into the sea, the last of the true +Antilles. For Tobago, Robinson Crusoe's island, which lies away +unseen to windward, is seemingly a fragment of South America, like +the island of Trinidad, to which the steamer now ran dead south for +seventy miles. + +It was on the shortest day of the year--St. Thomas's Day--at seven +in the morning (half-past eleven of English time, just as the old +women at Eversley would have been going round the parish for their +'goodying'), that we became aware of the blue mountains of North +Trinidad ahead of us; to the west of them the island of the Dragon's +Mouth; and westward again, a cloud among the clouds, the last spur +of the Cordilleras of the Spanish Main. There was South America at +last; and as a witness that this, too, was no dream, the blue water +of the Windward Islands changed suddenly into foul bottle-green. +The waters of the Orinoco, waters from the peaks of the Andes far +away, were staining the sea around us. With thoughts full of three +great names, connected, as long as civilised man shall remain, with +those waters--Columbus, Raleigh, Humboldt--we steamed on, to see +hills, not standing out, like those of the isles which we had +passed, in intense clearness of green and yellow, purple and blue, +but all shrouded in haze, like those of the Hebrides or the West of +Ireland. Onward through a narrow channel in the mountain-wall, not +a rifle-shot across, which goes by the name of the Ape's Mouth, +banked by high cliffs of dark Silurian rock--not bare, though, as in +Britain, but furred with timber, festooned with lianes, down to the +very spray of the gnawing surf. One little stack of rocks, not +thirty feet high, and as many broad, stood almost in the midst of +the channel, and in the very northern mouth of it, exposed to the +full cut of surf and trade-wind. But the plants on it, even seen +through the glasses, told us where we were. One huge low tree +covered the top with shining foliage, like that of a Portugal +laurel; all around it upright Cerei reared their gray candelabra, +and below them, hanging down the rock to the very surf, deep green +night-blowing Cereus twined and waved, looking just like a curtain +of gigantic stag's-horn moss. We ran through the channel; then amid +more low wooded islands, it may be for a mile, before a strong back +current rushing in from the sea; and then saw before us a vast plain +of muddy water. No shore was visible to the westward; to the +eastward the northern hills of Trinidad, forest clad, sank to the +water; to the south lay a long line of coast, generally level with +the water's edge, and green with mangroves, or dotted with coco- +palms. That was the Gulf of Paria, and Trinidad beyond. + +Shipping at anchor, and buildings along the flat shore, marked Port +of Spain, destined hereafter to stand, not on the seaside, but, like +Lynn in Norfolk, and other fen-land towns, in the midst of some of +the richest reclaimed alluvial in the world. + +As the steamer stopped at last, her screw whirled up from the bottom +clouds of yellow mud, the mingled deposits of the Caroni and the +Orinoco. In half an hour more we were on shore, amid Negroes, +Coolies, Chinese, French, Spaniards, short-legged Guaraon dogs, and +black vultures. + + + +CHAPTER III: TRINIDAD + + + +It may be worth while to spend a few pages in telling something of +the history of this lovely island since the 31st of July 1499, when +Columbus, on his third voyage, sighted the three hills in the south- +eastern part. He had determined, it is said, to name the first land +which he should see after the Blessed Trinity; the triple peaks +seemed to him a heaven-sent confirmation of his intent, and he named +the island Trinidad; but the Indians called it Iere. + +He ran from Punta Galera, at the north-eastern extremity--so named +from the likeness of a certain rock to a galley under sail--along +the east and south of the island; turned eastward at Punta Galeota; +and then northward, round Punta Icacque, through the Boca Sierpe, or +serpent's mouth, into the Gulf of Paria, which he named 'Golfo de +Balena,' the Gulf of the Whale, and 'Golfo Triste,' the Sad Gulf; +and went out by the northern passage of the Boca Drago. The names +which he gave to the island and its surroundings remain, with few +alterations, to this day. + +He was surprised, says Washington Irving, at the verdure and +fertility of the country, having expected to find it more parched +and sterile as he approached the equator; whereas he beheld groves +of palm-trees, and luxuriant forests sweeping down to the seaside, +with fountains and running streams beneath the shade. The shore was +low and uninhabited: but the country rose in the interior, and was +cultivated in many places, and enlivened by hamlets and scattered +habitations. In a word, the softness and purity of the climate, and +the verdure, freshness, and sweetness of the country, appeared to +equal the delights of early spring in the beautiful province of +Valencia in Spain. + +He found the island peopled by a race of Indians with fairer +complexions than any he had hitherto seen; 'people all of good +stature, well made, and of very graceful bearing, with much and +smooth hair.' They wore, the chiefs at least, tunics of coloured +cotton, and on their heads beautiful worked handkerchiefs, which +looked in the distance as if they were made of silk. The women, +meanwhile, according to the report of Columbus's son, seem, some of +them at least, to have gone utterly without clothing. + +They carried square bucklers, the first Columbus had seen in the New +World; and bows and arrows, with which they made feeble efforts to +drive off the Spaniards who landed at Punta Arenal, near Icacque, +and who, finding no streams, sank holes in the sand, and so filled +their casks with fresh water, as may be done, it is said, at the +same spot even now. + +And there--the source of endless misery to these happy harmless +creatures--a certain Cacique, so goes the tale, took off Columbus's +cap of crimson velvet, and replaced it with a circle of gold which +he wore. + +Alas for them! That fatal present of gold brought down on them +enemies far more ruthless than the Caribs of the northern islands, +who had a habit of coming down in their canoes and carrying off the +gentle Arrawaks to eat them at their leisure, after the fashion +which Defoe, always accurate, has immortalised in Robinson Crusoe. +Crusoe's island is, almost certainly, meant for Tobago; Man Friday +had been stolen in Trinidad. + +Columbus came no more to Trinidad. But the Spaniards had got into +their wicked heads that there must be gold somewhere in the island; +and they came again and again. Gold they could not get; for it does +not exist in Trinidad. But slaves they could get; and the history +of the Indians of Trinidad for the next century is the same as that +of the rest of the West Indies: a history of mere rapine and +cruelty. The Arrawaks, to do them justice, defended themselves more +valiantly than the still gentler people of Hayti, Cuba, Jamaica, +Porto Rico, and the Lucayas: but not so valiantly as the fierce +cannibal Caribs of the Lesser Antilles, whom the Spaniards were +never able to subdue. + +It was in 1595, nearly a century after Columbus discovered the +island, that 'Sir Robert Duddeley in the Bear, with Captain Munck, +in the Beare's Whelpe, with two small pinnesses, called the Frisking +and the Earwig,' ran across from Cape Blanco in Africa, straight for +Trinidad, and anchored in Cedros Bay, which he calls Curiapan, +inside Punta Icacque and Los Gallos--a bay which was then, as now, +'very full of pelicans.' The existence of the island was known to +the English: but I am not aware that any Englishman had explored +it. Two years before, an English ship, whose exploits are written +in Hakluyt by one Henry May, had run in, probably to San Fernando, +'to get refreshing; but could not, by reason the Spaniards had taken +it. So that for want of victuals the company would have forsaken +the ship.' How different might have been the history of Trinidad, +if at that early period, while the Indians were still powerful, a +little colony of English had joined them, and intermarried with +them. But it was not to be. The ship got away through the Boca +Drago. The year after, seemingly, Captain Whiddon, Raleigh's +faithful follower, lost eight men in the island in a Spanish ambush. +But Duddeley was the first Englishman, as far as I am aware, who +marched, 'for his experience and pleasure, four long marches through +the island; the last fifty miles going and coming through a most +monstrous thicke wood, for so is most part of the island; and +lodging myself in Indian townes.' Poor Sir Robert--'larding the +lean earth as he stalked along'--in ruff and trunk hose, possibly +too in burning steel breastplate, most probably along the old Indian +path from San Fernando past Savannah Grande, and down the Ortoire to +Mayaro on the east coast. How hot he must have been. How often, we +will hope, he must have bathed on the journey in those crystal +brooks, beneath the balisiers and the bamboos. He found 'a fine- +shaped and a gentle people, all naked and painted red' (with +roucou), 'their commanders wearing crowns of feathers,' and a +country 'fertile and full of fruits, strange beasts and fowls, +whereof munkeis, babions, and parats were in great abundance.' His +'munkeis' were, of course, the little Sapajous; his 'babions' no +true Baboons; for America disdains that degraded and dog-like form; +but the great red Howlers. He was much delighted with the island; +and 'inskonced himself'--i.e. built a fort: but he found the +Spanish governor, Berreo, not well pleased at his presence; 'and no +gold in the island save Marcasite' (iron pyrites); considered that +Berreo and his three hundred Spaniards were 'both poore and strong, +and so he had no reason to assault them.' He had but fifty men +himself, and, moreover, was tired of waiting in vain for Sir Walter +Raleigh. So he sailed away northward, on the 12th of March, to +plunder Spanish ships, with his brains full of stories of El Dorado, +and the wonders of the Orinoco--among them 'four golden half-moons +weighing a noble each, and two bracelets of silver,' which a boat's +crew of his had picked up from the Indians on the other side of the +Gulf of Paria. + +He left somewhat too soon. For on the 22d of March Raleigh sailed +into Cedros Bay, and then went up to La Brea and the Pitch Lake. +There he noted, as Columbus had done before him, oysters growing on +the mangrove roots; and noted, too, 'that abundance of stone pitch, +that all the ships of the world might be therewith laden from +thence; and we made trial of it in trimming our shippes, to be most +excellent good, and melteth not with the sun as the pitch of +Norway.' From thence he ran up the west coast to 'the mountain of +Annaparima' (St. Fernando hill), and passing the mouth of the +Caroni, anchored at what was then the village of Port of Spain. + +There some Spaniards boarded him, to buy linen and other things, all +which he 'entertained kindly, and feasted after our manner, by means +whereof I learned as much of the estate of Guiana as I could, or as +they knew, for those poore souldiers having been many years without +wine, a few draughts made them merrie, in which mood they vaunted of +Guiana and the riches thereof,'--much which it had been better for +Raleigh had he never heard. + +Meanwhile the Indians came to him every night with lamentable +complaints of Berreo's cruelty. 'He had divided the island and +given to every soldier a part. He made the ancient Caciques that +were lords of the court, to be their slaves. He kept them in +chains; he dropped their naked bodies with burning bacon, and such +other torments, which' (continues Raleigh) 'I found afterward to be +true. For in the city' (San Josef), 'when I entered it, there were +five lords, or little kings, in one chain, almost dead of famine, +and wasted with torments.' Considering which; considering Berreo's +treachery to Whiddon's men; and considering also that as Berreo +himself, like Raleigh, was just about to cross the gulf to Guiana in +search of El Dorado, and expected supplies from Spain; 'to leave a +garrison in my back, interested in the same enterprise, I should +have savoured very much of the asse.' So Raleigh fell upon the +'Corps du Guard' in the evening, put them to the sword, sent Captain +Caulfield with sixty soldiers onward, following himself with forty +more, up the Caroni river, which was then navigable by boats; and +took the little town of San Josef. + +It is not clear whether the Corps du Guard which he attacked was at +Port of Spain itself, or at the little mud fort at the confluence of +the Caroni and San Josef rivers, which was to be seen, with some old +pieces of artillery in it, in the memory of old men now living. But +that he came up past that fort, through the then primeval forest, +tradition reports; and tells, too, how the prickly climbing palm, +{58} the Croc-chien, or Hook-dog, pest of the forests, got its +present name upon that memorable day. For, as the Spanish soldiers +ran from the English, one of them was caught in the innumerable +hooks of the Croc-chien, and never looking behind him in his terror, +began shouting, 'Suelta mi, Ingles!' (Let me go, Englishman!)--or, +as others have it, 'Valga mi, Ingles!' (Take ransom for me, +Englishman!)--which name the palm bears unto this day. + +So Raleigh, having, as one historian of Trinidad says, 'acted like a +tiger, lest he should savour of the ass,' went his way to find El +Dorado, and be filled with the fruit of his own devices: and may +God have mercy on him; and on all who, like him, spoil the noblest +instincts, and the noblest plans, for want of the 'single eye.' + +But before he went, he 'called all the Caciques who were enemies to +the Spaniard, for there were some that Berreo had brought out of +other countreys and planted there, to eat out and waste those that +were natural of the place; and, by his Indian interpreter that he +had brought out of England, made them understand that he was the +servant of a Queene, who was the great Cacique of the North, and a +virgin, and had more Caciques under her than there were trees in +that island; and that she was an enemy to the Castellani in respect +of their tyranny and oppression, and that she delivered all such +nations about her as were by them oppressed, and, having freed all +the northern world from their servitude, had sent me to free them +also, and withal to defend the country of Guiana from their invasion +and conquest. I showed them her Majesty's picture' (doubtless in +ruff, farthingale, and stomacher laden with jewels), 'which they so +admired and honoured, as it had been easy to make them idolatrous +thereof.' + +And so Raleigh, with Berreo as prisoner, 'hasted away toward his +proposed discovery,' leaving the poor Indians of Trinidad to be +eaten up by fresh inroads of the Spaniards. + +There were, in his time, he says, five nations of Indians in the +island,--'Jaios,' 'Arwacas,' 'Salvayos' (Salivas?), 'Nepoios,' and +round San Josef 'Carinepagotes'; and there were others, he +confesses, which he does not name. Evil times were come upon them. +Two years after, the Indians at Punta Galera (the north-east point +of the island) told poor Keymis that they intended to escape to +Tobago when they could no longer keep Trinidad, though the Caribs of +Dominica were 'such evil neighbours to it' that it was quite +uninhabited. Their only fear was lest the Spaniards, worse +neighbours than even the Caribs, should follow them thither. + +But as Raleigh and such as he went their way, Berreo and such as he +seem to have gone their way also. The 'Conquistadores,' the +offscourings not only of Spain but of South Germany, and indeed of +every Roman Catholic country in Europe, met the same fate as befell, +if monk chroniclers are to be trusted, the great majority of the +Normans who fought at Hastings. 'The bloodthirsty and deceitful men +did not live out half their days.' By their own passions, and by no +miraculous Nemesis, they civilised themselves off the face of the +earth; and to them succeeded, as to the conquerors at Hastings, a +nobler and gentler type of invaders. During the first half of the +seventeenth century, Spaniards of ancient blood and high +civilisation came to Trinidad, and re-settled the island: +especially the family of Farfan--'Farfan de los Godos,' once famous +in mediaeval chivalry--if they will allow me the pleasure of for +once breaking a rule of mine, and mentioning a name--who seem to +have inherited for some centuries the old blessings of Psalm +xxxvii.-- + +'Put thou thy trust in the Lord, and be doing good; dwell in the +land, and verily thou shalt be fed. + +'The Lord knoweth the days of the godly: and their inheritance +shall endure for ever. + +'They shall not be confounded in perilous times; and in the days of +dearth they shall have enough.' + +Toward the end of the seventeenth century the Indians summoned up +courage to revolt, after a foolish ineffectual fashion. According +to tradition, and an old 'romance muy doloroso,' which might have +been heard sung within the last hundred years, the governor, the +Cabildo, and the clergy went to witness an annual feast of the +Indians at Arena, a sandy spot (as its name signifies) near the +central mountain of Tamana. In the middle of one of their warlike +dances, the Indians, at a given signal, discharged a flight of +arrows, which killed the governor, all the priests, and almost all +the rest of the whites. Only a Farfan escaped, not without +suspicion of forewarning by the rebels. He may have been a merciful +man and just; while considering the gentle nature of the Indians, it +is possible that some at least of their victims deserved their fate, +and that the poor savages had wrongs to avenge which had become +intolerable. As for the murder of the priests, we must remember +always that the Inquisition was then in strength throughout Spanish +America; and could be, if it chose, aggressive and ruthless enough. + +By the end of the seventeenth century there were but fifteen +pueblos, or Indian towns, in the island; and the smallpox had made +fearful ravages among them. Though they were not forced to work as +slaves, a heavy capitation tax, amounting, over most of the island, +to two dollars a head, was laid on them almost to the end of the +last century. There seems to have been no reason in the nature of +things why they should not have kept up their numbers; for the +island was still, nineteen-twentieths of it, rich primeval forest. +It may have been that they could not endure the confined life in the +pueblos, or villages, to which they were restricted by law. But, +from some cause or other, they died out, and that before far +inferior numbers of invaders. In 1783, when the numbers of the +whites were only 126, of the free coloured 295, and of the slaves +310, the Indians numbered only 2032. In 1798, after the great +immigration from the French West Indies, there were but 1082 Indians +in the island. It is true that the white population had increased +meanwhile to 2151, the free coloured to 4476, and the slaves to +10,000. But there was still room in plenty for 2000 Indians. +Probably many of them had been absorbed by intermarriage with the +invaders. At present, there is hardly an Indian of certainly pure +blood in the island, and that only in the northern mountains. + +Trinidad ought to have been, at least for those who were not +Indians, a happy place from the seventeenth almost to the nineteenth +century, if it be true that happy is the people who have no history. +Certain Dutchmen, whether men of war or pirates is not known, +attacked it some time toward the end of the seventeenth century, +and, trying to imitate Raleigh, were well beaten in the jungles +between the Caroni and San Josef. The Indians, it is said, joined +the Spaniards in the battle; and the little town of San Josef was +rewarded for its valour by being raised to the rank of a city by the +King of Spain. + +The next important event which I find recorded is after the treaty +of 27th August 1701, between 'His Most Christian' and 'His Most +Catholic Majesty,' by which the Royal Company of Guinea, established +in France, was allowed to supply the Spanish colonies with 4800 +Negroes per annum for ten years; of whom Trinidad took some share, +and used them in planting cacao. So much the worse for it. + +Next Captain Teach, better known as 'Blackboard,' made his +appearance about 1716, off Port of Spain; plundered and burnt a brig +laden with cacao; and when a Spanish frigate came in, and cautiously +cannonaded him at a distance, sailed leisurely out of the Boca +Grande. Little would any Spanish Guarda Costa trouble the soul of +the valiant Captain Teach, with his six pistols slung in bandoliers +down his breast, lighted matches stuck underneath the brim of his +hat, and his famous black beard, the terror of all merchant captains +from Trinidad to Guinea River, twisted into tails, and tied up with +ribbons behind his ears. How he behaved himself for some years as a +'ferocious human pig,' like Ignatius Loyola before his conversion, +with the one virtue of courage; how he would blow out the candle in +the cabin, and fire at random into his crew, on the ground 'that if +he did not kill one of them now and then they would forget who he +was'; how he would shut down the hatches, and fill the ship with the +smoke of brimstone and what not, to see how long he and his could +endure a certain place,--to which they are, some of them, but too +probably gone; how he has buried his money, or said that he had, +'where none but he and Satan could find it, and the longest liver +should take all'; how, out of some such tradition, Edgar Poe built +up the wonderful tale of the Gold Bug; how the planters of certain +Southern States, and even the Governor of North Carolina, paid him +blackmail, and received blackmail from him likewise; and lastly, how +he met a man as brave as he, but with a clear conscience and a clear +sense of duty, in the person of Mr. Robert Maynard, first lieutenant +of the Pearl, who found him after endless difficulties, and fought +him hand-to-hand in Oberecock River, in Virginia, 'the lieutenant +and twelve men against Blackbeard and fourteen, till the sea was +tinctured with blood around the vessel'; and how Maynard sailed into +Bathtown with the gory head, black beard and all, hung at his +jibboom end; all this is written--in the books in which it is +written; which need not be read now, however sensational, by the +British public. + +The next important event which I find recorded in the annals of +Trinidad is, that in 1725 the cacao crop failed. Some perhaps would +have attributed the phenomenon to a comet, like that Sir William +Beeston who, writing in 1664, says--'About this time appeared first +the comet, which was the forerunner of the blasting of the cacao- +trees, when they generally failed in Jamaica, Cuba, and Hispaniola.' +But no comet seems to have appeared in 1725 whereon to lay the +blame; and therefore Father Gumilla, the Jesuit, may have been +excused for saying that the failure of the trees was owing to the +planters not paying their tithes; and for fortifying his statement +by the fact that one planter alone, named Rabelo, who paid his +tithes duly, saved his trees and his crop. + +The wicked (according to Dauxion Lavaysse, a Frenchman inoculated +somewhat with scientific and revolutionary notions, who wrote a very +clever book, unfortunately very rare now) said that the Trinidad +cacao was then, as now, very excellent; that therefore it was sold +before it was gathered; and that thus the planters were able to +evade the payment of tithes. But Senor Rabelo had planted another +variety, called Forestero, from the Brazils, which was at once of +hardier habit, inferior quality, and slower ripening. Hence his +trees withstood the blight: but, en revanche, hence also, merchants +would not buy his crop before it was picked: thus his duty became +his necessity, and he could not help paying his tithes. + +Be that as it may, the good folk of Trinidad (and, to judge from +their descendants, there must have been good folk among them) grew, +from the failure of the cacao plantations, exceeding poor; so that +in 1733 they had to call a meeting at San Josef, in order to tax the +inhabitants, according to their means, toward thatching the Cabildo +hall with palm-leaves. Nay, so poor did they become, that in 1740, +the year after the smallpox had again devastated the island and the +very monkeys had died of it,--as the hapless creatures died of +cholera in hundreds a few years since, and of yellow fever the year +before last, sensibly diminishing their numbers near the towns--let +the conceit of human nature wince under the fact as it will, it +cannot wince from under the fact,--in 1740, I say the war between +Spain and England--that about Jenkins's ear--forced them to send a +curious petition to his Majesty of Spain; and to ask--Would he be +pleased to commiserate their situation? The failure of the cacao +had reduced them to such a state of destitution that they could not +go to Mass save once a year, to fulfil their 'annual precepts'; when +they appeared in clothes borrowed from each other. + +Nay, it is said by those who should know best, that in those days +the whole august body of the Cabildo had but one pair of small- +clothes, which did duty among all the members. + +Let no one be shocked. The small-clothes desiderated would have +been of black satin, probably embroidered; and fit, though somewhat +threadbare, for the thigh of a magistrate and gentleman of Spain. +But he would not have gone on ordinary days in a sansculottic state. +He would have worn that most comfortable of loose nether garments, +which may be seen on sailors in prints of the great war, and which +came in again a while among the cunningest Highland sportsmen, +namely, slops. Let no one laugh, either, at least in contempt, as +the average British Philistine will think himself bound to do, at +the fact that these men had not only no balance at their bankers, +but no bankers with whom to have a balance. No men are more capable +of supporting poverty with content and dignity than the Spaniards of +the old school. For none are more perfect gentlemen, or more free +from the base modern belief that money makes the man; and I doubt +not that a member of the old Cabildo of San Josef in slops was far +better company than an average British Philistine in trousers. + +So slumbered on, only awakening to an occasional gentle revolt +against their priests, or the governor sent to them from the Spanish +Court, the good Spaniards of Trinidad; till the peace of 1783 woke +them up, and they found themselves suddenly in a new, and an +unpleasantly lively, world. + +Rodney's victories had crippled Spain utterly; and crippled, too, +the French West Indian islands, though not France itself: but the +shrewd eye of a M. Rome de St. Laurent had already seen in Trinidad +a mine of wealth, which might set up again, not the Spanish West +Indians merely, but those of the French West Indians who had +exhausted, as they fancied, by bad cultivation, the soils of +Guadaloupe, Martinique, and St. Lucia. He laid before the Intendant +at Caraccas, on whom Trinidad then depended, a scheme of +colonisation, which was accepted, and carried out in 1783, by a man +who, as far as I can discover, possessed in a pre-eminent degree +that instinct of ruling justly, wisely, gently, and firmly, which is +just as rare in this age as it was under the ancien regime. Don +Josef Maria Chacon was his name,--a man, it would seem, like poor +Kaiser Joseph of Austria, born before his time. Among his many +honourable deeds, let this one at least be remembered; that he +turned out of Trinidad, the last Inquisitor who ever entered it. + +Foreigners, who must be Roman Catholics (though on this point Chacon +was as liberal as public opinion allowed him to be), were invited to +settle on grants of Crown land. Each white person of either sex was +to have some thirty-two acres, and half that quantity for every +slave that he should bring. Free people of colour were to have half +the quantity; and a long list of conditions was annexed, which, +considering that they were tainted with the original sin of slave- +holding, seem wise and just enough. Two articles especially +prevented, as far as possible, absenteeism. Settlers who retired +from the island might take away their property; but they must pay +ten per cent on all which they had accumulated; and their lands +reverted to the Crown. Similarly, if the heirs of a deceased +settler should not reside in the colony, fifteen per cent was to be +levied on the inheritance. Well had it been for every West Indian +island, British or other, if similar laws had been in force in them +for the last hundred years. + +So into Trinidad poured, for good and evil, a mixed population, +principally French, to the number of some 12,000; till within a year +or two the island was Spanish only in name. The old Spaniards, who +held, many of them, large sheets of the forests which they had never +cleared, had to give them up, with grumblings and heart-burnings, to +the newcomers. The boundaries of these lands were uncertain. The +island had never been surveyed: and no wonder. The survey has been +only completed during the last few years; and it is a mystery, to +the non-scientific eye, how it has ever got done. One can well +believe the story of the northern engineer who, when brought over to +plan out a railroad, shook his head at the first sight of the 'high +woods.' 'At home,' quoth he, 'one works outside one's work: here +one works inside it.' Considering the density of the forests, one +may as easily take a general sketch of a room from underneath the +carpet as of Trinidad from the ground. However, thanks to the +energy of a few gentlemen, who found occasional holes in the carpet +through which they could peep, the survey of Trinidad is now about +complete. + +But in those days ignorance of the island, as well as the battle +between old and new interests, brought lawsuits, and all but civil +war. Many of the French settlers were no better than they should +be; many had debts in other islands; many of the Negroes had been +sent thither because they were too great ruffians to be allowed at +home; and, what was worse, the premium of sixteen acres of land for +every slave imported called up a system of stealing slaves, and +sometimes even free coloured people, from other islands, especially +from Grenada, by means of 'artful Negroes and mulatto slaves,' who +were sent over as crimps. I shall not record the words in which +certain old Spaniards describe the new population of Trinidad ninety +years ago. They, of course, saw everything in the blackest light; +and the colony has long since weeded and settled itself under a +course of good government. But poor Don Josef Maria Chacon must +have had a hard time of it while he tried to break into something +like order such a motley crew. + +He never broke them in, poor man. For just as matters were +beginning to right themselves, the French Revolution broke out; and +every French West Indian island burst into flame,--physical, alas! +as well as moral. Then hurried into Trinidad, to make confusion +worse confounded, French Royalist families, escaping from the +horrors in Hayti; and brought with them, it is said, many still +faithful house-slaves born on their estates. But the Republican +French, being nearly ten to one, were practical masters of the +island; and Don Chacon, whenever he did anything unpopular, had to +submit to 'manifestations,' with tricolour flag, Marseillaise, and +Ca Ira, about the streets of Port of Spain; and to be privately +informed by Admiral Artizabal that a guillotine was getting ready to +cut off the heads of all loyal Spaniards, French, and British. This +may have been an exaggeration: but wild deeds were possible enough +in those wild days. Artizabal, the story goes, threatened to hang a +certain ringleader (name not given) at his yard-arm. Chacon begged +the man's life, and the fellow was 'spared to become the persecutor +of his preserver, even to banishment, and death from a broken +heart.' {65} + +At last the explosion came. The English sloop Zebra was sent down +into the Gulf of Paria to clear it of French privateers, manned by +the defeated maroons and brigands of the French islands, who were +paying respect to no flag, but pirating indiscriminately. Chacon +confessed himself glad enough to have them exterminated. He himself +could not protect his own trade. But the neutrality of the island +must be respected. Skinner, the Zebra's captain, sailed away +towards the Boca, and found, to his grim delight, that the +privateers had mistaken him for a certain English merchantman whom +they had blockaded in Port of Spain, and were giving him chase. He +let them come up and try to board; and what followed may be easily +guessed. In three-quarters of an hour they were all burnt, sunk, or +driven on shore; the remnant of their crews escaped to Port of +Spain, to join the French Republicans and vow vengeance. + +Then, in a hapless hour, Captain Vaughan came into Port of Spain in +the Alarm frigate. His intention was, of course, to protect the +British and Spanish. They received him with open arms. But the +privateers' men attacked a boat's crew of the Alarm, were beaten, +raised a riot, and attacked a Welsh lady's house where English +officers were at a party; after which, with pistol shots and +climbing over back walls, the English, by help of a few Spanish +gentlemen, escaped, leaving behind them their surgeon severely +wounded. + +Next morning, at sunrise, almost the whole of the frigate's crew +landed in Port of Spain, fully armed, with Captain Vaughan at their +head; the hot Welsh blood boiling in him. He unfurled the British +flag, and marched into the town to take vengeance on the mob. A +Spanish officer, with two or three men, came forward. What did a +British captain mean by violating the law of nations? Vaughan would +chastise the rascally French who had attacked his men. Then he must +either kill the Spaniard or take him prisoner: and the officer +tendered his sword. + +'I will not accept the arms of a brave man who is doing his duty,' +quoth poor over-valiant Vaughan, and put him aside. The hot Welsh +blood was nevertheless the blood of a gentleman. They struck up +'Britons, Strike Home,' and marched on. The British and Spanish +came out to entreat him. If a fight began, they would be all +massacred. Still he marched on. The French, with three or four +thousand slaves, armed, and mounting the tricolour cockade, were +awaiting them, seemingly on the Savannah north of the town. Chacon +was at his wits' end. He had but eighty soldiers, who said openly +they would not fire on the English, but on the French. But the +English were but 240, and the French twelve times that number. By +deft cutting through cross streets Chacon got between the two bodies +of madmen, and pleaded the indignity to Spain and the violation of +neutral ground. The English must fight him before they fought the +French. They would beat him: but as soon as the first shot was +fired, the French would attack them likewise, and both parties alike +would be massacred in the streets. + +The hot Welsh blood cooled down before reason, and courage. Vaughan +saluted Chacon; and marched back, hooted by the Republicans, who +nevertheless kept at a safe distance. The French hunted every +English and Irish person out of the town, some escaping barely with +their lives. Only one man, however, was killed; and he, poor +faithful slave, was an English Negro. + +Vaughan saw that he had done wrong; that he had possibly provoked a +war; and made for his error the most terrible reparation which man +can make. + +His fears were not without foundation. His conduct formed the +principal count in the list of petty complaints against England, on +the strength of which, five months after, in October 1796, Spain +declared war against England, and, in conjunction with France and +Holland, determined once more to dispute the empire of the seas. + +The moment was well chosen. England looked, to those who did not +know her pluck, to have sunk very low. Franco was rising fast; and +Buonaparte had just begun his Italian victories. So the Spanish +Court--or at least Godoy, 'Prince of Peace'--sought to make profit +out of the French Republic. About the first profit which it made +was the battle of St. Vincent; about the second, the loss of +Trinidad. + +On February 14, while Jervis and Nelson were fighting off Cape St. +Vincent, Harvey and Abercrombie came into Carriacou in the +Grenadines with a gallant armada; seven ships of the line, thirteen +other men-of-war, and nigh 8000 men, including 1500 German jagers, +on board. + +On the 16th they were struggling with currents of the Bocas, piloted +by a Mandingo Negro, Alfred Sharper, who died in 1836, 105 years of +age. The line-of-battle ships anchored in the magnificent land- +locked harbour of Chaguaramas, just inside the Boca de Monos. The +frigates and transports went up within five miles of Port of Spain. + +Poor Chacon had, to oppose this great armament, 5000 Spanish troops, +300 of them just recovering from yellow fever; a few old Spanish +militia, who loved the English better than the French; and what +Republican volunteers he could get together. They of course +clamoured for arms, and demanded to be led against the enemy, as to +this day; forgetting, as to this day, that all the fiery valour of +Frenchmen is of no avail without officers, and without respect for +those officers. Beside them, there lay under a little fort on +Gaspar Grande island, in Chaguaramas harbour--ah, what a Paradise to +be denied by war--four Spanish line-of-battle ships and a frigate. +Their admiral, Apodaca, was a foolish old devotee. Their crews +numbered 1600 men, 400 of whom were in hospital with yellow fever, +and many only convalescent. The terrible Victor Hugues, it is said, +offered a band of Republican sympathisers from Guadaloupe: but +Chacon had no mind to take that Trojan horse within his fortress. +'We have too many lawless Republicans here already. Should the King +send me aid, I will do my duty to preserve his colony for the crown: +if not, it must fall into the hands of the English, whom I believe +to be generous enemies, and more to be trusted than treacherous +friends.' + +What was to be done? Perhaps only that which was done. Apodaca set +fire to his ships, either in honest despair, or by orders from the +Prince of Peace. At least, he would not let them fall into English +hands. At three in the morning Port of Spain woke up, all aglare +with the blaze six miles away to the north-west. Negroes ran and +shrieked, carrying this and that up and down upon their heads. +Spaniards looked out, aghast. Frenchmen, cried, 'Aux armes!' and +sang the Marseillaise. And still, over the Five Islands, rose the +glare. But the night was calm; the ships burnt slowly; and the San +Damaso was saved by English sailors. So goes the tale; which, if it +be, as I believe, correct, ought to be known to those adventurous +Yankees who have talked, more than once, of setting up a company to +recover the Spanish ships and treasure sunk in Chaguaramas. For the +ships burned before they sunk; and Apodaca, being a prudent man, +landed, or is said to have landed, all the treasure on the Spanish +Main opposite. + +He met Chacon in Port of Spain at daybreak. The good governor, they +say, wept, but did not reproach. The admiral crossed himself; and, +when Chacon said 'All is lost,' answered (or did not answer, for the +story, like most good stories, is said not to be quite true), 'Not +all; I saved the image of St. Jago de Compostella, my patron and my +ship's.' His ship's patron, however, says M. Joseph, was St. +Vincent. Why tell the rest of the story? It may well be guessed. +The English landed in force. The French Republicans (how does +history repeat itself!) broke open the arsenal, overpowering the +Spanish guard, seized some 3000 to 5000 stand of arms, and then +never used them, but retired into the woods. They had, many of +them, fought like tigers in other islands; some, it may be, under +Victor Hugues himself. But here they had no leaders. The Spanish, +overpowered by numbers, fell back across the Dry River to the east +of the town, and got on a height. The German jagers climbed the +beautiful Laventille hills, and commanded the Spanish and the two +paltry mud forts on the slopes: and all was over, happily with +almost no loss of life. + +Chacon was received by Abercrombie and Harvey with every courtesy; a +capitulation was signed which secured the honours of war to the +military, and law and safety to the civil inhabitants; and Chacon +was sent home to Spain to be tried by a court-martial; honourably +acquitted; and then, by French Republican intrigues, calumniated, +memorialised against, subscribed against, and hunted (Buonaparte +having, with his usual meanness, a hand in the persecution) into +exile and penury in Portugal. At last his case was heard a second +time, and tardy justice done, not by popular clamour, but by fair +and deliberate law. His nephew set out to bring the good man home +in triumph. He found him dying in a wretched Portuguese inn. +Chacon heard that his honour was cleared at last, and so gave up the +ghost. + +Thus ended--as Earth's best men have too often ended--the good Don +Alonzo Chacon. His only monument in the island is one, after all, +'aere perennius;' namely, that most beautiful flowering shrub which +bears his name; Warsewiczia, some call it; others, Calycophyllum: +but the botanists of the island continue loyally the name of +Chaconia to those blazing crimson spikes which every Christmas-tide +renew throughout the wild forests, of which he would have made a +civilised garden, the memory of the last and best of the Spanish +Governors. + +So Trinidad became English; and Picton ruled it, for a while, with a +rod of iron. + +I shall not be foolish enough to enter here into the merits or +demerits of the Picton case, which once made such a noise in +England. His enemies' side of the story will be found in M'Callum's +Travels in Trinidad; his friends' side in Robinson's Life of Picton, +two books, each of which will seem, I think, to him who will read +them alternately, rather less wise than the other. But those who +may choose to read the two books must remember that questions of +this sort have not two sides merely, but more; being not +superficies, but solids; and that the most important side is that on +which the question stands, namely, its bottom; which is just the +side which neither party liked to be turned up, because under it (at +least in the West Indies) all the beetles and cockroaches, +centipedes and scorpions, are nestled away out of sight: and there, +as long since decayed, they, or their exuviae and dead bodies, may +remain. The good people of Trinidad have long since agreed to let +bygones be bygones; and it speaks well for the common-sense and good +feeling of the islanders, as well as for the mildness and justice of +British rule, that in two generations such a community as that of +modern Trinidad should have formed itself out of materials so +discordant. That British rule has been a solid blessing to +Trinidad, all honest folk know well. Even in Picton's time, the +population increased, in six years, from 17,700 to 28,400; in 1851 +it was 69,600; and it is now far larger. + +But Trinidad has gained, by becoming English, more than mere +numbers. Had it continued Spanish, it would probably be, like Cuba, +a slave-holding and slave-trading island, now wealthy, luxurious, +profligate; and Port of Spain would be such another wen upon the +face of God's earth as that magnificent abomination, the city of +Havanna. Or, as an almost more ugly alternative, it might have +played its part in that great triumph of Bliss by Act of Parliament, +which set mankind to rights for ever, when Mr. Canning did the +universe the honour of 'calling the new world into existence to +redress the balance of the old.' It might have been--probably would +have been--conquered by a band of 'sympathisers' from the +neighbouring Republic of Venezuela, and have been 'called into +existence' by the massacre of the respectable folk, the expulsion of +capital, and the establishment (with a pronunciamento and a +revolution every few years) of a Republic such as those of Spanish +America, combining every vice of civilisation with every vice of +savagery. From that fate, as every honest man in Trinidad knows +well, England has saved the island; and therefore every honest man +in Trinidad is loyal (with occasional grumblings, of course, as is +the right of free-born Britons, at home and abroad) to the British +flag. + + + +CHAPTER IV: PORT OF SPAIN + + + +The first thing notable, on landing in Port of Spain at the low quay +which has been just reclaimed from the mud of the gulf, is the +multitude of people who are doing nothing. It is not that they have +taken an hour's holiday to see the packet come in. You will find +them, or their brown duplicates, in the same places to-morrow and +next day. They stand idle in the marketplace, not because they have +not been hired, but because they do not want to be hired; being able +to live like the Lazzaroni of Naples, on 'Midshipman's half-pay-- +nothing a day, and find yourself.' You are told that there are 8000 +human beings in Port of Spain alone without visible means of +subsistence, and you congratulate Port of Spain on being such an +Elysium that people can live there--not without eating, for every +child and most women you pass are eating something or other all day +long--but without working. The fact is, that though they will eat +as much and more than a European, if they can get it, they can do +well without food; and feed, as do the Lazzaroni, on mere heat and +light. The best substitute for a dinner is a sleep under a south +wall in the blazing sun; and there are plenty of south walls in Port +of Spain. In the French islands, I am told, such Lazzaroni are +caught up and set to Government work, as 'strong rogues and +masterless men,' after the ancient English fashion. But is such a +course fair? If a poor man neither steals, begs, nor rebels (and +these people do not do the two latter), has he not as much right to +be idle as a rich man? To say that neither has a right to be idle +is, of course, sheer socialism, and a heresy not to be tolerated. + +Next, the stranger will remark, here as at Grenada, that every one +he passes looks strong, healthy, and well-fed. One meets few or +none of those figures and faces, small, scrofulous, squinny, and +haggard, which disgrace the so-called civilisation of a British +city. Nowhere in Port of Spain will you see such human beings as in +certain streets of London, Liverpool, or Glasgow. Every one, +plainly, can live and thrive if they choose; and very pleasant it is +to know that. + +The road leads on past the Custom-house; and past, I am sorry to +say, evil smells, which are too common still in Port of Spain, +though fresh water is laid on from the mountains. I have no wish to +complain, especially on first landing, of these kind and hospitable +citizens. But as long as Port of Spain--the suburbs especially-- +smells as it does after sundown every evening, so long will an +occasional outbreak of cholera or yellow fever hint that there are +laws of cleanliness and decency which are both able and ready to +avenge themselves. You cross the pretty 'Marine Square,' with its +fountain and flowering trees, and beyond them on the right the Roman +Catholic Cathedral, a stately building, with Palmistes standing as +tall sentries round; soon you go up a straight street, with a +glimpse of a large English church, which must have been still more +handsome than now before its tall steeple was shaken down by an +earthquake. The then authorities, I have been told, applied to the +Colonial Office for money to rebuild it: but the request was +refused; on the ground, it may be presumed, that whatever ills +Downing Street might have inflicted on the West Indies, it had not, +as yet, gone so far as to play the part of Poseidon Ennosigaeus. + +Next comes a glimpse, too, of large--even too large--Government +buildings, brick-built, pretentious, without beauty of form. But, +however ugly in itself a building may be in Trinidad, it is certain, +at least after a few years, to look beautiful, because embowered +among noble flowering timber trees, like those that fill 'Brunswick +Square,' and surround the great church on its south side. + +Under cool porticoes and through tall doorways are seen dark +'stores,' filled with all manner of good things from Britain or from +the United States. These older-fashioned houses, built, I presume, +on the Spanish model, are not without a certain stateliness, from +the depth and breadth of their chiaroscuro. Their doors and windows +reach almost to the ceiling, and ought to be plain proofs, in the +eyes of certain discoverers of the 'giant cities of Bashan,' that +the old Spanish and French colonists were nine or ten feet high +apiece. On the doorsteps sit Negresses in gaudy print dresses, with +stiff turbans (which are, according to this year's fashion, of +chocolate and yellow silk plaid, painted with thick yellow paint, +and cost in all some four dollars), all aiding in the general work +of doing nothing: save where here and there a hugely fat Negress, +possibly with her 'head tied across' in a white turban (sign of +mourning), sells, or tries to sell, abominable sweetmeats, strange +fruits, and junks of sugar-cane, to be gnawed by the dawdlers in +mid-street, while they carry on their heads everything and anything, +from half a barrow-load of yams to a saucer or a beer-bottle. We +never, however, saw, as Tom Cringle did, a Negro carrying a burden +on his chin. + +I fear that a stranger would feel a shock--and that not a slight +one--at the first sight of the average negro women of Port of Spain, +especially the younger. Their masculine figures, their ungainly +gestures, their loud and sudden laughter, even when walking alone, +and their general coarseness, shocks, and must shock. It must be +remembered that this is a seaport town; and one in which the licence +usual in such places on both sides of the Atlantic is aggravated by +the superabundant animal vigour and the perfect independence of the +younger women. It is a painful subject. I shall touch it in these +pages as seldom and as lightly as I can. There is, I verily +believe, a large class of Negresses in Port of Spain and in the +country, both Catholic and Protestant, who try their best to be +respectable, after their standard: but unfortunately, here, as +elsewhere over the world, the scum rises naturally to the top, and +intrudes itself on the eye. The men are civil fellows enough, if +you will, as in duty bound, be civil to them. If you are not, ugly +capacities will flash out fast enough, and too fast. If any one +says of the Negro, as of the Russian, 'He is but a savage polished +over: you have only to scratch him, and the barbarian shows +underneath:' the only answer to be made is--Then do not scratch him. +It will be better for you, and for him. + +When you have ceased looking--even staring--at the black women and +their ways, you become aware of the strange variety of races which +people the city. Here passes an old Coolie Hindoo, with nothing on +but his lungee round his loins, and a scarf over his head; a white- +bearded, delicate-featured old gentleman, with probably some caste- +mark of red paint on his forehead; his thin limbs, and small hands +and feet, contrasting strangely with the brawny Negroes round. +There comes a bright-eyed young lady, probably his daughter-in-law, +hung all over with bangles, in a white muslin petticoat, crimson +cotton-velvet jacket, and green gauze veil, with her naked brown +baby astride on her hip: a clever, smiling, delicate little woman, +who is quite aware of the brightness of her own eyes. And who are +these three boys in dark blue coatees and trousers, one of whom +carries, hanging at one end of a long bamboo, a couple of sweet +potatoes; at the other, possibly, a pebble to balance them? As they +approach, their doleful visage betrays them. Chinese they are, +without a doubt: but whether old or young, men or women, you cannot +tell, till the initiated point out that the women have chignons and +no hats, the men hats with their pigtails coiled up under them. +Beyond this distinction, I know none visible. Certainly none in +those sad visages--'Offas, non facies,' as old Ammianus Marcellinus +has it. + +But why do Chinese never smile? Why do they look as if some one had +sat upon their noses as soon as they were born, and they had been +weeping bitterly over the calamity ever since? They, too, must have +their moments of relaxation: but when? Once, and once only, in +Port of Spain, we saw a Chinese woman, nursing her baby, burst into +an audible laugh: and we looked at each other, as much astonished +as if our horses had begun to talk. + +There again is a group of coloured men of all ranks, talking +eagerly, business, or even politics; some of them as well dressed as +if they were fresh from Europe; some of them, too, six feet high, +and broad in proportion; as fine a race, physically, as one would +wish to look upon; and with no want of shrewdness either, or +determination, in their faces: a race who ought, if they will be +wise and virtuous, to have before them a great future. Here come +home from the convent school two coloured young ladies, probably +pretty, possibly lovely, certainly gentle, modest, and well-dressed +according to the fashions of Paris or New York; and here comes the +unmistakable Englishman, tall, fair, close-shaven, arm-in-arm with +another man, whose more delicate features, more sallow complexion, +and little moustache mark him as some Frenchman or Spaniard of old +family. Both are dressed as if they were going to walk up Pall Mall +or the Rue de Rivoli; for 'go-to-meeting clothes' are somewhat too +much de rigueur here; a shooting-jacket and wide-awake betrays the +newly-landed Englishman. Both take off their hats with a grand air +to a lady in a carriage; for they are very fine gentlemen indeed, +and intend to remain such: and well that is for the civilisation of +the island; for it is from such men as these, and from their +families, that the good manners for which West Indians are, or ought +to be, famous, have permeated down, slowly but surely, through all +classes of society save the very lowest. + +The straight and level street, swarming with dogs, vultures, +chickens, and goats, passes now out of the old into the newer part +of the city; and the type of the houses changes at once. Some are +mere wooden sheds of one or two rooms, comfortable enough in that +climate, where a sleeping-place is all that is needed--if the +occupiers would but keep them clean. Other houses, wooden too, +belong to well-to-do folk. Over high walls you catch sight of +jalousies and verandahs, inside which must be most delightful +darkness and coolness. Indeed, one cannot fancy more pleasant nests +than some of the little gaily-painted wooden houses, standing on +stilts to let the air under the floors, and all embowered in trees +and flowers, which line the roads in the suburbs; and which are +inhabited, we are told, by people engaged in business. + +But what would--or at least ought to--strike the newcomer's eye with +most pleasurable surprise, and make him realise into what a new +world he has been suddenly translated--even more than the Negroes, +and the black vultures sitting on roof-ridges, or stalking about in +mid-street--are the flowers which show over the walls on each side +of the street. In that little garden, not thirty feet broad, what +treasures there are! A tall palm--whether Palmiste or Oil-palm--has +its smooth trunk hung all over with orchids, tied on with wire. +Close to it stands a purple Dracaena, such as are put on English +dinner-tables in pots: but this one is twenty feet high; and next +to it is that strange tree the Clavija, of which the Creoles are +justly fond. A single straight stem, fifteen feet high, carries +huge oblong-leaves atop, and beneath them, growing out of the stem +itself, delicate panicles of little white flowers, fragrant +exceedingly. A double blue pea {74} and a purple Bignonia are +scrambling over shrubs and walls. And what is this which hangs over +into the road, some fifteen feet in height--long, bare, curving +sticks, carrying each at its end a flat blaze of scarlet? What but +the Poinsettia, paltry scions of which, like the Dracaena, adorn our +hothouses and dinner-tables. The street is on fire with it all the +way up, now in mid-winter; while at the street end opens out a green +park, fringed with noble trees all in full leaf; underneath them +more pleasant little suburban villas; and behind all, again, a +background of steep wooded mountain a thousand feet in height. That +is the Savannah, the public park and race-ground; such as neither +London nor Paris can boast. + +One may be allowed to regret that the exuberant loyalty of the +citizens of Port of Spain has somewhat defaced one end at least of +their Savannah; for in expectation of a visit from the Duke of +Edinburgh, they erected for his reception a pile of brick, of which +the best that can be said is that it holds a really large and +stately ballroom, and the best that can be hoped is that the +authorities will hide it as quickly as possible with a ring of +Palmistes, Casuarinas, Sandboxes, and every quick-growing tree. +Meanwhile, as His Royal Highness did not come the citizens wisely +thought that they might as well enjoy their new building themselves. +So there, on set high days, the Governor and the Lady of the +Governor hold their court. There, when the squadron comes in, +officers in uniform dance at desperate sailors' pace with delicate +Creoles; some of them, coloured as well as white, so beautiful in +face and figure that one could almost pardon the jolly tars if they +enacted a second Mutiny of the Bounty, and refused one and all to +leave the island and the fair dames thereof. And all the while the +warm night wind rushes in through the high open windows; and the +fireflies flicker up and down, in and out, and you slip away on to +the balcony to enjoy--for after all it is very hot--the purple star- +spangled night; and see aloft the saw of the mountain ridges against +the black-blue sky; and below--what a contrast!--the crowd of white +eyeballs and white teeth--Negroes, Coolies, Chinese--all grinning +and peeping upward against the railing, in the hope of seeing-- +through the walls--the 'buccra quality' enjoy themselves. + +An even pleasanter sight we saw once in that large room, a sort of +agricultural and horticultural show, which augured well for the +future of the colony. The flowers were not remarkable, save for the +taste shown in their arrangement, till one recollected that they +were not brought from hothouses, but grown in mid-winter in the open +air. The roses, of which West Indians are very fond, as they are of +all 'home,' i.e. European, flowers, were not as good as those of +Europe. The rose in Trinidad, though it flowers three times a year, +yet, from the great heat and moisture, runs too much to wood. But +the roots, especially the different varieties of yam, were very +curious; and their size proved the wonderful food-producing powers +of the land when properly cultivated. The poultry, too, were worthy +of an English show. Indeed, the fowl seems to take to tropical +America as the horse has to Australia, as to a second native-land; +and Trinidad alone might send an endless supply to the fowl-market +of the Northern States, even if that should not be quite true which +some one said, that you might turn an old cock loose in the bush, +and he, without further help, would lay more eggs, and bring up more +chickens, than you could either eat or sell. + +But the most interesting element of that exhibition was the coconut +fibre products of Messrs. Uhrich and Gerold, of which more in +another place. In them lies a source of further wealth to the +colony, which may stand her in good stead when Port of Spain +becomes, as it must become, one of the great emporiums of the West. + +Since our visit the great ballroom has seen--even now is seeing-- +strange vicissitudes. For the new Royal College, having as yet no +buildings of its own, now keeps school, it is said, therein--alas +for the inkstains on that beautiful floor! And by last advices, a +'troupe of artistes' from Martinique, there being no theatre in Port +of Spain, have been doing their play-acting in it; and Terpsichore +and Thalia (Melpomene, I fear, haunts not the stage of Martinique) +have been hustling all the other Muses downstairs at sunset, and +joining their jinglings to the chorus of tom-toms and chac-chacs +which resounds across the Savannah, at least till 10 p.m., from all +the suburbs. + +The road--and all the roads round Port of Spain, thanks to Sir Ralph +Woodford, are as good as English roads--runs between the Savannah +and the mountain spurs, and past the Botanic Gardens, which are a +credit, in more senses than one, to the Governors of the island. +For in them, amid trees from every quarter of the globe, and gardens +kept up in the English fashion, with fountains, too, so necessary in +this tropical clime, stood a large 'Government House.' This house +was some years ago destroyed; and the then Governor took refuge in a +cottage just outside the garden. A sum of money was voted to +rebuild the big house: but the Governors, to their honour, have +preferred living in the cottage, adding to it from time to time what +was necessary for mere comfort; and have given the old gardens to +the city, as a public pleasure-ground, kept up at Government +expense. + +This Paradise--for such it is--is somewhat too far from the city; +and one passes in it few people, save an occasional brown nurse. +But when Port of Spain becomes, as it surely will, a great +commercial city, and the slopes of Laventille, Belmont, and St. +Ann's, just above the gardens, are studded, as they surely will be, +with the villas of rich merchants, then will the generous gift of +English Governors be appreciated and used; and the Botanic Gardens +will become a Tropic Garden of the Tuileries, alive, at five o'clock +every evening, with human flowers of every hue with human + + + +CHAPTER V: A LETTER FROM A WEST INDIAN COTTAGE ORNEE + + + +30th December 1869. + +My Dear-----, We are actually settled in a West Indian country- +house, amid a multitude of sights and sounds so utterly new and +strange, that the mind is stupefied by the continual effort to take +in, or (to confess the truth) to gorge without hope of digestion, +food of every conceivable variety. The whole day long new objects +and their new names have jostled each other in the brain, in dreams +as well as in waking thoughts. Amid such a confusion, to describe +this place as a whole is as yet impossible. It must suffice if you +find in this letter a sketch or two--not worthy to be called a +study--of particular spots which seem typical, beginning with my +bathroom window, as the scene which first proved to me, at least, +that we were verily in the Tropics. + +You look out--would that you did look in fact!--over the low sill. +The gravel outside, at least, is an old friend; it consists of +broken bits of gray Silurian rock, and white quartz among it; and +one touch of Siluria makes the whole world kin. But there the +kindred ends. A few green weeds, looking just like English ones, +peep up through the gravel. Weeds, all over the world, are mostly +like each other; poor, thin, pale in leaf, small and meagre in stem +and flower: meaner forms which fill up for good, and sometimes, +too, for harm, the gaps left by Nature's aristocracy of grander and, +in these Tropics, more tyrannous and destroying forms. So like home +weeds they look: but pick one, and you find it unlike anything at +home. That one happens to be, as you may see by its little green +mouse-tails, a pepper-weed, {77} first cousin to the great black +pepper-bush in the gardens near by, with the berries of which you +may burn your mouth gratis. + +So it is, you would find, with every weed in the little cleared +dell, some fifteen feet deep, beyond the gravel. You could not--I +certainly cannot--guess at the name, seldom at the family, of a +single plant. But I am going on too fast. What are those sticks of +wood which keep the gravel bank up? Veritable bamboos; and a +bamboo-pipe, too, is carrying the trickling cool water into the bath +close by. Surely we are in the Tropics. You hear a sudden rattle, +as of boards and brown paper, overhead, and find that it is the +clashing of the huge leaves of a young fan palm, {78a} growing not +ten feet from the window. It has no stem as yet; and the lower +leaves have to be trimmed off or they would close up the path, so +that only the great forked green butts of them are left, bound to +each other by natural matting: but overhead they range out nobly in +leafstalks ten feet long, and fans full twelve feet broad; and this +is but a baby, a three years' old thing. Surely, again, we are in +the Tropics. Ten feet farther, thrust all awry by the huge palm +leaves, grows a young tree, unknown to me, looking like a walnut. +Next to it an orange, covered with long prickles and small green +fruit, its roots propped up by a semi-cylindrical balk of timber, +furry inside, which would puzzle a Hampshire woodsman; for it is, +plainly, a groo-groo or a coco-palm, split down the middle. Surely, +again, we are in the Tropics. Beyond it, again, blaze great orange +and yellow flowers, with long stamens, and pistil curving upwards +out of them. They belong to a twining, scrambling bush, with +finely-pinnated mimosa leaves. That is the 'Flower-fence,' {78b} so +often heard of in past years; and round it hurries to and fro a +great orange butterfly, larger seemingly than any English kind. +Next to it is a row of Hibiscus shrubs, with broad crimson flowers; +then a row of young Screw-pines, {78c} from the East Indian Islands, +like spiral pine-apple plants twenty feet high standing on stilts. +Yes: surely we are in the Tropics. Over the low roof (for the +cottage is all of one storey) of purple and brown and white +shingles, baking in the sun, rises a tall tree, which looks (as so +many do here) like a walnut, but is not one. It is the 'Poui' of +the Indians, {78d} and will be covered shortly with brilliant +saffron flowers. + +I turn my chair and look into the weedy dell. The ground on the +opposite slope (slopes are, you must remember, here as steep as +house-roofs, the last spurs of true mountains) is covered with a +grass like tall rye-grass, but growing in tufts. That is the famous +Guinea-grass {78e} which, introduced from Africa, has spread over +the whole West Indies. Dark lithe coolie prisoners, one a gentle +young fellow, with soft beseeching eyes, and 'Felon' printed on the +back of his shirt, are cutting it for the horses, under the guard of +a mulatto turnkey, a tall, steadfast, dignified man; and between us +and them are growing along the edge of the gutter, veritable pine- +apples in the open air, and a low green tree just like an apple, +which is a Guava; and a tall stick, thirty feet high, with a flat +top of gigantic curly horse-chestnut leaves, which is a Trumpet- +tree. {79a} There are hundreds of them in the mountains round: but +most of them dead, from the intense drought and fires of last year. +Beyond it, again, is a round-headed tree, looking like a huge +Portugal laurel, covered with racemes of purple buds. That is an +'Angelim'; {79b} when full-grown, one of the finest timbers in the +world. And what are those at the top of the brow, rising out of the +rich green scrub? Verily, again, we are in the Tropics. They are +palms, doubtless, some thirty feet high each, with here and there a +young one springing up like a gigantic crown of male-fern. The old +ones have straight gray stems, often prickly enough, and thickened +in the middle; gray last year's leaves hanging down; and feathering +round the top, a circular plume of pale green leaves, like those of +a coconut. But these are not cocos. The last year's leaves of the +coco are rich yellow, and its stem is curved. These are groo-groos; +{79c} they stand as fresh proofs that we are indeed in the Tropics, +and as 'a thing of beauty and a joy for ever.' + +For it is a joy for ever, a sight never to be forgotten, to have +once seen palms, breaking through and, as it were, defying the soft +rounded forms of the broad-leaved vegetation by the stern grace of +their simple lines; the immovable pillar-stem looking the more +immovable beneath the toss and lash and flicker of the long leaves, +as they awake out of their sunlit sleep, and rage impatiently for a +while before the mountain gusts, and fall asleep again. Like a +Greek statue in a luxurious drawing-room, sharp cut, cold, virginal; +shaming, by the grandeur of mere form, the voluptuousness of mere +colour, however rich and harmonious; so stands the palm in the +forest; to be worshipped rather than to be loved. Look at the +drawings of the Oreodoxa-avenue at Rio, in M. Agassiz's charming +book. Would that you could see actually such avenues, even from the +sea, as we have seen them in St. Vincent and Guadaloupe: but look +at the mere pictures of them in that book, and you will sympathise, +surely, with our new palm-worship. + +And lastly, what is that giant tree which almost fills the centre of +the glen, towering with upright but branching limbs, and huge crown, +thinly leaved, double the height of all the trees around? An ash? +Something like an ash in growth; but when you look at it through the +glasses (indispensable in the tropic forest), you see that the +foliage is more like that of the yellow horse-chestnut. And no +British ash, not even the Altyre giants, ever reached to half that +bulk. It is a Silk-cotton tree; a Ceiba {79d}--say, rather, the +Ceiba of the glen; for these glens have a habit of holding each one +great Ceiba, which has taken its stand at the upper end, just where +the mountain-spurs run together in an amphitheatre; and being +favoured (it may be supposed) by the special richness of the down- +washed soil at that spot, grows to one of those vast air-gardens of +creepers and parasites of which we have so often read and dreamed. +Such a one is this: but we will not go up to it now. This sketch +shall be completed by the background of green and gray, fading aloft +into tender cobalt: the background of mountain, ribbed and gullied +into sharpest slopes by the tropic rains, yet showing, even where +steepest, never a face of rock, or a crag peeping through the trees. +Up to the sky-line, a thousand feet aloft, all is green; and that, +instead of being, as in Europe, stone or moor, is jagged and +feathered with gigantic trees. How rich! you would say. Yet these +West Indians only mourn over its desolation and disfigurement; and +point to the sheets of gray stems, which hang like mist along the +upper slopes. They look to us, on this 30th of December, only as +April signs that the woodlands have not quite burst into full leaf. +But to the inhabitants they are tokens of those fearful fires which +raged over the island during the long drought of this summer; when +the forests were burning for a whole month, and this house scarcely +saved; when whole cane-fields, mills, dwelling-houses, went up as +tinder and flame in a moment, and the smoky haze from the burning +island spread far out to sea. And yet where the fire passed six +months ago, all is now a fresh impenetrable undergrowth of green; +creepers covering the land, climbing up and shrouding the charred +stumps; young palms, like Prince of Wales's feathers, breaking up, +six or eight feet high, among a wilderness of sensitive plants, +scarlet-flowered dwarf Balisiers, {81a} climbing fern, {81b} +convolvuluses of every hue, and an endless variety of outlandish +leaves, over which flutter troops of butterflies. How the seeds of +the plants and the eggs of the insects have been preserved, who can +tell? But there their children are, in myriads; and ere a +generation has passed, every dead gray stem will have disappeared +before the ants and beetles and great wood-boring bees who rumble +round in blue-black armour; the young plants will have grown into +great trees beneath the immeasurable vital force which pours all the +year round from the blazing sun above, and all be as it was once +more. In verity we are in the Tropics, where the so-called 'powers +of nature' are in perpetual health and strength, and as much +stronger and swifter, for good and evil, than in our chilly clime, +as is the young man in the heat of youth compared with the old man +shivering to his grave. Think over that last simile. If you think +of it in the light which physiology gives, you will find that it is +not merely a simile, but a true analogy; another manifestation of a +great physical law. + +Thus much for the view at the back--a chance scene, without the +least pretensions to what average people would call beauty of +landscape. But oh that we could show you the view in front! The +lawn with its flowering shrubs, tiny specimens of which we admire in +hothouses at home; the grass as green (for it is now the end of the +rainy season) as that of England in May, winding away into the cool +shade of strange evergreens; the yellow coconut palms on the nearest +spur of hill throwing back the tender-blue of the higher mountains; +the huge central group of trees--Saman, {81c} Sandbox, {81d} and +Fig, with the bright ostrich plumes of a climbing palm towering +through the mimosa-like foliage of the Saman; and Erythrinas {81e} +(Bois immortelles, as they call them here), their all but leafless +boughs now blazing against the blue sky with vermilion flowers, +trees of red coral sixty feet in height. Ah that we could show you +the avenue on the right, composed of palms from every quarter of the +Tropics--palms with smooth stems, or with prickly ones, with fan +leaves, feather leaves, leaves (as in the wine-palm {82a}) like +Venus's hair fern; some, again, like the Cocorite, {82b} almost +stemless, rising in a huge ostrich plume which tosses in the land +breeze, till the long stiff leaflets seem to whirl like the spokes +of a green glass wheel. Ah that we could wander with you through +the Botanic Garden beyond, amid fruits and flowers brought together +from all the lands of the perpetual summer; or even give you, +through the great arches of the bamboo clumps, as they creak and +rattle sadly in the wind, and the Bauhinias, like tall and ancient +whitethorns, which shade the road, one glance of the flat green +Savannah, with its herds of kine, beyond which lies, buried in +flowering trees, and backed by mountain woods, the city of Port of +Spain. One glance, too, under the boughs of the great Cotton-tree +at the gate, at the still sleeping sea, with one tall coolie ship at +anchor, seen above green cane-fields and coolie gardens, gay with +yellow Croton and purple Dracaena, and crimson Poinsettia, and the +grand leaves of the grandest of all plants, the Banana, food of +paradise. Or, again, far away to the extreme right, between the +flat tops of the great Saman-avenue at the barracks and the wooded +mountain-spurs which rush down into the sea, the islands of the +Bocas floating in the shining water, and beyond them, a cloud among +the clouds, the peak of a mighty mountain, with one white tuft of +mist upon its top. Ah that we could show you but that, and tell you +that you were looking at the 'Spanish Main'; at South America +itself, at the last point of the Venezuelan Cordillera, and the +hills where jaguars lie. If you could but see what we see daily; if +you could see with us the strange combination of rich and luscious +beauty, with vastness and repose, you would understand, and excuse, +the tendency to somewhat grandiose language which tempts perpetually +those who try to describe the Tropics, and know well that they can +only fail. + +In presence of such forms and such colouring as this, one becomes +painfully sensible of the poverty of words, and the futility, +therefore, of all word-painting; of the inability, too, of the +senses to discern and define objects of such vast variety; of our +aesthetic barbarism, in fact, which has no choice of epithets save +between such as 'great,' and 'vast,' and 'gigantic'; between such as +'beautiful,' and 'lovely,' and 'exquisite,' and so forth; which are, +after all, intellectually only one stage higher than the half-brute +Wah! wah! with which the savage grunts his astonishment--call it not +admiration; epithets which are not, perhaps, intellectually as high +as the 'God is great' of the Mussulman, who is wise enough not to +attempt any analysis either of Nature or of his feelings about her; +and wise enough also (not having the fear of Spinoza before his +eyes) to 'in omni ignoto confugere ad Deum'--in presence of the +unknown to take refuge in God. + +To describe to you, therefore, the Botanic Garden (in which the +cottage stands) would take a week's work of words, which would +convey no images to your mind. Let it be enough to say, that our +favourite haunt in all the gardens is a little dry valley, beneath +the loftiest group of trees. At its entrance rises a great +Tamarind, and a still greater Saman; both have leaves like a Mimosa- +-as the engraving shows. Up its trunk a Cereus has reared itself, +for some thirty feet at least; a climbing Seguine {83a} twines up it +with leaves like 'lords and ladies'; but the glory of the tree is +that climbing palm, the feathers of which we saw crowning it from a +distance. Up into the highest branches and down again, and up again +into the lower branches, and rolling along the ground in curves as +that of a Boa bedecked with huge ferns and prickly spikes, six feet +and more long each, the Rattan {83b} hangs in mid-air, one hardly +sees how, beautiful and wonderful, beyond what clumsy words can +tell. Beneath the great trees (for here great trees grow freely +beneath greater trees, and beneath greater trees again, delighting +in the shade) is a group of young Mangosteens, {83c} looking, to +describe the unknown by the known, like walnuts with leaflets eight +inches long, their boughs clustered with yellow and green sour +fruit; and beyond them stretches up the lawn a dense grove of +nutmegs, like Portugal laurels, hung about with olive-yellow apples. +Here and there a nutmeg-apple has split, and shows within the +delicate crimson caul of mace; or the nutmegs, the mace still +clinging round them, lie scattered on the grass. Under the +perpetual shade of the evergreens haunt Heliconias and other +delicate butterflies, who seem to dread the blaze outside, and +flutter gently from leaf to leaf, their colouring--which is usually +black with markings of orange, crimson, or blue--coming into +strongest contrast with the uniform green of leaf and grass. This +is our favourite spot for entomologising, when the sun outside +altogether forbids the least exertion. Turn, with us--alas! only in +fancy--out of the grove into a neighbouring path, between tea- +shrubs, looking like privets with large myrtle flowers, and young +clove-trees, covered with the groups of green buds which are the +cloves of commerce; and among fruit-trees from every part of the +Tropics, with the names of which I will not burden you. Glance at +that beautiful and most poisonous shrub, which we found wild at St. +Thomas's. {84} Glance, too--but, again why burden you with names +which you will not recollect, much more with descriptions which do +not describe? Look, though, down that Allspice avenue, at the clear +warm light which is reflected off the smooth yellow ever-peeling +stems; and then, if you can fix your eye steadily on any object, +where all are equally new and strange, look at this stately tree. A +bough has been broken off high up, and from the wounded spot two +plants are already contending. One is a parasitic Orchis; the other +a parasite of a more dangerous family. It looks like a straggling +Magnolia, some two feet high. In fifty years it will be a stately +tree. Look at the single long straight air-root which it is letting +down by the side of the tree bole. That root, if left, will be the +destroyer of the whole tree. It will touch the earth, take root +below, send out side-fibres above, call down younger roots to help +it, till the whole bole, clasped and stifled in their embraces, dies +and rots out, and the Matapalo (or Scotch attorney, {85a} as it is +rudely called here) stands alone on stilted roots, and board walls +of young wood, slowly coalescing into one great trunk; master of the +soil once owned by the patron on whose vitals he has fed: a +treacherous tyrant; and yet, like many another treacherous tyrant, +beautiful to see, with his shining evergreen foliage, and grand +labyrinth of smooth roots, standing high in air, or dangling from +the boughs in search of soil below; and last, but not least, his +Magnolia-like flowers, rosy or snowy-white, and green egg-shaped +fruits. + +Now turn homewards, past the Rosa del monte {85b} bush (bushes, you +must recollect, are twenty feet high here), covered with crimson +roses, full of long silky crimson stamens: and then try--as we do +daily in vain--to recollect and arrange one-tenth of the things +which you have seen. + +One look round at the smaller wild animals and flowers. Butterflies +swarm round us, of every hue. Beetles, you may remark, are few; +they do not run in swarms about these arid paths as they do at home. +But the wasps and bees, black and brown, are innumerable. That huge +bee in steel-blue armour, booming straight at you--whom some one +compared to the Lord Mayor's man in armour turned into a cherub, and +broken loose--(get out of his way, for he is absorbed in business)-- +is probably a wood-borer, {85c} of whose work you may read in Mr. +Wood's Homes without Hands. That long black wasp, commonly called a +Jack Spaniard, builds pensile paper nests under every roof and shed. +Watch, now, this more delicate brown wasp, probably one of the +Pelopoei of whom we have read in Mr. Gosse's Naturalist in Jamaica +and Mr. Bates's Travels on the Amazons. She has made under a shelf +a mud nest of three long cells, and filled them one by one with +small spiders, and the precious egg which, when hatched, is to feed +on them. One hundred and eight spiders we have counted in a single +nest like this; and the wasp, much of the same shape as the Jack +Spaniard, but smaller, works, unlike him, alone, or at least only +with her husband's help. The long mud nest is built upright, often +in the angle of a doorpost or panel; and always added to, and +entered from, below. With a joyful hum she flies back to it all day +long with her pellets of mud, and spreads them out with her mouth +into pointed arches, one laid on the other, making one side of the +arch out of each pellet, and singing low but cheerily over her work. +As she works downward, she parts off the tube of the nest with +horizontal floors of a finer and harder mud, and inside each storey +places some five spiders, and among them the precious egg, or eggs, +which is to feed on them when hatched. If we open the uppermost +chamber, we shall find every vestige of the spiders gone, and the +cavity filled (and, strange to say, exactly filled) by a brown- +coated wasp-pupa, enveloped in a fine silken shroud. In the chamber +below, perhaps, we shall find the grub full-grown, and finishing his +last spicier; and so on, down six or eight storeys, till the lowest +holds nothing but spiders, packed close, but not yet sealed up. +These spiders, be it remembered, are not dead. By some strange +craft, the wasp knows exactly where to pierce them with her sting, +so as to stupefy, but not to kill, just as the sand-wasps of our +banks at home stupefy the large weevils which they store in their +burrows as food for their grubs. + +There are wasps too, here, who make pretty little jar-shaped nests, +round, with a neatly lined round lip. Paper-nests, too, more like +those of our tree-wasps at home, hang from the trees in the woods. +Ants' nests, too, hang sometimes from the stronger boughs, looking +like huge hard lumps of clay. And, once at least, we have found +silken nests of butterflies or moths, containing many chrysalids +each. Meanwhile, dismiss from your mind the stories of insect +plagues. If good care is taken to close the mosquito curtains at +night, the flies about the house are not nearly as troublesome as we +have often found the midges in Scotland. As for snakes, we have +seen none; centipedes are, certainly, apt to get into the bath, but +can be fished out dead, and thrown to the chickens. The wasps and +bees do not sting, or in any wise interfere with our comfort, save +by building on the books. The only ants who come into the house are +the minute, harmless, and most useful 'crazy ants,' who run up and +down wildly all day, till they find some eatable thing, an atom of +bread or a disabled cockroach, of which last, by the by, we have +seen hardly any here. They then prove themselves in their sound +senses by uniting to carry off their prey, some pulling, some +pushing, with a steady combination of effort which puts to shame an +average negro crew. And these are all we have to fear, unless it be +now and then a huge spider, which it is not the fashion here to +kill, as they feed on flies. So comfort yourself with the thought +that, as regards insect pests, we are quite as comfortable as in an +country-house, and infinitely more comfortable than in English +country-house, and infinitely more comfortable than in a Scotch +shooting lodge, let alone an Alpine chalet. + +Lizards run about the walks in plenty, about the same size is the +green lizard of the South of Europe, but of more sober colours. The +parasol ants--of whom I could tell you much, save that you will read +far more than I can tell you in half a dozen books at home--walk in +triumphal processions, each with a bit of green leaf borne over its +head, and probably, when you look closely, with a little ant or two +riding on it, and getting a lift home after work on their stronger +sister's back--and these are all the monsters which you are likely +to meet. + +Would that there were more birds to be seen and heard! But of late +years the free Negro, like the French peasant during the first half +of this century, has held it to be one of the indefeasible rights of +a free man to carry a rusty gun, and to shoot every winged thing. +He has been tempted, too, by orders from London shops for gaudy +birds--humming-birds especially. And when a single house, it is +said, advertises for 20,000 bird-skins at a time, no wonder if birds +grow scarce; and no wonder, too, if the wholesale destruction of +these insect-killers should avenge itself by a plague of vermin, +caterpillars, and grubs innumerable. Already the turf of the +Savannah or public park, close by, is being destroyed by hordes of +mole-crickets, strange to say, almost exactly like those of our old +English meadows; and unless something is done to save the birds, the +cane and other crops will surely suffer in their turn. A gun- +licence would be, it seems, both unpopular and easily evaded in a +wild forest country. A heavy export tax on bird-skins has been +proposed. May it soon be laid on, and the vegetable wealth of the +island saved, at the expense of a little less useless finery in +young ladies' hats. + +So we shall see and hear but few birds round Port of Spain, save the +black vultures {87a}--Corbeaux, as they call them here; and the +black 'tick birds,' {87b} a little larger than our English +blackbird, with a long tail and a thick-hooked bill, who perform for +the cattle here the same friendly office as is performed by +starlings at home. Privileged creatures, they cluster about on +rails and shrubs within ten feet of the passer, while overhead in +the tree-tops the 'Qu'est ce qu'il dit,' {87c} a brown and yellow +bird, who seems almost equally privileged and insolent, inquires +perpetually what you say. Besides these, swallows of various kinds, +little wrens, {87d} almost exactly like our English ones, and night- +hawking goat-suckers, few birds are seen. But, unseen, in the +depths of every wood, a songster breaks out ever and anon in notes +equal for purity and liveliness to those of our English thrush, and +belies the vulgar calumny that tropic birds, lest they should grow +too proud of their gay feathers, are denied the gift of song. + +One look, lastly, at the animals which live, either in cages or at +liberty, about the house. The queen of all the pets is a black and +gray spider monkey {88} from Guiana--consisting of a tail which has +developed, at one end, a body about twice as big as a hare's; four +arms (call them not legs), of which the front ones have no thumbs, +nor rudiments of thumbs; and a head of black hair, brushed forward +over the foolish, kindly, greedy, sad face, with its wide, +suspicious, beseeching eyes, and mouth which, as in all these +American monkeys, as far as we have seen, can have no expression, +not even that of sensuality, because it has no lips. Others have +described the spider monkey as four legs and a tail, tied in a knot +in the middle: but the tail is, without doubt, the most important +of the five limbs. Wherever the monkey goes, whatever she does, the +tail is the standing-point, or rather hanging-point. It takes one +turn at least round something or other, provisionally, and in case +it should be wanted; often, as she swings, every other limb hangs in +the most ridiculous repose, and the tail alone supports. Sometimes +it carries, by way of ornament, a bunch of flowers or a live kitten. +Sometimes it is curled round the neck, or carried over the head in +the hands, out of harm's way; or when she comes silently up behind +you, puts her cold hand in yours, and walks by your side like a +child, she steadies herself by taking a half-turn of her tail round +your wrist. Her relative Jack, of whom hereafter, walks about +carrying his chain, to ease his neck, in a loop of his tail. The +spider monkey's easiest attitude in walking, and in running also, +is, strangely, upright, like a human being: but as for her antics, +nothing could represent them to you, save a series of photographs, +and those instantaneous ones; for they change, every moment, not by +starts, but with a deliberate ease which would be grace in anything +less horribly ugly, into postures such as Callot or Breughel never +fancied for the ugliest imps who ever tormented St. Anthony. All +absurd efforts of agility which you ever saw at a seance of the +Hylobates Lar Club at Cambridge are quiet and clumsy compared to the +rope-dancing which goes on in the boughs of the Poui tree, or, to +their great detriment, of the Bougainvillea and the Gardenia on the +lawn. But with all this, Spider is the gentlest, most obedient, and +most domestic of beasts. Her creed is, that yellow bananas are the +summum bonum; and that she must not come into the dining-room, or +even into the verandah; whither, nevertheless, she slips, in fear +and trembling, every morning, to steal the little green parrot's +breakfast out of his cage, or the baby's milk, or fruit off the +side-board; in which case she makes her appearance suddenly and +silently, sitting on the threshold like a distorted fiend; and +begins scratching herself, looking at everything except the fruit, +and pretending total absence of mind, till the proper moment comes +for unwinding her lengthy ugliness, and making a snatch at the +table. Poor weak-headed thing, full of foolish cunning; always +doing wrong, and knowing that it is wrong, but quite unable to +resist temptation; and then profuse in futile explanations, +gesticulations, mouthings of an 'Oh!--oh!--oh!' so pitiably human, +that you can only punish her by laughing at her, which she does not +at all like. One cannot resist the fancy, while watching her, +either that she was once a human being, or that she is trying to +become one. But, at present, she has more than one habit to learn, +or to recollect, ere she become as fit for human society as the dog +or the cat. {89} Her friends are, every human being who will take +notice of her, and a beautiful little Guazupita, or native deer, a +little larger than a roe, with great black melting eyes, and a heart +as soft as its eyes, who comes to lick one's hand; believes in +bananas as firmly as the monkey; and when she can get no hand to +lick, licks the hairy monkey for mere love's sake, and lets it ride +on her back, and kicks it off, and lets it get on again and take a +half-turn of its tail round her neck, and throttle her with its +arms, and pull her nose out of the way when a banana is coming: and +all out of pure love; for the two have never been introduced to each +other by man; and the intimacy between them, like that famous one +between the horse and the hen, is of Nature's own making up. + +Very different from the spider monkey in temper is her cousin Jack, +who sits, sullen and unrepentant, at the end of a long chain, having +an ugly liking for the calves of passers-by, and ugly teeth to +employ on them. Sad at heart he is, and testifies his sadness +sometimes by standing bolt upright, with his long arms in postures +oratorio, almost prophetic, or, when duly pitied and moaned to, +lying down on his side, covering his hairy eyes with one hairy arm, +and weeping and sobbing bitterly. He seems, speaking +scientifically, to be some sort of Mycetes or Howler, from the flat +globular throat, which indicates the great development of the hyoid +bone; but, happily for the sleep of the neighbourhood, he never +utters in captivity any sound beyond a chuckle; and he is supposed, +by some here, from his burly thick-set figure, vast breadth between +the ears, short neck, and general cast of countenance, to have been, +in a prior state of existence, a man and a brother--and that by no +means of negro blood--who has gained, in this his purgatorial stage +of existence, nothing save a well-earned tail. At all events, more +than one of us was impressed, at the first sight, with the +conviction that we had seen him before. + +Poor Jack! and it is come to this: and all from the indulgence of +his five senses, plus 'the sixth sense of vanity.' His only +recreation save eating is being led about by the mulatto turnkey, +the one human being with whom he, dimly understanding what is fit +for him, will at all consort; and having wild pines thrown down to +him from the Poui tree above by the spider monkey, whose gambols he +watches with pardonable envy. Like the great Mr. Barry Lyndon (the +acutest sketch of human nature dear Thackeray ever made), he cannot +understand why the world is so unjust and foolish as to have taken a +prejudice against him. After all, he is nothing but a strong nasty +brute; and his only reason for being here is that he is a new and +undescribed species, never seen before, and, it is to be hoped, +never to be seen again. + +In a cage near by (for there is quite a little menagerie here) are +three small Sapajous, {90} two of which belong to the island; as +abject and selfish as monkeys usually are, and as uninteresting; +save for the plain signs which they give of being actuated by more +than instinct,--by a 'reasoning' power exactly like in kind, though +not equal in degree, to that of man. If, as people are now too much +induced to believe, the brain makes the man, and not some higher +Reason connected intimately with the Moral Sense, which will endure +after the brain has turned to dust; if to foresee consequences from +experience, and to adapt means to ends, be the highest efforts of +the intellect: then who can deny that the Sapajou proves himself a +man and a brother, plus a tail, when he puts out a lighted cigar-end +before he chews it, by dipping it into the water-pan; and that he +may, therefore, by long and steady calculations about the +conveniences of virtue and inconveniences of vice, gradually cure +himself and his children of those evil passions which are defined as +'the works of the flesh,' and rise to the supremest heights of +justice, benevolence, and purity? We, who have been brought up in +an older, and as we were taught to think, a more rational creed, may +not be able yet to allow our imaginations so daringly hopeful a +range: but the world travels fast, and seems travelling on into +some such theory just now; leaving behind, as antiquated bigots, +those who dare still to believe in the eternal and immutable essence +of Goodness, and in the divine origin of man, created in the +likeness of God, that he might be perfect even as his Father in +heaven is perfect. + +But to return to the animals. The cage next to the monkeys holds a +more pleasant beast; a Toucan out of the primeval forest, as +gorgeous in colour as he is ridiculous in shape. His general +plumage is black, set off by a snow-white gorget fringed with +crimson; crimson and green tail coverts, and a crimson and green +beak, with blue cere about his face and throat. His enormous and +weak bill seems made for the purpose of swallowing bananas whole; +how he feeds himself with it in the forest it is difficult to guess: +and when he hops up and down on his great clattering feet--two toes +turned forward, and two back--twisting head and beak right and left +(for he cannot see well straight before him) to see whence the +bananas are coming; or when again, after gorging a couple, he sits +gulping and winking, digesting them in serene satisfaction, he is as +good a specimen as can be seen of the ludicrous--dare I say the +intentionally ludicrous?--element in nature. + +Next to him is a Kinkajou; {91a} a beautiful little furry bear--or +racoon--who has found it necessary for his welfare in this world of +trees to grow a long prehensile tail, as the monkeys of the New +World have done. He sleeps by day; save when woke up to eat a +banana, or to scoop the inside out of an egg with his long lithe +tongue: but by night he remembers his forest-life, and performs +strange dances by the hour together, availing himself not only of +his tail, which he uses just as the spider monkey does, but of his +hind feet, which he can turn completely round at will, till the +claws point forward like those of a bat. But with him, too, the +tail is the sheet-anchor, by which he can hold on, and bring all his +four feet to bear on his food. So it is with the little Ant-eater, +{91b} who must needs climb here to feed on the tree ants. So it is, +too, with the Tree Porcupine, {91c} or Coendou, who (in strange +contrast to the well-known classic Porcupine of the rocks of +Southern Europe) climbs trees after leaves, and swings about like +the monkeys. For the life of animals in the primeval forest is, as +one glance would show you, principally arboreal. The flowers, the +birds, the insects, are all a hundred feet over your head as you +walk along in the all but lifeless shade; and half an hour therein +would make you feel how true was Mr. Wallace's simile--that a walk +in the tropic forest was like one in an empty cathedral while the +service was being celebrated upon the roof. + +In the next two cages, however, are animals who need no prehensile +tails; for they are cats, furnished with those far more useful and +potent engines, retractile claws; a form of beast at which the +thoughtful man will never look without wonder; so unique, so +strange, and yet as perfect, that it suits every circumstance of +every clime; as does that equally unique form the dragon-fly. We +found the dragon-flies here, to our surprise, exactly similar to, +and as abundant as, the dragon-flies at home, and remembering that +there were dragon-flies of exactly the same type ages and ages ago, +in the days of the OEningen and Solenhofen slates, said--Here is +indeed a perfect work of God, which, as far as man can see, has +needed no improvement (if such an expression be allowable) +throughout epochs in which the whole shape of continents and seas, +and the whole climate of the planet, has changed again and again. +The cats are: an ocelot, a beautiful spotted and striped fiend, who +hisses like a snake; a young jaguar, a clumsy, happy kitten, about +as big as a pug dog, with a puny kitten's tail, who plays with the +spider monkey, and only shows by the fast-increasing bulk of his +square lumbering head, that in six months he will be ready to eat +the monkey, and in twelve to eat the keeper. + +There are strange birds, too. One, whom you may see in the +Zoological Gardens, like a plover with a straight beak and bittern's +plumage, from 'The Main,' whose business is to walk about the table +at meals uttering sad metallic noises and catching flies. His name +is Sun-bird, {93a} 'Sun-fowlo' of the Surinam Negroes, according to +dear old Stedman, 'because, when it extends its wings, which it +often does, there appears on the interior part of each wing a most +beautiful representation of the sun. This bird,' he continues very +truly, 'might be styled the perpetual motion, its body making a +continual movement, and its tail keeping time like the pendulum of a +clock.' {93b} A game-bird, olive, with a bare red throat, also from +The Main, called a Chacaracha, {93c} who is impudently brave, and +considers the house his own; and a great black Curassow, {93d} also +from The Main, who patronises the turkeys and guinea-fowl; stalks in +dignity before them; and when they do not obey, enforces his +authority by pecking them to death. There is thus plenty of +amusement here, and instruction too, for those to whom the ways of +dumb animals during life are more interesting than their stuffed +skins after death. + +But there is the signal-gun, announcing the arrival of the Mail from +home. And till it departs again there will be no time to add to +this hasty, but not unfaithful, sketch of first impressions in a +tropic island. + + + +CHAPTER VI: MONOS + + + +Early in January, I started with my host and his little suite on an +expedition to the islands of the Bocas. Our object was twofold: to +see tropical coast scenery, and to get, if possible, some Guacharo +birds (pronounced Huacharo), of whom more hereafter. Our chance of +getting them depended on the sea being calm outside the Bocas, as +well as inside. The calm inside was no proof of the calm out. Port +of Spain is under the lee of the mountains; and the surf might be +thundering along the northern shore, tearing out stone after stone +from the soft cliffs, and shrouding all the distant points in salt +haze, though the gulf along which we were rowing was perfectly +smooth, and the shipping and the mangrove scrub and the coco-palms +hung double, reflected as in a mirror, not of glass but of mud; and +on the swamps of the Caroni the malarious fog hung motionless in +long straight lines, waiting for the first blaze of sunrise to +sublime it and its invisible poisons into the upper air, where it +would be swept off, harmless, by the trade-wind which rushed along +half a mile above our heads. + +So away we rowed, or rather were rowed by four stalwart Negroes, +along the northern shore of the gulf, while the sun leapt up +straight astern, and made the awning, or rather the curtains of the +awning, needful enough. For the perpendicular rays of the sun in +the Tropics are not so much dreaded as the horizontal ones, which +strike on the forehead, or, still more dangerous, on the back of the +head; and in the West Indies, as in the United States, the early +morning and the latter part of the afternoon are the times for +sunstrokes. Some sort of shade for the back of the head is +necessary for an European, unless (which is not altogether to be +recommended) he adopts the La Platan fashion of wearing the natural, +and therefore surest, sunshade of his own hair hanging down to his +shoulders after the manner of our old cavaliers. + +The first islands which we made--The Five Islands, as they are +called--are curious enough. Isolated remnants of limestone, the +biggest perhaps one hundred yards long by one hundred feet high, +channelled and honeycombed into strange shapes by rain and waves +they are covered--that at least on which we landed--almost +exclusively by Matapalos, which seem to have stranded the original +trees and established themselves in every cranny of the rocks, +sending out arms, legs, fingers, ropes, pillars, and what not, of +live holdfasts over every rock and over each other till little but +the ubiquitous Seguine {95a} and Pinguins {95b} find room or +sustenance among them. The island on which we landed is used, from +time to time, as a depot for coolie immigrants when first landed. +There they remain to rest after the voyage till they can be +apportioned by the Government officers to the estates which need +them. Of this admirable system of satisfying the great need of the +West Indies, free labourers, I may be allowed to say a little here. + +'Immigrants' are brought over from Hindostan at the expense of the +colony. The Indian Government jealously watches the emigration, and +through agents of its own rigidly tests the bona-fide 'voluntary' +character of the engagement. That they are well treated on the +voyage is sufficiently proved, that on 2264 souls imported last year +the death-rate during the voyage was only 2.7 per cent, although +cholera attacked the crew of one of the ships before it left the +Hooghly. During the last three years ships with over 300 emigrants +have arrived several times in Trinidad without a single death. On +their arrival in Trinidad, those who are sick are sent at once to +the hospital; those unfit for immediate labour are sent to the +depot. The healthy are 'indentured'--in plain English, apprenticed- +-for five years, and distributed among the estates which have +applied for them. Husbands and wives are not allowed to be +separated, nor are children under fifteen parted from their parents +or natural protectors. They are expected by the law to work for 280 +days in the year, nine hours a day; and receive the same wages as +the free labourers: but for this system task-work is by consent +universally substituted; and (as in the case of an English +apprentice) the law, by various provisions, at once punishes them +for wilful idleness, and protects them from tyranny or fraud on the +part of their employers. Till the last two years the newcomers +received their wages entirely in money. But it was found better to +give them for the first year (and now for the two first years) part +payment in daily rations: a pound of rice, four ounces of dholl (a +kind of pea), an ounce of coconut oil or ghee, and two ounces of +sugar to each adult; and half the same to each child between five +and ten years old. + +This plan has been found necessary, in order to protect the Coolies +both from themselves and from each other. They themselves prefer +receiving the whole of their wages in cash. With that fondness for +mere hard money which marks a half-educated Oriental, they will, as +a rule, hoard their wages; and stint themselves of food, injuring +their powers of work, and even endangering their own lives; as is +proved by the broad fact that the death-rate among them has much +decreased, especially during the first year of residence, since the +plan of giving them rations has been at work. The newcomers need, +too, protection from their own countrymen. Old Coolies who have +served their time and saved money find it convenient to turn rice- +sellers or money-lenders. They have powerful connections on many +estates; they first advance money or luxuries to a newcomer, and +when he is once entrapped, they sell him the necessaries of life at +famine prices. Thus the practical effect of rations has been to +lessen the number of those little roadside shops, which were a curse +to Trinidad, and are still a curse to the English workman. +Moreover--for all men are not perfect, even in Trinidad--the Coolie +required protection, in certain cases, against a covetous and short- +sighted employer, who might fancy it to be his interest to let the +man idle during his first year, while weak, and so save up an arrear +of 'lost days' to be added at the end of the five years, when he was +a strong skilled labourer. An employer will have, of course, far +less temptation to do this, while, as now, he is bound to feed the +Coolie for the first two years. Meanwhile, be it remembered, the +very fact that such a policy was tempting, goes to prove that the +average Coolie grew, during his five years' apprenticeship, a +stronger, and not a weaker, man. + +There is thorough provision--as far as the law can provide--for the +Coolies in case of sickness. No estate is allowed to employ +indentured Coolies, which has not a duly 'certified' hospital, +capable of holding one-tenth at least of the Coolies on the estate, +with an allowance of 800 cubic feet to each person; and these +hospitals are under the care of district medical visitors, appointed +by the Governor, and under the inspection (as are the labour-books, +indeed every document and arrangement connected with the Coolies) of +the Agent-General of Immigrants or his deputies. One of these +officers, the Inspector, is always on the move, and daily visits, +without warning, one or more estates, reporting every week to the +Agent-General. The Governor may at any time, without assigning any +cause, cancel the indenture of any immigrant, or remove any part or +the whole of the indentured immigrant labourers from any estate; and +this has been done ere now. + +I know but too well that, whether in Europe or in the Indies, no +mere laws, however wisely devised, will fully protect the employed +from the employer; or, again, the employer from the employed. What +is needed is a moral bond between them; a bond above, or rather +beneath, that of mere wages, however fairly paid, for work, however +fairly done. The patriarchal system had such a bond; so had the +feudal: but they are both dead and gone, having done, I presume, +all that it was in them to do, and done it, like all human +institutions, not over well. And meanwhile, that nobler bond, after +which Socialists so-called have sought, and after which I trust they +will go on seeking still--a bond which shall combine all that was +best in patriarchism and feudalism, with that freedom of the +employed which those forms of society failed to give--has not been +found is yet; and, for a generation or two to come, 'cash-payment +seems likely to be the only nexus between man and man.' Because +that is the meanest and weakest of all bonds, it must be watched +jealously and severely by any Government worthy of the name; for to +leave it to be taken care of by the mere brute tendencies of supply +and demand, and the so-called necessities of the labour market, is +simply to leave the poor man who cannot wait to be blockaded and +starved out by the rich who can. Therefore all Colonial Governments +are but doing their plain duty in keeping a clear eye and a strong +hand on this whole immigration movement; and in fencing it round, as +in Trinidad, with such regulations as shall make it most difficult +for a Coolie to be seriously or permanently wronged without direct +infraction of the law, and connivance of Government officers; which +last supposition is, in the case of Trinidad, absurd, as long as Dr. +Mitchell, whom I am proud to call my friend, holds a post for which +he is equally fitted by his talents and his virtues. + +I am well aware that some benevolent persons, to whom humanity owes +much, regard Coolie immigration to the West Indies with some +jealousy, fearing, and not unnaturally, that it may degenerate into +a sort of slave-trade. I think that if they will study the last +immigration ordinance enacted by the Governor of Trinidad, June 24, +1870, and the report of the Agent-General of Immigrants for the year +ending September 30, 1869, their fears will be set at rest as far as +this colony is concerned. Of other colonies I say nothing, simply +because I know nothing: save that, if there are defects and abuses +elsewhere, the remedy is simple: namely, to adopt the system of +Trinidad, and work it as it is worked there. + +After he has served his five years' apprenticeship, the Coolie has +two courses before him. Either he can re-indenture himself to an +employer, for not more than twelve months, which as a rule he does; +or he can seek employment where he likes. At the end of a +continuous residence of ten years in all, and at any period after +that, he is entitled to a free passage back to Hindostan; or he may +exchange his right to a free passage for a Government grant of ten +acres of land. He has meanwhile, if he has been thrifty, grown +rich. His wife walks about, at least on high-days, bedizened with +jewels: nay, you may see her, even on work-days, hoeing in the +cane-piece with heavy silver bangles hanging down over her little +brown feet: and what wealth she does not carry on her arms, ankles, +neck, and nostril, her husband has in the savings' bank. The ship +Arima, as an instance,: took back 320 Coolies last year, of whom +seven died on the voyage. These people carried with them 65,585 +dollars; and one man, Heerah, handed over 6000 dollars for +transmission through the Treasury, and was known to have about him +4000 more. This man, originally allotted to an estate, had, after +serving out his industrial contract, resided in the neighbouring +village of Savannah Grande as a shopkeeper and money-lender for the +last ten years. Most of this money, doubtless, had been squeezed +out of other Coolies by means not unknown to Europeans, as well as +to Hindoos: but it must have been there to be squeezed out. And +the new 'feeding ordinance' will, it is to be hoped, pare the claws +of Hindoo and Chinese usurers. + +The newly offered grant of Government land has, as yet, been +accepted only in a few cases. 'It was not to be expected,' says the +report, 'that the Indian, whose habits have been fixed in special +grooves for tens of centuries, should hurriedly embrace an offer +which must strike at all his prejudices of country, and creed, and +kin.' Still, about sixty had settled in 1869 near the estates in +Savonetta, where I saw them, and at Point a Pierre; other +settlements have been made since, of which more hereafter. And, as +a significant fact, many Coolies who have returned to India are now +coming back a second time to Trinidad, bringing their kinsfolk and +fellow-villagers with them, to a land where violence is unknown, and +famine impossible. Moreover, numerous Coolies from the French +Islands are now immigrating, and buying land. These are chiefly +Madrassees, who are, it is said, stronger and healthier than the +Calcutta Coolies. In any case, there seems good hope that a race of +Hindoo peasant-proprietors will spring up in the colony, whose +voluntary labour will be available at crop-time; and who will teach +the Negro thrift and industry, not only by their example, but by +competing against him in the till lately understocked labour-market. + +Very interesting was the first glimpse of Hindoos; and still more of +Hindoos in the West Indies--the surplus of one of the oldest +civilisations of the old world, come hither to replenish the new; +novel was the sight of the dusky limbs swarming up and down among +the rocks beneath the Matapalo shade; the group in the water as we +landed, bathing and dressing themselves at the same time, after the +modest and graceful Hindoo fashion; the visit to the wooden +barracks, where a row of men was ranged on one side of the room, +with their women and children on the other, having their name, +caste, native village, and so forth, taken down before they were +sent off to the estates to which they were indentured. Three things +were noteworthy; first, the healthy cheerful look of all, speaking +well for the care and good feeding which they had had on board ship; +next, the great variety in their faces and complexions. Almost all +of them were low-caste people. Indeed few high-caste Hindoos, +except some Sepoys who found it prudent to emigrate after the +rebellion, have condescended, or dared, to cross the 'dark water'; +and only a very few of those who come west are Mussulmans. But +among the multitude of inferior castes who do come there is a +greater variety of feature and shape of skull than in an average +multitude, as far as I have seen, of any European nation. Caste, +the physiognomist soon sees, began in a natural fact. It meant +difference, not of rank, but of tribe and language; and India is +not, as we are apt to fancy, a nation: it is a world. One must +therefore regard this emigration of the Coolies, like anything else +which tends to break down caste, as a probable step forward in their +civilisation. For it must tend to undermine in them, and still more +in their children, the petty superstitions of old tribal +distinctions; and must force them to take their stand on wider and +sounder ground, and see that 'a man's a man for a' that.' + +The third thing noteworthy in the crowd which cooked, chatted, +lounged, sauntered idly to and fro under the Matapalos--the pillared +air-roots of which must have put them in mind of their own Banyans +at home--was their good manners. One saw in a moment that one was +among gentlemen and ladies. The dress of many of the men was nought +but a scarf wrapped round the loins; that of most of the women +nought but the longer scarf which the Hindoo woman contrives to +arrange in a most graceful, as well as a perfectly modest covering, +even for her feet and head. These garments, and perhaps a brass +pot, were probably all the worldly goods of most of them just then. +But every attitude, gesture, tone, was full of grace; of ease, +courtesy, self-restraint, dignity--of that 'sweetness and light,' at +least in externals, which Mr. Matthew Arnold desiderates. I am well +aware that these people are not perfect; that, like most heathen +folk and some Christian, their morals are by no means spotless, +their passions by no means trampled out. But they have acquired-- +let Hindoo scholars tell how and where--a civilisation which shows +in them all day long; which draws the European to them and them to +the European, whenever the latter is worthy of the name of a +civilised man, instinctively, and by the mere interchange of +glances; a civilisation which must make it easy for the Englishman, +if he will but do his duty, not only to make use of these people, +but to purify and ennoble them. + +Another thing was noteworthy about the Coolies, at the very first +glance, and all we saw afterwards proved that that first glance was +correct; I mean their fondness for children. If you took notice of +a child, not only the mother smiled thanks and delight, but the men +around likewise, as if a compliment had been paid to their whole +company. We saw afterwards almost daily proofs of the Coolie men's +fondness for their children; of their fondness also--an excellent +sign that the morale is not destroyed at the root--for dumb animals. +A Coolie cow or donkey is petted, led about tenderly, tempted with +tit-bits. Pet animals, where they can be got, are the Coolie's +delight, as they are the delight of the wild Indian. I wish I could +say the same of the Negro. His treatment of his children and of his +beasts of burden is, but too often, as exactly opposed to that of +the Coolie as are his manners. No wonder that the two races do not, +and it is to be feared never will, amalgamate; that the Coolie, +shocked by the unfortunate awkwardness of gesture and vulgarity of +manners of the average Negro, and still more of the Negress, looks +on them as savages; while the Negro, in his turn hates the Coolie as +a hard-working interloper, and despises him as a heathen; or that +heavy fights between the two races arise now and then, in which the +Coolie, in spite of his slender limbs, has generally the advantage +over the burly Negro, by dint of his greater courage, and the +terrible quickness with which he wields his beloved weapon, the long +hardwood quarterstaff. + +But to return: we rowed away with a hundred confused, but most +pleasant new impressions, amid innumerable salaams to the Governor +by these kindly courteous people, and then passed between the larger +limestone islands into the roadstead of Chaguaramas, which ought to +be, and some day may be, the harbour for the British West India +fleet; and for the shipping, too, of that commerce which, as +Humboldt prophesied, must some day spring up between Europe and the +boundless wealth of the Upper Orinoco, as yet lying waste. Already +gold discoveries in the Sierra de Parima (of which more hereafter) +are indicating the honesty of poor murdered Raleigh. Already the +good President of Ciudad Bolivar (Angostura) has disbanded the +ruffian army, which is the usual curse of a Spanish American +republic, and has inaugurated, it is to be hoped, a reign of peace +and commerce. Already an American line of steamers runs as far as +Nutrias, some eight hundred miles up the Orinoco and Apure; while a +second will soon run up the Meta, almost to Santa Fe de Bogota, and +bring down the Orinoco the wealth, not only of Southern Venezuela, +but of central New Grenada; and then a day may come when the +admirable harbour of Chaguaramas may be one of the entrepots of the +world; if a certain swamp to windward, which now makes the place +pestilential, could but be drained. The usual method of so doing +now is to lay the swamp as dry as possible by open ditches, and then +plant it, with coconuts, whose roots have some mysterious power both +of drying and purifying the soil; but were Chaguaramas ever needed +as an entrepot, it would not be worth while to wait for coconuts to +grow. A dyke across the mouth, and a steam-pump on it, as in the +fens of Norfolk and of Guiana, to throw the land-water over into the +sea, would probably expel the evil spirit of malaria at once and for +ever. + +We rowed on past the Boca de Monos, by which we had entered the gulf +at first, and looked out eagerly enough for sharks, which are said +to swarm at Chaguaramas. But no warning fin appeared above the +ripple; only, more than once, close to the stern of the boat, a +heavy fish broke water with a sharp splash and swirl, which was said +to be a Barracouta, following us up in mere bold curiosity, but +perfectly ready to have attacked any one who fell overboard. These +Barracoutas--Sphyraenas as the learned, or 'pike' as the sailors +call them, though they are no kin to our pike at home--are, when +large, nearly as dangerous as a shark. In some parts of the West +Indies folk dare not bathe for fear of them; for they lie close +inshore, amid the heaviest surf; and woe to any living thing which +they come across. Moreover, they have this somewhat mean advantage +over you, that while, if they eat you, you will agree with them +perfectly, you cannot eat them, at least at certain or uncertain +seasons of the year, without their disagreeing with you, without +sickness, trembling pains in all joints, falling off of nails and +hair for years to come, and possible death. Those who may wish to +know more of the poisonous fishes of the West Indies may profitably +consult a paper in the Proceedings of the Scientific Association of +Trinidad by that admirable naturalist, and--let me say of him +(though I have not the honour of knowing him) what has long been +said by all who have that honour--admirable man, the Hon. Richard +Hill of Jamaica. He mentions some thirteen species which are more +or less poisonous, at all events at times: but on the cause of +their unwholesomeness he throws little light; and still less on the +extraordinary but undoubted fact that the same species may be +poisonous in one island and harmless in another; and that of two +species so close as to be often considered as the same, one may be +poisonous, the other harmless. The yellow-billed sprat, {102} for +instance, is usually so poisonous that 'death has occurred from +eating it in many cases immediately, and in some recorded instances +even before the fish was swallowed.' Yet a species caught with +this, and only differing from it (if indeed it be distinct) by +having a yellow spot instead of a black one on the gill-cover, is +harmless. Mr. Hill attributes the poisonous quality, in many cases, +to the foul food which the fish get from coral reefs, such as the +Formigas bank, midway between Cuba, Hayti, and Jamaica, where, as +you 'approach it from the east, you find the cheering blandness of +the sea-breeze suddenly changing to the nauseating smell of a fish- +market.' There, as off similar reefs in the Bahamas and round +Anegada, as we'll as at one end of St. Kitts, the fish are said to +be all poisonous. If this theory be correct, the absence of coral +reefs round Trinidad may help to account for the fact stated by Mr. +Joseph, that poisonous fish are unknown in that island. The +statement, however, is somewhat too broadly made; for the Chouf- +chouf, {103a} a prickly fish which blows itself out like a bladder, +and which may be seen hanging in many a sailor's cottage in England, +is as evil-disposed in Trinidad as elsewhere. The very vultures +will not eat it; and while I was in the island a family of Coolies, +in spite of warning, contrived to kill themselves with the nasty +vermin: the only one who had wit enough to refuse it being an idiot +boy. + +These islands of the Bocas, three in number, are some two miles long +each, and some eight hundred to one thousand feet in height; at +least, so say the surveyors. To the eye, as is usual in the +Tropics, they look much lower. One is inclined here to estimate +hills at half, or less than half, their actual height; and that from +causes simple enough. Not only does the intense clearness of the +atmosphere make the summits appear much nearer than in England; but +the trees on the summit increase the deception. The mind, from home +association, supposes them to be of the same height as average +English trees on a hill-top--say fifty feet--and estimates, rapidly +and unconsciously, the height of the mountain by that standard. The +trees are actually nearer a hundred and fifty than fifty feet high; +and the mountain is two or three times as big as it looks. + +But it is not their height, nor the beauty of their outline, nor the +size of the trunks which still linger on them here and there, which +gives these islands their special charm. It is their exquisite +little land-locked southern coves--places to live and die in-- + + +'The world forgetting, by the world forgot.' + + +Take as an example that into which we rowed that day in Monos, as +the old Spaniards named it, from monkeys long since extinct; a +curved shingle beach some fifty yards across, shut in right and left +by steep rocks wooded down almost to the sea, and worn into black +caves and crannies, festooned with the night-blowing Cereus, which +crawls about with hairy green legs, like a tangle of giant spiders. +Among it, in the cracks, upright Cerei, like candelabra twenty and +thirty feet high, thrust themselves aloft into the brushwood. An +Aroid {103b} rides parasitic on roots and stems, sending downward +long air-roots, and upward brown rat-tails of flower, and broad +leaves, four feet by two, which wither into whity-brown paper, and +are used, being tough and fibrous, to wrap round the rowlocks of the +oars. Tufts of Karatas, top, spread their long prickly leaves among +the bush of 'rastrajo,' or second growth after the primeval forest +has been cleared, which dips suddenly right and left to the beach. +It, and the little strip of flat ground behind it, hold a three- +roomed cottage--of course on stilts; a shed which serves as a +kitchen; a third ruined building, which is tenanted mostly by +lizards and creeping flowers; some twenty or thirty coconut trees; +and on the very edge of the sea an almond-tree, its roots built up +to seaward with great stones, its trunk hung with fishing lines; and +around it, scattered on the shingle, strange shells, bits of coral, +coconuts and their fragments; almonds from the tree; the round scaly +fruit of the Mauritia palm, which has probably floated across the +gulf from the forests of the Orinoco or the Caroni; and the long +seeds of the mangrove, in shape like a roach-fisher's float, and +already germinating, their leaves showing at the upper end, a tiny +root at the lower. In that shingle they will not take root: but +they are quite ready to go to sea again next tide, and wander on for +weeks, and for hundreds of miles, till they run ashore at last on a +congenial bed of mud, throw out spider legs right and left, and hide +the foul mire with their gay green leaves. + +The almond-tree, {104} with its flat stages of large smooth leaves, +and oily eatable seeds in an almond-like husk, is not an almond at +all, or any kin thereto. It has been named, as so many West Indian +plants have, after some known plant to which it bore a likeness, and +introduced hither, and indeed to all shores from Cuba to Guiana, +from the East Indies, through Arabia and tropical Africa, having +begun its westward journey, probably, in the pocket of some +Portuguese follower of Vasco de Gama. + +We beached the boat close to the almond-tree, and were welcomed on +shore by the lord of the cove, a gallant red-bearded Scotsman, with +a head and a heart; a handsome Creole wife, and lovely brownish +children, with no more clothes on than they could help. An old +sailor, and much-wandering Ulysses, he is now coastguardman, water- +bailiff, policeman, practical warden, and indeed practical viceroy +of the island, and an easy life of it he must have. + +The sea gives him fish enough for his family, and for a brawny brown +servant. His coconut palms yield him a little revenue; he has +poultry, kids, and goats' milk more than he needs; his patch of +provision-ground in the place gives him corn and roots, sweet +potatoes, yam, tania, cassava, and fruit too, all the year round. +He needs nothing, owes nothing, fears nothing. News and politics +are to him like the distant murmur of the surf at the back of the +island; a noise which is nought to him. His Bible, his almanac, and +three or four old books on a shelf are his whole library. He has +all that man needs, more than man deserves, and is far too wise to +wish to better himself. + +I sat down on the beach beneath the amber shade of the palms; and +watched my white friends rushing into the clear sea and disporting +themselves there like so many otters, while the policeman's little +boy launched a log canoe, not much longer than himself, and paddled +out into the midst of them, and then jumped upright in it, a little +naked brown Cupidon; whereon he and his canoe were of course upset, +and pushed under water, and scrambled over, and the whole cove rang +with shouts and splashing, enough to scare away the boldest shark, +had one been on watch off the point. I looked at the natural beauty +and repose; at the human vigour and happiness: and I said to +myself, and said it often afterwards in the West Indies: Why do not +other people copy this wise Scot? Why should not many a young +couple, who have education, refinement, resources in themselves, but +are, happily or unhappily for them, unable to keep a brougham and go +to London balls, retreat to some such paradise as this (and there +are hundreds like it to be found in the West Indies), leaving behind +them false civilisation, and vain desires, and useless show; and +there live in simplicity and content 'The Gentle Life'? It is not +true that the climate is too enervating. It is not true that nature +is here too strong for man. I have seen enough in Trinidad, I saw +enough even in little Monos, to be able to deny that; and to say +that in the West Indies, as elsewhere, a young man can be pure, +able, high-minded, industrious, athletic: and I see no reason why a +woman should not be likewise all that she need be. + +A cultivated man and wife, with a few hundreds a year--just enough, +in fact, to enable them to keep a Coolie servant or two, might be +really wealthy in all which constitutes true wealth; and might be +useful also in their place; for each such couple would be a little +centre of civilisation for the Negro, the Coolie; and it may be for +certain young adventurers who, coming out merely to make money and +return as soon as possible, are but too apt to lose, under the +double temptations of gain and of drink, what elements of the +'Gentle Life' they have gained from their mothers at home. + +The following morning early we rowed away again, full of longing, +but not of hope, of reaching one or other of the Guacharo caves. +Keeping along under the lee of the island, we crossed the 'Umbrella +Mouth,' between it and Huevos, or Egg Island. On our right were the +islands; on our left the shoreless gulf; and ahead, the great +mountain of the mainland, with a wreath of white fleece near its +summit, and the shadows of clouds moving in dark patches up its +sides. As we crossed, the tumbling swell which came in from the +outer sea, and the columns of white spray which rose right and left +against the two door-posts of that mighty gateway, augured ill for +our chances of entering a cave. But on we went, with a warning not +to be upset if we could avoid it, in the shape of a shark's back fin +above the oily swell; and under Huevos, and round into a lonely +cove, with high crumbling cliffs bedecked with Cereus and Aloes in +flower, their tall spikes of green flowers standing out against the +sky, twenty or thirty feet in height, and beds of short wild pine- +apples, {106} like amber-yellow fur, and here and there hanging +leaves trailing down to the water; and on into a nook, the sight of +which made us give up all hopes of the cave, but which in itself was +worth coming from Europe to see. The work of ages of trade-surf had +cut the island clean through, with a rocky gully between soft rocks +some hundred feet in width. It was just passable at high tide; and +through it we were to have rowed, and turned to the left to the cave +in the windward cliffs. But ere we reached it the war outside said +'No' in a voice which would take no denial, and when we beached the +boat behind a high rock, and scrambled up to look out, we saw a +sight, one half of which was not unworthy of the cliffs of Hartland +or Bude. On the farther side of the knife edge of rock, crumbling +fast into the sea, a waste of breakers rolled through the chasm, +though there was scarcely any wind to drive them, leaping, spouting, +crashing, hammering down the soft cliffs, which seemed to crumble, +and did doubtless crumble, at every blow; and beyond that the open +blue sea, without a rock or a sail, hazy, in spite of the blazing +sunlight, beneath the clouds of spray. But there ceased the +likeness to a rock scene on the Cornish coast; for at the other foot +of the rock, not twenty yards from that wild uproar, the land-locked +cove up which we had come lay still as glass, and the rocks were +richer with foliage than an English orchard. Everywhere down into +the very sea, the Matapalos held and hung; their air-roots dangled +into the very water; many of them had fallen into it, but grew on +still, and blossomed with great white fragrant flowers, somewhat +like those of a Magnolia, each with a shining cake of amber wax as +big as a shilling in the centre; and over the Matapalos, tree on +tree, liane on liane, up to a negro garden, with its strange huge- +leaved vegetables and glossy fruit-trees, and its black owner +standing on the cliff, and peering down out of his little nest with +grinning teeth and white wondering eyes, at the white men who were +gathering, off a few yards of beach, among the great fallen leaves +of the Matapalos, such shells as delighted our childhood in the West +India cabinet at home. + +We lingered long, filling our eyes with beauty: and then rowed +away. What more was to be done? Through that very chasm we were to +have passed out to the cave. And yet the sight of this delicious +nook repaid us--so more than one of the party thought--for our +disappointment. There was another Guacharo cave in the Monos +channel, more under the lee. We would try that to-morrow. + +As the sun sank that evening, we sat ourselves upon the eastern +rocks, and gazed away into the pale, sad, boundless west; while +Venus hung high, not a point, as here, but a broad disc of light, +throwing a long gleam over the sea. Fish skipped over the clear +calm water; and above, pelicans--the younger brown, the older gray-- +wheeled round and round in lordly flight, paused, gave a sudden +half-turn, then fell into the water with widespread wings, and after +a splash, rose with another skipjack in their pouch. As it grew +dark, dark things came trooping over the sea, by twos and threes, +then twenty at a time, all past us toward a cave near by. Birds we +fancied them at first, of the colour and size of starlings; but they +proved to be bats, and bats, too, which have the reputation of +catching fish. So goes the tale, believed by some who see them +continually, and have a keen eye for nature; and who say that the +bat sweeps the fish up off the top of the water with the scoop-like +membrane of his hind-legs and tail. For this last fact I will not +vouch. But I am assured that fish scales were found, after I left +the island, in the stomachs of these bats; and that of the fact of +their picking up small fish there can be no doubt. 'You could not,' +says a friend, 'be out at night in a boat, and hear their continual +swish, swish, in the water, without believing it.' If so, the habit +is a quaint change of nature in them; for they belong, I am assured +by my friend Professor Newton, not to the insect-eating, but to the +fruit-eating family of bats, who, in the West as in the East Indies, +may be seen at night hovering round the Mango-trees, and destroying +much more fruit than they eat. + +So we sat watching the little dark things flit by, like the +gibbering ghosts of the suitors in the Odyssey, into the darkness of +the cave; and then turned to long talk of things concerning which it +is best nowadays not to write; till it was time to feel our way +indoors, by such light as Venus gave, over the slippery rocks, and +then, cautiously enough, past the Manchineel {107} bush, a broken +sprig of which would have raised an instant blister on the face or +hand. + +Our night, as often happens in the Tropics, was not altogether +undisturbed; for, shortly after I had become unconscious of the +chorus of toads and cicadas, my hammock came down by the head. Then +I was woke by a sudden bark close outside, exactly like that of a +clicketting fox; but as the dogs did not reply or give chase, I +presumed it to be the cry of a bird, possibly a little owl. Next +there rushed down the mountain a storm of wind and rain, which made +the coco-leaves flap and creak, and rattle against the gable of the +house; and set every door and window banging, till they were caught +and brought to reason. And between the howls of the wind I became +aware of a strange noise from seaward--a booming, or rather humming +most like that which a locomotive sometimes makes when blowing off +steam. It was faint and distant, but deep and strong enough to set +one guessing its cause. The sea beating into caves seemed, at +first, the simplest answer. But the water was so still on our side +of the island, that I could barely hear the lap of the ripple on the +shingle twenty yards off; and the nearest surf was a mile or two +away, over a mountain a thousand feet high. So puzzling vainly, I +fell asleep, to awake, in the gray dawn, to the prettiest idyllic +picture, through the half-open door, of two kids dancing on a stone +at the foot of a coconut tree, with a background of sea and dark +rocks. + +As we went to bathe we heard again, in perfect calm, the same +mysterious booming sound, and were assured by those who ought to +have known, that it came from under the water, and was most probably +made by none other than the famous musical or drum fish; of whom one +had heard, and hardly believed, much in past years. + +Mr. Joseph, author of the History of Trinidad from which I have so +often quoted, reports that the first time he heard this singular +fish was on board a schooner, at anchor off Chaguaramas. + +'Immediately under the vessel I heard a deep and not unpleasant +sound, similar to those one might imagine to proceed from a thousand +AEolian harps; this ceased, and deep twanging notes succeeded; these +gradually swelled into an uninterrupted stream of singular sounds +like the booming of a number of Chinese gongs under the water; to +these succeeded notes that had a faint resemblance to a wild chorus +of a hundred human voices singing out of tune in deep bass.' + +'In White's Voyage to Cochin China,' adds Mr. Joseph, 'there is as +good a description of this, or a similar submarine concert, as mere +words can convey: this the voyager heard in the Eastern seas. He +was told the singers were a flat kind of fish; he, however, did not +see them.' + +'Might not this fish,' he asks, 'or one resembling it in vocal +qualities, have given rise to the fable of the Sirens?' + +It might, certainly, if the fact be true. Moreover, Mr. Joseph does +not seem to be aware that the old Spanish Conquistadores had a myth +that music was to be heard in this very Gulf of Paria, and that at +certain seasons the Nymphs and Tritons assembled therein, and with +ravishing strains sang their watery loves. The story of the music +has been usually treated as a sailor's fable, and the Sirens and +Tritons supposed to be mere stupid manatis, or sea-cows, coming in +as they do still now and then to browse on mangrove shoots and +turtle-grass: {110} but if the story of the music be true, the myth +may have had a double root. + +Meanwhile I see Hardwicke's Science Gossip for March gives an +extract from a letter of M. O. de Thoron, communicated by him to the +Academie des Sciences, December 1861, which confirms Mr. Joseph's +story. He asserts that in the Bay of Pailon, in Esmeraldos, +Ecuador, i.e. on the Pacific Coast, and also up more than one of the +rivers, he has heard a similar sound, attributed by the natives to a +fish which they call 'The Siren,' or 'Musico.' At first, he says, +he thought it was produced by a fly, or hornet of extraordinary +size; but afterwards, having advanced a little farther, he heard a +multitude of different voices, which harmonised together, imitating +a church organ to great perfection. The good people of Trinidad +believe that the fish which makes this noise is the trumpet-fish, or +Fistularia--a beast strange enough in shape to be credited with +strange actions: but ichthyologists say positively no: that the +noise (at least along the coast of the United States) is made by a +Pogonias, a fish somewhat like a great bearded perch, and cousin of +the Maigre of the Mediterranean, which is accused of making a +similar purring or grunting noise, which can be heard from a depth +of one hundred and twenty feet, and guides the fishermen to their +whereabouts. + +How the noise is made is a question. Cuvier was of opinion that it +was made by the air-bladder, though he could not explain how: but +the truth, if truth it be, seems stranger still. These fish, it +seems, have strong bony palates and throat-teeth for crushing shells +and crabs, and make this wonderful noise simply by grinding their +teeth together. + +I vouch for nothing, save that I heard this strange humming more +than once. As for the cause of it, I can only say, as was said of +yore, that 'I hold it for rashness to determine aught amid such +fertility of Nature's wonders.' + +One afternoon we made an attempt on the other Guacharo cave, which +lies in the cliff on the landward side of the Monos Boca. But, +alas! the wind had chopped a little to the northward; a swell was +rolling in through the Boca; and when we got within twenty yards of +the low-browed arch our crew lay on their oars and held a +consultation, of which there could but be one result. They being +white gentlemen, and not Negroes, could trust themselves and each +other, and were ready, as I know well, to 'dare all that became a +man.' But every now and then a swell rolled in high enough to have +cracked our sculls against the top, and out again deep enough to +have staved the boat against the rocks. If we went to wreck, the +current was setting strongly out to sea; and the Boca was haunted by +sharks, and (according to the late Colonel Hamilton Smith) by a +worse monster still, namely, the giant ray, {111a} which goes by the +name of devil-fish on the Carolina shores. He saw, he says, one of +these monsters rise in this very Boca, at a sailor who had fallen +overboard, cover him with one of his broad wings, and sweep him down +into the depths. And, on the whole, if Guacharos are precious, so +is life. So, like Gyges of old, we 'elected to survive,' and rowed +away with wistful eyes, determining to get Guacharos--a +determination which was never carried out--from one of the limestone +caverns of the northern mountains. + +And now it may be asked, and reasonably enough, what Guacharos +{111b} are; and why five English gentlemen and a canny Scots +coastguardman should think it worth while to imperil their lives to +obtain them. + +I cannot answer better than by giving Humboldt's account of the Cave +of Caripe, on the Spanish main hard by, where he discovered them, or +rather described them to civilised Europe, for the first time:-- + +'The Cueva del Guacharo is pierced in the vertical profile of a +rock. The entrance is towards the south, and forms a vault eighty +feet broad and seventy-two feet high. This elevation is but a fifth +less than the colonnade of the Louvre. The rock that surmounts the +grotto is covered with trees of gigantic height. The Mammee-tree +and the Genipa, with large and shining leaves, raise their branches +vertically towards the sky; while those of the Courbaril and the +Erythrina form, as they extend themselves, a thick vault of verdure. +Plants of the family of Pothos with succulent stems, Oxalises, and +Orchideae of a singular construction, rise in the driest clefts of +the rocks; while creeping plants waving in the winds are interwoven +in festoons before the opening of the cavern. We distinguished in +these festoons a Bignonia of a violet blue, the purple Dolichos, +and, for the first time, that magnificent Solandra, the orange +flower of which has a fleshy tube more than four inches long. The +entrances of grottoes, like the view of cascades, derive their +principal charm from the situation, more or less majestic, in which +they are placed, and which in some sort determines the character of +the landscape. What a contrast between the Cueva of Caripe and +those caverns of the north crowned with oaks and gloomy larch-trees! + +'But this luxury of vegetation embellishes not only the outside of +the vault, it appears even in the vestibule of the grotto. We saw +with astonishment plantain-leaved Heliconias, eighteen feet high, +the Praga palm-trees, and arborescent Arums follow the banks of the +river, even to those subterranean places. The vegetation continues +in the Cave of Caripe, as in the deep crevices of the Andes, half +excluded from the light of day; and does not disappear till, +advancing in the interior, we reach thirty or forty paces from the +entrance. . . . + +'The Guacharo quits the cavern at nightfall, especially when the +moon shines. It is almost the only frugivorous nocturnal bird that +is yet known; the conformation of its feet sufficiently shows that +it does not hunt like our owls. It feeds on very hard fruits, as +the Nutcracker and the Pyrrhocorax. The latter nestles also in +clefts of rocks, and is known under the name of night-crow. The +Indians assured us that the Guacharo does not pursue either the +lamellicorn insects, or those phalaenae which serve as food to the +goat-suckers. It is sufficient to compare the beaks of the Guacharo +and goat-sucker to conjecture how much their manners must differ. +It is difficult to form an idea of the horrible noise occasioned by +thousands of these birds in the dark part of the cavern, and which +can only be compared to the croaking of our crows, which in the pine +forests of the north live in society, and construct their nests upon +trees the tops of which touch each other. The shrill and piercing +cries of the Guacharos strike upon the vaults of the rocks, and are +repeated by the echo in the depth of the cavern. The Indians showed +us the nests of these birds by fixing torches to the end of a long +pole. These nests were fifty or sixty feet high above our heads, in +holes in the shape of funnels, with which the roof of the grotto is +pierced like a sieve. The noise increased as we advanced, and the +birds were affrighted by the light of the torches of copal. When +this noise ceased a few minutes around us we heard at a distance the +plaintive cries of the birds roosting in other ramifications of the +cavern. It seemed as if these bands answered each other +alternately. + +'The Indians enter into the Cueva del Guacharo once a year, near +midsummer, armed with poles, by means of which they destroy the +greater part of the nests. At this season several thousands of +birds are killed; and the old ones, as if to defend their brood, +hover over the heads of the Indians, uttering terrible cries. The +young, which fall to the ground, are opened on the spot. Their +peritoneum is extremely loaded with fat, and a layer of fat reaches +from the abdomen to the anus, forming a kind of cushion between the +legs of the bird. This quantity of fat in frugivorous animals, not +exposed to the light, and exerting very little muscular motion, +reminds us of what has been long since observed in the fattening of +geese and oxen. It is well known how favourable darkness and repose +are to this process. The nocturnal birds of Europe are lean, +because, instead of feeding on fruits, like the Guacharo, they live +on the scanty produce of their prey. At the period which is +commonly called at Caripe the "oil harvest," the Indians build huts +with palm-leaves near the entrance, and even in the porch of the +cavern. Of these we still saw some remains. There, with a fire of +brushwood, they melt in pots of clay the fat of the young birds just +killed. This fat is known by the name of butter or oil (manteca or +aceite) of the Guacharo. It is half liquid, transparent without +smell, and so pure that it may be kept above a year without becoming +rancid. At the convent of Caripe no other oil is used in the +kitchen of the monks but that of the cavern; and we never observed +that it gave the aliments a disagreeable taste or smell. + +'Young Guacharos have been sent to the port or Cumana, and lived +there several days without taking any nourishment, the seeds offered +to them not suiting their taste. When the crops and gizzards of the +young birds are opened in the cavern, they are found to contain all +sorts of hard and dry fruits, which furnish, under the singular name +of Guacharo seed (semilla del Guacharo), a very celebrated remedy +against intermittent fevers. The old birds carry these seeds to +their young. They are carefully collected and sent to the sick at +Cariaco, and other places of the low regions, where fevers are +prevalent. . . . + +'The natives connect mystic ideas with this cave, inhabited by +nocturnal birds; they believe that the souls of their ancestors +sojourn in the deep recesses of the cavern. "Man," say they, +"should avoid places which are enlightened neither by the sun" (Zis) +"nor by the moon" (Nuna). To go and join the Guacharos is to rejoin +their fathers, is to die. The magicians (piaches) and the poisoners +(imorons) perform their nocturnal tricks at the entrance of the +cavern, to conjure the chief of the evil spirits (ivorokiamo). Thus +in every climate the first fictions of nations resemble each other, +those especially which relate to two principles governing the world, +the abode of souls after death, the happiness of the virtuous, and +the punishment of the guilty. The most different and barbarous +languages present a certain number of images which are the same, +because they have their source in the nature of our intellect and +our sensations. Darkness is everywhere connected with the idea of +death. The Grotto of Caripe is the Tartarus of the Greeks; and the +Guacharos, which hover over the rivulet, uttering plaintive cries, +remind us of the Stygian birds. . . . + +'The missionaries, with all their authority, could not prevail on +the Indians to penetrate farther into the cavern. As the vault grew +lower, the cries of the Guacharos became more shrill. We were +obliged to yield to the pusillanimity of our guides, and trace back +our steps. The appearance of the cavern was indeed very uniform. +We find that a bishop of St. Thomas of Guiana had gone farther than +ourselves. He had measured nearly two thousand five hundred feet +from the mouth to the spot where he stopped, though the cavern +reached farther. The remembrance or this fact was preserved in the +convent of Caripe, without the exact period being noted. The bishop +had provided himself with great torches of white wax of Castille. +We had torches composed only of the bark of trees and native resin. +The thick smoke which issues from these torches, in a narrow +subterranean passage, hurts the eyes and obstructs the respiration. + +'We followed the course of the torrent to go out of the cavern. +Before our eyes were dazzled by the light of day, we saw, without +the grotto, the water of the river sparkling amid the foliage of the +trees that concealed it. It was like a picture placed in the +distance, and to which the mouth of the cavern served as a frame. +Having at length reached the entrance, and seated ourselves on the +banks of the rivulet, we rested after our fatigue. We were glad to +be beyond the hoarse cries of the birds, and to leave a place where +darkness does not offer even the charm of silence and tranquillity. +We could scarcely persuade ourselves that the name of the Grotto of +Caripe had hitherto remained unknown in Europe. The Guacharos alone +would have been sufficient to render it celebrated. These nocturnal +birds have been nowhere yet discovered except in the mountains of +Caripe and Cumanacoa.' + +So much from the great master, who was not aware (never having +visited Trinidad) that the Guacharo was well known there under the +name of Diablotin. But his account of Caripe was fully corroborated +by my host, who had gone there last year, and, by the help of the +magnesium light, had penetrated farther into the cave than either +the bishop or Humboldt. He had brought home also several Guacharos +from the Trinidad caves, all of which died on the passage, for want, +seemingly, of the oily nuts on which they feed. A live Guacharo +has, as yet, never been seen in Europe; and to get one safe to the +Zoological Gardens, as well as to get one or two corpses for the +Cambridge Museum, was our hope--a hope still, alas! unfulfilled. A +nest, however, of the Guacharo has been brought to England by my +host since my departure; a round lump of mud, of the size and shape +of a large cheese, with a shallow depression on the top, in which +the eggs are laid. A list of the seeds found in the stomachs of +Guacharos by my friend Mr. Prestoe of the Botanical Gardens, Port of +Spain, will be found in an Appendix. + +We rowed away, toward our island paradise. But instead of going +straight home, we turned into a deep cove called Ance Maurice--all +coves in the French islands are called Ances--where was something to +be seen, and not to be forgotten again. We grated in, over a +shallow bottom of pebbles interspersed with gray lumps of coral +pulp, and of Botrylli, azure, crimson, and all the hues of the +flower-garden; and landed on the bank of a mangrove swamp, bored +everywhere with the holes of land-crabs. One glance showed how +these swamps are formed: by that want of tide which is the curse of +the West Indies. + +At every valley mouth the beating of the waves tends all the year +round to throw up a bank of sand and shingle, damming the land-water +back to form a lagoon. This might indeed empty itself during the +floods of the rainy season; but during the dry season it must remain +a stagnant pond, filling gradually with festering vegetable matter +from the hills, beer-coloured, and as hideous to look at as it is to +smell. Were there a tide, as in England, of from ten to twenty +feet, that swamp would be drained twice a day to nearly that depth; +and healthy vegetation, as in England, establish itself down to the +very beach. A tide of a foot or eighteen inches only, as is too +common in the West Indies, will only drain the swamp to that depth; +and probably, if there be any strong pebble-bearing surf outside, +not at all. So there it all lies, festering in the sun, and cooking +poison day and night; while the mangroves and graceful white roseaux +{115a} (tall canes) kindly do their best to lessen the mischief, by +rooting in the slush, and absorbing the poison with their leaves. A +white man, sleeping one night on the edge of that pestilential +little triangle, half an acre in size, would be in danger of +catching a fever and ague, which would make a weaker man of him for +the rest of his life. And yet so thoroughly fitted for the climate +is the Negro, that not ten yards from the edge of the mud stood a +comfortable negro-house, with stout healthy folk therein, evidently +well to do in the world, to judge from the poultry, and the fruit- +trees and provision-ground which stretched up the glen. + +Through the provision-ground we struggled up, among weeds as high as +our shoulders; so that it was difficult, as usual, to distinguish +garden from forest. But no matter to the black owner. The weeds +were probably of only six weeks' growth; and when they got so high +that he actually could not find his tanias {115b} among them, he +would take cutlass and hoe, and make a lazy raid upon them, or +rather upon a quarter of them, certain of two facts; that in six +weeks more they would be all as high as ever; and that if they were, +it did not matter; for so fertile is the soil, so genial the +climate, that he would get in spite of them more crop off the ground +than he needed. 'Pity the poor weeds. Is there not room enough in +the world for them and for us?' seems the Negro's motto. But he +knows his own business well enough, and can exert himself when he +really needs to do so; and if the weeds harmed him seriously he +would make short work with them. Still this soil, and this climate, +put a premium on bad farming, as they do on much else that is bad. + +Up we pushed along the narrow path, past curious spiral flags {115c} +just throwing out their heads of delicate white or purple flower, +and under the shade of great Balisiers or wild plantains, {115d} +with leaves six or eight feet long; and many another curious plant +unknown to me; and then through a little copse, of which we had to +beware, for it was all black Roseau {115e}--a sort of dwarf palm +some fifteen feet high, whose stems are covered with black steel +needles, which, on being touched, run right through your finger, or +your hand, if you press hard enough, and then break off; on which +you cut them out if you can. If you cannot, they are apt, like +needles, to make voyages about among the muscles, and reappear at +some unexpected spot, causing serious harm. Of all the vegetable +pests of the forest, none, not even the croc-chien, is so ugly a +neighbour as certain varieties of black Roseau. + +All this while--I fear I may be prolix: but one must write as one +walked, stopping every moment to seize something new, and longing +for as many pairs of eyes as a spider--all this while, I say, we +heard the roar of the trade-surf growing louder and louder in front; +and pushing cautiously through the Roseau, found ourselves on a +cliff thirty feet high, and on the other side of the island. + +Now it was plain how the Bocas had been made; for here was one +making. + +Before us seethed a shallow horse-shoe bay, almost a lake, some two +hundred yards across inside, but far narrower at the mouth. Into +it, between two lofty points of hard rock, worn into caves and +pillars and natural arches, the trade-surf came raging in from the +north, hurling columns of foam right and left, and then whirling +round and round beneath us upon a narrow shore of black sand with +such fury that one seemed to see the land torn away by each wave. +The cliffs, some thirty feet high where we stood, rose to some +hundred at the mouth, in intense black and copper and olive shadows, +with one bright green tree in front of a cave's mouth, on which, it +seemed, the sun had never shone; while a thousand feet overhead were +glimpses of the wooded mountain-tops, with tender slanting lights, +for the sun was growing low, through blue-gray mist on copse and +lawn high above. A huge dark-headed Balata, {116a} like a storm- +torn Scotch pine, crowned the left-hand cliff; two or three young +Fan-palms, {116b} just ready to topple headlong, the right-hand one; +and beyond all, through the great gateway gleamed, as elsewhere, the +foam-flecked hazy blue of the Caribbean Sea. + +We stood spellbound for a minute at the sudden change of scene and +of feeling. From the still choking blazing steam of the leeward +glen, we had stepped in a moment into coolness and darkness, +pervaded by the delicious rush of the north-eastern wind; into a +hidden sanctuary of Nature where one would have liked to build, and +live and die: had not a second glance warned us that to die was the +easiest of the three. For the whole cliff was falling daily into +the sea, and it was hardly safe to venture to the beach for fear of +falling stones and earth. + +Down, however, we went, by a natural ladder of Matapalo roots, and +saw at once how the cove was being formed. The rocks are probably +Silurian; and if so, of quite immeasurable antiquity. But instead +of being hard, as Silurian rocks are wont to be, they are mere loose +beds of dark sand and shale, yellow with sulphur, or black with +carbonaceous matter, amid which strange flakes and nodules of white +quartz lie loose, ready to drop out at the blow of every wave. The +strata, too, sloped upward and outward toward the sea, which is +therefore able to undermine them perpetually; and thus the searching +surge, having once formed an entrance in the cliff face, between +what are now the two outer points, has had nought to do but to gnaw +inward; and will gnaw, till the Isle of Monos is cut sheer in two, +and the 'Ance Biscayen,' as the wonderful little bay is called, will +join itself to the Ance Maurice and the Gulf of Paria. In two or +three generations hence the little palm-wood will have fallen into +the sea. In two or three more the negro house and garden and the +mangrove swamp will be gone likewise: and in their place the trade- +surf will be battering into the Gulf of Paria from the Northern Sea, +through just such a mountain chasm as we saw at Huevos; and a new +Boca will have been opened. + +But not, understand, a deep and navigable one, as long as the land +retains its present level. To make that, there must be a general +subsidence of the land and sea bottom around. For surf, when eating +into land, gnaws to little deeper than low-water mark: no deeper, +probably, than the bottoms of the troughs between the waves. Its +tendency is--as one may see along the Ramsgate cliffs--to pare the +land away into a flat plain, just covered by a shallow sea. No surf +or currents could nave carved out the smaller Bocas to a depth of +between twenty and eighty fathoms; much less the great Boca of the +Dragon's Mouth, between Chacachacarra and the Spanish Main, to a +depth of more than seventy fathoms. They are sunken mountain +passes, whose sides have been since carved into upright cliffs by +the gnawing of the sea; and, as Mr. Wall well observes, {117} 'the +situation of the Bocas is in a depression of the range, perhaps of +the highest antiquity.' + +We wandered along the beach, looking up at a cliff clothed, wherever +it was not actually falling away, with richest verdure down to the +water's edge; but in general utterly bare, falling away too fast to +give root-hold to any plant. We lay down on the black sand, and +gazed, and gazed, and picked up quartz crystals fallen from above, +and wondered how the cove had got its name. Had some old Biscayan +whaler, from Biarritz or St. Jean de Luz, wandered into these seas +in search of fish, when, in the beginning of the seventeenth +century, he and his fellows had killed out all the Right Whales of +the Bay of Biscay? And had he, missing the Bocas, been wrecked and +perished, as he may well have done, against those awful walls? At +last we turned to re-ascend--for the tide was rising--after our +leader had congratulated us on being, perhaps, the only white men +who had ever seen Ance Biscayen--a congratulation which was +premature; for, as we went to climb up the Matapalo-root ladder, we +were stopped by several pairs of legs coming down it, which +belonged, it seemed, to a bathing party of pleasant French people, +'marooning' (as picnicking is called here) on the island; and after +them descended the yellow frock of a Dominican monk, who, when +landed, was discovered to be an old friend, now working hard among +the Roman Catholic Negroes of Port of Spain. + +On the way back to our island paradise we found along the shore two +plants worth notice--one, a low tree, with leaves somewhat like box, +but obovate (larger at the tip than at the stalk), and racemes of +little white flowers of a delicious honey-scent. {118a} It ought to +be, if it be not yet, introduced into England, as a charming +addition to the winter hothouse. As for the other plant, would that +it could be introduced likewise, or rather that, if introduced, it +would flower in a house; for it is a glorious climber, second only +to that which poor Dr. Krueger calls 'the wonderful Norantea,' which +shall be described in its place. You see a tree blazing with dark +gold, passing into orange, and that to red; and on nearing it find +it tiled all over with the flowers of a creeper, {118b} arranged in +flat rows of spreading brushes, some foot or two long, and holding +each hundreds of flowers, growing on one side only of the twig, and +turning their multitudinous golden and orange stamens upright to the +sun. There--I cannot describe it. It must be seen first afar off, +and then close, to understand the vagaries of splendour in which +Nature indulges here. And yet the Norantea, common in the high +woods, is even more splendid, and, in a botanist's eyes, a stranger +vagary still. + +On past the whaling quay. It was deserted; for the whales had not +yet come in, and there was no chance of seeing a night scene which +is described as horribly beautiful--the sharks around a whale while +flensing is going on, each monster bathed in phosphorescent light, +which makes his whole outline, and every fin, even his evil eyes and +teeth, visible far under water, as the glittering fiend comes up +from below, snaps his lump out of the whale's side, and is +shouldered out of the way by his fellows. We were unlucky indeed, +in the matter of sharks; for, with the exception of a problematical +back-fin or two, we saw none in the West Indies, though they were +swarming round us. + +The next day the boat's head was turned homewards. And what had +been learnt at the little bay of Alice Biscayen suggested, as we +went on, a fresh geological question. How the outer islands of the +Bocas had been formed, or were being formed, was clear enough. But +what about the inner islands? Gaspar Grande, and Diego, and the +Five Islands, and the peninsula--or island--of Punta Grande? How +were these isolated lumps of limestone hewn out into high points, +with steep cliffs, not to the windward, but to the leeward? What +made the steep cliff at the south end of Punta Grande, on which a +mangrove swamp now abuts? No trade-surf, no current capable of +doing that work, has disturbed the dull waters of the 'Golfo +Triste,' as the Spaniards named the Gulf of Paria, since the land +was of anything like its present shape. And gradually we began to +dream of a time when the Bocas did not exist; when the Spanish Main +was joined to the northern mountains of the island by dry land, now +submerged or eaten away by the trade-surf; when the northern +currents of the Orinoco, instead of escaping through the Bocas as +now, were turned eastward, past these very islands, and along the +foot of the northern mountains, over what is now the great lowland +of Trinidad, depositing those rich semi alluvial strata which have +been since upheaved, and sawing down along the southern slope of the +mountains those vast beds of shingle and quartz boulders which now +form as it were a gigantic ancient sea-beach right across the +island. A dream it may be: but one which seemed reasonable enough +to more than one in the boat, and which subsequent observations +tended to verify. + + + +CHAPTER VII: THE HIGH WOODS + + + +I have seen them at last. I have been at last in the High Woods, as +the primeval forest is called here; and they are not less, but more, +wonderful than I had imagined them. But they must wait awhile; for +in reaching them, though they were only ten miles off, I passed +through scenes so various, and so characteristic of the Tropics, +that I cannot do better than sketch them one by one. + +I drove out in the darkness of the dawn, under the bamboos, and +Bauhinias, and palms which shade the road between the Botanic +Gardens and the savannah, toward Port of Spain. The frogs and +cicalas had nearly finished their nightly music. The fireflies had +been in bed since midnight. The air was heavy with the fragrance of +the Bauhinias, and after I passed the great Australian Blue-gum +which overhangs the road, and the Wallaba-tree, {120a} with its thin +curved pods dangling from innumerable bootlaces six feet long, +almost too heavy with the fragrance of the 'white Ixora.' {120b} A +flush of rose was rising above the eastern mountains, and it was +just light enough to see overhead the great flowers of the 'Bois +chataigne,' {120c} among its horse-chestnut-like leaves; red flowers +as big as a child's two hands, with petals as long as its fingers. +Children of Mylitta the moon goddess, they cannot abide the day; and +will fall, brown and shrivelled, before the sun grows high, after +one night of beauty and life, and probably of enjoyment. Even more +swiftly fades an even more delicate child of the moon, the Ipomoea, +Bona-nox, whose snow-white patines, as broad as the hand, open at +nightfall on every hedge, and shrivel up with the first rays of +dawn. + +On through the long silent street of Port of Spain, where the air +was heavy with everything but the fragrance of Ixoras, and the dogs +and vultures sat about the streets, and were all but driven over +every few yards, till I picked up a guide--will he let me say a +friend?--an Aberdeenshire Scot, who hurried out fresh from his bath, +his trusty cutlass on his hip, and in heavy shooting-boots and +gaiters; for no clothing, be it remembered, is too strong for the +bush; and those who enter it in the white calico garments in which +West-India planters figure on the stage, are like to leave in it, +not only their clothes, but their skin besides. + +In five minutes more we were on board the gig, and rowing away south +over the muddy mirror; and in ten minutes more the sun was up, and +blazing so fiercely that we were glad to cool ourselves in fancy, by +talking over salmon-fishings in Scotland and New Brunswick, and +wadings in icy streams beneath the black pine-woods. + +Behind us were the blue mountains, streaked with broad lights and +shades by the level sun. On our left the interminable low line of +bright green mangrove danced and quivered in the mirage, and loomed +up in front, miles away, till single trees seemed to hang in air far +out at sea. On our right, hot mists wandered over the water, +blotting out the horizon, till the coasting craft, with distorted +sails and masts, seemed afloat in smoke. One might have fancied +oneself in the Wash off Sandringham on a burning summer's noon. + +Soon logs and stumps, standing out of the water, marked the mouth of +the Caroni; and we had to take a sweep out seaward to avoid its mud- +banks. Over that very spot, now unnavigable, Raleigh and his men +sailed in to conquer Trinidad. + +On one log a huge black and white heron moped all alone, looking in +the mist as tall as a man; and would not move for all our shouts. +Schools of fish dimpled the water; and brown pelicans fell upon +them, dashing up fountains of silver. The trade-breeze, as it rose, +brought off the swamps a sickly smell, suggestive of the need of +coffee, quinine, Angostura bitters, or some other febrifuge. In +spite of the glorious sunshine, the whole scene was sad, desolate, +almost depressing, from its monotony, vastness, silence; and we were +glad, when we neared the high tree which marks the entrance of the +Chaguanas Creek, and turned at last into a recess in the mangrove +bushes; a desolate pool, round which the mangrove roots formed an +impenetrable net. As far as the eye could pierce into the tangled +thicket, the roots interlaced with each other, and arched down into +the water in innumerable curves, by no means devoid of grace, but +hideous just because they were impenetrable. Who could get over +those roots, or through the scrub which stood stilted on them, +letting down at every yard or two fresh air-roots from off its +boughs, to add fresh tangle, as they struck into the mud, to the +horrible imbroglio? If one had got in among them, I fancied, one +would never have got out again. Struggling over and under endless +trap-work, without footing on it or on the mud below, one must have +sunk exhausted in an hour or two, to die of fatigue and heat, or +chill and fever. + +Let the mangrove foliage be as gay and green as it may--and it is +gay and green--a mangrove swamp is a sad, ugly, evil place; and so I +felt that one to be that day. + +The only moving things were some large fish, who were leaping high +out of water close to the bushes, glittering in the sun. They +stopped as we came up: and then all was still, till a slate-blue +heron {122a} rose lazily off a dead bough, flapped fifty yards up +the creek, and then sat down again. The only sound beside the +rattle of our oars was the metallic note of a pigeon in the high +tree, which I mistook then and afterwards for the sound of a horn. + +On we rowed, looking out sharply right and left for an alligator +basking on the mud among the mangrove roots. But none appeared, +though more than one, probably, was watching us, with nothing of him +above water but his horny eyes. The heron flapped on ahead, and +settled once more, as if leading us on up the ugly creek, which grew +narrower and fouler, till the oars touched the bank on each side, +and drove out of the water shoals of four-eyed fish, ridiculous +little things about as long as your hand, who, instead of diving to +the bottom like reasonable fish, seemed possessed with the fancy +that they could succeed better in the air, or on land; and +accordingly jumped over each other's backs, scrambled out upon the +mud, swam about with their goggle-eyes projecting above the surface +of the water, and, in fact, did anything but behave like fish. + +This little creature (Star-gazer, {122b} as some call him) is, you +must understand, one of the curiosities of Trinidad and of the +Guiana Coast. He looks, on the whole, like a gray mullet, with a +large blunt head, out of which stand, almost like horns, the eyes, +from which he takes his name. You may see, in Wood's Illustrated +Natural History, a drawing of him, which is--I am sorry to say--one +of the very few bad ones in the book; and read how, 'at a first +glance, the fish appears to possess four distinct eyes, each of +these organs being divided across the middle, and apparently +separated into two distinct portions. In fact an opaque band runs +transversely across the corner of the eye, and the iris, or coloured +portion, sends out two processes, which meet each other under the +transverse band of the cornea, so that the fish appears to possess +even a double pupil. Still, on closer investigation, the +connection, between the divisions of the pupil are apparent, and can +readily be seen in the young fish. The lens is shaped something +like a jargonelle pear, and so arranged that its broad extremity is +placed under the large segment of the cornea.' + +These strangely specialised eyes--so folks believe here--the fish +uses by halves. With the lower halves he sees through the water, +with the upper halves through the air; and, elevated by this quaint +privilege, he aspires to be a terrestrial animal, emulating, I +presume, the alligators around, and tries to take his walks upon the +mud. You may see, as you go down to bathe on the east coast, a +group of black dots, in pairs, peering up out of the sand, at the +very highest verge of the surf-line. As you approach them, they +leap up, and prove themselves to belong to a party of four-eyes, who +run--there is no other word--down the beach, dash into the roaring +surf, and the moment they see you safe in the sea run back again on +the next wave, and begin staring at the sky once more. He who sees +four-eyes for the first time without laughing must be much wiser, or +much stupider, than any man has a right to be. + +Suddenly the mangroves opened, and the creek ended in a wharf, with +barges alongside. Baulks of strange timbers lay on shore. Sheds +were full of empty sugar-casks, ready for the approaching crop-time. +A truck was waiting for us on a tramway; and we scrambled on shore +on a bed of rich black mud, to be received, of course, in true West +Indian fashion, with all sorts of courtesies and kindnesses. + +And here let me say, that those travellers who complain of +discourtesy in the West Indies can have only themselves to thank for +it. The West Indian has self-respect, and will not endure people +who give themselves airs. He has prudence too, and will not endure +people whom he expects to betray his hospitality by insulting him +afterwards in print. But he delights in pleasing, in giving, in +showing his lovely islands to all who will come and see them; +Creole, immigrant, coloured or white man, Spaniard, Frenchman, +Englishman, or Scotchman, each and all, will prove themselves +thoughtful hosts and agreeable companions, if they be only treated +as gentlemen usually expect to be treated elsewhere. On board a +certain steamer, it was once proposed that the Royal Mail Steam +Packet Company should issue cheap six-month season tickets to the +West Indies, available for those who wished to spend the winter in +wandering from island to island. The want of hotels was objected, +naturally enough, by an Englishman present. But he was answered at +once, that one or two good introductions to a single island would +ensure hospitality throughout the whole archipelago. + +A long-legged mule, after gibbing enough to satisfy his own self- +respect, condescended to trot off with us up the tramway, which lay +along a green drove strangely like one in the Cambridgeshire fens. +But in the ditches grew a pea with large yellow flower-spikes, which +reminded us that we were not in England; and beyond the ditches rose +on either side, not wheat and beans, but sugar-cane ten and twelve +feet high. And a noble grass it is, with its stems as thick as +one's wrist, tillering out below in bold curves over the well-hoed +dark soil, and its broad bright leaves falling and folding above in +curves as bold as those of the stems: handsome enough thus, but +more handsome still, I am told, when the 'arrow,' as the flower is +called, spreads over the cane-piece a purple haze, which flickers in +long shining waves before the breeze. One only fault it has; that, +from the luxuriance of its growth, no wind can pass through it; and +that therefore the heat of a cane-field trace is utterly stifling. +Here and there we passed a still uncultivated spot; a desolate reedy +swamp, with pools, and stunted alder-like trees, reminding us again +of the Deep Fens, while the tall chimneys of the sugar-works, and +the high woods beyond, completed the illusion. One might have been +looking over Holm Fen toward Caistor Hanglands; or over Deeping +toward the remnants of the ancient Bruneswald. + +Soon, however, we had a broad hint that we were not in the Fens, but +in a Tropic island. A window in heaven above was suddenly opened; +out of it, without the warning cry of Gardyloo--well known in +Edinburgh of old--a bucket of warm water, happily clean, was emptied +on each of our heads; and the next moment all was bright again. A +thunder-shower, without a warning thunder-clap, was to me a new +phenomenon, which was repeated several times that day. The +suddenness and the heaviness of the tropic showers at this season is +as amusing as it is trying. The umbrella or the waterproof must be +always ready, or you will get wet through. And getting wet here is +a much more serious matter than in a temperate climate, where you +may ride or walk all day in wet clothes and take no harm; for the +rapid radiation, produced by the intense sunshine, causes a chill +which may beget, only too easily, fever and ague not to be as easily +shaken off. + +The cause of these rapid and heavy showers is simple enough. The +trade-wind, at this season of the year, is saturated with steam from +the ocean which it has crossed; and the least disturbance in its +temperature, from ascending hot air or descending cold, precipitates +the steam in a sudden splash of water, out of a cloud, if there +happens to be one near; if not, out of the clear air. Therefore it +is that these showers, when they occur in the daytime, are most +common about noon; simply because then the streams of hot air rise +most frequently and rapidly, to struggle with the cooler layers +aloft. There is thunder, of course, in the West Indies, continuous +and terrible. But it occurs after midsummer, at the breaking up of +the dry season and coming on of the wet. + +At last the truck stopped at a manager's house with a Palmiste, +{124} or cabbage-palm, on each side of the garden gate, a pair of +columns which any prince would have longed for as ornaments for his +lawn. It is the fashion here, and a good fashion it is, to leave +the Palmistes, a few at least, when the land is cleared; or to plant +them near the house, merely on account of their wonderful beauty. +One Palmiste was pointed out to me, in a field near the road, which +had been measured by its shadow at noon, and found to be one hundred +and fifty-three feet in height. For more than a hundred feet the +stem rose straight, smooth, and gray. Then three or four spathes of +flowers, four or five feet long each, jutted out and upward like; +while from below them, as usual, one dead leaf, twenty feet long or +more, dangled head downwards in the breeze. Above them rose, as +always, the green portion of the stem for some twenty feet; and then +the flat crown of feathers, as dark as yew, spread out against the +blue sky, looking small enough up there, though forty feet at least +in breadth. No wonder if the man who possessed such a glorious +object dared not destroy it, though he spared it for a different +reason from that for which the Negroes spare, whenever they can, the +gigantic Ceibas, or silk cotton trees. These latter are useless as +timber; and their roots are, of course, hurtful to the canes. But +the Negro is shy of felling the Ceiba. It is a magic tree, haunted +by spirits. There are 'too much jumbies in him,' the Negro says; +and of those who dare to cut him down some one will die, or come to +harm, within the year. In Jamaica, says my friend Mr. Gosse, 'they +believe that if a person throws a stone at the trunk, he will be +visited with sickness, or other misfortune. When they intend to cut +one down, they first pour rum at the root as a propitiatory +offering.' The Jamaica Negro, however, fells them for canoes, the +wood being soft, and easily hollowed. But here, as in Demerara, the +trees are left standing about in cane-pieces and pastures to decay +into awful and fantastic shapes, with prickly spurs and board-walls +of roots, high enough to make a house among them simply by roofing +them in; and a flat crown of boughs, some seventy or eighty feet +above the ground, each bough as big as an average English tree, from +which dangles a whole world, of lianes, matapalos, orchids, wild +pines with long air-roots or gray beards; and last, but not least, +that strange and lovely parasite, the Rhipsalis cassytha, which you +mistake first for a plume of green sea-weed, or a tress of Mermaid's +hair which has got up there by mischance, and then for some delicate +kind of pendent mistletoe; till you are told, to your astonishment, +that it is an abnormal form of Cactus--a family which it resembles, +save in its tiny flowers and fruit, no more than it resembles the +Ceiba-tree on which it grows; and told, too, that, strangely enough, +it has been discovered in Angola--the only species of the Cactus +tribe in the Old World. + +And now we set ourselves to walk up to the Depot, where the +Government timber was being felled, and the real 'High Woods' to be +seen at last. Our path lay, along the half-finished tramway, +through the first Cacao plantation I had ever seen, though, I am +happy to say, not the last by many a one. + +Imagine an orchard of nut-trees, with very large long leaves. Each +tree is trained to a single stem. Among them, especially near the +path, grow plants of the common hothouse Datura, its long white +flowers perfuming all the air. They have been planted as landmarks, +to prevent the young Cacao-trees being cut over when the weeds are +cleared. Among them, too, at some twenty yards apart, are the stems +of a tree looking much like an ash, save that it is inclined to +throw out broad spurs, like a Ceiba. You look up, and see that they +are Bois immortelles, {126} fifty or sixty feet high, one blaze of +vermilion against the blue sky. Those who have stood under a +Lombardy poplar in early spring, and looked up at its buds and +twigs, showing like pink coral against the blue sky, and have felt +the beauty of the sight, can imagine faintly--but only faintly--the +beauty of these Madres de Cacao (Cacao-mothers), as they call them +here, because their shade is supposed to shelter the Cacao-trees, +while the dew collected by their leaves keeps the ground below +always damp. + +I turned my dazzled eyes down again, and looked into the delicious +darkness under the bushes. The ground was brown with fallen leaves, +or green with ferns; and here and there a slant ray of sunlight +pierced through the shade, and flashed on the brown leaves, and on a +gray stem, and on a crimson jewel which hung on the stem--and there, +again, on a bright orange one; and as my eye became accustomed to +the darkness, I saw that the stems and larger boughs, far away into +the wood, were dotted with pods, crimson or yellow or green, of the +size and shape of a small hand closed with the fingers straight out. +They were the Cacao-pods, full of what are called at home coco-nibs. +And there lay a heap of them, looking like a heap of gay flowers; +and by them sat their brown owner, picking them to pieces and laying +the seeds to dry on a cloth. I went up and told him that I came +from England, and never saw Cacao before, though I had been eating +and drinking it all my life; at which news he grinned amusement till +his white teeth and eyeballs made a light in that dark place, and +offered me a fresh broken pod, that I might taste the pink sour- +sweet pulp in which the rows of nibs lie packed, a pulp which I +found very pleasant and refreshing. + +He dries his Cacao-nibs in the sun, and, if he be a well-to-do and +careful man, on a stage with wheels, which can be run into a little +shed on the slightest shower of rain; picks them over and over, +separating the better quality from the worse; and at last sends them +down on mule-back to the sea, to be sold in London as Trinidad +cocoa, or perhaps sold in Paris to the chocolate makers, who convert +them into chocolate, Menier or other, by mixing them with sugar and +vanilla, both, possibly, from this very island. This latter fact +once inspired an adventurous German with the thought that he could +make chocolate in Trinidad just as well as in Paris. And (so goes +the story) he succeeded. But the fair Creoles would not buy it. It +could not be good; it could not be the real article, unless it had +crossed the Atlantic twice to and from that centre of fashion, +Paris. So the manufacture, which might have added greatly to the +wealth of Trinidad, was given up, and the ladies of the island eat +nought but French chocolate, costing, it is said, nearly four times +as much as home made chocolate need cost. + +As we walked on through the trace (for the tramway here was still +unfinished) one of my kind companions pointed out a little plant, +which bears in the island the ominous name of the Brinvilliers. +{127} It is one of those deadly poisons too common in the bush, and +too well known to the negro Obi men and Obi-women. And as I looked +at the insignificant weed I wondered how the name of that wretched +woman should have spread to this remote island, and have become +famous enough to be applied to a plant. French Negroes may have +brought the name with them: but then arose another wonder. How +were the terrible properties of the plant discovered? How eager and +ingenious must the human mind be about the devil's work, and what +long practice--considering its visual slowness and dulness--must it +have had at the said work, ever to have picked out this paltry thing +among the thousand weeds of the forest as a tool for its jealousy +and revenge. It may have taken ages to discover the Brinvilliers, +and ages more to make its poison generally known. Why not? As the +Spaniards say, 'The devil knows many things, because he is old.' +Surely this is one of the many facts which point toward some +immensely ancient civilisation in the Tropics, and a civilisation +which may have had its ugly vices, and have been destroyed thereby. + +Now we left the Cacao grove: and I was aware, on each side of the +trace, of a wall of green, such as I had never seen before on earth, +not even in my dreams; strange colossal shapes towering up, a +hundred feet and more in height, which, alas! it was impossible to +reach; for on either side of the trace were fifty yards of half- +cleared ground, fallen logs, withes, huge stumps ten feet high, +charred and crumbling; and among them and over them a wilderness of +creepers and shrubs, and all the luxuriant young growth of the +'rastrajo,' which springs up at once whenever the primeval forest is +cleared--all utterly impassable. These rastrajo forms, of course, +were all new to me. I might have spent weeks in botanising merely +at them: but all I could remark, or cared to remark, there as in +other places, was the tendency in the rastrajo toward growing +enormous rounded leaves. How to get at the giants behind was the +only question to one who for forty years had been longing for one +peep at Flora's fairy palace, and saw its portals open at last. +There was a deep gully before us, where a gang of convicts was +working at a wooden bridge for the tramway, amid the usual abysmal +mud of the tropic wet season. And on the other side of it there was +no rastrajo right and left of the trace. I hurried down it like any +schoolboy, dashing through mud and water, hopping from log to log, +regardless of warnings and offers of help from good-natured Negroes, +who expected the respectable elderly 'buccra' to come to grief; +struggled perspiring up the other side of the gully; and then dashed +away to the left, and stopped short, breathless with awe, in the +primeval forest at last. + +In the primeval forest; looking upon that upon which my teachers and +masters, Humboldt, Spix, Martius, Schomburgk, Waterton, Bates, +Wallace, Gosse, and the rest, had looked already, with far wiser +eyes than mine, comprehending somewhat at least of its wonders, +while I could only stare in ignorance. There was actually, then, +such a sight to be seen on earth; and it was not less, but far more +wonderful than they had said. + +My first feeling on entering the high woods was helplessness, +confusion, awe, all but terror. One is afraid at first to venture +in fifty yards. Without a compass or the landmark of some opening +to or from which he can look, a man must be lost in the first ten +minutes, such a sameness is there in the infinite variety. That +sameness and variety make it impossible to give any general sketch +of a forest. Once inside, 'you cannot see the wood for the trees.' +You can only wander on as far as you dare, letting each object +impress itself on your mind as it may, and carrying away a confused +recollection of innumerable perpendicular lines, all straining +upwards, in fierce competition, towards the light-food far above; +and next of a green cloud, or rather mist, which hovers round your +head, and rises, thickening and thickening to an unknown height. +The upward lines are of every possible thickness, and of almost +every possible hue; what leaves they bear, being for the most part +on the tips of the twigs, give a scattered, mist-like appearance to +the under-foliage. For the first moment, therefore, the forest +seems more open than an English wood. But try to walk through it, +and ten steps undeceive you. Around your knees are probably +Mamures, {129a} with creeping stems and fan-shaped leaves, something +like those of a young coconut palm. You try to brush through them, +and are caught up instantly by a string or wire belonging to some +other plant. You look up and round: and then you find that the air +is full of wires--that you are hung up in a network of fine branches +belonging to half a dozen different sorts of young trees, and +intertwined with as many different species of slender creepers. You +thought at your first glance among the tree-stems that you were +looking through open air; you find that you are looking through a +labyrinth of wire-rigging, and must use the cutlass right and left +at every five steps. You push on into a bed of strong sedge-like +Sclerias, with cutting edges to their leaves. It is well for you if +they are only three, and not six feet high. In the midst of them +you run against a horizontal stick, triangular, rounded, smooth, +green. You take a glance along it right and left, and see no end to +it either way, but gradually discover that it is the leaf-stalk of a +young Cocorite palm. {129b} The leaf is five-and-twenty feet long, +and springs from a huge ostrich plume, which is sprawling out of the +ground and up above your head a few yards off. You cut the leaf- +stalk through right and left, and walk on, to be stopped suddenly +(for you get so confused by the multitude of objects that you never +see anything till you run against it) by a gray lichen-covered bar, +as thick as your ankle. You follow it up with your eye, and find it +entwine itself with three or four other bars, and roll over with +them in great knots and festoons and loops twenty feet high, and +then go up with them into the green cloud over your head, and +vanish, as if a giant had thrown a ship's cables into the tree-tops. +One of them, so grand that its form strikes even the Negro and the +Indian, is a Liantasse. {129c} You see that at once by the form of +its cable--six or eight inches across in one direction, and three or +four in another, furbelowed all down the middle into regular knots, +and looking like a chain cable between two flexible iron bars. At +another of the loops, about as thick as your arm, your companion, if +you have a forester with you, will spring joyfully. With a few +blows of his cutlass he will sever it as high up as he can reach, +and again below, some three feet down, and, while you are wondering +at this seemingly wanton destruction, he lifts the bar on high, +throws his head back, and pours down his thirsty throat a pint or +more of pure cold water. This hidden treasure is, strange as it may +seem, the ascending sap, or rather the ascending pure rain-water +which has been taken up by the roots, and is hurrying aloft, to be +elaborated into sap, and leaf, and flower, and fruit, and fresh +tissue for the very stem up which it originally climbed, and +therefore it is that the woodman cuts the Water-vine through first +at the top of the piece which he wants, and not at the bottom, for +so rapid is the ascent of the sap that if he cut the stem below, the +water would have all fled upwards before he could cut it off above. +Meanwhile, the old story of Jack and the Bean-stalk comes into your +mind. In such a forest was the old dame's hut, and up such a bean +stalk Jack climbed, to find a giant and a castle high above. Why +not? What may not be up there? You look up into the green cloud, +and long for a moment to be a monkey. There may be monkeys up there +over your head, burly red Howler, {131a} or tiny peevish Sapajou, +{131b} peering down at you, but you cannot peer up at them. The +monkeys, and the parrots, and the humming birds, and the flowers, +and all the beauty, are upstairs--up above the green cloud. You are +in 'the empty nave of the cathedral,' and 'the service is being +celebrated aloft in the blazing roof.' + +We will hope that, as you look up, you have not been careless enough +to walk on, for if you have you will be tripped up at once: nor to +put your hand out incautiously to rest it against a tree, or what +not, for fear of sharp thorns, ants, and wasps' nests. If you are +all safe, your next steps, probably, as you struggle through the +bush between tree trunks of every possible size, will bring you face +to face with huge upright walls of seeming boards, whose rounded +edges slope upward till, as your eye follows them, you find them +enter an enormous stem, perhaps round, like one of the Norman +pillars of Durham nave, and just as huge, perhaps fluted, like one +of William of Wykeham's columns at Winchester. There is the stem: +but where is the tree? Above the green cloud. You struggle up to +it, between two of the board walls, but find it not so easy to +reach. Between you and it are half a dozen tough strings which you +had not noticed at first--the eye cannot focus itself rapidly enough +in this confusion of distances--which have to be cut through ere you +can pass. Some of them are rooted in the ground, straight and +tense, some of them dangle and wave in the wind at every height. +What are they? Air roots of wild Pines, {131c} or of Matapalos, or +of Figs, or of Seguines, {131d} or of some other parasite? +Probably: but you cannot see. All you can see is, as you put your +chin close against the trunk of the tree and look up, as if you were +looking up against the side of a great ship set on end, that some +sixty or eighty feet up in the green cloud, arms as big as English +forest trees branch off; and that out of their forks a whole green +garden of vegetation has tumbled down twenty or thirty feet, and +half climbed up again. You scramble round the tree to find whence +this aerial garden has sprung: you cannot tell. The tree-trunk is +smooth and free from climbers; and that mass of verdure may belong +possibly to the very cables which you met ascending into the green +cloud twenty or thirty yards back, or to that impenetrable tangle, a +dozen yards on, which has climbed a small tree, and then a taller +one again, and then a taller still, till it has climbed out of sight +and possibly into the lower branches of the big tree. And what are +their species? what are their families? Who knows? Not even the +most experienced woodman or botanist can tell you the names of +plants of which he only sees the stems. The leaves, the flowers, +the fruit, can only be examined by felling the tree; and not even +always then, for sometimes the tree when cut refuses to fall, linked +as it is by chains of liane to all the trees around. Even that +wonderful water-vine which we cut through just now may be one of +three or even four different plants. {132} + +Soon you will be struck by the variety of the vegetation, and will +recollect what you have often heard, that social plants are rare in +the tropic forests. Certainly they are rare in Trinidad; where the +only instances of social trees are the Moras (which I have never +seen growing wild) and the Moriche palms. In Europe, a forest is +usually made up of one dominant plant--of firs or of pines, of oaks +or of beeches, of birch or of heather. Here no two plants seem +alike. There are more species on an acre here than in all the New +Forest, Savernake, or Sherwood. Stems rough, smooth, prickly, +round, fluted, stilted, upright, sloping, branched, arched, jointed, +opposite-leaved, alternate-leaved, leaflets, or covered with leaves +of every conceivable pattern, are jumbled together, till the eye and +brain are tired of continually asking 'What next?' The stems are of +every colour--copper, pink, gray, green, brown, black as if burnt, +marbled with lichens, many of them silvery white, gleaming afar in +the bush, furred with mosses and delicate creeping film-ferns, or +laced with the air-roots of some parasite aloft. Up this stem +scrambles a climbing Seguine {133a} with entire leaves; up the next +another quite different, with deeply-cut leaves; {133b} up the next +the Ceriman {133c} spreads its huge leaves, latticed and forked +again and again. So fast do they grow, that they have not time to +fill up the spaces between their nerves, and are, consequently full +of oval holes; and so fast does its spadix of flowers expand, that +(as indeed do some other Aroids) an actual genial heat and fire of +passion, which may be tested by the thermometer, or even by the +hand, is given off during fructification. Beware of breaking it, or +the Seguines. They will probably give off an evil smell, and as +probably a blistering milk. Look on at the next stem. Up it, and +down again, a climbing fern {133d} which is often seen in hothouses +has tangled its finely-cut fronds. Up the next, a quite different +fern is crawling, by pressing tightly to the rough bark its creeping +root-stalks, furred like a hare's leg. Up the next, the prim little +Griffe-chatte {133e} plant has walked, by numberless clusters of +small cats'-claws, which lay hold of the bark. And what is this +delicious scent about the air? Vanille? Of course it is; and up +that stem zigzags the green fleshy chain of the Vanille Orchis. The +scented pod is far above, out of your reach; but not out of the +reach of the next parrot, or monkey, or negro hunter, who winds the +treasure. And the stems themselves: to what trees do they belong? +It would be absurd for one to try to tell you who cannot tell one- +twentieth of them himself. {133f} Suffice it to say, that over your +head are perhaps a dozen kinds of admirable timber, which might be +turned to a hundred uses in Europe, were it possible to get them +thither: your guide (who here will be a second hospitable and +cultivated Scot) will point with pride to one column after another, +straight as those of a cathedral, and sixty to eighty feet without +branch or knob. That, he will say, is Fiddlewood; {133g} that a +Carapo, {133h} that a Cedar, {133i} that a Roble {133j} (oak); that, +larger than all you have seen yet, a Locust; {133k} that a Poui; +{133l} that a Guatecare, {133m} that an Olivier, {133n} woods which, +he will tell you, are all but incorruptible, defying weather and +insects. He will show you, as curiosities, the smaller but +intensely hard Letter wood, {133o} Lignum vitae, {133p} and Purple +heart. {134a} He will pass by as useless weeds, Ceibas {134b} and +Sandbox-trees, {134c} whose bulk appals you. He will look up, with +something like a malediction, at the Matapalos, which, every fifty +yards, have seized on mighty trees, and are enjoying, I presume, +every different stage of the strangling art, from the baby Matapalo, +who, like the one which you saw in the Botanic Garden, has let down +his first air-root along his victim's stem, to the old sinner whose +dark crown of leaves is supported, eighty feet in air, on +innumerable branching columns of every size, cross-clasped to each +other by transverse bars. The giant tree on which his seed first +fell has rotted away utterly, and he stands in its place, prospering +in his wickedness, like certain folk whom David knew too well. Your +guide walks on with a sneer. But he stops with a smile of +satisfaction as he sees lying on the ground dark green glossy +leaves, which are fading into a bright crimson; for overhead +somewhere there must be a Balata, {134d} the king of the forest; and +there, close by, is his stem--a madder-brown column, whose head may +be a hundred and fifty feet or more aloft. The forester pats the +sides of his favourite tree, as a breeder might that of his +favourite racehorse. He goes on to evince his affection, in the +fashion of West Indians, by giving it a chop with his cutlass; but +not in wantonness. He wishes to show you the hidden virtues of this +(in his eyes) noblest of trees--how there issues out swiftly from +the wound a flow of thick white milk, which will congeal, in an +hour's time, into a gum intermediate in its properties between +caoutchouc and gutta-percha. He talks of a time when the English +gutta-percha market shall be supplied from the Balatas of the +northern hills, which cannot be shipped away as timber. He tells +you how the tree is a tree of a generous, virtuous, and elaborate +race--'a tree of God, which is full of sap,' as one said of old of +such--and what could he say better, less or more? For it is a +Sapota, cousin to the Sapodilla, and other excellent fruit-trees, +itself most excellent even in its fruit-bearing power; for every +five years it is covered with such a crop of delicious plums, that +the lazy Negro thinks it worth his while to spend days of hard work, +besides incurring the penalty of the law (for the trees are +Government property), in cutting it down for the sake of its fruit. +But this tree your guide will cut himself. There is no gully +between it and the Government station; and he can carry it away; and +it is worth his while to do so; for it will square, he thinks, into +a log more than three feet in diameter, and eighty, ninety--he hopes +almost a hundred--feet in length of hard, heavy wood, incorruptible, +save in salt water; better than oak, as good as teak, and only +surpassed in this island by the Poui. He will make a stage round +it, some eight feet high, and cut it above the spurs. It will take +his convict gang (for convicts are turned to some real use in +Trinidad) several days to get it down, and many more days to square +it with the axe. A trace must be made to it through the wood, +clearing away vegetation for which an European millionaire, could he +keep it in his park, would gladly pay a hundred pounds a yard. The +cleared stems, especially those of the palms, must be cut into +rollers; and the dragging of the huge log over them will be a work +of weeks, especially in the wet season. But it can be done, and it +shall be; so he leaves a significant mark on his new-found treasure, +and leads you on through the bush, hewing his way with light strokes +right and left, so carelessly that you are inclined to beg him to +hold his hand, and not destroy in a moment things so beautiful, so +curious, things which would be invaluable in an English hothouse. + +And where are the famous Orchids? They perch on every bough and +stem: but they are not, with three or four exceptions, in flower in +the winter; and if they were, I know nothing about them--at least, I +know enough to know how little I know. Whosoever has read Darwin's +Fertilisation of Orchids, and finds in his own reason that the book +is true, had best say nothing about the beautiful monsters till he +has seen with his own eyes more than his master. + +And yet even the three or four that are in flower are worth going +many a mile to see. In the hothouse they seem almost artificial +from their strangeness: but to see them 'natural,' on natural +boughs, gives a sense of their reality, which no unnatural situation +can give. Even to look up at them perched on bough and stem, as one +rides by; and to guess what exquisite and fantastic form may issue, +in a few months or weeks, out of those fleshy, often unsightly, +leaves, is a strange pleasure; a spur to the fancy which is surely +wholesome, if we will but believe that all these things were +invented by A Fancy, which desires to call out in us, by +contemplating them, such small fancy as we possess; and to make us +poets, each according to his power, by showing a world in which, if +rightly looked at, all is poetry. + +Another fact will soon force itself on your attention, unless you +wish to tumble down and get wet up to your knees. The soil is +furrowed everywhere by holes; by graves, some two or three feet wide +and deep, and of uncertain length and shape, often wandering about +for thirty or forty feet, and running confusedly into each other. +They are not the work of man, nor of an animal; for no earth seems +to have been thrown out of them. In the bottom of the dry graves +you sometimes see a decaying root: but most of them just now are +full of water, and of tiny fish also, who burrow in the mud and +sleep during the dry season, to come out and swim during the wet. +These graves are, some of them, plainly quite new. Some, again, are +very old; for trees of all sizes are growing in them and over them. + +What makes them? A question not easily answered. But the shrewdest +foresters say that they have held the roots of trees now dead. +Either the tree has fallen and torn its roots out of the ground, or +the roots and stumps have rotted in their place, and the soil above +them has fallen in. + +But they must decay very quickly, these roots, to leave their quite +fresh graves thus empty: and--now one thinks of it--how few fallen +trees, or even dead sticks, there are about. An English wood, if +left to itself, would be cumbered with fallen timber; and one has +heard of forests in North America, through which it is all but +impossible to make way, so high are piled up, among the still- +growing trees, dead logs in every stage of decay. Such a sight may +be seen in Europe, among the high Silver-fir forests of the +Pyrenees. How is it not so here? How indeed? And how comes it--if +you will look again--that there are few or no fallen leaves, and +actually no leaf-mould? In an English wood there would be a foot-- +perhaps two feet--of black soil, renewed by every autumn leaf fall. +Two feet? One has heard often enough of bison-hunting in Himalayan +forests among Deodaras one hundred and fifty feet high, and scarlet +Rhododendrons thirty feet high, growing in fifteen or twenty feet of +leaf-and-timber mould. And here, in a forest equally ancient, every +plant is growing out of the bare yellow loam, as it might in a well- +hoed garden bed. Is it not strange? + +Most strange; till you remember where you are--in one of Nature's +hottest and dampest laboratories. Nearly eighty inches of yearly +rain and more than eighty degrees of perpetual heat make swift work +with vegetable fibre, which, in our cold and sluggard clime, would +curdle into leaf-mould, perhaps into peat. Far to the north, in +poor old Ireland, and far to the south, in Patagonia, begin the +zones of peat, where dead vegetable fibre, its treasures of light +and heat locked up, lies all but useless age after age. But this is +the zone of illimitable sun-force, which destroys as swiftly as it +generates, and generates again as swiftly as it destroys. Here, +when the forest giant falls, as some tell me that they have heard +him fall, on silent nights, when the cracking of the roots below and +the lianes aloft rattles like musketry through the woods, till the +great trunk comes down, with a boom as of a heavy gun, re-echoing on +from mountain-side to mountain-side; then-- + + +'Nothing in him that doth fade, +But doth suffer an _air_-change +Into something rich and strange.' + + +Under the genial rain and genial heat the timber tree itself, all +its tangled ruin of lianes and parasites, and the boughs and leaves +snapped off not only by the blow, but by the very wind, of the +falling tree--all melt away swiftly and peacefully in a few months-- +say almost a few days--into the water, and carbonic acid, and +sunlight, out of which they were created at first, to be absorbed +instantly by the green leaves around, and, transmuted into fresh +forms of beauty, leave not a wrack behind. Explained thus--and this +I believe to be the true explanation--the absence of leaf-mould is +one of the grandest, as it is one of the most startling, phenomena +of the forest. + +Look here at a fresh wonder. Away in front of us a smooth gray +pillar glistens on high. You can see neither the top nor the bottom +of it. But its colour, and its perfectly cylindrical shape, tell +you what it is--a glorious Palmiste; one of those queens of the +forest which you saw standing in the fields; with its capital buried +in the green cloud and its base buried in that bank of green velvet +plumes, which you must skirt carefully round, for they are a prickly +dwarf palm, called here black Roseau. {137a} Close to it rises +another pillar, as straight and smooth, but one-fourth of the +diameter--a giant's walking-cane. Its head, too, is in the green +cloud. But near are two or three younger ones only forty or fifty +feet high, and you see their delicate feather heads, and are told +that they are Manacques; {137b} the slender nymphs which attend upon +the forest queen, as beautiful, though not as grand, as she. + +The land slopes down fast now. You are tramping through stiff mud, +and those Roseaux are a sign of water. There is a stream or gully +near: and now for the first time you can see clear sunshine through +the stems; and see, too, something of the bank of foliage on the +other side of the brook. You catch sight, it may be, of the head of +a tree aloft, blazing with golden trumpet flowers, which is a Poui; +and of another lower one covered with hoar-frost, perhaps a Croton; +{137c} and of another, a giant covered with purple tassels. That is +an Angelim. Another giant overtops even him. His dark glossy +leaves toss off sheets of silver light as they flicker in the +breeze; for it blows hard aloft outside while you are in stifling +calm. That is a Balata. And what is that on high?--Twenty or +thirty square yards of rich crimson a hundred feet above the ground. +The flowers may belong to the tree itself. It may be a Mountain- +mangrove, {137d} which I have never seen, in flower: but take the +glasses and decide. No. The flowers belong to a liane. The +'wonderful' Prince of Wales's Feather {137e} has taken possession of +the head of a huge Mombin, {137f} and tiled it all over with crimson +combs which crawl out to the ends of the branches, and dangle twenty +or thirty feet down, waving and leaping in the breeze. And over all +blazes the cloudless blue. + +You gaze astounded. Ten steps downward, and the vision is gone. +The green cloud has closed again over your head, and you are +stumbling in the darkness of the bush, half blinded by the sudden +change from the blaze to the shade. Beware. 'Take care of the +Croc-chien!' shouts your companion: and you are aware of, not a +foot from your face, a long, green, curved whip, armed with pairs of +barbs some four inches apart; and are aware also, at the same +moment, that another has seized you by the arm, another by the +knees, and that you must back out, unless you are willing to part +with your clothes first, and your flesh afterwards. You back out, +and find that you have walked into the tips--luckily only into the +tips--of the fern-like fronds of a trailing and climbing palm such +as you see in the Botanic Gardens. That came from the East, and +furnishes the rattan-canes. This {138a} furnishes the gri-gri- +canes, and is rather worse to meet, if possible, than the rattan. +Your companion, while he helps you to pick the barbs out, calls the +palm laughingly by another name, 'Suelta-mi-Ingles'; and tells you +the old story of the Spanish soldier at San Josef. You are near the +water now; for here is a thicket of Balisiers. {138b} Push through, +under their great plantain-like leaves. Slip down the muddy bank to +that patch of gravel. See first, though, that it is not tenanted +already by a deadly Mapepire, or rattlesnake, which has not the +grace, as his cousin in North America has, to use his rattle. + +The brooklet, muddy with last night's rain, is dammed and bridged by +winding roots, in shape like the jointed wooden snakes which we used +to play with as children. They belong probably to a fig, whose +trunk is somewhere up in the green cloud. Sit down on one, and +look, around and aloft. From the soil to the sky, which peeps +through here and there, the air is packed with green leaves of every +imaginable hue and shape. Round our feet are Arums, {138c} with +snow-white spadixes and hoods, one instance among many here of +brilliant colour developing itself in deep shade. But is the +darkness of the forest actually as great as it seems? Or are our +eyes, accustomed to the blaze outside, unable to expand rapidly +enough, and so liable to mistake for darkness air really full of +light reflected downward, again and again, at every angle, from the +glossy surfaces of a million leaves? At least we may be excused; +for a bat has made the same mistake, and flits past us at noonday. +And there is another--No; as it turns, a blaze of metallic azure off +the upper side of the wings proves this one to be no bat, but a +Morpho--a moth as big as a bat. And what was that second larger +flash of golden green, which dashed at the moth, and back to yonder +branch not ten feet off? A Jacamar {138d}--kingfisher, as they +miscall her here, sitting fearless of man, with the moth in her long +beak. Her throat is snowy white, her under-parts rich red brown. +Her breast, and all her upper plumage and long tail, glitter with +golden green. There is light enough in this darkness, it seems. +But now a look again at the plants. Among the white-flowered Arums +are other Arums, stalked and spotted, of which beware; for they are +the poisonous Seguine-diable, {139a} the dumb-cane, of which evil +tales were told in the days of slavery. A few drops of its milk, +put into the mouth of a refractory slave, or again into the food of +a cruel master, could cause swelling, choking, and burning agony for +many hours. + +Over our heads bend the great arrow leaves and purple leafstalks of +the Tanias; {139b} and mingled with them, leaves often larger still: +oval, glossy, bright, ribbed, reflecting from their underside a +silver light. They belong to Arumas; {139c} and from their ribs are +woven the Indian baskets and packs. Above these, again, the +Balisiers bend their long leaves, eight or ten feet long apiece; and +under the shade of the leaves their gay flower-spikes, like double +rows of orange and black birds' beaks upside down. Above them, and +among them, rise stiff upright shrubs, with pairs of pointed leaves, +a foot long some of them, pale green above, and yellow or fawn- +coloured beneath. You may see, by the three longitudinal nerves in +each leaf, that they are Melastomas of different kinds--a sure token +they that you are in the Tropics--a probable token that you are in +Tropical America. + +And over them, and among them, what a strange variety of foliage: +look at the contrast between the Balisiers and that branch which has +thrust itself among them, which you take for a dark copper-coloured +fern, so finely divided are its glossy leaves. It is really a +Mimosa--Bois Mulatre, {139d} as they call it here. What a contrast +again, the huge feathery fronds of the Cocorite palms which stretch +right away hither over our heads, twenty and thirty feet in length. +And what is that spot of crimson flame hanging in the darkest spot +of all from an under-bough of that low weeping tree? A flower-head +of the Rosa del Monte. {139e} And what is that bright straw- +coloured fox's brush above it, with a brown hood like that of an +Arum, brush and hood nigh three feet long each? Look--for you +require to look more than once, sometimes more than twice--here, up +the stem of that Cocorite, or as much of it as you can see in the +thicket. It is all jagged with the brown butts of its old fallen +leaves; and among the butts perch broad-leaved ferns, and fleshy +Orchids, and above them, just below the plume of mighty fronds, the +yellow fox's brush, which is its spathe of flower. + +What next? Above the Cocorites dangle, amid a dozen different kinds +of leaves, festoons of a liane, or of two, for one has purple +flowers, the other yellow--Bignonias, Bauhinias--what not? And +through them a Carat {140a} palm has thrust its thin bending stem, +and spread out its flat head of fan-shaped leaves twenty feet long +each: while over it, I verily believe, hangs eighty feet aloft the +head of the very tree upon whose roots we are sitting. For amid the +green cloud you may see sprigs of leaf somewhat like that of a +weeping willow; {140b} and there, probably, is the trunk to which +they belong, or rather what will be a trunk at last. At present it +is like a number of round-edged boards of every size, set on end, +and slowly coalescing at their edges. There is a slit down the +middle of the trunk, twenty or thirty feet long. You may see the +green light of the forest shining through it. Yes. That is +probably the fig; or, if not, then something else. For who am I, +that I should know the hundredth part of the forms on which we +look?--And above all you catch a glimpse of that crimson mass of +Norantea which we admired just now; and, black as yew against the +blue sky and white cloud, the plumes of one Palmiste, who has +climbed toward the light, it may be for centuries, through the green +cloud; and now, weary and yet triumphant, rests her dark head among +the bright foliage of a Ceiba, and feeds unhindered on the sun. + +There, take your tired eyes down again; and turn them right, or +left, or where you will, to see the same scene, and yet never the +same. New forms, new combinations; a wealth of creative Genius--let +us use the wise old word in its true sense--incomprehensible by the +human intellect or the human eye, even as He is who makes it all, +Whose garment, or rather Whose speech, it is. The eye is not filled +with seeing, or the ear with hearing; and never would be, did you +roam these forests for a hundred years. How many years would you +need merely to examine and discriminate the different species? And +when you had done that, how many more to learn their action and +reaction on each other? How many more to learn their virtues, +properties, uses? How many more to answer the perhaps ever +unanswerable question--How they exist and grow at all? By what +miracle they are compacted out of light, air, and water, each after +its kind? How, again, those kinds began to be, and what they were +like at first? Whether those crowded, struggling, competing shapes +are stable or variable? Whether or not they are varying still? +Whether even now, as we sit here, the great God may not be creating, +slowly but surely, new forms of beauty round us? Why not? If He +chose to do it, could He not do it? And even had you answered that +question, which would require whole centuries of observation as +patient and accurate as that which Mr. Darwin employed on Orchids +and climbing plants, how much nearer would you be to the deepest +question of all--Do these things exist, or only appear? Are they +solid realities, or a mere phantasmagoria, orderly indeed, and law- +ruled, but a phantasmagoria still; a picture-book by which God +speaks to rational essences, created in His own likeness? And even +had you solved that old problem, and decided for Berkeley or against +him, you would still have to learn from these forests a knowledge +which enters into man, not through the head, but through the heart; +which (let some modern philosophers say what they will) defies all +analysis, and can be no more defined or explained by words than a +mother's love. I mean, the causes and the effects of their beauty; +that 'AEsthetic of plants,' of which Schleiden has spoken so well in +that charming book of his, The Plant, which all should read who wish +to know somewhat of 'The Open Secret.' + +But when they read it, let them read with open hearts. For that +same 'Open Secret' is, I suspect, one of those which God may hide +from the wise and prudent, and yet reveal to babes. + +At least, so it seemed to me, the first day that I went, awe struck, +into the High Woods; and so it seemed to me, the last day that I +came, even more awe-struck, out of them. + + + +CHAPTER VIII: LA BREA + + + +We were, of course, desirous to visit that famous Lake of Pitch, +which our old nursery literature described as one of the 'Wonders of +the World.' It is not that; it is merely a very odd, quaint, +unexpected, and only half-explained phenomenon: but no wonder. +That epithet should be kept for such matters as the growth of a +crystal, the formation of a cell, the germination of a seed, the +coming true of a plant, whether from a fruit or from a cutting: in +a word, for any and all those hourly and momentary miracles which +were attributed of old to some Vis Formatrix of nature; and are now +attributed to some other abstract formula, as they will be to some +fresh one, and to a dozen more, before the century is out; because +the more accurately and deeply they are investigated, the more +inexplicable they will be found. + +So it is; but the 'public' are not inclined to believe that so it +is, and will not see, till their minds get somewhat of a truly +scientific training. + +If any average educated person were asked--Which seemed to him more +wonderful, that a hen's egg should always produce a chicken, or that +it should now and then produce a sparrow or a duckling?--can it be +doubted what answer he would give? or that it would be the wrong +answer? What answer, again, would he make to the question--Which is +more wonderful, that dwarfs and giants (i.e. people under four feet +six or over six feet six) should be exceedingly rare, or that the +human race is not of all possible heights from three inches to +thirty feet? Can it be doubted that in this case, as in the last, +the wrong answer would be given? He would defend himself, probably, +if he had a smattering of science, by saying that experience teaches +us that Nature works by 'invariable laws'; by which he would mean, +usually unbroken customs; and that he has, therefore, a right to be +astonished if they are broken. But he would be wrong. The just +cause of astonishment is, that the laws are, on the whole, +invariable; that the customs are so seldom broken; that sun and +moon, plants and animals, grains of dust and vesicles of vapour, are +not perpetually committing some vagary or other, and making as great +fools of themselves as human beings are wont to do. Happily for the +existence of the universe, they do not. But how, and still more +why, things in general behave so respectably and loyally, is a +wonder which is either utterly inexplicable, or explicable, I hold, +only on the old theory that they obey Some One--whom we obey to a +very limited extent indeed. Not that this latter theory gets rid of +the perpetual and omnipresent element of wondrousness. If matter +alone exists, it is a wonder and a mystery how it obeys itself. If +A Spirit exists, it is a wonder and a mystery how He makes matter +obey Him. All that the scientific man can do is, to confess the +presence of mystery all day long; and to live in that wholesome and +calm attitude of wonder which we call awe and reverence; that so he +may be delivered from the unwholesome and passionate fits of wonder +which we call astonishment, the child of ignorance and fear, and the +parent of rashness and superstition. So will he keep his mind in +the attitude most fit for seizing new facts, whenever they are +presented to him. So he will be able, when he doubts of a new fact, +to examine himself whether he doubts it on just grounds; whether his +doubt may not proceed from mere self-conceit, because the fact does +not suit his preconceived theories; whether it may not proceed from +an even lower passion, which he shares (being human) with the most +uneducated; namely, from dread of the two great bogies, Novelty and +Size--novelty, which makes it hard to convince the country fellow +that in the Tropics great flowers grow on tall trees, as they do +here on herbs; size, which makes it hard to convince him that in far +lands trees are often two and three hundred feet high, simply +because he has never seen one here a hundred feet high. It is not +surprising, but saddening, to watch what power these two phantoms +have over the minds of those who would be angry if they were +supposed to be uneducated. How often has one heard the existence of +the sea-serpent declared impossible and absurd, on these very +grounds, by people who thought they were arguing scientifically: +the sea-serpent could not exist, firstly because--because it was so +odd, strange, new, in a word, and unlike anything that they had ever +seen or fancied; and, secondly, because it was so big. The first +argument would apply to a thousand new facts, which physical science +is daily proving to be true; and the second, when the reputed size +of the sea-serpent is compared with the known size of the ocean, +rather more silly than the assertion that a ten-pound pike could not +live in a half-acre pond, because it was too small to hold him. The +true arguments against the existence of a sea-serpent, namely, that +no Ophidian could live long under water, and that therefore the sea- +serpent, if he existed, would be seen continually at the surface; +and again, that the appearance taken for a sea-serpent has been +proved, again and again, to be merely a long line of rolling +porpoises--these really sound arguments would be nothing to such +people, or only be accepted as supplementing and corroborating their +dislike to believe in anything new, or anything a little bigger than +usual. + +But so works the average, i.e. the uneducated and barbaric +intellect, afraid of the New and the Big, whether in space or in +time. How the fear of those two phantoms has hindered our knowledge +of this planet, the geologist knows only too well. + +It was excusable, therefore, that this Pitch Lake should be counted +among the wonders of the world; for it is, certainly, tolerably big. +It covers ninety-nine acres, and contains millions of tons of so- +called pitch. + +Its first discoverers, of course, were not bound to see that a pitch +lake of ninety-nine acres was no more wonderful than any of the +little pitch wells--'spues' or 'galls,' as we should call them in +Hampshire--a yard across; or any one of the tiny veins and lumps of +pitch which abound in the surrounding forests; and no less wonderful +than if it had covered ninety-nine thousand acres instead of ninety- +nine. Moreover, it was a novelty. People were not aware of the +vast quantity of similar deposits which exist up and down the hotter +regions of the globe. And being new and big too, its genesis +demanded, for the comfort of the barbaric intellect, a cataclysm, +and a convulsion, and some sort of prodigious birth, which was till +lately referred, like many another strange object, to volcanic +action. The explanation savoured somewhat of a 'bull'; for what a +volcano could do to pitch, save to burn it up into coke and gases, +it is difficult to see. + +It now turns out that the Pitch Lake, like most other things, owes +its appearance on the surface to no convulsion or vagary at all, but +to a most slow, orderly, and respectable process of nature, by which +buried vegetable matter, which would have become peat, and finally +brown coal, in a temperate climate, becomes, under the hot tropic +soil, asphalt and oil, continually oozing up beneath the pressure of +the strata above it. Such, at least, is the opinion of Messrs. Wall +and Sawkins, the geological surveyors of Trinidad, and of several +chemists whom they quote; and I am bound to say, that all I saw at +the lake and elsewhere, during two separate visits, can be easily +explained on their hypothesis, and that no other possible cause +suggests itself as yet. The same cause, it may be, has produced the +submarine spring of petroleum, off the shore near Point Rouge, where +men can at times skim the floating oil off the surface of the sea; +the petroleum and asphalt of the Windward Islands and of Cuba, +especially the well-known Barbadoes tar; and the petroleum springs +of the mainland, described by Humboldt, at Truxillo, in the Gulf of +Cumana; and 'the inexhaustible deposits of mineral pitch in the +provinces of Merida and Coro, and, above all, in that of Maracaybo. +In the latter it is employed for caulking the ships which navigate +the lake.' {145} But the reader shall hear what the famous lake is +like, and judge for himself. Why not? He may not be 'scientific,' +but, as Professor Huxley well says, what is scientific thought but +common sense well regulated? + +Running down, then, by steamer, some thirty-six miles south from +Port of Spain, along a flat mangrove shore, broken only at one spot +by the conical hill of San Fernando, we arrived off a peninsula, +whose flat top is somewhat higher than the lowland right and left. +The uplands are rich with primeval forest, and perhaps always have +been. The lower land, right and left, was, I believe, cultivated +for sugar, till the disastrous epoch of 1846: but it is now furred +over with rastrajo woods. + +We ran, on our first visit, past the pitch point of La Brea, south- +westward to Trois, where an industrial farm for convicts had been +established by my host the Governor. We were lifted on shore +through a tumbling surf; and welcomed by an intelligent and +courteous German gentleman, who showed us all that was to be seen; +and what we saw was satisfactory enough. The estate was paying, +though this was only its third year. An average number of 77 +convicts had already cleared 195 acres, of which 182 were under +cultivation. Part of this had just been reclaimed from pestilential +swamp: a permanent benefit to the health of the island. In spite +of the exceptional drought of the year before, and the subsequent +plague of caterpillars, 83,000 pounds of rice had been grown; and +the success of the rice crop, it must be remembered, will become +more and more important to the island, as the increase of Coolie +labourers increases the demand for the grain. More than half the +plantains put in (22,000) were growing, and other vegetables in +abundance. But, above all, there were more than 7000 young coco- +palms doing well, and promising a perpetual source of wealth for the +future. For as the trees grow, and the crops raised between them +diminish, the coco-palms will require little or no care, but yield +fruit the whole year round without further expense; and the +establishment can then be removed elsewhere, to reclaim a fresh +sheet of land. + +Altogether, the place was a satisfactory specimen of what can be +effected in a tropical country by a Government which will govern. +Since then, another source of profitable employment for West Indian +convicts has been suggested to me. Bamboo, it is now found, will +supply an admirable material for paper; and I have been assured by +paper-makers that those who will plant the West Indian wet lands +with bamboo for their use, may realise enormous profits. + +We scrambled back into the boat--had, of course, a heap of fruit, +bananas, oranges, pine-apples, tossed in after us--and ran back +again in the steamer to the famous La Brea. + +As we neared the shore, we perceived that the beach was black as +pitch; and the breeze being off the land, the asphalt smell (not +unpleasant) came off to welcome us. We rowed in, and saw in front +of a little row of wooden houses a tall mulatto, in blue policeman's +dress, gesticulating and shouting to us. He was the ward-policeman, +and I found him (as I did all the coloured police) able and +courteous, shrewd and trusty. These police are excellent specimens +of what can be made of the Negro, or half-Negro, if he be but first +drilled, and then given a responsibility which calls out his self- +respect. He was warning our crew not to run aground on one or other +of the pitch reefs, which here take the place of rocks. A large +one, a hundred yards off on the left, has been almost all dug away, +and carried to New York or to Paris to make asphalt pavement. The +boat was run ashore, under his directions, on a spit of sand between +the pitch; and when she ceased bumping up and down in the muddy +surf, we scrambled out into a world exactly the hue of its +inhabitants--of every shade, from jet-black to copper-brown. The +pebbles on the shore were pitch. A tide-pool close by was enclosed +in pitch: a four-eyes was swimming about in it, staring up at us; +and when we hunted him, tried to escape, not by diving, but by +jumping on shore on the pitch, and scrambling off between our legs. +While the policeman, after profoundest courtesies, was gone to get a +mule cart to take us up to the lake, and planks to bridge its water- +channels, we took a look round at this oddest of corners of the +earth. + +In front of us was the unit of civilisation--the police-station, +wooden, on wooden stilts (as all well-built houses are here), to +ensure a draught of air beneath them. We were, of course, asked to +come in and sit down, but preferred looking about, under our +umbrellas; for the heat was intense. The soil is half pitch, half +brown earth, among which the pitch sweals in and out, as tallow +sweals from a candle. It is always in slow motion under the heat of +the tropic sun: and no wonder if some of the cottages have sunk +right and left in such a treacherous foundation. A stone or brick +house could not stand here: but wood and palm-thatch are both light +and tough enough to be safe, let the ground give way as it will. + +The soil, however, is very rich. The pitch certainly does not +injure vegetation, though plants will not grow actually in it. The +first plants which caught our eyes were pine-apples; for which La +Brea is famous. The heat of the soil, as well as of the air, brings +them to special perfection. They grow about anywhere, unprotected +by hedge or fence; for the Negroes here seem honest enough, at least +towards each other. And at the corner of the house was a bush worth +looking at, for we had heard of it for many a year. It bore +prickly, heart-shaped pods an inch long, filled with seeds coated +with a red waxy pulp. + +This was a famous plant--Bixa Orellana, Roucou; and that pulp was +the well-known Arnotta dye of commerce. In England and Holland it +is used merely, I believe, to colour cheeses; but in the Spanish +Main, to colour human beings. The Indian of the Orinoco prefers +paint to clothes; and when he has 'roucoued' himself from head to +foot, considers himself in full dress, whether for war or dancing. +Doubtless he knows his own business best from long experience. +Indeed, as we stood broiling on the shore, we began somewhat to +regret that European manners and customs prevented our adopting the +Guaraon and Arawak fashion. + +The mule-cart arrived; the lady of the party was put into it on a +chair, and slowly bumped and rattled past the corner of Dundonald +Street--so named after the old sea-hero, who was, in his lifetime, +full of projects for utilising this same pitch--and up a pitch road, +with a pitch gutter on each side. + +The pitch in the road has been, most of it, laid down by hand, and +is slowly working down the slight incline, leaving pools and ruts +full of water, often invisible, because covered with a film of brown +pitch-dust, and so letting in the unwary walker over his shoes. The +pitch in the gutter-bank is in its native place, and as it spues +slowly out of the soil into the ditch in odd wreaths and lumps, we +could watch, in little, the process which has produced the whole +deposit--probably the whole lake itself. + +A bullock-cart, laden with pitch, came jolting down past us; and we +observed that the lumps, when the fracture is fresh, have all a +drawn-out look; that the very air-bubbles in them, which are often +very numerous, are all drawn out likewise, long and oval, like the +air-bubbles in some ductile lavas. + +On our left, as we went on, the bush was low, all of yellow Cassia +and white Hibiscus, and tangled with lovely convolvulus-like +creepers, Ipomoea and Echites, with white, purple, or yellow +flowers. On the right were negro huts and gardens, fewer and fewer +as we went on--all rich with fruit-trees, especially with oranges, +hung with fruit of every hue; and beneath them, of course, the pine- +apples of La Brea. Everywhere along the road grew, seemingly wild +here, that pretty low tree, the Cashew, with rounded yellow-veined +leaves and little green flowers, followed by a quaint pink and red- +striped pear, from which hangs, at the larger and lower end, a +kidney-shaped bean, which bold folk eat when roasted: but woe to +those who try it when raw, for the acrid oil blisters the lips; and +even while the beans are roasting, the fumes of the oil will blister +the cook's face if she holds it too near the fire. + +As we went onward up the gentle slope (the rise is one hundred and +thirty-eight feet in rather more than a mile), the ground became +more and more full of pitch, and the vegetation poorer and more +rushy, till it resembled, on the whole, that of an English fen. An +Ipomoea or two, and a scarlet-flowered dwarf Heliconia, kept up the +tropic type, as does a stiff brittle fern about two feet high. +{148a} We picked the weeds, which looked like English mint or +basil, and found that most of them had three longitudinal nerves in +each leaf, and were really Melastomas, though dwarfed into a far +meaner habit than that of the noble forms we saw at Chaguanas, and +again on the other side of the lake. On the right, too, in a +hollow, was a whole wood of Groo-groo palms, gray stemmed, gray +leaved; and here and there a patch of white or black Roseau rose +gracefully eight or ten feet high among the reeds. + +The plateau of pitch now widened out, and the whole ground looked +like an asphalt pavement, half overgrown with marsh-loving weeds, +whose roots feed in the sloppy water which overlies the pitch. But, +as yet, there was no sign of the lake. The incline, though gentle, +shuts off the view of what is beyond. This last lip of the lake has +surely overflowed, and is overflowing still, though very slowly. +Its furrows all curve downward; and it is, in fact, as one of our +party said, 'a black glacier.' The pitch, expanding under the +burning sun of day, must needs expand most towards the line of least +resistance, that is, downhill; and when it contracts again under the +coolness of night, it contracts, surely from the same cause, more +downhill than it does uphill; and so each particle never returns to +the spot whence it started, but rather drags the particles above it +downward toward itself. At least, so it seemed to us. Thus may be +explained the common mistake which is noticed by Messrs. Wall and +Sawkins {148b} in their admirable description of the lake. + +'All previous descriptions refer the bituminous matter scattered +over the La Brea district, and especially that between the village +and the lake, to streams which have issued at some former epoch from +the lake, and extended into the sea. This supposition is totally +incorrect, as solidification would have probably ensued before it +had proceeded one-tenth of the distance; and such of the asphalt as +has undoubtedly escaped from the lake has not advanced more than a +few yards, and always presents the curved surfaces already +described, and never appears as an extended sheet.' + +Agreeing with this statement as a whole, I nevertheless cannot but +think it probable that a great deal of the asphalt, whether it be in +large masses or in scattered veins, may be moving very slowly +downhill, from the lake to the sea, by the process of expansion by +day, and contraction by night; and may be likened to a caterpillar, +or rather caterpillars innumerable, progressing by expanding and +contracting their rings, having strength enough to crawl downhill, +but not strength enough to back uphill again. + +At last we surmounted the last rise, and before us lay the famous +lake--not at the bottom of a depression, as we expected, but at the +top of a rise, whence the ground slopes away from it on two sides, +and rises from it very slightly on the two others. The black pool +glared and glittered in the sun. A group of islands, some twenty +yards wide, were scattered about the middle of it. Beyond it rose a +noble forest of Moriche fan-palms; {149} and to the right of them +high wood with giant Mombins and undergrowth of Cocorite--a paradise +on the other side of the Stygian pool. + +We walked, with some misgivings, on to the asphalt, and found it +perfectly hard. In a few yards we were stopped by a channel of +clear water, with tiny fish and water-beetles in it; and, looking +round, saw that the whole lake was intersected with channels, so +unlike anything which can be seen elsewhere, that it is not easy to +describe them. + +Conceive a crowd of mushrooms, of all shapes, from ten to fifty feet +across, close together side by side, their tops being kept at +exactly the same level, their rounded rims squeezed tight against +each other; then conceive water poured on them so as to fill the +parting seams, and in the wet season, during which we visited it, to +overflow the tops somewhat. Thus would each mushroom represent, +tolerably well, one of the innumerable flat asphalt bosses, which +seem to have sprung up each from a separate centre, while the +parting seams would be of much the same shape as those in the +asphalt, broad and shallow atop, and rolling downward in a smooth +curve, till they are at bottom mere cracks, from two to ten feet +deep. Whether these cracks actually close up below, and the two +contiguous masses of pitch become one, cannot be seen. As far as +the eye goes down, they are two, though pressed close to each other. +Messrs. Wall and Sawkins explain the odd fact clearly and simply. +The oil, they say, which the asphalt contains when it rises first, +evaporates in the sun, of course most on the outside of the heap, +leaving a tough coat of asphalt, which has, generally, no power to +unite with the corresponding coat of the next mass. Meanwhile, Mr. +Manross, an American gentleman, who has written a very clever and +interesting account of the lake, {150} seems to have been so far +deceived by the curved and squeezed edges of these masses, that he +attributes to each of them a revolving motion, and supposes that the +material is continually passing from the centre to the edges, when +it 'rolls under,' and rises again in the middle. Certainly the +strange stuff looks, at the first glance, as if it were behaving in +this way; and certainly, also, his theory would explain the +appearance of sticks and logs in the pitch. But Messrs. Wall and +Sawkins say that they observed no such motion; nor did we: and I +agree with them, that it is not very obvious to what force, or what +influence, it could be attributable. We must, therefore, seek for +some other way of accounting for the sticks--which utterly puzzled +us, and which Mr. Manross well describes as 'numerous pieces of wood +which, being involved in the pitch, are constantly coming to the +surface. They are often several feet in length, and five or six +inches in diameter. On caching the surface they generally assume an +upright position, one end being detained in the pitch, while the +other is elevated by the lifting of the middle. They may be seen at +frequent intervals over the lake, standing up to the height of two +or even three feet. They look like stumps of trees protruding +through the pitch; but their parvenu character is curiously betrayed +by a ragged cap of pitch which invariably covers the top, and hangs +down like hounds' ears on either side.' + +Whence do they come? Have they been blown on to the lake, or left +behind by man? or are they fossil trees, integral parts of the +vegetable stratum below which is continually rolling upward? or are +they of both kinds? I do not know. Only this is certain, as +Messrs. Wall and Sawkins have pointed out, that not only 'the purer +varieties of asphalt, such as approach or are identical with asphalt +glance, have been observed' (though not, I think, in the lake +itself) 'in isolated masses, where there was little doubt of their +proceeding from ligneous substances of larger dimensions, such as +roots and pieces of trunks and branches;' but moreover, that 'it is +also necessary to admit a species of conversion by contact; since +pieces of wood included accidentally in the asphalt, for example, by +dropping from overhanging vegetation, are often found partially +transformed into the material.' This is a statement which we +verified again and again; as we did the one which follows, namely, +that the hollow bubbles which abound on the surface of the pitch +'generally contain traces of the lighter portions of vegetation,' +and 'are manifestly derived from leaves, etc., which are blown about +the lake by the wind, and are covered with asphalt, and as they +become asphalt themselves, give off gases, which form bubbles round +them.' + +But how is it that those logs stand up out of the asphalt, with +asphalt caps and hounds' ears (as Mr. Manross well phrases it) on +the tops of them? + +We pushed on across the lake, over the planks which the Negroes laid +down from island to island. Some, meanwhile, preferred a steeple- +chase with water-jumps, after the fashion of the midshipmen on a +certain second visit to the lake. How the Negroes grinned delight +and surprise at the vagaries of English lads--a species of animal +altogether new to them. And how they grinned still more when +certain staid and portly dignitaries caught the infection, and +proved, by more than one good leap, that they too had been English +schoolboys--alas! long, long ago. + +So, whether by bridging, leaping, or wading, we arrived at last at +the little islands, and found them covered with a thick, low scrub; +deep sedge, and among them Pinguins, like huge pine-apples without +the apple; gray wild Pines--parasites on Matapalos, which of course +have established themselves, like robbers and vagrants as they are, +everywhere; a true Holly, with box-like leaves; and a rare Cocoa- +plum, {152} very like the holly in habit, which seems to be all but +confined to these little patches of red earth, afloat on the pitch. +Out of the scrub, when we were there, flew off two or three night- +jars, very like our English species, save that they had white in the +wings; and on the second visit, one of the midshipmen, true to the +English boy's birds'-nesting instinct, found one of their eggs, +white-spotted, in a grass nest. + +Passing these little islands, which are said (I know not how truly) +to change their places and number, we came to the very fountains of +Styx, to that part of the lake where the asphalt is still oozing up. + +As the wind set toward us, we soon became aware of an evil smell-- +petroleum and sulphuretted hydrogen at once--which gave some of us a +headache. The pitch here is yellow and white with sulphur foam; so +are the water-channels; and out of both water and pitch innumerable +bubbles of gas arise, loathsome to the smell. We became aware also +that the pitch was soft under our feet. We left the impression of +our boots; and if we had stood still awhile, we should soon have +been ankle-deep. No doubt there are spots where, if a man stayed +long enough, he would be slowly and horribly engulfed. 'But,' as +Mr. Manross says truly, 'in no place is it possible to form those +bowl-like depressions round the observer described by former +travellers.' What we did see is, that the fresh pitch oozes out at +the lines of least resistance, namely, in the channels between the +older and more hardened masses, usually at the upper ends of them; +so that one may stand on pitch comparatively hard, and put one's +hand into pitch quite liquid, which is flowing softly out, like some +ugly fungoid growth, such as may be seen in old wine-cellars, into +the water. One such pitch-fungus had grown several yards in length +in the three weeks between our first and second visit; and on +another, some of our party performed exactly the same feat as Mr. +Manross-- + +'In one of the star-shaped pools of water, some five feet deep, a +column of pitch had been forced perpendicularly up from the bottom. +On reaching the surface of the water it had formed a sort of centre +table, about four feet in diameter, but without touching the sides +of the pool. The stem was about a foot in diameter. I leaped out +on this table, and found that it not only sustained my weight, but +that the elasticity of the stem enabled me to rock it from side to +side. Pieces torn from the edges of this table sank readily, +showing that it had been raised by pressure, and not by its +buoyancy.' + +True, though strange: but stranger still did it seem to us, when we +did at last what the Negroes asked us, and dipped our hands into the +liquid pitch, to find that it did not soil the fingers. The old +proverb, that one cannot touch pitch without being defiled, happily +does not stand true here, or the place would be intolerably +loathsome. It can be scraped up, moulded into any shape you will; +wound in a string (as was done by one of the midshipmen) round a +stick, and carried off: but nothing is left on the hand save clean +gray mud and water. It may be kneaded for an hour before the mud be +sufficiently driven out of it to make it sticky. This very +abundance of earthy matter it is which, while it keeps the pitch +from soiling, makes it far less valuable than it would be were it +pure. + +It is easy to understand whence this earthy matter (twenty or thirty +per cent) comes. Throughout the neighbourhood the ground is full, +to the depth of hundreds of feet, of coaly and asphaltic matter. +Layers of sandstone or of shale containing this decayed vegetable, +alternate with layers which contain none. And if, as seems +probable, the coaly matter is continually changing into asphalt and +oil, and then working its way upward through every crack and pore, +to escape from the enormous pressure of the superincumbent soil, it +must needs carry up with it innumerable particles of the soils +through which it passes. + +In five minutes we had seen, handled, and smelt enough to satisfy us +with this very odd and very nasty vagary of tropic nature; and as we +did not wish to become faint and ill, between the sulphuretted +hydrogen and the blaze of the sun reflected off the hot black pitch, +we hurried on over the water-furrows, and through the sedge-beds to +the farther shore--to find ourselves in a single step out of an +Inferno into a Paradiso. + +We looked back at the foul place, and agreed that it is well for the +human mind that the Pitch Lake was still unknown when Dante wrote +that hideous poem of his--the opprobrium (as I hold) of the Middle +Age. For if such were the dreams of its noblest and purest genius, +what must have been the dreams of the ignoble and impure multitude? +But had he seen this lake, how easy, how tempting too, it would have +been to him to embody in imagery the surmise of a certain 'Father,' +and heighten the torments of the lost beings, sinking slowly into +that black Bolge beneath the baking rays of the tropic sun, by the +sight of the saved, walking where we walked, beneath cool fragrant +shade, among the pillars of a temple to which the Parthenon is mean +and small. + +Sixty feet and more aloft, the short smooth columns of the Moriches +{154} towered around us, till, as we looked through the 'pillared +shade,' the eye was lost in the green abysses of the forest. +Overhead, their great fan leaves form a groined roof, compared with +which that of St. Mary Redcliff, or even of King's College, is as +clumsy as all man's works are beside the works of God; and beyond +the Moriche wood, ostrich plumes packed close round madder-brown +stems, formed a wall to our temple, which bore such tracery, +carving, painting, as would have stricken dumb with awe and delight +him who ornamented the Loggie of the Vatican. True, all is 'still- +life' here: no human forms, hardly even that of a bird, is mixed +with the vegetable arabesques. A higher state of civilisation, ages +after we are dead, may introduce them, and complete the scene by +peopling it with a race worthy of it. But the Creator, at least, +has done His part toward producing perfect beauty, all the more +beautiful from its contrast with the ugliness outside. For the want +of human beings fit for all that beauty, man is alone to blame; and +when we saw approach us, as the only priest of such a temple, a wild +brown man, who feeds his hogs on Moriche fruit and Mombin plums, and +whose only object was to sell us an ant-eater's skin, we thought to +ourselves--knowing the sad history of the West Indies--what might +this place have become, during the three hundred and fifty years +which have elapsed since Columbus first sailed round it, had men-- +calling themselves Christian, calling themselves civilised-- +possessed any tincture of real Christianity, of real civilisation? +What a race, of mingled Spaniard and Indian, might have grown up +throughout the West Indies. What a life, what a society, what an +art, what a science it might have developed ere now, equalling, even +surpassing, that of Ionia, Athens, and Sicily, till the famed isles +and coasts of Greece should have been almost forgotten in the new +fame of the isles and coasts of the Caribbean Sea. + +What might not have happened, had men but tried to copy their Father +in heaven? What has happened is but too well known, since, in July +1498, Columbus, coming hither, fancied (and not so wrongly) that he +had come to the 'base of the Earthly Paradise.' + +What might not have been made, with something of justice and mercy, +common sense and humanity, of these gentle Arawaks and Guaraons. +What was made of them, almost ere Columbus was dead, may be judged +from this one story, taken from Las Casas:--{155} + +'There was a certain man named Juan Bono, who was employed by the +members of the Audiencia of St. Domingo to go and obtain Indians. +He and his men, to the number of fifty or sixty, landed on the +Island of Trinidad. Now the Indians of Trinidad were a mild, +loving, credulous race, the enemies of the Caribs, who ate human +flesh. On Juan Bono's landing, the Indians, armed with bows and +arrows, went to meet the Spaniards, and to ask them who they were, +and what they wanted. Juan Bono replied, that his crew were good +and peaceful people, who had come to live with the Indians; upon +which, as the commencement of good fellowship, the natives offered +to build houses for the Spaniards. The Spanish captain expressed a +wish to have one large house built. The accommodating Indians set +about building it. It was to be in the form of a bell, and to be +large enough for a hundred persons to live in. On any great +occasion it would hold many more. Every day, while this house was +being built, the Spaniards were fed with fish, bread, and fruit by +their good-natured hosts. Juan Bono was very anxious to see the +roof on, and the Indians continued to work at the building with +alacrity. At last it was completed, being two storeys high, and so +constructed that those within could not see those without. Upon a +certain day, Juan Bono collected the Indians together--men, women, +and children--in the building, "to see," as he told them, "what was +to be done." + +'Whether they thought they were coming to some festival, or that +they were to do something more for the great house, does not appear. +However, there they all were, four hundred of them, looking with +much delight at their own handiwork. Meanwhile, Juan Bono brought +his men round the building, with drawn swords in their hands; then, +having thoroughly entrapped his Indian friends, he entered with a +party of armed men and bade the Indians keep still, or he would kill +them. They did not listen to him, but rushed to the door. A +horrible massacre ensued. Some of the Indians forced their way out; +but many of them, stupefied at what they saw, and losing heart, were +captured and bound. A hundred, however, escaped, and snatching up +their arms, assembled in one of their own houses, and prepared to +defend themselves. Juan Bono summoned them to surrender: they +would not hear of it; and then, as Las Casas says, "he resolved to +pay them completely for the hospitality and kind treatment he had +received," and so, setting fire to the house, the whole hundred men, +together with some women and children, were burnt alive. The +Spanish captain and his men retired to the ships with their +captives; and his vessel happening to touch at Porto Rico, when the +Jeronimite Fathers were there, gave occasion to Las Casas to +complain of this proceeding to the Fathers, who, however, did +nothing in the way of remedy or punishment. The reader will be +surprised to hear the Clerigo's authority for this deplorable +narrative. It is Juan Bono himself. "From his own mouth I heard +that which I write." Juan Bono acknowledged that never in his life +had he met with the kindness of father or mother but in the island +of Trinidad. "Well, then, man of perdition, why did you reward them +with such ungrateful wickedness and cruelty?"--"On my faith, padre, +because they (he meant the Auditors) gave me for destruction (he +meant instruction) to take them in peace, if I could not by war."' + +Such was the fate of the poor gentle folk who for unknown ages had +swung their hammocks to the stems of these Moriches, spinning the +skin of the young leaves into twine, and making sago from the pith, +and thin wine from the sap and fruit, while they warned their +children not to touch the nests of the humming-birds, which even +till lately swarmed around the lake. For--so the Indian story ran-- +once on a time a tribe of Chaymas built their palm-leaf ajoupas upon +the very spot where the lake now lies, and lived a merry life. The +sea swarmed with shellfish and turtle, and the land with pine- +apples; the springs were haunted by countless flocks of flamingoes +and horned screamers, pajuis and blue ramiers; and, above all, by +humming-birds. But the foolish Chaymas were blind to the mystery +and the beauty of the humming-birds, and would not understand how +they were no other than the souls of dead Indians, translated into +living jewels; and so they killed them in wantonness, and angered +'The Good Spirit.' But one morning, when the Guaraons came by, the +Chayma village had sunk deep into the earth, and in its place had +risen this lake of pitch. So runs the tale, told some forty years +since to M. Joseph, author of a clever little history of Trinidad, +by an old half-caste Indian, Senor Trinidada by name, who was said +then to be nigh one hundred years of age. + +Surely the people among whom such a myth could spring up, were +worthy of a nobler fate. Surely there were in them elements of +'sweetness and light,' which might have been cultivated to some fine +fruit, had there been anything like sweetness and light in their +first conquerors--the offscourings, not of Spain and Portugal only, +but of Germany, Italy, and, indeed, almost every country in Europe. +The present Spanish landowners of Trinidad, be it remembered always, +do not derive from those old ruffians, but from noble and ancient +families, who settled in the island during the seventeenth century, +bringing with them a Spanish grace, Spanish simplicity, and Spanish +hospitality, which their descendants have certainly not lost. Were +it my habit to 'put people into books,' I would gladly tell in these +pages of charming days spent in the company of Spanish ladies and +gentlemen. But I shall only hint here at the special affection and +respect with which they--and, indeed, the French Creoles likewise-- +are regarded by Negro and by Indian. + +For there are a few Indians remaining in the northern mountains, and +specially at Arima--simple hamlet-folk, whom you can distinguish, at +a glance, from mulattoes or quadroons, by the tawny complexion, and +by a shape of eye, and length between the eye and the mouth, +difficult to draw, impossible to describe, but discerned instantly +by any one accustomed to observe human features. Many of them, +doubtless, have some touch of Negro blood, and are the offspring of +'Cimarons'--'Maroons,' as they are still called in Jamaica. These +Cimarons were Negroes who, even in the latter half of the sixteenth +century (as may be read in the tragical tale of John Oxenham, given +in Hakluyt's Voyages), had begun to flee from their cruel masters +into the forests, both in the Islands and in the Main. There they +took to themselves Indian wives, who preferred them, it is said, to +men of their own race, and lived a jolly hunter's life, slaying with +tortures every Spaniard who fell into their hands. Such, doubtless, +haunted the northern Cerros of Tocuche, Aripo, and Oropuche, and +left some trace of themselves among the Guaraons. Spanish blood, +too, runs notoriously in the veins of some of the Indians of the +island; and the pure race here is all but vanished. But out of +these three elements has arisen a race of cacao-growing mountaineers +as simple and gentle, as loyal and peaceable, as any in Her +Majesty's dominions. Dignified, courteous, hospitable, according to +their little means, they salute the white Senor without defiance and +without servility, and are delighted if he will sit in their clay +and palm ajoupas, and eat oranges and Malacca apples {157} from +their own trees, on their own freehold land. + +They preserve, too, the old Guaraon arts of weaving baskets and +other utensils, pretty enough, from the strips of the Aruma leaves. +From them the Negro, who will not, or cannot, equal them in +handicraft, buys the pack in which wares are carried on the back, +and the curious strainer in which the Cassava is deprived of its +poisonous juice. So cleverly are the fibres twisted, that when the +strainer is hung up, with a stone weight at the lower end, the +diameter of the strainer decreases as its length increases, and the +juice is squeezed out through the pores to drip into a calabash, +and, nowadays, to be thrown carefully away, lest children or goats +should drink it. Of old, it was kept with care and dried down to a +gum, and used to poison arrows, as it is still used, I believe, on +the Orinoco; now, its poisonous properties are expelled by boiling +it down into Cassaripe, which has a singular power of preserving +meat, and is the foundation of the 'pepperpot' of the colonists. + +And this is all that remains of the once beautiful, deft, and happy +Indians of Trinidad, unless, indeed, some of them, warned by the +fate of the Indians of San Josef and the Northern Mountains, fled +from such tyrants as Juan Bono and Berreo across the Gulf of Paria, +and, rejoining their kinsmen on the mainland, gladly forgot the +sight of that Cross which was to them the emblem, not of salvation, +but of destruction. + +For once a year till of late--I know not whether the thing may be +seen still--a strange phantom used to appear at San Fernando, twenty +miles to the north. Canoes of Indians came mysteriously across the +Gulf of Paria from the vast swamps of the Orinoco; and the naked +folk landed, and went up through the town, after the Naparima ladies +(so runs the tale) had sent down to the shore garments for the +women, which were worn only through the streets, and laid by again +as soon as they entered the forest. Silent, modest, dejected, the +gentle savages used to vanish into the woods by paths known to their +kinsfolk centuries ago--paths which run, wherever possible, along +the vantage-ground of the topmost chines and ridges of the hills. +The smoke of their fires rose out of lonely glens, as they collected +the fruit of trees known only to themselves. In a few weeks their +wild harvest was over; they came back through San Fernando; made, +almost in silence, their little purchases in the town, and paddled +away across the gulf towards the unknown wildernesses from whence +they came. + +And now--as if sent to drive away sad thoughts and vain regrets-- +before our feet lay a jest of Nature's, almost as absurd as a 'four- +eyed fish,' or 'calling-crab.' A rough stick, of the size of your +little finger, lay on the pitch. We watched it a moment, and saw +that it was crawling--that it was a huge Caddis, like those in +English ponds and streams, though of a very different family. They +are the larvae of Phryganeas--this of a true moth. {158} The male +of this moth will come out, as a moth should, and fly about on four +handsome wings. The female will never develop her wings, but remain +to her life's end a crawling grub, like the female of our own +Vapourer moth, and that of our English Glow-worm. But more, she +will never (at least, in some species of this family) leave her silk +and bark case, but live and die, an anchoritess in narrow cell, +leaving behind her more than one puzzle for physiologists. The case +is fitted close to the body of the caterpillar, save at the mouth, +where it hangs loose in two ragged silken curtains. We all looked +at the creature, and it looked at us, with its last two or three +joints and its head thrust out of its house. Suddenly, disgusted at +our importunity, it laid hold of its curtains with two hands, right +and left, like a human being, folded them modestly over its head, +held them tight together, and so retired to bed, amid the +inextinguishable laughter of the whole party. + +The noble Moriche palm delights in wet, at least in Trinidad and on +the lower Orinoco: but Schomburgk describes forests of them--if, +indeed, it be the same species--as growing in the mountains of +Guiana up to an altitude of four thousand feet. The soil in which +they grow here is half pitch pavement, half loose brown earth, and +over both, shallow pools of water, which will become much deeper in +the wet season; and all about float or lie their pretty fruit, the +size of an apple, and scaled like a fir-cone. They are last year's, +empty and decayed. The ripe fruit contains first a rich pulpy nut, +and at last a hard cone, something like that of the vegetable ivory +palm, {159} which grows in the mainland, but not here. Delicious +they are, and precious, to monkeys and parrots, as well as to the +Orinoco Indians, among whom the Tamanacs, according to Humboldt, +say, that when a man and woman survived that great deluge, which the +Mexicans call the age of water, they cast behind them, over their +heads, the fruits of the Moriche palm, as Deucalion and Pyrrha cast +stones, and saw the seeds in them produce men and women, who +repeopled the earth. No wonder, indeed, that certain tribes look on +this tree as sacred, or that the missionaries should have named it +the tree of life. + +'In the season of inundations these clumps of Mauritia, with their +leaves in the form of a fan, have the appearance of a forest rising +from the bosom of the waters. The navigator in proceeding along the +channels of the delta of the Oroonoco at night, sees with surprise +the summit of the palm-trees illumined by large fires. These are +the habitations of the Guaraons (Tivitivas and Waraweties of +Raleigh), which are suspended from the trunks of the trees. These +tribes hang up mats in the air, which they fill with earth, and +kindle on a layer of moist clay the fire necessary for their +household wants. They have owed their liberty and their political +independence for ages to the quaking and swampy soil, which they +pass over in the time of drought, and on which they alone know how +to walk in security to their solitude in the delta of the Oroonoco, +to their abode on the trees, where religious enthusiasm will +probably never lead any American Stylites. . . . The Mauritia palm- +tree, the _tree of life_ of the missionaries, not only affords the +Guaraons a safe dwelling during the risings of the Oroonoco, but its +shelly fruit, its farinaceous pith, its juice, abounding in +saccharine matter, and the fibres of its petioles, furnish them with +food, wine, and thread proper for making cords and weaving hammocks. +These customs of the Indians of the delta of the Oroonoco were found +formerly in the Gulf of Darien (Uraba), and in the greater part of +the inundated lands between the Guerapiche and the mouths of the +Amazon. It is curious to observe in the lowest degree of human +civilisation the existence of a whole tribe depending on one single +species of palm-tree, similar to those insects which feed on one and +the same flower, or on one and the same part of a plant.' {160} + +In a hundred yards more we were on dry ground, and the vegetation +changed at once. The Mauritias stopped short at the edge of the +swamp; and around us towered the smooth stems of giant Mombins, +which the English West Indians call hog-plums, according to the +unfortunate habit of the early settlers of discarding the sonorous +and graceful Indian and Spanish names of plants, and replacing them +by names English, or corruptions of the original, always ugly, and +often silly and vulgar. So the English call yon noble tree a hog- +plum; the botanist (who must, of course, use his world-wide Latin +designation), Spondias lutea; I shall, with the reader's leave, call +it a Mombin, by which name it is, happily, known here, as it was in +the French West Indies in the days of good Pere Labat. Under the +Mombins the undergrowth is, for the most part, huge fans of Cocorite +palm, thirty or forty feet high, their short rugged trunks, as +usual, loaded with creepers, orchids, birds'-nests, and huge round +black lumps, which are the nests of ants; all lodged among the butts +of old leaves and the spathes of old flowers. Here, as at +Chaguanas, grand Cerimans and Seguines scrambled twenty feet up the +Cocorite trunks, delighting us by the luscious life in the fat stem +and fat leaves, and the brilliant, yet tender green, which literally +shone in the darkness of the Cocorite bower; and all, it may be, the +growth of the last six months; for, as was plain from the charred +stems of many Cocorites and Moriches, the fire had swept through the +wood last summer, destroying all that would burn. And at the foot +of the Cocorites, weltering up among and over their roots, was pitch +again; and here and there along the side of the path were pitch +springs, round bosses a yard or two across and a foot or two high, +each with a crater atop a few inches across, filled either with +water or with liquid and oozing pitch; and yet not interfering, as +far as could be seen, with the health of the vegetation which +springs out of it. + +We followed the trace which led downhill, to the shore of the +peninsula farthest from the village. As we proceeded we entered +forest still unburnt, and a tangle of beauty such as we saw at +Chaguanas. There rose, once more, the tall cane-like Manacque +palms, which we christened the forest nymphs. The path was lined, +as there, with the great leaves of the Melastomas, throwing russet +and golden light down from their undersides. Here, as there, Mimosa +leaflets, as fine as fern or sea-weed, shiver in the breeze. A +species of Balisier, which we did not see there, carried crimson and +black parrot beaks with blue seed-vessels; a Canne de Riviere, +{161a} with a stem eight feet high, wreathed round with pale green +leaves in spiral twists, unfolded hooded flowers of thinnest +transparent white wax, with each a blush of pink inside. Bunches of +bright yellow Cassia blossoms dangled close to our heads; white +Ipomoeas scrambled over them again; and broad-leaved sedges, five +feet high, carrying on bright brown flower-heads, like those of our +Wood-rush, blue, black, and white shot for seeds. {161b} Overhead, +sprawled and dangled the common Vine-bamboo, {161c} ugly and +unsatisfactory in form, because it has not yet, seemingly, made up +its mind whether it will become an arborescent or a climbing grass; +and, meanwhile, tries to stand upright on stems quite unable to +support it, and tumbles helplessly into the neighbouring copsewood, +taking every one's arm without asking leave. A few ages hence, its +ablest descendants will probably have made their choice, if they +have constitution enough to survive in the battle of life--which, +from the commonness of the plant, they seem likely to have. And +what their choice will be, there is little doubt. There are trees +here of a truly noble nature, whose ancestors have conquered ages +since; it may be by selfish and questionable means. But their +descendants, secure in their own power, can afford to be generous, +and allow a whole world of lesser plants to nestle in their +branches, another world to fatten round their feet. There are +humble and modest plants, too, here--and those some of the +loveliest--which have long since cast away all ambition, and are +content to crouch or perch anywhere, if only they may be allowed a +chance ray of light, and a chance drop of water wherewith to perfect +their flowers and seed. But, throughout the great republic of the +forest, the motto of the majority is--as it is, and always has been, +with human beings--'Every one for himself, and the devil take the +hindmost.' Selfish competition, overreaching tyranny, the temper +which fawns and clings as long as it is down, and when it has risen, +kicks over the stool by which it climbed--these and the other 'works +of the flesh' are the works of the average plant, as far as it can +practise them. So by the time the Bamboo-vine makes up its mind, it +will have discovered, by the experience of many generations, the +value of the proverb, 'Never do for yourself what you can get +another to do for you,' and will have developed into a true high +climber, selfish and insolent, choking and strangling, like yonder +beautiful green pest, of which beware; namely, a tangle of Razor- +grass. {162a} The brother, in old times, of that broad-leaved sedge +which carries the shot-seeds, it has long since found it more +profitable to lean on others than to stand on its own legs, and has +developed itself accordingly. It has climbed up the shrubs some +fifteen feet, and is now tumbling down again in masses of the purest +deep green, which are always softly rounded, because each slender +leaf is sabre-shaped, and always curves inward and downward into the +mass, presenting to the paper thousands of minute saw-edges, hard +enough and sharp enough to cut clothes, skin, and flesh to ribands, +if it is brushed in the direction of the leaves. For shape and +colour, few plants would look more lovely in a hothouse; but it +would soon need to be confined in a den by itself, like a jaguar or +an alligator. + +Here, too, we saw a beautiful object, which was seen again more than +once about the high woods; a large flower, {162b} spreading its five +flat orange-scarlet lobes round yellow bells. It grows in little +bunches, in the axils of pairs of fleshy leaves, on a climbing vine. +When plucked, a milky sap exudes from it. It is a cousin of our +periwinkles, and cousin, too, of the Thevetia, which we saw at St. +Thomas's, and of the yellow Allamandas which ornament hothouses at +home, as this, and others of its family, especially the yellow +Odontadenia, surely ought to do. There are many species of the +family about, and all beautiful. + +We passed too, in the path, an object curious enough, if not +beautiful. Up a smooth stem ran a little rib, seemingly of earth +and dead wood, almost straight, and about half an inch across, +leading to a great brown lump among the branches, as big as a bushel +basket. We broke it open, and found it a covered gallery, swarming +with life. Brown ant-like creatures, white maggot-like creatures, +of several shapes and sizes, were hurrying up and down, as busy as +human beings in Cheapside. They were Termites, 'white ants'--of +which of the many species I know not--and the lump above was their +nest. But why they should find it wisest to perch their nest aloft +is as difficult to guess, as to guess why they take the trouble to +build this gallery up to it, instead of walking up the stem in the +open air. It may be that they are afraid of birds. It may be, too, +that they actually dislike the light. At all events, the majority +of them--the workers and soldiers, I believe, without exception--are +blind, and do all their work by an intensely developed sense of +touch, and it may be of smell and hearing also. Be that as it may, +we should have seen them, had we had time to wait, repair the breach +in their gallery, with as much discipline and division of labour as +average human workers in a manufactory, before the business of food- +getting was resumed. + +We hurried on along the trace, which now sloped rapidly downhill. +Suddenly, a loathsome smell defiled the air. Was there a gas-house +in the wilderness? Or had the pales of Paradise been just smeared +with bad coal-tar? Not exactly: but across the path crept, +festering in the sun, a black runnel of petroleum and water; and +twenty yards to our left stood, under a fast-crumbling trunk, what +was a year or two ago a little engine-house. Now roof, beams, +machinery, were all tumbled and tangled in hideous and somewhat +dangerous ruin, over a shaft, in the midst of which a rusty pump- +cylinder gurgled, and clicked, and bubbled, and spued, with black +oil and nasty gas; a foul ulcer in Dame Nature's side, which happily +was healing fast beneath the tropic rain and sun. The creepers were +climbing over it, the earth crumbling into it, and in a few years +more the whole would be engulfed in forest, and the oil-spring, it +is to be hoped, choked up with mud. + +This is the remnant of one of the many rash speculations connected +with the Pitch Lake. At a depth of some two hundred and fifty feet +'oil was struck,' as the American saying is. But (so we were told) +it would not rise in the boring, and had to be pumped up. It could +not, therefore, compete in price with the Pennsylvanian oil, which, +when tapped, springs out of the ground of itself, to a height +sometimes of many feet, under the pressure of the superincumbent +rocks, yielding enormous profits, and turning needy adventurers into +millionaires, though full half of the oil is sometimes wasted for +the want of means to secure it. + +We passed the doleful spot with a double regret--for the nook of +Paradise which had been defiled, and for the good money which had +been wasted: but with a hearty hope, too, that, whatever natural +beauty may be spoilt thereby, the wealth of these asphalt deposits +may at last be utilised. Whether it be good that a few dozen men +should 'make their fortunes' thereby, depends on what use the said +men make of the said 'fortunes'; and certainly it will not be good +for them if they believe, as too many do, that their dollars, and +not their characters, constitute their fortunes. But it is good, +and must be, that these treasures of heat and light should not +remain for ever locked up and idle in the wilderness; and we wished +all success to the enterprising American who had just completed a +bargain with the Government for a large supply of asphalt, which he +hoped by his chemical knowledge to turn to some profitable use. + +Another turn brought us into a fresh nook of Paradise; and this time +to one still undefiled. We hurried down a narrow grass path, the +Cannes de Riviere and the Balisiers brushing our heads as we passed; +while round us danced brilliant butterflies, bright orange, sulphur- +yellow, black and crimson, black and lilac, and half a dozen hues +more, till we stopped, surprised and delighted. For beneath us lay +the sea, seen through a narrow gap of richest verdure. + +On the left, low palms feathered over the path, and over the cliff. +On the right--when shall we see it again?--rose a young 'Bois flot,' +{164} of which boys make their fishing floats, with long, straight, +upright shoots, and huge crumpled, rounded leaves, pale rusty +underneath--a noble rastrajo plant, already, in its six months' +growth, some twenty feet high. Its broad pale sulphur flowers were +yet unopened; but, instead, an ivy-leaved Ipomoea had climbed up it, +and shrouded it from head to foot with hundreds of white +convolvulus-flowers; while underneath it grew a tuft of that +delicate silver-backed fern, which is admired so much in hothouses +at home. Between it and the palms we saw the still, shining sea; +muddy inshore, and a few hundred yards out changing suddenly to +bright green; and the point of the cove, which seemed built up of +bright red brick, fast crumbling into the sea, with all its palms +and cactuses, lianes and trees. Red stacks and skerries stood +isolated and ready to fall at the end of the point, showing that the +land has, even lately, extended far out to sea; and that Point +Rouge, like Point Courbaril and Point Galba--so named, one from some +great Locust-tree, the other from some great Galba--must have once +stood there as landmarks. Indeed all the points of the peninsula +are but remnants of a far larger sheet of land, which has been +slowly eaten up by the surges of the gulf; which has perhaps +actually sunk bodily beneath them, even as the remnant, I suspect, +is sinking now. We scrambled twenty feet down to the beach, and lay +down, tired, under a low cliff, feathered with richest vegetation. +The pebbles on which we sat were some of pitch, some of hard +sandstone, but most of them of brick; pale, dark, yellow, lavender, +spotted, clouded, and half a dozen more delicate hues; some coarse, +some fine as Samian ware; the rocks themselves were composed of an +almost glassy substance, strangely jumbled, even intercalated now +and then with soft sand. This, we were told, is a bit of the +porcellanite formation of Trinidad, curious to geologists, which +reappears at several points in Erin, Trois, and Cedros, in the +extreme south-western horn of the island. + +How was it formed, and when? That it was formed by the action of +fire, any child would agree who had ever seen a brick-kiln. It is +simply clay and sand baked, and often almost vitrified into +porcelain-jasper. The stratification is gone; the porcellanite has +run together into irregular masses, or fallen into them by the +burning away of strata beneath; and the cracks in it are often lined +with bubbled slag. + +But whence carne the fire? We must be wary about calling in the +Deus e machina of a volcano. There is no volcanic rock in the +neighbourhood, nor anywhere in the island; and the porcellanite, +says Mr. Wall, 'is identically the same with the substances produced +immediately above or below seams of coal, which have taken fire, and +burnt for a length of time.' There is lignite and other coaly +matter enough in the rocks to have burnt like coal, if it had once +been ignited; and the cause of ignition may be, as Mr. Wall +suggests, the decomposition of pyrites, of which also there is +enough around. That the heat did not come from below, as volcanic +heat would have done, is proved by the fact that the lignite beds +underneath the porcellanite are unburnt. We found asphalt under the +porcellanite. We found even one bit of red porcellanite with +unburnt asphalt included in it. + +May not this strange formation of natural brick and china-ware be of +immense age--humanly, not geologically, speaking? May it not be far +older than the Pitch Lake above--older, possibly, than the formation +of any asphalt at all? And may not the asphalt mingled with it have +been squeezed into it and round it, as it is being squeezed into and +through the unburnt strata at so many points in Guapo, La Brea, +Oropuche, and San Fernando? At least, so it seemed to us, as we sat +on the shore, waiting for the boat to take us round to La Brea, and +drank in dreamily with our eyes the beauty of that strange lonely +place. The only living things, save ourselves, which were visible +were a few pelicans sleeping on a skerry, and a shoal of dolphins +rolling silently in threes--husband, wife, and little child--as they +fished their way along the tide mark between the yellow water and +the green. The sky blazed overhead, the sea below; the red rocks +and green forests blazed around; and we sat enjoying the genial +silence, not of darkness, but of light, not of death, but of life, +as the noble heat permeated every nerve, and made us feel young, and +strong, and blithe once more. + + + +CHAPTER IX: SAN JOSEF + + + +The road to the ancient capital of the island is pleasant enough, +and characteristic of the West Indies. Not, indeed, as to its +breadth, make, and material, for they, contrary to the wont of West +India roads, are as good as they would be in England, but on account +of the quaint travellers along it, and the quaint sights which are +to be seen over every hedge. You pass all the races of the island +going to and from town or field-work, or washing clothes in some +clear brook, beside which a solemn Chinaman sits catching for his +dinner strange fishes, known to my learned friend, Dr. Gunther, and +perhaps to one or two other men in Europe; but certainly not to me. +Always somebody or something new and strange is to be seen, for +eight most pleasant miles. + +The road runs at first along a low cliff foot, with an ugly Mangrove +swamp, looking just like an alder-bed at home, between you and the +sea; a swamp which it would be worth while to drain by a steam-pump, +and then plant with coconuts or bamboos; for its miasma makes the +southern corner of Port of Spain utterly pestilential. You cross a +railroad, the only one in the island, which goes to a limestone +quarry, and so out along a wide straight road, with negro cottages +right and left, embowered in fruit and flowers. They grow fewer and +finer as you ride on; and soon you are in open country, principally +of large paddocks. These paddocks, like all West Indian ones, are +apt to be ragged with weeds and scrub. But the coarse broad-leaved +grasses seem to keep the mules in good condition enough, at least in +the rainy season. Most of these paddocks have, I believe, been +under cane cultivation at some time or other; and have been thrown +into grass during the period of depression dating from 1845. It has +not been worth while, as yet, to break them up again, though the +profits of sugar-farming are now, or at least ought to be, very +large. But the soil along this line is originally poor and sandy; +and it is far more profitable to break up the rich vegas, or low +alluvial lands, even at the trouble of clearing them of forest. So +these paddocks are left, often with noble trees standing about in +them, putting one in mind--if it were not for the Palmistes and +Bamboos and the crowd of black vultures over an occasional dead +animal--of English parks. + +But few English parks have such backgrounds. To the right, the vast +southern flat, with its smoking engine-house chimneys and bright +green cane-pieces, and, beyond all, the black wall of the primeval +forest; and to the left, some half mile off, the steep slopes of the +green northern mountains blazing in the sun, and sending down, every +two or three miles, out of some charming glen, a clear pebbly brook, +each winding through its narrow strip of vega. The vega is usually +a highly cultivated cane-piece, where great lizards sit in the +mouths of their burrows, and watch the passer by with intense +interest. Coolies and Negroes are at work in it: but only a few; +for the strength of the hands is away at the engine-house, making +sugar day and night. There is a piece of cane in act of being cut. +The men are hewing down the giant grass with cutlasses; the women +stripping off the leaves, and then piling the cane in carts drawn by +mules, the leaders of which draw by rope traces two or three times +as long as themselves. You wonder why such a seeming waste of power +is allowed, till you see one of the carts stick fast in a mud-hole, +and discover that even in the West Indies there is a good reason for +everything, and that the Creoles know their own business best. For +the wheelers, being in the slough with the cart, are powerless; but +the leaders, who have scrambled through, are safe on dry land at the +end of their long traces, and haul out their brethren, cart and all, +amid the yells, and I am sorry to say blows, of the black gentlemen +in attendance. But cane cutting is altogether a busy, happy scene. +The heat is awful, and all limbs rain perspiration: yet no one +seems to mind the heat; all look fat and jolly; and they have cause +to do so, for all, at every spare moment, are sucking sugar-cane. + +You pull up, and take off your hat to the party. The Negroes shout, +'Marnin', sa!' The Coolies salaam gracefully, hand to forehead. +You return the salaam, hand to heart, which is considered the +correct thing on the part of a superior in rank; whereat the Coolies +look exceedingly pleased; and then the whole party, without visible +reason, burst into shouts of laughter. + +The manager rides up, probably under an umbrella, as you are, and a +pleasant and instructive chat follows, wound up, usually, if the +house be not far off, by an invitation to come in and have a light +drink; an invitation which, considering the state of the +thermometer, you will be tempted to accept, especially as you know +that the claret and water will be excellent. And so you dawdle on, +looking at this and that new and odd sight, but most of all feasting +your eyes on the beauty of the northern mountains, till you reach +the gentle rise on which stands, eight miles from Port of Spain, the +little city of San Josef. We should call it, here in England, a +village: still, it is not every village in England which has fought +the Dutch, and earned its right to be called a city by beating some +of the bravest sailors of the seventeenth century. True, there is +not a single shop in it with plate-glass windows: but what matters +that, if its citizens have all that civilised people need, and more, +and will heap what they have on the stranger so hospitably that they +almost pain him by the trouble which they take? True, no carriages +and pairs, with powdered footmen, roll about the streets; and the +most splendid vehicles you are likely to meet are American buggies-- +four-wheeled gigs with heads, and aprons through which the reins can +be passed in wet weather. But what matters that, as long as the +buggies keep out sun and rain effectually, and as long as those who +sit in them be real gentlemen, and those who wait for them at home, +whether in the city, or the estates around, be real ladies? As for +the rest--peace, plenty, perpetual summer, time to think and read-- +(for there are no daily papers in San Josef)--and what can man want +more on earth? So I thought more than once, as I looked at San +Josef nestling at the mouth of its noble glen, and said to myself,-- +If the telegraph cable were but laid down the islands, as it will be +in another year or two, and one could hear a little more swiftly and +loudly the beating of the Great Mother's heart at home, then would +San Josef be about the most delectable spot which I have ever seen +for a cultivated and civilised man to live, and work, and think, and +die in. + +San Josef has had, nevertheless, its troubles and excitements more +than once since it defeated the Dutch. Even as late as 1837, it +was, for a few hours, in utter terror and danger from a mutiny of +free black recruits. No one in the island, civil or military, seems +to have been to blame for the mishap. It was altogether owing to +the unwisdom of military authorities at home, who seem to have +fancied that they could transform, by a magical spurt of the pen, +heathen savages into British soldiers. + +The whole tragedy--for tragedy it was--is so curious, and so +illustrative of the negro character, and of the effects of the slave +trade, that I shall give it at length, as it stands in that clever +little History of Trinidad, by M. Thomas, which I have quoted more +than once:-- + +'Donald Stewart, or rather Daaga, {170} was the adopted son of +Madershee, the old and childless king of the tribe called Paupaus, a +race that inhabit a tract of country bordering on that of the +Yarrabas. These races are constantly at war with each other. + +'Daaga was just the man whom a savage, warlike, and depredatory +tribe would select for their chieftain, as the African Negroes +choose their leaders with reference to their personal prowess. +Daaga stood six feet six inches without shoes. Although scarcely +muscular in proportion, yet his frame indicated in a singular degree +the union of irresistible strength and activity. His head was +large; his features had all the peculiar traits which distinguish +the Negro in a remarkable degree; his jaw was long, eyes large and +protruded, high cheek-bones, and flat nose; his teeth were large and +regular. He had a singular cast in his eyes, not quite amounting to +that obliquity of the visual organs denominated a squint, but +sufficient to give his features a peculiarly forbidding appearance;- +-his forehead, however, although small in proportion to his enormous +head, was remarkably compact and well formed. The whole head was +disproportioned, having the greater part of the brain behind the +ears; but the greatest peculiarity of this singular being was his +voice. In the course of my life I never heard such sounds uttered +by human organs as those formed by Daaga. In ordinary conversation +he appeared to me to endeavour to soften his voice--it was a deep +tenor; but when a little excited by any passion (and this savage was +the child of passion) his voice sounded like the low growl of a +lion, but when much excited it could be compared to nothing so aptly +as the notes of a gigantic brazen trumpet. + +'I repeatedly questioned this man respecting the religion of his +tribe. The result of his answers led me to infer that the Paupaus +believed in the existence of a future state; that they have a +confused notion of several powers, good and evil, but these are +ruled by one supreme being called Holloloo. This account of the +religion of Daaga was confirmed by the military chaplain who +attended him in his last moments. He also informed me that he +believed in predestination;--at least he said that Holloloo, he +knew, had ordained that he should come to white man's country and be +shot. + +'Daaga, having made a successful predatory expedition into the +country of the Yarrabas, returned with a number of prisoners of that +nation. These he, as usual, took, bound and guarded, towards the +coast to sell to the Portuguese. The interpreter, his countryman, +called these Portuguese white gentlemen. The white gentlemen proved +themselves more than a match for the black gentlemen; and the whole +transaction between the Portuguese and Paupaus does credit to all +concerned in this gentlemanly traffic in human flesh. + +'Daaga sold his prisoners; and under pretence of paying him, he and +his Paupau guards were enticed on board a Portuguese vessel;--they +were treacherously overpowered by the Christians, who bound them +beside their late prisoners, and the vessel sailed over "the great +salt water." + +'This transaction caused in the breast of the savage a deep hatred +against all white men--a hatred so intense that he frequently, +during and subsequent to the mutiny, declared he would eat the first +white man he killed; yet this cannibal was made to swear allegiance +to our Sovereign on the Holy Evangelists, and was then called a +British soldier. + +'On the voyage the vessel on board which Daaga had been entrapped +was captured by the British. He could not comprehend that his new +captors liberated him: he had been over reached and trepanned by +one set of white men, and he naturally looked on his second captors +as more successful rivals in the human, or rather inhuman, Guinea +trade; therefore this event lessened not his hatred for white men in +the abstract. + +'I was informed by several of the Africans who came with him that +when, during the voyage, they upbraided Daaga with being the cause +of their capture, he pacified them by promising that when they +should arrive in white man's country, he would repay their perfidy +by attacking them in the night. He further promised that if the +Paupaus and the Yarrabas would follow him, he would fight his way +back to Guinea. This account was fully corroborated by many of the +mutineers, especially those who were shot with Daaga: they all said +the revolt never would have happened but for Donald Stewart, as he +was called by the officers; but Africans who were not of his tribe +called him Longa-longa, on account of his height. + +'Such was this extraordinary man, who led the mutiny I am about to +relate. + +'A quantity of captured Africans having been brought hither from the +islands of Grenada and Dominica, they were most imprudently induced +to enlist as recruits in the 1st West India Regiment. True it is, +we have been told they did this voluntarily: but, it may be asked, +if they had any will in the matter, how could they understand the +duties to be imposed on them by becoming soldiers, or how comprehend +the nature of an oath of allegiance? without which they could not, +legally speaking, be considered as soldiers. I attended the whole +of the trials of these men, and well know how difficult it was to +make them comprehend any idea which was at all new to them by means +of the best interpreters procurable. + +'It has been said that by making those captured Negroes soldiers, a +service was rendered them: this I doubt. Formerly it was most true +that a soldier in a black regiment was better off than a slave; but +certainly a free African in the West Indies now is infinitely in a +better situation than a soldier, not only in a pecuniary point of +view, but in almost every other respect. + +'To the African savage, while being drilled into the duties of a +soldier, many things seem absolute tyranny which would appear to a +civilised man a mere necessary restraint. To keep the restless body +of an African Negro in a position to which he has not been +accustomed--to cramp his splay-feet, with his great toes standing +out, into European shoes made for feet of a different form--to place +a collar round his neck, which is called a stock, and which to him +is cruel torture--above all, to confine him every night to his +barracks--are almost insupportable. One unacquainted with the +habits of the Negro cannot conceive with what abhorrence he looks on +having his disposition to nocturnal rambles checked by barrack +regulations. {172} + +'Formerly the "King's man," as the black soldier loved to call +himself, looked (not without reason) contemptuously on the planter's +slave, although he himself was after all but a slave to the State: +but these recruits were enlisted shortly after a number of their +recently imported countrymen were wandering freely over the country, +working either as free labourers, or settling, to use an apt +American phrase, as squatters; and to assert that the recruit, while +under military probation, is better off than the free Trinidad +labourer, who goes where he lists and earns as much in one day as +will keep him for three days, is an absurdity. Accordingly we find +that Lieutenant-Colonel Bush, who commanded the 1st West India +Regiment, thought that the mutiny was mainly owing to the ill advice +of their civil, or, we should rather say, unmilitary countrymen. +This, to a certain degree, was the fact: but, by the declaration of +Daaga and many of his countrymen, it is evident the seeds of mutiny +were sown on the passage from Africa. + +'It has been asserted that the recruits were driven to mutiny by +hard treatment of their commanding officers. There seems not the +slightest truth in this assertion; they were treated with fully as +much kindness as their situation would admit of, and their chief was +peculiarly a favourite of Colonel Bush and the officers, +notwithstanding Daaga's violent and ferocious temper often caused +complaints to be brought against him. + +'A correspondent of the Naval and Military Gazette was under an +apprehension that the mutineers would be joined by the praedial +apprentices of the circumjacent estates: not the slightest +foundation existed for this apprehension. Some months previous to +this Daaga had planned a mutiny, but this was interrupted by sending +a part of the Paupau and Yarraba recruits to St. Lucia. The object +of all those conspiracies was to get back to Guinea, which they +thought they could accomplish by marching to eastward. + +'On the night of the 17th of June 1837, the people of San Josef were +kept awake by the recruits, about 280 in number, singing the war- +song of the Paupaus. This wild song consisted of a short air and +chorus. The tone was, although wild, not inharmonious, and the +words rather euphonious. As near as our alphabet can convey them, +they ran thus:-- + + +"Dangkarree +Au fey, +Oluu werrei, +Au lay," + + +which may be rendered almost literally by the following couplet:-- + + +Air by the chief: "Come to plunder, come to slay;" +Chorus of followers: "We are ready to obey." + + +'About three o'clock in the morning their war-song (highly +characteristic of a predatory tribe) became very loud, and they +commenced uttering their war-cry. This is different from what we +conceive the Indian war-whoop to be: it seems to be a kind of +imitation of the growl of wild beasts, and has a most thrilling +effect. + +'Fire now was set to a quantity of huts built for the accommodation +of African soldiers to the northward of the barracks, as well as to +the house of a poor black woman called Dalrymple. These burnt +briskly, throwing a dismal glare over the barracks and picturesque +town of San Josef, and overpowering the light of the full moon, +which illumined a cloudless sky. The mutineers made a rush at the +barrack-room, and seized on the muskets and fusees in the racks. +Their leader, Daaga, and a daring Yarraba named Ogston instantly +charged their pieces; the former of these had a quantity of ball- +cartridges, loose powder, and ounce and pistol-balls, in a kind of +gray worsted cap. He must have provided himself with these before +the mutiny. How he became possessed of them, especially the pistol- +balls, I never could learn; probably he was supplied by his +unmilitary countrymen: pistol-balls are never given to infantry. +Previous to this Daaga and three others made a rush at the +regimental store-room, in which was deposited a quantity of powder. +An old African soldier, named Charles Dickson, interfered to stop +them, on which Maurice Ogston, the Yarraba chief, who had armed +himself with a sergeant's sword, cut down the faithful African. +When down Daaga said, in English, "Ah, you old soldier, you knock +down." Dixon was not Daaga's countryman, hence he could not speak +to him in his own language. The Paupau then levelled his musket and +shot the fallen soldier, who groaned and died. The war-yells, or +rather growls, of the Paupaus and Yarrabas now became awfully +thrilling, as they helped themselves to cartridges: most of them +were fortunately blank, or without ball. Never was a premeditated +mutiny so wild and ill planned. Their chief, Daaga, and Ogston +seemed to have had little command of the subordinates, and the whole +acted more like a set of wild beasts who had broken their cages than +men resolved on war. + +'At this period, had a rush been made at the officers' quarters by +one half (they were more than 200 in number), and the other half +surrounded the building, not one could have escaped. Instead of +this they continued to shout their war-song, and howl their war- +notes; they loaded their pieces with ball-cartridge, or blank +cartridge and small stones, and commenced firing at the long range +of white buildings in which Colonel Bush and his officers slept. +They wasted so much ammunition on this useless display of fury that +the buildings were completely riddled. A few of the old soldiers +opposed them, and were wounded; but it fortunately happened that +they were, to an inconceivable degree, ignorant of the right use of +firearms--holding their muskets in their hands when they discharged +them, without allowing the butt-end to rest against their shoulders +or any part of their bodies. This fact accounts for the +comparatively little mischief they did in proportion to the quantity +of ammunition thrown away. + +'The officers and sergeant-major escaped at the back of the +building, while Colonel Bush and Adjutant Bentley came down a little +hill. The colonel commanded the mutineers to lay down their arms, +and was answered by an irregular discharge of balls, which rattled +amongst the leaves of a tree under which he and the adjutant were +standing. On this Colonel Bush desired Mr. Bentley to make the best +of his way to St. James's Barracks for all the disposable force of +the 89th Regiment. The officers made good their retreat, and the +adjutant got into the stable where his horse was. He saddled and +bridled the animal while the shots were coming into the stable, +without either man or beast getting injured. The officer mounted, +but had to make his way through the mutineers before he could get +into San Josef, the barracks standing on an eminence above the +little town. On seeing the adjutant mounted, the mutineers set up a +thrilling howl, and commenced firing at him. He discerned the +gigantic figure of Daaga (alias Donald Stewart), with his musket at +the trail: he spurred his horse through the midst of them; they +were grouped, but not in line. On looking back he saw Daaga aiming +at him; he stooped his head beside his horse's neck, and effectually +sheltered himself from about fifty shots aimed at him. In this +position he rode furiously down a steep hill leading from the +barracks to the church, and was out of danger. His escape appears +extraordinary: but he got safe to town, and thence to St. James's, +and in a short time, considering it is eleven miles distant, brought +out a strong detachment of European troops; these, however, did not +arrive until the affair was over. + +'In the meantime a part of the officers' quarters was bravely +defended by two old African soldiers, Sergeant Merry and Corporal +Plague. The latter stood in the gallery, near the room in which +were the colours; he was ineffectually fired at by some hundreds, +yet he kept his post, shot two of the mutineers, and, it is said, +wounded a third. Such is the difference between a man acquainted +with the use of firearms and those who handle them as mops are held. + +'In the meantime Colonel Bush got to a police-station above the +barracks, and got muskets and a few cartridges from a discharged +African soldier who was in the police establishment. Being joined +by the policemen, Corporal Craven {175} and Ensign Pogson, they +concealed themselves on an eminence above, and as the mutineers +(about 100 in number) approached, the fire of muskets opened on them +from the little ambush. The little party fired separately, loading +as fast as they discharged their pieces; they succeeded in making +the mutineers change their route. + +'It is wonderful what little courage the savages in general showed +against the colonel and his little party; who absolutely beat them, +although but a twenty-fifth of their number, and at their own +tactics, i.e. bush fighting. + +'A body of the mutineers now made towards the road to Maraccas, when +the colonel and his three assistants contrived to get behind a silk- +cotton tree, and recommenced firing on them. The Africans hesitated +and set forward, when the little party continued to fire on them; +they set up a yell, and retreated down the hill. + +'A part of the mutineers now concealed themselves in the bushes +about San Josef barracks. These men, after the affair was over, +joined Colonel Bush, and with a mixture of cunning and effrontery +smiled as though nothing had happened, and as though they were glad +to see him; although, in general, they each had several shirts and +pairs of trousers on preparatory for a start to Guinea, by way of +Band de l'Est. {176a} + +'In the meantime the San Josef militia were assembled, to the number +of forty. Major Giuseppi, and Captain and Adjutant Rousseau, of the +second division of militia forces, took command of them. They were +in want of flints, powder, and balls--to obtain these they were +obliged to break open a merchant's store; however, the adjutant so +judiciously distributed his little force as to hinder the mutineers +from entering the town, or obtaining access to the militia arsenal, +wherein there was a quantity of arms. Major Chadds and several old +African soldiers joined the militia, and were by them supplied with +arms. + +'A good deal of skirmishing occurred between the militia and +detached parties of the mutineers, which uniformly ended in the +defeat of the latter. At length Daaga appeared to the right of a +party of six, at the entrance of the town; they were challenged by +the militia, and the mutineers fired on them, but without effect. +Only two of the militia returned the fire, when all but Daaga fled. +He was deliberately reloading his piece, when a militiaman, named +Edmond Luce, leaped on the gigantic chief, who would have easily +beat him off, although the former was a strong young man of colour: +but Daaga would not let go his gun; and, in common with all the +mutineers, he seemed to have no idea of the use of the bayonet. +Daaga was dragging the militiaman away, when Adjutant Rousseau came +to his assistance, and placed a sword to Daaga's breast. Doctor +Tardy and several others rushed on the tall Negro, who was soon, by +the united efforts of several, thrown down and secured. It was at +this period that he repeatedly exclaimed, while he bit his own +shoulder, "The first white man I catch after this I will eat him." +{176b} + +'Meanwhile about sixteen of the mutineers, led by the daring Ogston, +took the road to Arima; in order, as they said, to commence their +march to Guinea: but fortunately the militia of that village, +composed principally of Spaniards, Indians, and Sambos, assembled. +A few of these met them and stopped their march. A kind of parley +(if intercourse carried on by signs could be so called) was carried +on between the parties. The mutineers made signs that they wished +to go forward, while the few militiamen endeavoured to detain them, +expecting a reinforcement momently. After a time the militia agreed +to allow them to approach the town; as they were advancing they were +met by the commandant, Martin Sorzano, Esq., with sixteen more +militiamen. The commandant judged it imprudent to allow the +Africans to enter the town with their muskets full cocked and poised +ready to fire. An interpreter was now procured, and the mutineers +were told that if they would retire to their barracks the gentlemen +present would intercede for their pardon. The Negroes refused to +accede to these terms, and while the interpreter was addressing +some, the rest tried to push forward. Some of the militia opposed +them by holding their muskets in a horizontal position, on which one +of the mutineers fired, and the militia returned the fire. A melee +commenced, in which fourteen mutineers were killed and wounded. The +fire of the Africans produced little effect: they soon took to +flight amid the woods which flanked the road. Twenty-eight of them +were taken, amongst whom was the Yarraba chief, Ogston. Six had +been killed, and six committed suicide by strangling and hanging +themselves in the woods. Only one man was wounded amongst the +militia, and he but slightly, from a small stone fired from a musket +of one of the Yarrabas. + +'The quantity of ammunition expended by the mutineers, and the +comparatively little mischief done by them, was truly astonishing. +It shows how little they understood the use of firearms. Dixon was +killed, and several of the old African soldiers were wounded, but +not one of the officers was in the slightest degree hurt. + +'I have never been able to get a correct account of the number of +lives this wild mutiny cost, but believe it was not less than forty, +including those slain by the militia at Arima; those shot at San +Josef; those who died of their wounds (and most of the wounded men +died); the six who committed suicide; the three that were shot by +sentence of the court-martial, and one who was shot while +endeavouring to escape (Satchell). + +'A good-looking young man, named Torrens, was brought as prisoner to +the presence of Colonel Bush. The colonel wished to speak to him, +and desired his guards to liberate him; on which the young savage +shook his sleeve, in which was concealed a razor, made a rush at the +colonel, and nearly succeeded in cutting his throat. He slashed the +razor in all directions until he made an opening: he rushed through +this; and, notwithstanding he was fired at, and I believe wounded, +he effected his escape, was subsequently retaken, and again made his +escape with Satchell, who after this was shot by a policeman. + +'Torrens was retaken, tried, and recommended to mercy. Of this +man's fate I am unable to speak, not knowing how far the +recommendation to mercy was attended to. In appearance he seemed +the mildest and best-looking of the mutineers, but his conduct was +the most ferocious of any. The whole of the mutineers were captured +within one week of the mutiny, save this man, who was taken a month +after. + +'On the 19th of July, Donald Stewart, otherwise Daaga, was brought +to a court-martial. On the 21st William Satchell was tried. On the +22d a court-martial was held on Edward Coffin; and on the 24th one +was held on the Yarraba chief, Maurice Ogston, whose country name +was, I believe, Mawee. Torrens was tried on the 29th. + +'The sentences of these courts-martial were unknown until the 14th +of August, having been sent to Barbadoes in order to be submitted to +the Commander-in-Chief, Lieutenant-General Whittingham, who approved +of the decision of the courts, which was that Donald Stewart +(Daaga), Maurice Ogston, and Edward Coffin should suffer death by +being shot, and that William Satchell should be transported beyond +seas during the term of his natural life. I am unacquainted with +the sentence of Torrens. + +'Donald Stewart, Maurice Ogston, and Edward Coffin were executed on +the 16th of August 1837, at San Josef Barracks. Nothing seemed to +have been neglected which could render the execution solemn and +impressive; the scenery and the weather gave additional awe to the +melancholy proceedings. Fronting the little eminence where the +prisoners were shot was the scene where their ill-concerted mutiny +commenced. To the right stood the long range of building on which +they had expended much of their ammunition for the purpose of +destroying their officers. The rest of the panorama was made up of +an immense view of forest below them, and upright masses of +mountains above them. Over those, heavy bodies of mist were slowly +sailing, giving a sombre appearance to the primeval woods which, in +general, covered both mountains and plains. The atmosphere +indicated an inter-tropical morning during the rainy season, and the +sun shone resplendently between dense columns of clouds. + +'At half-past seven o'clock the condemned men asked to be allowed to +eat a hearty meal, as they said persons about to be executed in +Guinea were always indulged with a good repast. It is remarkable +that these unhappy creatures ate most voraciously, even while they +were being brought out of their cell for execution. + +'A little before the mournful procession commenced, the condemned +men were dressed from head to foot in white habiliments trimmed with +black; their arms were bound with cords. This is not usual in +military executions, but was deemed necessary on the present +occasion. An attempt to escape, on the part of the condemned, would +have been productive of much confusion, and was properly guarded +against. + +'The condemned men displayed no unmanly fear. On the contrary, they +steadily kept step to the Dead March which the band played; yet the +certainty of death threw a cadaverous and ghastly hue over their +black features, while their singular and appropriate costume, and +the three coffins being borne before them, altogether rendered it a +frightful picture: hence it was not to be wondered at that two of +the European soldiers fainted. + +'The mutineers marched abreast. The tall form and horrid looks of +Daaga were almost appalling. The looks of Ogston were sullen, calm, +and determined; those of Coffin seemed to indicate resignation. + +'At eight o'clock they arrived at the spot where three graves were +dug; here their coffins were deposited. The condemned men were made +to face to westward; three sides of a hollow square were formed, +flanked on one side by a detachment of the 89th Regiment and a party +of artillery, while the recruits, many of whom shared the guilt of +the culprits, were appropriately placed in the line opposite them. +The firing-party were a little in advance of the recruits. + +'The sentence of the courts-martial, and other necessary documents, +having been read by the fort adjutant, Mr. Meehan, the chaplain of +the forces, read some prayers appropriated for these melancholy +occasions. The clergyman then shook hands with the three men about +to be sent into another state of existence. Daaga and Ogston coolly +gave their hands: Coffin wrung the chaplain's hand affectionately, +saying, in tolerable English, "I am now done with the world." + +'The arms of the condemned men, as has been before stated, were +bound, but in such a manner as to allow them to bring their hands to +their heads. Their night-caps were drawn over their eyes. Coffin +allowed his to remain, but Ogston and Daaga pushed theirs up again. +The former did this calmly; the latter showed great wrath, seeming +to think himself insulted; and his deep metallic voice sounded in +anger above that of the provost-marshal, {179} as the latter gave +the words "Ready! present!" But at this instant his vociferous +daring forsook him. As the men levelled their muskets at him, with +inconceivable rapidity he sprang bodily round, still preserving his +squatting posture, and received the fire from behind; while the less +noisy, but more brave, Ogston looked the firing-party full in the +face as they discharged their fatal volley. + +'In one instant all three fell dead, almost all the balls of the +firing-party having taken effect. The savage appearance and manner +of Daaga excited awe. Admiration was felt for the calm bravery of +Ogston, while Edward Coffin's fate excited commiseration. + +'There were many spectators of this dreadful scene, and amongst +others a great concourse of Negroes. Most of these expressed their +hopes that after this terrible example the recruits would make good +soldiers.' + +Ah, stupid savages. Yes: but also--ah, stupid civilised people. + + + +CHAPTER X: NAPARIMA AND MONTSERRAT + + + +I had a few days of pleasant wandering in the centre of the island, +about the districts which bear the names of Naparima and Montserrat; +a country of such extraordinary fertility, as well as beauty, that +it must surely hereafter become the seat of a high civilisation. +The soil seems inexhaustibly rich. I say inexhaustibly; for as fast +as the upper layer is impoverished, it will be swept over by the +tropic rains, to mingle with the vegas, or alluvial flats below, and +thus enriched again, while a fresh layer of virgin soil is exposed +above. I have seen, cresting the highest ridges of Montserrat, ten +feet at least of fat earth, falling clod by clod right and left upon +the gardens below. There are, doubtless, comparatively barren +tracts of gravel toward the northern mountains; there are poor sandy +lands, likewise, at the southern part of the island, which are said, +nevertheless, to be specially fitted for the growth of cotton: but +from San Fernando on the west coast to Manzanilla on the east, +stretches a band of soil which seems to be capable of yielding any +conceivable return to labour and capital, not omitting common sense. + +How long it has taken to prepare this natural garden for man is one +of those questions of geological time which have been well called of +late 'appalling.' How long was it since the 'older Parian' rocks +(said to belong to the Neocomian, or green-sand, era) of Point a +Pierre were laid down at the bottom of the sea? How long since a +still unknown thickness of tertiary strata in the Nariva district +laid down on them? How long since not less than six thousand feet +of still later tertiary strata laid down on them again? What vast, +though probably slow, processes changed that sea-bottom from one +salt enough to carry corals and limestones, to one brackish enough +to carry abundant remains of plants, deposited probably by the +Orinoco, or by some river which then did duty for it? Three such +periods of disturbance have been distinguished, the net result of +which is, that the strata (comparatively recent in geological time) +have been fractured, tilted, even set upright on end, over the whole +lowland. Trinidad seems to have had its full share of those later +disturbances of the earth-crust, which carried tertiary strata up +along the shoulders of the Alps; which upheaved the chalk of the +Isle of Wight, setting the tertiary beds of Alum Bay upright against +it; which even, after the Age of Ice, thrust up the Isle of Moen in +Denmark and the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire, entangling the +boulder clay among the chalk--how long ago? Long enough ago, in +Trinidad at least, to allow water--probably the estuary waters of +the Orinoco--to saw all the upheaved layers off at the top into one +flat sea-bottom once more, leaving as projections certain harder +knots of rock, such as the limestones of Mount Tamana; and, it may +be, the curious knoll of hard clay rock under which nestles the town +of San Fernando. Long enough ago, also, to allow that whole sea- +bottom to be lifted up once more, to the height, in one spot, of a +thousand feet, as the lowland which occupies six-sevenths of the +Isle of Trinidad. Long enough ago, again, to allow that lowland to +be sawn out into hills and valleys, ridges and gulleys, which are +due to the action of Colonel George Greenwood's geologic panacea, +'Rain and Rivers,' and to nothing else. Long enough ago, once more, +for a period of subsidence, as I suspect, to follow the period of +upheaval; a period at the commencement of which Trinidad was perhaps +several times as large as it is now, and has gradually been eaten +away by the surf, as fresh pieces of the soft cliffs have been +brought, by the sinking of the land, face to face with its slow but +sure destroyer. + +And how long ago began the epoch--the very latest which this globe +has seen, which has been long enough for all this? The human +imagination can no more grasp that time than it can grasp the space +between us and the nearest star. + +Such thoughts were forced upon me as the steamer stopped off San +Fernando; and I saw, some quarter of a mile out at sea, a single +stack of rock, which is said to have been joined to the mainland in +the memory of the fathers of this generation; and on shore, +composed, I am told, of the same rock, that hill of San Fernando +which forms a beacon by sea and land for many a mile around. An +isolated boss of the older Parian, composed of hardened clay which +has escaped destruction, it rises, though not a mile long and a +third of a mile broad, steeply to a height of nearly six hundred +feet, carrying on its cliffs the remains of a once magnificent +vegetation. Now its sides are quarried for the only road-stone met +with for miles around; cultivated for pasture, in which the round- +headed mango-trees grow about like oaks at home; or terraced for +villas and gardens, the charm of which cannot be told in words. All +round it, rich sugar estates spread out, with the noble Palmistes +left standing here and there along the roads and terraces; and +everywhere is activity and high cultivation, under the +superintendence of gentlemen who are prospering, because they +deserve to prosper. + +Between the cliff and the shore nestles the gay and growing little +town, which was, when we took the island in 1795, only a group of +huts. In it I noted only one thing which looked unpleasant. The +negro houses, however roomy and comfortable, and however rich the +gardens which surrounded them, were mostly patched together out of +the most heterogeneous and wretched scraps of wood; and on inquiry I +found that the materials were, in most cases, stolen; that when a +Negro wanted to build a house, instead of buying the materials, he +pilfered a board here, a stick there, a nail somewhere else, a lock +or a clamp in a fourth place, about the sugar-estates, regardless of +the serious injury which he caused to working buildings; and when he +had gathered a sufficient pile, hidden safely away behind his +neighbour's house, the new hut rose as if by magic. This continual +pilfering, I was assured, was a serious tax on the cultivation of +the estates around. But I was told, too, frankly enough, by the +very gentleman who complained, that this habit was simply an +heirloom from the bad days of slavery, when the pilfering of the +slaves from other estates was connived at by their own masters, on +the ground that if A's Negroes robbed B, B's Negroes robbed C, and +so all round the alphabet; one more evil instance of the +demoralising effect of a state of things which, wrong in itself, was +sure to be the parent of a hundred other wrongs. + +Being, happily for me, in the Governor's suite, I had opportunities +of seeing the interior of the island which an average traveller +could not have; and I looked forward with interest to visiting new +settlements in the forests of the interior, which very few +inhabitants of the island, and certainly no strangers, had as yet +seen. Our journey began by landing on a good new jetty, and being +transferred at once to the tramway which adjoined it. A truck, with +chairs on it, as usual here, carried us off at a good mule-trot; and +we ran in the fast-fading light through a rolling hummocky country, +very like the lowlands of Aberdeenshire, or the neighbourhood of +Waterloo, save that, as night came on, the fireflies flickered +everywhere among the canes, and here and there the palms and Ceibas +stood up, black and gaunt, against the sky. At last we escaped from +our truck, and found horses waiting, on which we floundered, through +mud and moonlight, to a certain hospitable house, and found a hungry +party, who had been long waiting for a dinner worth the waiting. + +It was not till next morning that I found into what a charming place +I had entered overnight. Around were books, pictures, china, vases +of flowers, works of art, and all appliances of European taste, even +luxury; but in a house utterly un-European. The living rooms, all +on the first floor, opened into each other by doorless doorways, and +the walls were of cedar and other valuable woods, which good taste +had left still unpapered. Windowless bay windows, like great port- +holes, opened from each of them into a gallery which ran round the +house, sheltered by broad sloping eaves. The deep shade of the +eaves contrasted brilliantly with the bright light outside; and +contrasted too with the wooden pillars which held up the roof, and +which seemed on their southern sides white-hot in the blazing +sunshine. + +What a field was there for native art; for richest ornamentation of +these pillars and those beams. Surely Trinidad, and the whole of +northern South America, ought to become some day the paradise of +wood carvers, who, copying even a few of the numberless vegetable +and animal forms around, may far surpass the old wood-carving +schools of Burmah and Hindostan. And I sat dreaming of the lianes +which might be made to wreathe the pillars; the flowers, fruits, +birds, butterflies, monkeys, kinkajous, and what not, which might +cluster about the capitals, or swing along the beams. Let men who +have such materials, and such models, proscribe all tawdry and poor +European art--most of it a bad imitation of bad Greek, or worse +Renaissance--and trust to Nature and the facts which lie nearest +them. But when will a time come for the West Indies when there will +be wealth and civilisation enough to make such an art possible? +Soon, if all the employers of labour were like the gentleman at +whose house we were that day, and like some others in the same +island. + +And through the windows and between the pillars of the gallery, what +a blaze of colour and light. The ground-floor was hedged in, a few +feet from the walls, with high shrubs, which would have caused +unwholesome damp in England, but were needed here for shade. +Foreign Crotons, Dracaenas, Cereuses, and a dozen more curious +shapes--among them a 'cup-tree,' with concave leaves, each of which +would hold water. It was said to come from the East, and was +unknown to me. Among them, and over the door, flowering creepers +tangled and tossed, rich with flowers; and beyond them a circular- +lawn (rare in the West Indies), just like an English one, save that +the shrubs and trees which bounded it were hothouse plants. A few +Carat-palms {184} spread their huge fan-leaves among the curious +flowering trees; other foreign palms, some of them very rare, beside +them; and on the lawn opposite my bedroom window stood a young +Palmiste, which had been planted barely eight years, and was now +thirty-eight feet in height, and more than six feet in girth at the +butt. Over the roofs of the outhouses rose scarlet Bois +immortelles, and tall clumps of Bamboo reflecting blue light from +their leaves even under a cloud; and beyond them and below them to +the right, a park just like an English one carried stately trees +scattered on the turf, and a sheet of artificial water. Coolies, in +red or yellow waistcloths, and Coolie children, too, with nothing +save a string round their stomachs (the smaller ones at least), were +fishing in the shade. To the left, again, began at once the rich +cultivation of the rolling cane-fields, among which the Squire had +left standing, somewhat against the public opinion of his less +tasteful neighbours, tall Carats, carrying their heads of fan-leaves +on smooth stalks from fifty to eighty feet high, and Ceibas--some of +them the hugest I had ever seen. Below in the valley were the +sugar-works; and beyond this half-natural, half-artificial scene +rose, some mile off, the lowering wall of the yet untouched forest. + +It had taken only fifteen years, but fifteen years of hard work, to +create this paradise. And only the summer before, all had been +well-nigh swept away again. During the great drought the fire had +raged about the woods. Estate after estate around had been reduced +to ashes. And one day our host's turn came. The fire burst out of +the woods at three different points. All worked with a will to stop +it by cutting traces. But the wind was wild; burning masses from +the tree-tops were hurled far among the canes, and all was lost. +The canes burnt like shavings, exploding with a perpetual crackle at +each joint. In a few hours the whole estate--works, coolie +barracks, negro huts--was black ash; and the house only, by extreme +exertion, saved. But the ground had scarcely cooled when replanting +and rebuilding commenced; and now the canes were from ten to twelve +feet high, the works nearly ready for the coming crop-time, and no +sign of the fire was left, save a few leafless trees, which we +found, on riding up to them, to be charred at the base. + +And yet men say that the Englishman loses his energy in a tropic +climate. + +We had a charming Sunday there, amid charming society, down even to +the dogs and cats; and not the least charming object among many was +little Franky, the Coolie butler's child, who ran in and out with +the dogs, gay in his little cotton shirt, and melon-shaped cap, and +silver bracelets, and climbed on the Squire's knee, and nestled in +his bosom, and played with his seals; and looked up trustingly into +our faces with great soft eyes, like a little brown guazu-pita fawn +out of the forest. A happy child, and in a happy place. + +Then to church at Savanna Grande, riding of course; for the mud was +abysmal, and it was often safer to ride in the ditch than on the +road. The village, with a tramway through it, stood high and +healthy. The best houses were those of the Chinese. The poorer +Chinese find peddling employments and trade about the villages, +rather than hard work on the estates; while they cultivate on +ridges, with minute care, their favourite sweet potato. Round San +Fernando, a Chinese will rent from a sugar-planter a bit of land +which seems hopelessly infested with weeds, even of the worst of all +sorts--the creeping Para grass {186}--which was introduced a +generation since, with some trouble, as food for cattle, and was +supposed at first to be so great a boon that the gentleman who +brought it in received public thanks and a valuable testimonial. +The Chinaman will take the land for a single year, at a rent, I +believe, as high as a pound an acre, grow on it his sweet potato +crop, and return it to the owner, cleared, for the time being, of +every weed. The richer shopkeepers have each a store: but they +disdain to live at it. Near by each you see a comfortable low +house, with verandahs, green jalousies, and often pretty flowers in +pots; and catch glimpses inside of papered walls, prints, and smart +moderator-lamps, which seem to be fashionable among the Celestials. +But for one fashion of theirs, I confess, I was not prepared. + +We went to church--a large, airy, clean, wooden one--which ought to +have had a verandah round to keep off the intolerable sunlight, and +which might, too, have had another pulpit. For in getting up to +preach in a sort of pill-box on a long stalk, I found the said stalk +surging and nodding so under my weight, that I had to assume an +attitude of most dignified repose, and to beware of 'beating the +drum ecclesiastic,' or 'clanging the Bible to shreds,' for fear of +toppling into the pews of the very smart, and really very attentive, +brown ladies below. A crowded congregation it was, clean, gay, +respectable and respectful, and spoke well both for the people and +for their clergyman. But--happily not till the end of the sermon--I +became aware, just in front of me, of a row of smartest Paris +bonnets, net-lace shawls, brocades, and satins, fit for duchesses; +and as the centre of each blaze of finery--'offam non faciem,' as +old Ammianus Marcellinus has it--the unmistakable visage of a +Chinese woman. Whether they understood one word; what they thought +of it all; whether they were there for any purpose save to see and +be seen, were questions to which I tried in vain, after service, to +get an answer. All that could be told was, that the richer Chinese +take delight in thus bedizening their wives on high days and +holidays; not with tawdry cheap finery, but with things really +expensive, and worth what they cost, especially the silks and +brocades; and then in sending them, whether for fashion or for +loyalty's sake, to an English church. Be that as it may, there they +were, ladies from the ancient and incomprehensible Mowery Land, like +fossil bones of an old world sticking out amid the vegetation of the +new; and we will charitably hope that they were the better for being +there. + +After church we wandered about the estate to see huge trees. One +Ceiba, left standing in a cane-piece, was very grand, from the +multitude and mass of its parasites and its huge tresses of lianes; +and grand also from its form. The prickly board-wall spurs were at +least fifteen feet high, some of them, where they entered the trunk; +and at the summit of the trunk, which could not have been less than +seventy or eighty feet, one enormous limb (itself a tree) stuck out +quite horizontally, and gave a marvellous notion of strength. It +seemed as if its length must have snapped it off, years since, where +it joined the trunk; or as if the leverage of its weight must have +toppled the whole tree over. But the great vegetable had known its +own business best, and had built itself up right cannily; and stood, +and will stand for many a year, perhaps for many a century, if the +Matapalos do not squeeze out its life. I found, by the by, in +groping my way to that tree through canes twelve feet high, that one +must be careful, at least with some varieties of cane, not to get +cut. The leaf-edges are finely serrated; and more, the sheaths of +the leaves are covered with prickly hairs, which give the Coolies +sore shins if they work bare-legged. The soil here, as everywhere, +was exceedingly rich, and sawn out into rolling mounds and steep +gullies--sometimes almost too steep for cane-cultivation--by the +tropic rains. If, as cannot be doubted, denudation by rain has gone +on here, for thousands of years, at the same pace at which it goes +on now, the amount of soil removed must be very great; so great, +that the Naparimas may have been, when they were first uplifted out +of the Gulf, hundreds of feet higher than they are now. + +Another tree we went to see in the home park, of which I would have +gladly obtained a photograph. A Poix doux, {187a} some said it was; +others that it was a Figuier. {187b} I incline to the former +belief, as the leaves seemed to me pinnated: but the doubt was +pardonable enough. There was not a leaf on the tree which was not +nigh one hundred feet over our heads. For size of spurs and wealth +of parasites the tree was almost as remarkable as the Ceiba I +mentioned just now. But the curiosity of the tree was a Carat-palm +which had started between its very roots; had run its straight and +slender stem up parallel with the bole of its companion, and had +then pierced through the head of the tree, and all its wilderness of +lianes, till it spread its huge flat crown of fans among the highest +branches, more than a hundred feet aloft. The contrast between the +two forms of vegetation, each so grand, but as utterly different in +every line as they are in botanical affinities, and yet both living +together in such close embrace, was very noteworthy; a good example +of the rule, that while competition is most severe between forms +most closely allied, forms extremely wide apart may not compete at +all, because each needs something which the other does not. + +On our return I was introduced to the 'Uncle Tom' of the +neighbourhood, who had come down to spend Sunday at the Squire's +house. He was a middle-sized Negro, in cast of features not above +the average, and Isaac by name. He told me how he had been born in +Baltimore, a slave to a Quaker master; how he and his wife Mary, +during the second American war, ran away, and after hiding three +days in the bush, got on board a British ship of war, and so became +free. He then enlisted into one of the East Indian regiments, and +served some years; as a reward for which he had given him his five +acres of land in Trinidad, like others of his corps. These Negro +yeomen-veterans, let it be said in passing, are among the ablest and +steadiest of the coloured population. Military service has given +them just enough of those habits of obedience of which slavery gives +too much--if the obedience of a mere slave, depending not on the +independent will, but on brute fear, is to be called obedience at +all. + +Would that in this respect, as in some others, the white subject of +the British crown were as well off as the black one. Would that +during the last fifty years we had followed the wise policy of the +Romans, and by settling our soldiers on our colonial frontiers, +established there communities of loyal, able, and valiant citizens. +Is it too late to begin now? Is there no colony left as yet not +delivered over to a self-government which actually means, more and +more--according to the statements of those who visit the colonies-- +government by an Irish faction; and which will offer a field for +settling our soldiers when they have served their appointed time; so +strengthening ourselves, while we reward a class of men who are far +more respectable, and far more deserving, than most of those on whom +we lavish our philanthropy? + +Surely such men would prove as good subjects as old Isaac and his +comrades. For fifty-three years, I was told, he had lived and +worked in Trinidad, always independent; so independent, indeed, that +the very last year, when all but starving, like many of the coloured +people, from the long drought which lasted nearly eighteen months, +he refused all charity, and came down to this very estate to work +for three months in the stifling cane-fields, earning--or fancying +that he earned--his own livelihood. A simple, kindly, brave +Christian man he seemed, and all who knew him spoke of him as such. +The most curious fact, however, which I gleaned from him was his +recollection of his own 'conversion.' His Mary, of whom all spoke +as a woman of a higher intellect than he, had 'been in the Gospel' +several years before him, and used to read and talk to him; but, he +said, without effect. At last he had a severe fever; and when he +fancied himself dying, had a vision. He saw a grating in the floor, +close by his bed, and through it the torments of the lost. Two +souls he remembered specially; one 'like a singed hog,' the other +'all over black like a charcoal spade.' He looked in fear, and +heard a voice cry, 'Behold your sins.' He prayed; promised, if he +recovered, to try and do better: and felt himself forgiven at once. + +This was his story, which I have set down word for word; and of +which I can only say, that its imagery is no more gross, its +confusion between the objective and subjective no more +unphilosophical, than the speech on similar matters of many whom we +are taught to call divines, theologians, and saints. + +At all events, this crisis in his life produced, according to his +own statement, not merely a religious, but a moral change. He +became a better man henceforth. He had the reputation, among those +who knew him well, of being altogether a good man. If so, it +matters little what cause he assigned for the improvement. Wisdom +is justified of all her children; and, I doubt not, of old black +Isaac among the rest. + +In 1864 he had a great sorrow. Old Mary, trying to smoke the +mosquitoes out of her house with a charcoal-pan, set fire, in her +shortsightedness, to the place; and everything was burned--the +savings of years, the precious Bible among the rest. The Squire +took her down to his house, and nursed her: but she died in two +days of cold and fright; and Isaac had to begin life again alone. +Kind folks built up his ajoupa, and started him afresh; and, to +their astonishment, Isaac grew young again, and set to work for +himself. He had depended too much for many years on his wife's +superior intellect: now he had to act for himself; and he acted. +But he spoke of her, like any knight of old, as of a guardian +goddess--his guardian still in the other world, as she had been in +this. + +He was happy enough, he said: but I was told that he had to endure +much vexation from the neighbouring Negroes, who were Baptists, +narrow and conceited; and who--just as the Baptists of the lower +class in England would be but too apt to do--tormented him by +telling him that he was not sure of heaven, because he went to +church instead of joining their body. But he, though he went to +chapel in wet weather, clung to his own creed like an old soldier; +and came down to Massa's house to spend the Sunday whenever there +was a Communion, walking some five miles thither, and as much back +again. + +So much I learnt concerning old Isaac. And when in the afternoon he +toddled away, and back into the forest, what wonder if I felt like +Wordsworth after his talk with the old leech-gatherer?-- + + + 'And when he ended, +I could have laughed myself to scorn to find +In that decrepit man so firm a mind; +God, said I, be my help and stay secure, +I'll think of thee, leech-gatherer, on the lonely moor.' + + +On the Monday morning there was a great parade. All the Coolies +were to come up to see the Governor; and after breakfast a long line +of dark people arrived up the lawn, the women in their gaudiest +muslins, and some of them in cotton velvet jackets of the richest +colours. The Oriental instinct for harmonious hues, and those at +once rich and sober, such as may be seen in Indian shawls, is very +observable even in these Coolies, low-caste as most of them are. +There were bangles and jewels among them in plenty; and as it was a +high day and a holiday, the women had taken out the little gold or +silver stoppers in their pierced nostrils, and put in their place +the great gold ring which hangs down over the mouth, and is +considered by them, as learned men tell us it was by Rebekah at the +well, a special ornament. The men stood by themselves; the women by +themselves; the children grouped in front; and a merrier, healthier, +shrewder looking party I have seldom seen. Complaints there were +none. All seemed to look on the Squire as a father, and each face +brightened when he spoke to them by name. But the great ceremony +was the distributing by the Governor of red and yellow sweetmeats to +the children out of a huge dish held up by the Hindoo butler, while +Franky, in a long night-shirt of crimson cotton velvet, acted as +aide-de-camp, and took his perquisites freely. Each of the little +brown darlings got its share, the boys putting them into the flap of +their waistcloths, the girls into the front of their veils; and some +of the married women seemed ready enough to follow the children's +example; some of them, indeed, were little more than children +themselves. The pleasure of the men at the whole ceremony was very +noticeable, and very pleasant. Well fed, well cared for, well +taught (when they will allow themselves to be so), and with a local +medical man appointed for their special benefit, Coolies under such +a master ought to be, and are, prosperous and happy. Exceptions +there are, and must be. Are there none among the workmen of English +manufacturers and farmers? Abuses may spring up, and do. Do none +spring up in London and elsewhere? But the Government has the power +to interfere, and uses that power. These poor people are +sufficiently protected by law from their white employers; what they +need most is protection for the newcomers against the usury, or +swindling, by people of their own race, especially Hindoos of the +middle class, who are covetous and ill-disposed, and who use their +experience of the island for their own selfish advantage. But that +evil also Government is doing its best to put down. Already the +Coolies have a far larger amount of money in the savings' banks of +the island than the Negroes; and their prosperity can be safely +trusted to wise and benevolent laws, enforced by men who can afford +to stand above public opinion, as well as above private interest. I +speak, of course, only of Trinidad, because only Trinidad I have +seen. But what I say I know intimately to be true. + +The parade over--and a pleasant sight it was, and one not easily to +be forgotten--we were away to see the Salse, or 'mud-volcano,' near +Monkey Town, in the forest to the south-east. The cross-roads were +deep in mud, all the worse because it was beginning to dry on the +surface, forming a tough crust above the hasty-pudding which, if +broken through, held the horse's leg suspended as in a vice, and +would have thrown him down, if it were possible to throw down a +West-Indian horse. We passed in one place a quaint little relic of +the older world; a small sugar-press, rather than mill, under a roof +of palm-leaf, which was worked by hand, or a donkey, just as a +Spanish settler would have worked it three hundred years ago. Then +on through plenty of garden cultivation, with all the people at +their doors as we passed, fat and grinning: then up to a good high- +road, and a school for Coolies, kept by a Presbyterian clergyman, +Mr. Morton--I must be allowed to mention his name--who, like a +sensible man, wore a white coat instead of the absurd regulation +black one, too much affected by all well-to-do folk, lay as well as +clerical, in the West Indies. The school seemed good enough in all +ways. A senior class of young men--including one who had had his +head nearly cut off last year by misapplication of that formidable +weapon the cutlass, which every coloured man and woman carries in +the West Indies--could read pretty well; and the smaller children-- +with as much clothing on as they could be persuaded to wear--were a +sight pleasant to see. Among them, by the by, was a little lady who +excited my astonishment. She was, I was told, twelve years old. +She sat summing away on her slate, bedizened out in gauze petticoat, +velvet jacket--between which and the petticoat, of course, the waist +showed just as nature had made it--gauze veil, bangles, necklace, +nose-jewel; for she was a married woman, and her Papa (Anglice, +husband) wished her to look her best on so important an occasion. + +This over-early marriage among the Coolies is a very serious evil, +but one which they have brought with them from their own land. The +girls are practically sold by their fathers while yet children, +often to wealthy men much older than they. Love is out of the +question. But what if the poor child, as she grows up, sees some +one, among that overplus of men, to whom she, for the first time in +her life, takes a fancy? Then comes a scandal; and one which is +often ended swiftly enough by the cutlass. Wife-murder is but too +common among these Hindoos, and they cannot be made to see that it +is wrong. 'I kill my own wife. Why not? I kill no other man's +wife,' was said by as pretty, gentle, graceful a lad of two-and- +twenty as one need see; a convict performing, and perfectly, the +office of housemaid in a friend's house. There is murder of wives, +or quasi-wives now and then, among the baser sort of Coolies--murder +because a poor girl will not give her ill-earned gains to the +ruffian who considers her as his property. But there is also law in +Trinidad, and such offences do not go unpunished. + +Then on through Savanna Grande and village again, and past more +sugar estates, and past beautiful bits of forest, left, like English +woods, standing in the cultivated fields. One batch of a few acres +on the side of a dell was very lovely. Huge Figuiers and Huras were +mingled with palms and rich undergrowth, and lighted up here and +there with purple creepers. + +So we went on, and on, and into the thick forest, and what was, till +Sir Ralph Woodford taught the islanders what an European road was +like, one of the pattern royal roads of the island. Originally an +Indian trace, it had been widened by the Spaniards, and transformed +from a line of mud six feet broad to one of thirty. The only +pleasant reminiscence which I have about it was the finding in +flower a beautiful parasite, undescribed by Griesbach; {192} a 'wild +pine' with a branching spike of crimson flowers, purple tipped, +which shone in the darkness of the bush like a great bunch of +rosebuds growing among lily-leaves. + +The present Governor, like Sir Ralph Woodford before him, has been +fully aware of the old saying--which the Romans knew well, and which +the English did not know, and only rediscovered some century since-- +that the 'first step in civilisation is to make roads; the second, +to make more roads; and the third, to make more roads still.' + +Through this very district (aided by men whose talents he had the +talent to discover and employ) he has run wide, level, and sound +roads, either already completed or in progress, through all parts of +the island which I visited, save the precipitous glens of the +northern shore. + +Of such roads we saw more than one in the next few days. That day +we had to commit ourselves, when we turned off the royal road, to +one of the old Spanish-Indian jungle tracks. And here is a recipe +for making one:--Take a railway embankment of average steepness, +strew it freely with wreck, rigging and all, to imitate the fallen +timber, roots, and lianes--a few flagstones and boulders here and +there will be quite in place; plant the whole with the thickest +pheasant-cover; set a field of huntsmen to find their way through it +at the points of least resistance three times a week during a wet +winter; and if you dare follow their footsteps, you will find a very +accurate imitation of a forest-track in the wet season. + +At one place we seemed to be fairly stopped. We plunged and slid +down into a muddy brook, luckily with a gravel bar on which the +horses could stand, at least one by one; and found opposite us a +bank of smooth clay, bound with slippery roots, some ten feet high. +We stood and looked at it, and the longer we looked--in hunting +phrase--the less we liked it. But there was no alternative. Some +one jumped off, and scrambled up on his hands and knees; his horse +was driven up the bank to him--on its knees, likewise, more than +once--and caught staggering among boughs and mud; and by the time +the whole cavalcade was over, horses and men looked as if they had +been brickmaking for a week. + +But here again the cunning of these horses surprised me. On one +very steep pitch, for instance, I saw before me two logs across the +path, two feet and more in diameter, and what was worse, not two +feet apart. How the brown cob meant to get over I could not guess; +but as he seemed not to falter or turn tail, as an English horse +would have done, I laid the reins on his neck and watched his legs. +To my astonishment, he lifted a fore-leg out of the abyss of mud, +put it between the logs, where I expected to hear it snap; clawed in +front, and shuffled behind; put the other over the second log, the +mud and water splashing into my face, and then brought the first +freely out from between the logs, and--horrible to see--put a hind +one in. Thus did he fairly walk through the whole; stopped a moment +to get his breath; and then staggered and scrambled upward again, as +if he had done nothing remarkable. Coming back, by the by, those +two logs lay heavy on my heart for a mile ere I neared them. He +might get up over them; but how would he get down again? And I was +not surprised to hear more than one behind me say, 'I think I shall +lead over.' But being in front, if I fell, I could only fall into +the mud, and not on the top of a friend. So I let the brown cob do +what he would, determined to see how far a tropic horse's legs could +keep him up; and, to my great amusement, he quietly leapt the whole, +descending five or six feet into a pool of mud, which shot out over +him and me, half blinding us for the moment; then slid away on his +haunches downward; picked himself up; and went on as usual, solemn, +patient, and seemingly stupid as any donkey. + +We had some difficulty in finding our quest, the Salse, or mud- +volcano. But at last, out of a hut half buried in verdure on the +edge of a little clearing, there tumbled the quaintest little old +black man, cutlass in hand, and, without being asked, went on ahead +as our guide. Crook-backed, round-shouldered, his only dress a +ragged shirt and ragged pair of drawers, he had evidently thriven +upon the forest life for many a year. He did not walk nor run, but +tumbled along in front of us, his bare feet plashing from log to log +and mud-heap to mud-heap, his gray woolly head wagging right and +left, and his cutlass brushing almost instinctively at every bough +he passed, while he turned round every moment to jabber something, +usually in Creole French, which, of course, I could not understand. + +He led us well, up and down, and at last over a flat of rich muddy +ground, full of huge trees, and of their roots likewise, where there +was no path at all. The solitude was awful; so was the darkness of +the shade; so was the stifling heat; and right glad we were when we +saw an opening in the trees, and the little man quickened his pace, +and stopped with an air of triumph not unmixed with awe on the edge +of a circular pool of mud and water some two or three acres in +extent. + +'Dere de debbil's woodyard,' said he, with somewhat bated breath. +And no wonder; for a more doleful, uncanny, half-made spot I never +saw. The sad forest ringed it round with a green wall, feathered +down to the ugly mud, on which, partly perhaps from its saltness, +partly from the changeableness of the surface, no plant would grow, +save a few herbs and creepers which love the brackish water. Only +here and there an Echites had crawled out of the wood and lay along +the ground, its long shoots gay with large cream-coloured flowers +and pairs of glossy leaves; and on it, and on some dead brushwood, +grew a lovely little parasitic Orchis, an Oncidium, with tiny fans +of leaves, and flowers like swarms of yellow butterflies. + +There was no track of man, not even a hunter's footprint; but +instead, tracks of beasts in plenty. Deer, quenco, {194a} and lapo, +{194b} with smaller animals, had been treading up and down, probably +attracted by the salt water. They were safe enough, the old man +said. No hunter dare approach the spot. There were 'too much +jumbies' here; and when one of the party expressed a wish to lie out +there some night, in the hope of good shooting, the Negro shook his +head. He would 'not do that for all the world. De debbil come out +here at night, and walk about;' and he was much scandalised when the +young gentleman rejoined that the chance of such a sight would be an +additional reason for bivouacking there. + +So we walked out upon the mud, which was mostly hard enough, past +shallow pools of brackish water, smelling of asphalt, toward a group +of little mud-volcanoes on the farther side. These curious openings +into the nether-world are not permanent. They choke up after a +while, and fresh ones appear in another part of the area, thus +keeping the whole clear of plants. + +They are each some two or three feet high, of the very finest mud, +which leaves no feeling of grit on the fingers or tongue, and dries, +of course, rapidly in the sun. On the top, or near the top, of each +is a round hole, a finger's breadth, polished to exceeding +smoothness, and running down through the cone as far as we could +dig. From each oozes perpetually, with a clicking noise of gas- +bubbles, water and mud; and now and then, losing their temper, they +spirt out their dirt to a considerable height; a feat which we did +not see performed, but which is so common that we were in something +like fear and trembling while we opened a cone with our cutlasses. +For though we could hardly have been made dirtier than we were, an +explosion in our faces of mud with 'a faint bituminous smell,' and +impregnated with 'common salt, a notable proportion of iodine, and a +trace of carbonate of soda and carbonate of lime,' {195} would have +been both unpleasant and humiliating. But the most puzzling thing +about the place is, that out of the mud comes up--not jumbies, but-- +a multitude of small stones, like no stones in the neighbourhood; we +found concretions of iron sand, and scales which seemed to have +peeled off them; and pebbles, quartzose, or jasper, or like in +appearance to flint; but all evidently long rolled on a sea-beach. +Messrs. Wall and Sawkins mention pyrites and gypsum as being found: +but we saw none, as far as I recollect. All these must have been +carried up from a considerable depth by the force of the same gases +which make the little mud-volcanoes. + +Now and then this 'Salse,' so quiet when we saw it, is said to be +seized with a violent paroxysm. Explosions are heard, and large +discharges of mud, and even flame, are said to appear. Some +seventeen years ago (according to Messrs. Wall and Sawkins) such an +explosion was heard six miles off; and next morning the surface was +found quite altered, and trees had disappeared, or been thrown down. +But--as they wisely say--the reports of the inhabitants must be +received with extreme caution. In the autumn of last year, some +such explosion is said to have taken place at the Cedros Salse, a +place so remote, unfortunately, that I could not visit it. The +Negroes and Coolies, the story goes, came running to the overseer at +the noise, assuring him that something terrible had happened; and +when he, in defiance of their fears, went off to the Salse, he found +that many tons of mud--I was told thousands--had been thrown out. +How true this may be, I cannot say. But Messrs. Wall and Sawkins +saw with their own eyes, in 1856, about two miles from this Cedros +Salse, the results of an explosion which had happened only two +months before, and of which they give a drawing. A surface two +hundred feet round had been upheaved fifteen feet, throwing the +trees in every direction; and the sham earthquake had shaken the +ground for two hundred or three hundred yards round, till the +natives fancied that their huts were going to fall. + +There is a third Salse near Poole River, on the Upper Ortoire, which +is extinct, or at least quiescent; but this, also, I could not +visit. It is about seventeen miles from the sea, and about two +hundred feet above it. As for the causes of these Salses, I fear +the reader must be content, for the present, with a somewhat muddy +explanation of the muddy mystery. Messrs. Wall and Sawkins are +inclined to connect it with asphalt springs and pitch lakes. 'There +is,' they say, 'easy gradation from the smaller Salses to the +ordinary naphtha or petroleum springs.' It is certain that in the +production of asphalt, carbonic acid, carburetted hydrogen, and +water are given off. 'May not,' they ask, 'these orifices be the +vents by which such gases escape? And in forcing their way to the +surface, is it not natural that the liquid asphalt and slimy water +should be drawn up and expelled?' They point out the fact, that +wherever such volcanoes exist, asphalt or petroleum is found hard +by. The mud volcanoes of Turbaco, in New Granada, famous from +Humboldt's description of them, lie in an asphaltic country. They +are much larger than those of Trinidad, the cones being, some of +them, twenty feet high. When Humboldt visited them in 1801, they +gave off hardly anything save nitrogen gas. But in the year 1850, a +'bituminous odour' had begun to be diffused; asphaltic oil swam on +the surface of the small openings; and the gas issuing from any of +the cones could be ignited. Dr. Daubeny found the mud-volcanoes of +Macaluba giving out bitumen, and bubbles of carbonic acid and +carburetted hydrogen. The mud-volcano of Saman, in the Western +Caucasus, gives off, with a continual stream of thick mud, ignited +gases, accompanied with mimic earthquakes like those of the Trinidad +Salses; and this out of a soil said to be full of bituminous +springs, and where (as in Trinidad) the tertiary strata carry veins +of asphalt, or are saturated with naphtha. At the famous sacred +Fire wells of Baku, in the Eastern Caucasus, the ejections of mud +and inflammable gas are so mixed with asphaltic products that +Eichwald says 'they should be rather called naphtha volcanoes than +mud-volcanoes, as the eruptions always terminate in a large emission +of naphtha.' + +It is reasonable enough, then, to suppose a similar connection in +Trinidad. But whence come, either in Trinidad or at Turbaco, the +sea-salts and the iodine? Certainly not from the sea itself, which +is distant, in the case of the Trinidad Salses, from two to +seventeen miles. It must exist already in the strata below. And +the ejected pebbles, which are evidently sea-worn, must form part of +a tertiary sea-beach, covered by sands, and covering, perhaps, in +its turn, vegetable debris which, as it is converted into asphalt, +thrusts the pebbles up to the surface. + +We had to hurry away from the strange place; for night was falling +fast, or rather ready to fall, as always here, in a moment, without +twilight, and we were scarce out of the forest before it was dark. +The wild game were already moving, and a deer crossed our line of +march, close before one of the horses. However, we were not +benighted; for the sun was hardly down ere the moon rose, bright and +full; and we floundered home through the mud, to start again next +morning into mud again. Through rich rolling land covered with +cane; past large sugar-works, where crop-time and all its bustle was +just beginning; along a tramway, which made an excellent horse-road, +and then along one of the new roads, which are opening up the yet +untouched riches of this island. In this district alone, thirty-six +miles of good road and thirty bridges have been made, where formerly +there were only two abominable bridle-paths. It was a solid +pleasure to see good engineering round the hillsides; gullies, which +but a year or two before were break-neck scrambles into fords often +impassable after all, bridged with baulks of incorruptible timber, +on piers sunk, to give a hold in that sea of hasty pudding, sixteen +feet below the river-bed; and side supports sunk as far into the +banks; a solid pleasure to congratulate the warden (who had joined +us) on his triumphs, and to hear how he had sought for miles around +in the hasty-pudding sea, ere he could find either gravel or stone +for road metal, and had found it after all; or how in places, +finding no stone at all, he had been forced to metal the way with +burnt clay, which, as I can testify, is an excellent substitute; or +how again he had coaxed and patted the too-comfortable natives into +being well paid for doing the very road-making which, if they had +any notion of their own interests, they would combine to do for +themselves. And so we rode on chatting, + + + 'While all the land, +Beneath a broad and equal-blowing breeze, +Smelt of the coming summer;' + + +for it was winter then, and only 80 degrees in the shade, till the +road entered the virgin forest, through which it has been driven, on +the American principle of making land valuable by beginning with a +road, and expecting settlers to follow it. Some such settlers we +found, clearing right and left; among them a most satisfactory +sight; namely, more than one Coolie family, who had served their +apprenticeship, saved money, bought Government land, and set up as +yeomen; the foundation, it is to be hoped, of a class of intelligent +and civilised peasant proprietors. These men, as soon as they have +cleared as much land as their wives and children, with their help, +can keep in order, go off, usually, in gangs of ten to fifteen, to +work, in many instances, on the estates from which they originally +came. This fact practically refutes the opinion which was at first +held by some attorneys and managers of sugar-estates, that the +settling of free Indian immigrants would materially affect the +labour supply of the colony. I must express an earnest hope that +neither will any planters be short-sighted enough to urge such a +theory on the present Governor, nor will the present Governor give +ear to it. The colony at large must gain by the settlement of Crown +lands by civilised people like the Hindoos, if it be only through +the increased exports and imports; while the sugar-estates will +become more and more sure of a constant supply of labour, without +the heavy expense of importing fresh immigrants. I am assured that +the only expense to the colony is the fee for survey, amounting to +eighteen dollars for a ten-acre allotment, as the Coolie prefers the +thinly-wooded and comparatively poor lands, from the greater +facility of clearing them; and these lands are quite unsaleable to +other customers. Therefore, for less than 4 pounds, an acclimatised +Indian labourer with his family (and it must be remembered that, +while the Negro families increase very slowly, the Coolies increase +very rapidly, being more kind and careful parents) are permanently +settled in the colony, the man to work five days a week on sugar- +estates, the family to grow provisions for the market, instead of +being shipped back to India at a cost, including gratuities and +etceteras, of not less than 50 pounds. + +One clearing we reached--were I five-and-twenty I should like to +make just such another next to it--of a higher class still. A +cultivated Scotchman, now no longer young, but hale and mighty, had +taken up three hundred acres, and already cleared a hundred and +fifty; and there he intended to pass the rest of a busy life, not +under his own vine and fig-tree, but under his own castor-oil and +cacao-tree. We were welcomed by as noble a Scot's face as I ever +saw, and as keen a Scot's eye; and taken in and fed, horses and men, +even too sumptuously, in a palm and timber house. Then we wandered +out to see the site of his intended mansion, with the rich wooded +hills of the Latagual to the north, and all around the unbroken +forest, where, he told us, the howling monkeys shouted defiance +morning and evening at him who did + + +'Invade their ancient solitary reign.' + + +Then we went down to see the Coolie barracks, where the folk seemed +as happy and well cared for as they were certain to be under such a +master; then down a rocky pool in the river, jammed with bare white +logs (as in some North American forest), which had been stopped in +flood by one enormous trunk across the stream; then back past the +site of the ajoupa which had been our host's first shelter, and +which had disappeared by a cause strange enough to English ears. An +enormous silk-cotton near by was felled, in spite of the Negroes' +fears. Its boughs, when it fell, did not reach the ajoupa by twenty +feet or more; but the wind of its fall did, and blew the hut clean +away. This may sound like a story out of Munchausen: but there was +no doubt of the fact; and to us who saw the size of the tree which +did the deed it seemed probable enough. + +We rode away again, and into the 'Morichal,' the hills where Moriche +palms are found; to see certain springs and a certain tree; and well +worth seeing they were. Out of the base of a limestone hill, amid +delicate ferns, under the shade of enormous trees, a clear pool +bubbled up and ran away, a stream from its very birth, as is the +wont of limestone springs. It was a spot fit for a Greek nymph; at +least for an Indian damsel: but the nymph who came to draw water in +a tin bucket, and stared stupidly and saucily at us, was anything +but Greek, or even Indian, either in costume or manners. Be it so. +White men are responsible for her being there; so white men must not +complain. Then we went in search of the tree. We had passed, as we +rode up, some Huras (Sandbox-trees) which would have been considered +giants in England; and I had been laughed at more than once for +asking, 'Is that the tree, or that?' I soon knew why. We scrambled +up a steep bank of broken limestone, through ferns and Balisiers, +for perhaps a hundred feet; and then were suddenly aware of a bole +which justified the saying of one of our party--that, when surveying +for a road he had come suddenly on it, he 'felt as if he had run +against a church tower.' It was a Hura, seemingly healthy, +undecayed, and growing vigorously. Its girth--we measured it +carefully--was forty-four feet, six feet from the ground, and as I +laid my face against it and looked up, I seemed to be looking up a +ship's side. It was perfectly cylindrical, branchless, and smooth, +save, of course, the tiny prickles which beset the bark, for a +height at which we could not guess, but which we luckily had an +opportunity of measuring. A wild pine grew in the lowest fork, and +had kindly let down an air-root into the soil. We tightened the +root, set it perpendicular, cut it off exactly where it touched the +ground, and then pulled carefully till we brought the plant and half +a dozen more strange vegetables down on our heads. The length of +the air-root was just seventy-five feet. Some twenty feet or more +above that first fork was a second fork; and then the tree began. +Where its head was we could not see. We could only, by laying our +faces against the bole and looking up, discern a wilderness of +boughs carrying a green cloud of leaves, most of them too high for +us to discern their shape without the glasses. We walked up the +slope, and round about, in hopes of seeing the head of the tree +clear enough to guess at its total height: but in vain. It was +only when we had ridden some half mile up the hill that we could +discern its masses rising, a bright green mound, above the darker +foliage of the forest. It looked of any height, from one hundred +and fifty to two hundred feet; less it could hardly be. 'It made,' +says a note by one of our party, 'other huge trees look like +shrubs.' I am not surprised that my friend Mr. St. Luce D'Abadie, +who measured the tree since my departure, found it to be one hundred +and ninety-two feet in height. + +I was assured that there were still larger trees in the island. A +certain Locust-tree and a Ceiba were mentioned. The Moras, too, of +the southern hills, were said to be far taller. And I can well +believe it; for if huge trees were as shrubs beside that Sandbox, it +would be a shrub by the side of those Locusts figured by Spix and +Martius, which fifteen Indians with outstretched arms could just +embrace. At the bottom they were eighty-four feet round, and sixty +where the boles became cylindrical. By counting the rings of such +parts as could be reached, they arrived at the conclusion that they +were of the age of Homer, and 332 years old in the days of +Pythagoras. One estimate, indeed, reduced their antiquity to 2052 +years old; while another (counting, I presume, two rings of fresh +wood for every year) carried it up to 4104. + +So we rode on and up the hills, by green and flowery paths, with +here and there a cottage and a garden, and groups of enormous +Palmistes towering over the tree-tops in every glen, talking over +that wondrous weed, whose head we saw still far below. For weed it +is, and nothing more. The wood is soft and almost useless, save for +firing; and the tree itself, botanists tell us, is neither more nor +less than a gigantic Spurge, the cousin-german of the milky garden +weeds with which boys burn away their warts. But if the modern +theory be true, that when we speak (as we are forced to speak) of +the relationships of plants, we use no metaphor, but state an actual +fact; that the groups into which we are forced to arrange them +indicate not merely similarity of type, but community of descent-- +then how wonderful is the kindred between the Spurge and the Hura-- +indeed, between all the members of the Euphorbiaceous group, so +fantastically various in outward form; so abundant, often huge, in +the Tropics, while in our remote northern island their only +representatives are a few weedy Spurges, two Dog's Mercuries--weeds +likewise--and the Box. Wonderful it is if only these last have had +the same parentage--still more if they have had the same parentage, +too, with forms so utterly different from them as the prickly- +stemmed scarlet-flowered Euphorbia common in our hothouses; as the +huge succulent cactus-like Euphorbia of the Canary Islands; as the +gale-like Phyllanthus; the many-formed Crotons, which in the West +Indies alone comprise, according to Griesbach, at least twelve +genera and thirty species; the hemp-like Maniocs, Physic-nuts, +Castor-oils; the scarlet Poinsettia which adorns dinner-tables in +winter; the pretty little pink and yellow Dalechampia, now common in +hothouses; the Manchineel, with its glossy poplar-like leaves; and +this very Hura, with leaves still more like a poplar, and a fruit +which differs from most of its family in having not three but many +divisions, usually a multiple of three up to fifteen; a fruit which +it is difficult to obtain, even where the tree is plentiful: for +hanging at the end of long branches, it bursts when ripe with a +crack like a pistol, scattering its seeds far and wide: from whence +its name of Hura crepitans. + +But what if all these forms are the descendants of one original +form? Would that be one whit more wonderful, more inexplicable, +than the theory that they were each and all, with their minute and +often imaginary shades of difference, created separately and at +once? But if it be--which I cannot allow--what can the theologian +say, save that God's works are even more wonderful than we always +believed them to be? As for the theory being impossible: who are +we, that we should limit the power of God? 'Is anything too hard +for the Lord?' asked the prophet of old; and we have a right to ask +it as long as time shall last. If it be said that natural selection +is too simple a cause to produce such fantastic variety: we always +knew that God works by very simple, or seemingly simple, means; that +the universe, as far as we could discern it, was one organisation of +the most simple means; it was wonderful (or ought to have been) in +our eyes, that a shower of rain should make the grass grow, and that +the grass should become flesh, and the flesh food for the thinking +brain of man; it was (or ought to have been) yet more wonderful in +our eyes, that a child should resemble its parents, or even a +butterfly resemble--if not always, still usually--its parents +likewise. Ought God to appear less or more august in our eyes if we +discover that His means are even simpler than we supposed? We hold +Him to be almighty and allwise. Are we to reverence Him less or +more if we find that His might is greater, His wisdom deeper, than +we had ever dreamed? We believed that His care was over all His +works; that His providence watched perpetually over the universe. +We were taught, some of us at least, by Holy Scripture, to believe +that the whole history of the universe was made up of special +providences: if, then, that should be true which Mr. Darwin says-- +'It may be metaphorically said that natural selection is daily and +hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, every variation, even the +slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all +that is good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever +opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in +relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life,'--if this, +I say, were proved to be true, ought God's care, God's providence, +to seem less or more magnificent in our eyes? Of old it was said by +Him without whom nothing is made--'My Father worketh hitherto, and I +work.' Shall we quarrel with physical science, if she gives us +evidence that these words are true? And if it should be proven that +the gigantic Hura and the lowly Spurge sprang from one common +ancestor, what would the orthodox theologian have to say to it, +saving--'I always knew that God was great: and I am not surprised +to find Him greater than I thought Him'? + +So much for the giant weed of the Morichal, from which we rode on +and up through rolling country growing lovelier at every step, and +turned out of our way to see wild pine-apples in a sandy spot, or +'Arenal' in a valley beneath. The meeting of the stiff marl and the +fine sand was abrupt, and well marked by the vegetation. On one +side of the ravine the tall fan-leaved Carats marked the rich soil; +on the other, the sand and gravel loving Cocorites appeared at once, +crowding their ostrich plumes together. Most of them were the +common species of the island {202a} in which the pinnae of the +leaves grow in fours and fives, and at different angles from the +leaf-stalk, giving the whole a brushy appearance, which takes off +somewhat from the perfectness of its beauty. But among them we saw- +-for the first and last time in the forest--a few of a far more +beautiful species, {202b} common on the mainland. In it, the pinnae +are set on all at the same distance apart, and all in the same +plane, in opposite sides of the stalk, giving to the whole foliage a +grand simplicity; and producing, when the curving leaf-points toss +in the breeze, that curious appearance, which I mentioned in an +earlier chapter, of green glass wheels with rapidly revolving +spokes. At their feet grew the pine-apples, only in flower or +unripe fruit, so that we could not quench our thirst with them, and +only looked with curiosity at the small wild type of so famous a +plant. But close by, and happily nearly ripe, we found a fair +substitute for pine-apples in the fruit of the Karatas. This form +of Bromelia, closely allied to the Pinguin of which hedges are made, +bears a straggling plume of prickly leaves, six or eight feet long +each, close to the ground. The forester looks for a plant in which +the leaves droop outwards--a sign that the fruit is ripe. After +beating it cautiously (for snakes are very fond of coiling under its +shade) he opens the centre, and finds, close to the ground, a group +of whitish fruits, nearly two inches long; peels carefully off the +skin, which is beset with innumerable sharp hairs, and eats the +sour-sweet refreshing pulp: but not too often, for there are always +hairs enough left to make the tongue bleed if more than one or two +are eaten. + +With lips somewhat less parched, we rode away again to see the sight +of the day; and a right pleasant sight it was. These Montserrat +hills had been, within the last three years, almost the most lawless +and neglected part of the island. Principally by the energy and +tact of one man, the wild inhabitants had been conciliated, brought +under law, and made to pay their light taxes, in return for a safety +and comfort enjoyed perhaps by no other peasants on earth. + +A few words on the excellent system, which bids fair to establish in +this colony a thriving and loyal peasant proprietary. Up to 1847 +Crown lands were seldom alienated. In that year a price was set +upon them, and persons in illegal occupation ordered to petition for +their holdings. Unfortunately, though a time was fixed for +petitioning, no time was fixed for paying; and consequently the vast +majority of petitioners never took any further steps in the matter. +Unfortunately, too, the price fixed--2 pounds per acre--was too +high; and squatting went on much as before. + +It appeared to the late Governor that this evil would best be dealt +with experimentally and locally; and he accordingly erected the +chief squatting district, Montserrat, into a ward, giving the warden +large discretionary powers as Commissioner of Crown lands. The +price of Crown lands was reduced, in 1869, to 1 pounds per acre; and +the Montserrat system extended, as far as possible, to other wards; +a movement which the results fully justified. + +In 1867 there were in Montserrat 400 squatters, holding lands of +from 3 to 120 acres, planted with cacao, coffee, or provisions. +Some of the cacao plantations were valued at 1000 pounds. These +people lived without paying taxes, and almost without law or +religion. The Crown woods had been, of course, sadly plundered by +squatters, and by others who should have known better. At every +turn magnificent cedars might have been seen levelled by the axe, +only a few feet of the trunk being used to make boards and shingles, +while the greater part was left to rot or burn. These +irregularities have been now almost stopped; and 266 persons, in +Montserrat alone, have taken out grants of land, some of 400 acres. +But this by no means represents the number of purchasers, as nearly +an equal number have paid for their estates, though they have not +yet received their grants, and nearly 500 more have made +application. Two villages have been formed; one of which is that +where we rested, containing the church. The other contains the +warden's residence and office, the police-station, and a numerously +attended school. + +The squatters are of many races, and of many hues of black and +brown. The half-breeds from the neighbouring coast of Venezuela, a +mixture, probably, of Spanish, Negro, and Indian, are among the most +industrious; and their cacao plantations, in some cases, hold 8000 +to 10,000 trees. The south-west corner of Montserrat {204} is +almost entirely settled by Africans of various tribes--Mandingos, +Foulahs, Homas, Yarribas, Ashantees, and Congos. The last occupy +the lowest position in the social scale. They lead, for the most +part, a semi-barbarous life, dwelling in miserable huts, and +subsisting on the produce of an acre or two of badly cultivated +land, eked out with the pay of an occasional day's labour on some +neighbouring estate. The social position of some of the Yarribas +forms a marked contrast to that of the Congos. They inhabit houses +of cedar, or other substantial materials. Their gardens are, for +the most part, well stocked and kept. They raise crops of yam, +cassava, Indian corn, etc.; and some of them subscribe to a fund on +which they may draw in case of illness or misfortune. They are, +however (as is to be expected from superior intellect while still +uncivilised), more difficult to manage than the Congos, and highly +impatient of control. + +These Africans, Mr. Mitchell says, all belong nominally to some +denomination of Christianity; but their lives are more influenced by +their belief in Obeah. While the precepts of religion are little +regarded, they stand in mortal dread of those who practise this +mischievous imposture. Well might the Commissioner say, in 1867, +that several years must elapse before the chaos which reigned could +be reduced to order. The wonder is, that in three years so much has +been done. It was very difficult, at first, even to find the +whereabouts of many of the squatters. The Commissioner had to work +by compass through the pathless forest. Getting little or no food +but cassava cakes and 'guango' of maize, and now and then a little +coffee and salt fish, without time to hunt the game which passed +him, and continually wet through, he stumbled in suddenly on one +squatting after another, to the astonishment of its owner, who could +not conceive how he had been found out, and had never before seen a +white man alone in the forest. Sometimes he was in considerable +danger of a rough reception from people who could not at first +understand what they had to gain by getting legal titles, and buying +the lands the fruit of which they had enjoyed either for nothing, or +for payment of a small annual assessment for the cultivated portion. +In another quarter--Toco--a notoriously lawless squatter had +expressed his intention of shooting the Government official. The +white gentleman walked straight up to the little forest fortress +hidden in bush, and confronted the Negro, who had gun in hand. + +'I could have shot you if I had liked, buccra.' + +'No, you could not. I should have cut you down first: so don't +play the fool,' answered the official quietly, hand on cutlass. + +The wild man gave in; paid his rates; received the Crown title for +his land; and became (as have all these sons of the forest) fast +friends with one whom they have learnt at once to love and fear. + +But among the Montserrat hills, the Governor had struck on a spot so +fit for a new settlement, that he determined to found one forthwith. +The quick-eyed Jesuits had founded a mission on the same spot many +years before. But all had lapsed again into forest. A group of +enormous Palmistes stands on a plateau, flat, and yet lofty and +healthy. The soil is exceeding fertile. There are wells and brooks +of pure water all around. The land slopes down for hundreds of feet +in wooded gorges, full of cedar and other admirable timber, with +Palmistes towering over them everywhere. Far away lies the lowland; +and every breeze of heaven sweeps over the crests of the hills. So +one peculiarly tall palm was chosen for a central landmark, an +ornament to the town square such as no capital in Europe can boast. +Traces were cut, streets laid out, lots of Crown lands put up for +sale, and settlers invited in the name of the Government. + +Scarcely eighteen months had passed since then, and already there +Mitchell Street, Violin Street, Duboulay Street, Farfan Street, had +each its new houses built of cedar and thatched with palm. Two +Chinese shops had Celestials with pigtails and thick-soled shoes +grinning behind cedar counters, among stores of Bryant's safety +matches, Huntley and Palmers' biscuits, and Allsopp's pale ale. A +church had been built, the shell at least, and partly floored, with +a very simple, but not tasteless, altar; the Abbe had a good house, +with a gallery, jalousies, and white china handles to the doors. +The mighty palm in the centre of Gordon Square had a neat railing +round it, as befitted the Palladium of the village. Behind the +houses, among the stumps of huge trees, maize and cassava, pigeon- +peas and sweet potatoes, fattened in the sun, on ground which till +then had been shrouded by vegetation a hundred feet thick; and as we +sat at the head man's house, with French and English prints upon the +walls, and drank beer from a Chinese shop, and looked out upon the +loyal, thriving little settlement, I envied the two young men who +could say, 'At least, we have not lived in vain; for we have made +this out of the primeval forest.' Then on again. 'We mounted' (I +quote now from the notes of one to whom the existence of the +settlement was due) 'to the crest of the hills, and had a noble view +southwards, looking over the rich mass of dark wood, flecked here +and there with a scarlet stain of Bois Immortelle, to the great sea +of bright green sugar cultivation in the Naparimas, studded by white +works and villages, and backed far off by a hazy line of forest, out +of which rose the peaks of the Moruga Mountains. More to the west +lay San Fernando hill, the calm gulf, and the coast toward La Brea +and Cedros melting into mist. M--- thought we should get a better +view of the northern mountains by riding up to old Nicano's house; +so we went thither, under the cacao rich with yellow and purple +pods. The view was fine: but the northern range, though visible, +was rather too indistinct, and the mainland was not to be seen at +all.' + +Nevertheless, the panorama from the top of Montserrat is at once the +most vast, and the most lovely, which I have ever seen. And +whosoever chooses to go and live there may buy any reasonable +quantity of the richest soil at 1 pounds per acre. + +Then down off the ridge, toward the northern lowland, lay a headlong +old Indian path, by which we travelled, at last, across a rocky +brook, and into a fresh paradise. + +I must be excused for using this word so often: but I use it in the +original Persian sense, as a place in which natural beauty has been +helped by art. An English park or garden would have been called of +old a paradise; and the enceinte of a West Indian house, even in its +present half-wild condition, well deserves the same title. That Art +can help Nature there can be no doubt. 'The perfection of Nature' +exists only in the minds of sentimentalists, and of certain well- +meaning persons, who assert the perfection of Nature when they wish +to controvert science, and deny it when they wish to prove this +earth fallen and accursed. Mr. Nesfield can make landscapes, by +obedience to certain laws which Nature is apt to disregard in the +struggle for existence, more beautiful than they are already by +Nature; and that without introducing foreign forms of vegetation. +But if foreign forms, wisely chosen for their shapes and colours, be +added, the beauty may be indefinitely increased. For the plants +most capable of beautifying any given spot do not always grow +therein, simply because they have not yet arrived there; as may be +seen by comparing any wood planted with Rhododendrons and Azaleas +with the neighbouring wood in its native state. Thus may be +obtained somewhat of that variety and richness which is wanting +everywhere, more or less, in the vegetation of our northern zone, +only just recovering slowly from the destructive catastrophe of the +glacial epoch; a richness which, small as it is, vanishes as we +travel northward, till the drear landscape is sheeted more and more +with monotonous multitudes of heather, grass, fir, or other social +plants. + +But even in the Tropics the virgin forest, beautiful as it is, is +without doubt much less beautiful, both in form and colours, than it +might be made. Without doubt, also, a mere clearing, after a few +years, is a more beautiful place than the forest; because by it +distance is given, and you are enabled to see the sky, and the +forest itself beside; because new plants, and some of them very +handsome ones, are introduced by cultivation, or spring up in the +rastrajo; and lastly, but not least, because the forest on the edge +of the clearing is able to feather down to the ground, and change +what is at first a bare tangle of stems and boughs into a softly +rounded bank of verdure and flowers. When, in some future +civilisation, the art which has produced, not merely a Chatsworth or +a Dropmore, but an average English shrubbery or park, is brought to +bear on tropic vegetation, then Nature, always willing to obey when +conquered by fair means, will produce such effects of form and +colour around tropic estates and cities as we cannot fancy for +ourselves. + +Mr. Wallace laments (and rightly) the absence in the tropic forests +of such grand masses of colour as are supplied by a heather moor, a +furze or broom-croft, a field of yellow charlock, blue bugloss, or +scarlet poppy. Tropic landscape gardening will supply that defect; +and a hundred plants of yellow Allamanda, or purple Dolichos, or +blue Clitoria, or crimson Norantea, set side by side, as we might +use a hundred Calceolarias or Geraniums, will carry up the forest +walls, and over the tree-tops, not square yards, but I had almost +said square acres of richest positive colour. I can conceive no +limit to the effects--always heightened by the intense sunlight and +the peculiar tenderness of the distances--which landscape gardening +will produce when once it is brought to bear on such material as it +has never yet attempted to touch, at least in the West Indies, save +in the Botanic Garden at Port of Spain. + +And thus the little paradise at Tortuga to which we descended to +sleep, though cleared out without any regard to art, was far more +beautiful than the forest out of which it had been hewn three years +before. The two first settlers regretted the days when the house +was a mere palm-thatched hut, where they sat on stumps which would +not balance, and ate potted meat with their pocket knives. But it +had grown now into a grand place, fit to receive ladies: such a +house, or rather shed, as those South Sea Island ones which may be +seen in Hodges' illustrations to Cook's Voyages, save that a couple +of bedrooms have been boarded off at the back, a little office on +one side, and a bulwark, like that of a ship, put round the gallery. +And as we looked down through the purple gorges, and up at the +mountain woods, over which the stars were flashing out blight and +fast, and listened to the soft strange notes of the forest birds +going to roost, again the thought came over me--Why should not +gentlemen and ladies come to such spots as these to live 'the Gentle +Life'? + +We slept that night, some in beds, some in hammocks, some on the +floor, with the rich warm night wind rushing down through all the +house; and then were up once more in the darkness of the dawn, to go +down and bathe at a little cascade, where a feeble stream dribbled +under ferns and balisiers over soft square limestone rocks like the +artificial rocks of the Serpentine, and those--copied probably from +the rocks of Fontainebleau--which one sees in old French landscapes. +But a bathe was hardly necessary. So drenched was the vegetation +with night dew, that if one had taken off one's clothes at the +house, and simply walked under the bananas, and through the tanias +and maize which grew among them, one would have been well washed ere +one reached the stream. As it was, the bathers came back with their +clothes wet through. No matter. The sun was up, and half an hour +would dry all again. + +One object, on the edge of the forest, was worth noticing, and was +watched long through the glasses; namely, two or three large trees, +from which dangled a multitude of the pendant nests of the Merles: +{209} birds of the size of a jackdaw, brown and yellow, and mocking- +birds, too, of no small ability. The pouches, two feet long and +more, swayed in the breeze, fastened to the end of the boughs with a +few threads. Each had, about half-way down, an opening into the +round sac below, in and out of which the Merles crept and fluttered, +talking all the while in twenty different notes. Most tropic birds +hide their nests carefully in the bush: the Merles hang theirs +fearlessly in the most exposed situations. They find, I presume, +that they are protected enough from monkeys, wild cats, and gato- +melaos (a sort of ferret) by being hung at the extremity of the +bough. So thinks M. Leotaud, the accomplished describer of the +birds of Trinidad. But he adds with good reason: 'I do not, +however, understand how birds can protect their nestlings against +ants; for so large is the number of these insects in our climes, +that it would seem as if everything would become their prey.' + +And so everything will, unless the bird murder be stopped. Already +the parasol-ants have formed a warren close to Port of Spain, in +what was forty years ago highly cultivated ground, from which they +devastate at night the northern gardens. The forests seem as empty +of birds as the neighbourhood of the city; and a sad answer will +soon have to be given to M. Leotaud's question:-- + +'The insectivorous tribes are the true representatives of our +ornithology. There are so many which feed on insects and their +larvae, that it may be asked with much reason, What would become of +our vegetation, of ourselves, should these insect destroyers +disappear? Everywhere may be seen' (M. L. speaks, I presume, of +five-and-twenty years ago: my experience would make me substitute +for his words, 'Hardly anywhere can be seen') 'one of these +insectivora in pursuit or seizure of its prey, either on the wing or +on the trunks of trees, in the coverts of thickets or in the calices +of flowers. Whenever called to witness one of those frequent +migrations from one point to another, so often practised by ants, +not only can the Dendrocolaptes (connected with our Creepers) be +seen following the moving trail, and preying on the ants and the +eggs themselves, but even the black Tanager abandons his usual +fruits for this more tempting delicacy. Our frugivorous and +baccivorous genera are also pretty numerous, and most of them are so +fond of insect food that they unite, as occasion offers, with the +insectivorous tribes.' + +So it was once. Now a traveller, accustomed to the swarms of birds +which, not counting the game, inhabit an average English cover, +would be surprised and pained by the scarcity of birds in the +forests of this island. + +We rode down toward the northern lowland, along a broad new road of +last year's making, terraced, with great labour, along the hill, and +stopped to visit one of those excellent Government schools which do +honour, first to that wise legislator, Lord Harris, and next to the +late Governor. Here, in the depths of the forest, where never +policeman or schoolmaster had been before, was a house of satin-wood +and cedar not two years old, used at once as police-station and +school, with a shrewd Spanish-speaking schoolmaster, and fifty-two +decent little brown children on the school-books, and getting, when +their lazy parents will send them, as good an education as they +would get in England. I shall have more to say on the education +system of Trinidad. All it seems to me to want, with its late +modifications, is compulsory attendance. + +Soon turning down an old Indian path, we saw the Gulf once more, and +between us and it the sheet of cane cultivation, of which one estate +ran up to our feet, 'like a bright green bay entered by a narrow +strait among the dark forest.' Just before we came to it we passed +another pleasant sight: more Coolie settlers, who had had lands +granted them in lieu of the return passage to which they were +entitled, were all busily felling wood, putting up bamboo and palm- +leaf cabins, and settling themselves down, each one his own master, +yet near enough to the sugar-estates below to get remunerative work +whenever needful. + +Then on, over slow miles (you must not trot beneath the burning mid- +day sun) of sandy stifling flat, between high canes, till we saw +with joy, through long vistas of straight traces, the mangrove +shrubbery which marked the sea. We turned into large sugar-works, +to be cooled with sherry and ice by a hospitable manager, whose +rooms were hung with good prints, and stored with good books and +knick-knacks from Europe, showing the signs of a lady's hand. And +here our party broke up. The rest carried their mud back to Port of +Spain; I in the opposite direction back to San Fernando, down a +little creek which served as a port to the estate. + +Plastered up to the middle like the rest of the party, besides +splashes over face and hat, I could get no dirtier than I was +already. I got without compunction into a canoe some three feet +wide; and was shoved by three Negroes down a long winding ditch of +mingled mud, water, and mangrove-roots. To keep one's self and +one's luggage from falling out during the journey was no easy +matter; at one moment, indeed, it threatened to become impossible. +For where the mangroves opened on the sea, the creek itself turned +sharply northward along shore, leaving (as usual) a bed of mud +between it and the sea some quarter of a mile broad; across which we +had to pass as a short cut to the boat, which lay far out. The +difficulty was, of course, to get the canoe out of the creek up the +steep mud-bank. To that end she was turned on her side, with me on +board. I could just manage, by jamming my luggage under my knees, +and myself against the two gunwales, to keep in, holding on chiefly +by my heels and the back of my neck. But it befell, that in the +very agony of the steepest slope, when the Negroes (who worked like +really good fellows) were nigh waist-deep in mud, my eye fell, for +the first time in my life, on a party of Calling Crabs, who had been +down to the water to fish, and were now scuttling up to their +burrows among the mangrove-roots; and at the sight of the pairs of +long-stalked eyes, standing upright like a pair of opera-glasses, +and the long single arms which each brandished, with frightful +menaces, as of infuriated Nelsons, I burst into such a fit of +laughter that I nearly fell out into the mud. The Negroes thought +for the instant that the 'buccra parson' had gone mad: but when I +pointed with my head (I dare not move a finger) to the crabs, off +they went in a true Negro guffaw, which, when once begun, goes on +and on, like thunder echoing round the mountains, and can no more +stop itself than a Blackcap's song. So all the way across the mud +the jolly fellows, working meanwhile like horses, laughed for the +mere pleasure of laughing; and when we got to the boat the Negro in +charge of her saw us laughing, and laughed too for company, without +waiting to hear the joke; and as two of them took the canoe home, we +could hear them laughing still in the distance, till the lonely +loathsome place rang again. I plead guilty to having given the men, +as payment, not only for their work but for their jollity, just +twice what they asked, which, after all, was very little. + +But what are Calling Crabs? I must ask the reader to conceive a +moderate-sized crab, the front of whose carapace is very broad and +almost straight, with a channel along it, in which lie, right and +left, his two eyes, each on a footstalk half as long as the breadth +of his body; so that the crab, when at rest, carries his eyes as +epaulettes, and peeps out at the joint of each shoulder. But when +business is to be done, the eye-stalks jump bolt upright side by +side, like a pair of little lighthouses, and survey the field of +battle in a fashion utterly ludicrous. Moreover, as if he were not +ridiculous enough even thus, he is (as Mr. Wood well puts it) like a +small man gifted with one arm of Hercules, and another of Tom Thumb. +One of his claw arms, generally the left, has dwindled to a mere +nothing, and is not seen; while along the whole front of his shell +lies folded one mighty right arm, on which he trusts; and with that +arm, when danger appears, he beckons the enemy to come on, with such +wild defiance, that he has gained therefrom the name of Gelasimus +Vocans ('The Calling Laughable'); and it were well if all scientific +names were as well fitted. He is, as might be guessed, a shrewd +fighter, and uses the true old 'Bristol guard' in boxing, holding +his long arm across his body, and fencing and biting therewith +swiftly and sharply enough. Moreover, he is a respectable animal, +and has a wife, and takes care of her; and to see him in his glory, +it is said, he should be watched sitting in the mouth of his +'burrow, his spouse packed safe behind him inside, while he beckons +and brandishes, proclaiming to all passers-by the treasure which he +protects, while he defies them to touch it. + +Such is the 'Calling Crab,' of whom I must say, that if he was not +made on purpose to be laughed at, then I should be induced to +suspect that nothing was made for any purpose whatsoever. + +After which sight, and weary of waiting, not without some fear that- +-as the Negroes would have put it--'If I tap da wan momant ma, I +catch da confection,' while, of course, a bucket or two of hot water +was emptied on us out of a passing cloud, I got on board the +steamer, and away to San Fernando, to wash away dirt and forget +fatigue, amid the hospitality of educated and high-minded men, and +of even more charming women. + + + +CHAPTER XI: THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS + + + +I had heard and read much of the beauty of mountain scenery in the +Tropics. What I had heard and read is not exaggerated. I saw, it +is true, in this little island no Andes, with such a scenery among +them and below them as Humboldt alone can describe--a type of the +great and varied tropical world as utterly different from that of +Trinidad as it is from that of Kent--or Siberia. I had not even the +chance of such a view as that from the Silla of Caraccas described +by Humboldt, from which you look down at a height of nearly six +thousand feet, through layer after layer of floating cloud, which +increases the seeming distance to an awful depth, upon the blazing +shores of the Northern Sea. + +That view our host and his suite had seen themselves the year +before; and they assured me that Humboldt had not overstated its +grandeur. The mountains of Trinidad do not much exceed three +thousand feet in height, and I could hope at most to see among them +what my fancy had pictured among the serrated chines and green +gorges of St. Vincent, Guadaloupe, and St. Lucia, hanging gardens +compared with which those of Babylon of old must have been Cockney +mounds. The rock among these mountains, as I have said already, is +very seldom laid bare. Decomposed rapidly by the tropic rain and +heat, it forms, even on the steepest slopes, a mass of soil many +feet in depth, ever increasing, and ever sliding into the valleys, +mingled with blocks and slabs of rock still undecomposed. The waste +must be enormous now. Were the forests cleared, and the soil no +longer protected by the leaves and bound together by the roots, it +would increase at a pace of which we in this temperate zone can form +no notion, and the whole mountain-range slide down in deluges of +mud, as, even in the temperate zone, the Mont Ventoux and other +hills in Provence are sliding now, since they have been rashly +cleared of their primeval coat of woodland. + +To this degrading influence of mere rain and air must be attributed, +I think, those vast deposits of boulder which encumber the mouths of +all the southern glens, sometimes to a height of several hundred +feet. Did one meet them in Scotland, one would pronounce them at +once to be old glacier-moraines. But Messrs. Wall and Sawkins, in +their geological survey of this island, have abstained from +expressing any such opinion; and I think wisely. They are more +simply explained as the mere leavings of the old sea-worn mountain +wall, at a time when the Orinoco, or the sea, lay along their +southern, as it now does along their northern, side. The terraces +in which they rise mark successive periods of upheaval; and how long +these periods were, no reasonable man dare guess. But as for traces +of ice-action, none, as far as I can ascertain, have yet been met +with. He would be a bold man who should deny that, during the abyss +of ages, a cold epoch may have spread ice over part of that wide +land which certainly once existed to the north of Trinidad and the +Spanish Main: but if so, its traces are utterly obliterated. The +commencement of the glacial epoch, as far as Trinidad is concerned, +may be safely referred to the discovery of Wenham Lake ice, and the +effects thereof sought solely in the human stomach and the increase +of Messrs. Haley's well-earned profits. Is it owing to this absence +of any ice-action that there are no lakes, not even a tarn, in the +northern mountains? Far be it from me to thrust my somewhat empty +head into the battle which has raged for some time past between +those who attribute all lakes to the scooping action of glaciers and +those who attribute them to original depressions in the earth's +surface: but it was impossible not to contrast the lakeless +mountains of Trinidad with the mountains of Kerry, resembling them +so nearly in shape and size, but swarming with lakes and tarns. +There are no lakes throughout the West Indies, save such as are +extinct craters, or otherwise plainly attributable to volcanic +action, as I presume are the lakes of tropical Mexico and Peru. Be +that as it may, the want of water, or rather of visible water, takes +away much from the beauty of these mountains, in which the eye grows +tired toward the end of a day's journey with the monotonous surges +of green woodland; and hails with relief, in going northward, the +first glimpse of the sea horizon; in going south, the first glimpse +of the hazy lowland, in which the very roofs and chimney-stalks of +the sugar-estates are pleasant to the eye from the repose of their +perpendicular and horizontal lines after the perpetual unrest of +rolling hills and tangled vegetation. + +We started, then (to begin my story), a little after five one +morning, from a solid old mansion in the cane-fields, which bears +the name of Paradise, and which has all the right to the name which +beauty of situation and goodness of inhabitants can bestow. + +As we got into our saddles the humming-birds were whirring round the +tree-tops; the Qu'est-ce qu'il dits inquiring the subject of our +talk. The black vultures sat about looking on in silence, hoping +that something to their advantage might be dropped or left behind-- +possibly that one of our horses might die. + +Ere the last farewell was given, one of our party pointed to a sight +which I never saw before, and perhaps shall never see again. It was +the Southern Cross. Just visible in that winter season on the +extreme southern horizon in early morning, it hung upright amid the +dim haze of the lowland and the smoke of the sugar-works. +Impressive as was, and always must be, the first sight of that +famous constellation, I could not but agree with those who say that +they are disappointed by its inequality, both in shape and in the +size of its stars. However, I had but little time to make up my +mind about it; for in five minutes more it had melted away into a +blaze of sunlight, which reminded us that we ought to have been on +foot half an hour before. + +So away we went over the dewy paddocks, through broad-leaved +grasses, and the pink balls of the sensitive-plants and blue +Commelyna, and the upright negro Ipecacuanha, {216} with its scarlet +and yellow flowers, gayest and commonest of weeds; then down into a +bamboo copse, and across a pebbly brook, and away toward the +mountains. + +Our party consisted of a bat-mule, with food and clothes, two or +three Negroes, a horse for me, another for general use in case of +break-down; and four gentlemen who preferred walking to riding. It +seemed at first a serious undertaking on their part; but one had +only to see them begin to move, long, lithe, and light as deer- +hounds, in their flannel shirts and trousers, with cutlass and pouch +at their waists, to be sure that they could both go and stay, and +were as well able to get to Blanchisseuse as the horses beside which +they walked. + +The ward of Blanchisseuse, on the north coast, whither we were +bound, was of old, I understand, called Blanchi Sali, or something +to that effect, signifying the white cliffs. The French settlers +degraded the name to its present form, and that so hopelessly, that +the other day an old Negress in Port of Spain puzzled the officer of +Crown property by informing him that she wanted to buy 'a carre in +what you call de washerwoman's.' It had been described to me as +possibly the remotest, loneliest, and unhealthiest spot in Her +Majesty's tropical dominions. No white man can live there for more +than two or three years without ruin to his health. In spite of the +perpetual trade-wind, and the steepness of the hillsides, malaria +hangs for ever at the mouth of each little mountain torrent, and +crawls up inland to leeward to a considerable height above the sea. + +But we did not intend to stay there long enough to catch fever and +ague. We had plenty of quinine with us; and cheerily we went up the +valley of Caura, first over the great boulder and pebble ridges, not +bare like those of the Moor of Dinnet, or other Deeside stone heap, +but clothed with cane-pieces and richest rastrajo copses; and then +entered the narrow gorge, which we had to follow into the heart of +the hills, as our leader, taking one parting look at the broad green +lowland behind us, reminded us of Shelley's lines about the plains +of Lombardy seen from the Euganean hills:-- + + +'Beneath me lies like a green sea +The waveless plain of Lombardy, +. . . . . +Where a soft and purple mist, +Like a vaporous amethyst, +Or an air-dissolved stone, +Mingling light and fragrance, far +From the curved horizon's bound +To the point of heaven's profound, +Fills the overflowing sky; +And the plains that silent lie +Underneath, the leaves unsodden +Where the infant frost has trodden +With his morning-winged feet, +Whose bright fruit is gleaming yet; +And the red and golden vines +Piercing with their trellised lines +The rough dark-skirted wilderness.' + + +But there the analogy stopped. It hardly applied even so far. +Between us and the rough dark-skirted wilderness of the high forests +on Montserrat the infant frost had never trodden; all basked in the +equal heat of the perpetual summer; awaiting, it may be, in ages to +come, a civilisation higher even than that whose decay Shelley +deplored as he looked down on fallen Italy. No clumsy words of mine +can give an adequate picture of the beauty of the streams and glens +which run down from either slope of the Northern Mountain. The +reader must fancy for himself the loveliest brook which he ever saw +in Devonshire or Yorkshire, Ireland or Scotland; crystal-clear, +bedded with gray pebbles, broken into rapids by rock-ledges or great +white quartz boulders, swirling under steep cliffs, winding through +flats of natural meadow and copse. Then let him transport his +stream into the great Palm-house at Kew, stretch out the house up +hill and down dale, five miles in length and two thousand feet in +height; pour down on it from above a blaze which lights up every +leaf into a gem, and deepens every shadow into blackness, and yet +that very blackness full of inner light--and if his fancy can do as +much as that, he can imagine to himself the stream up which we rode +or walked, now winding along the narrow track a hundred feet or two +above, looking down on the upper surface of the forest, on the +crests of palms, and the broad sheets of the balisier copse, and +often on the statelier fronds of true bananas, which had run wild +along the stream-side, flowering and fruiting in the wilderness for +the benefit of the parrots and agoutis; or on huge dark clumps of +bamboo, which (probably not indigenous to the island) have in like +manner spread themselves along all the streams in the lapse of ages. + +Now we scrambled down into the brook, and waded our horses through, +amid shoals of the little spotted sardine, {218a} who are too +fearless, or too unaccustomed to man, to get out of the way more +than a foot or two. But near akin as they are to the trout, they +are still nearer to the terrible Pirai, {218b} of the Orinocquan +waters, the larger of which snap off the legs of swimming ducks and +the fingers of unwary boatmen, while the smaller surround the rash +bather, and devour him piecemeal till he drowns, torn by a thousand +tiny wounds, in water purpled with his own blood. These little +fellows prove their kindred with the Pirai by merely nibbling at the +bather's skin, making him tingle from head to foot, while he thanks +Heaven that his visitors are but two inches, and not a foot in +length. + +At last we stopped for breakfast. The horses were tethered to a +tree, the food got out, and we sat down on a pebbly beach after a +bathe in a deep pool, so clear that it looked but four feet deep, +though the bathers soon found it to be eight and more. A few dark +logs, as usual, were lodged at the bottom, looking suspiciously like +alligators or boa-constrictors. The alligator, however, does not +come up the mountain streams; and the boa-constrictors are rare, +save on the east coast: but it is as well, ere you jump into a +pool, to look whether there be not a snake in it, of any length from +three to twenty feet. + +Over the pool rose a rock, carrying a mass of vegetation, to be +seen, doubtless, in every such spot in the island, but of a richness +and variety beyond description. Nearest to the water the primeval +garden began with ferns and creeping Selaginella. Next, of course, +the common Arum, {218c} with snow-white spathe and spadix, mingled +with the larger leaves of Balisier, wild Tania, and Seguine, some of +the latter upborne on crooked fleshy stalks as thick as a man's leg, +and six feet high. Above them was a tangle of twenty different +bushes, with leaves of every shape; above them again, the arching +shoots of a bamboo clump, forty feet high, threw a deep shade over +pool and rock and herbage; while above it again enormous timber +trees were packed, one behind the other, up the steep mountain-side. +On the more level ground were the usual weeds; Ipomoeas with white +and purple flowers, Bignonias, Echites, and Allamandas, with yellow +ones, scrambled and tumbled everywhere; and, if not just there, then +often enough elsewhere, might be seen a single Aristolochia +scrambling up a low tree, from which hung, amid round leaves, huge +flowers shaped like a great helmet with a ladle at the lower lip, a +foot or more across, of purplish colour, spotted like a toad, and +about as fragrant as a dead dog. + +But the plants which would strike a botanist most, I think, the +first time he found himself on a tropic burn-side, are the peppers, +groves of tall herbs some ten feet high or more, utterly unlike any +European plants I have ever seen. Some {219a} have round leaves, +peltate, that is, with the footstalk springing from inside the +circumference, like a one-sided umbrella. They catch the eye at +once, from the great size of their leaves, each a full foot across; +but they are hardly as odd and foreign-looking as the more abundant +forms of peppers, {219b} usually so soft and green that they look as +if you might make them into salad, stalks and all, yet with a quaint +stiffness and primness, given by the regular jointing of their +knotted stalks, and the regular tiling of their pointed, drooping, +strong-nerved leaves, which are usually, to add to the odd look of +the plant, all crooked, one side of the base (and that in each +species always the same side) being much larger than the other, so +that the whole head of the bush seems to have got a twist from right +to left, or left to right. Nothing can look more unlike than they +to the climbing true peppers, or even to the creeping pepper-weeds, +which abound in all waste land. But their rat-tails of small green +flowers prove them to be peppers nevertheless. + +On we went, upward ever, past Cacao and Bois Immortelle orchards, +and comfortable settlers' hamlets; and now and then through a strip +of virgin forest, in which we began to see, for the first time, +though not for the last, that 'resplendent Calycophyllum' as Dr. +Krueger calls it, Chaconia as it is commonly called here, after poor +Alonzo de Chacon, the last Spanish governor of this island. It is +indeed the jewel of these woods. A low straggling tree carries, on +long pendent branches, leaves like a Spanish chestnut, a foot and +more in length; and at the ends of the branches, long corymbs of +yellow flowers. But it is not the flowers themselves which make the +glory of the tree. As the flower opens, one calyx-lobe, by a rich +vagary of nature, grows into a leaf three inches long, of a splendid +scarlet; and the whole end of each branch, for two feet or more in +length, blazes among the green foliage till you can see it and +wonder at it a quarter of a mile away. This is 'the resplendent +Calycophyllum,' elaborated, most probably, by long physical +processes of variation and natural selection into a form equally +monstrous and beautiful. There are those who will smile at my +superstition, if I state my belief that He who makes all things make +themselves may have used those very processes of variation and +natural selection for a final cause; and that the final cause was, +that He might delight Himself in the beauty of one more strange and +new creation. Be it so. I can only assume that their minds are, +for the present at least, differently constituted from mine. + +We reached the head of the glen at last, and outlet from the +amphitheatre of wood there seemed none. But now I began to find out +what a tropic mountain-path can be, and what a West Indian horse can +do. We arrived at the lower end of a narrow ditch full of rocks and +mud, which wandered up the face of a hill as steep as the roofs of +the Louvre or Chateau Chambord. Accustomed only to English horses, +I confess I paused in dismay: but as men and horses seemed to take +the hill as a matter of course, the only thing to be done was to +give the stout little cob his head, and not to slip over his tail. +So up we went, splashing, clawing, slipping, stumbling, but never +falling down; pausing every now and then to get breath for a fresh +rush, and then on again, up a place as steep as a Devonshire furze- +bank for twenty or thirty feet, till we had risen a thousand feet, +as I suppose, and were on a long and more level chine, in the midst +of ghastly dead forests, the remains of last year's fires. Much was +burnt to tinder and ash; much more was simply killed and scorched, +and stood or hung in an infinite tangle of lianes and boughs, all +gray and bare. Here and there some huge tree had burnt as it stood, +and rose like a soot-grimed tower; here another had fallen right +across the path, and we had to cut our way round it step by step, +amid a mass of fallen branches sometimes much higher than our heads, +or to lead the horses underneath boughs which were too large to cut +through, and just high enough to let them pass. An English horse +would have lost his nerve, and become restive from confusion and +terror; but these wise brutes, like the pack-mule, seemed to +understand the matter as well as we; waited patiently till a passage +was cut; and then struggled gallantly through, often among logs, +where I expected to see their leg-bones snapped in two. But my +fears were needless; the deft gallant animals got safe through +without a scratch. However, for them, as for us, the work was very +warm. The burnt forest was utterly without shade; and wood-cutting +under a perpendicular noonday sun would have been trying enough had +not our spirits been kept up by the excitement, the sense of freedom +and of power, and also by the magnificent scenery which began to +break upon us. From one cliff, off which the whole forest had been +burnt away, we caught at last a sight westward of Tocuche, from +summit to base, rising out of a green sea of wood--for the fire, +coming from the eastward, had stopped half-way down the cliff; and +to the right of the picture the blue Northern Sea shone through a +gap in the hills. What a view that was! To conceive it, the reader +must fancy himself at Clovelly, on the north coast of Devon, if he +ever has had the good fortune to see that most beautiful of English +cliff-woodlands; he must magnify the whole scene four or five times; +and then pour down on it a tropic sunshine and a tropic haze. + +Soon we felt, and thankful we were to feel it, a rush of air, soft +and yet bracing, cool, yet not chilly; the 'champagne atmosphere,' +as some one called it, of the trade-wind: and all, even the very +horses, plucked up heart; for that told us that we were at the +summit of the pass, and that the worst of our day's work was over. +In five minutes more we were aware, between the tree-stems, of a +green misty gulf beneath our very feet, which seemed at the first +glance boundless, but which gradually resolved itself into mile +after mile of forest, rushing down into the sea. The hues of the +distant woodlands, twenty miles away, seen through a veil of +ultramarine, mingled with the pale greens and blues of the water: +and they again with the pale sky, till the eye could hardly discern +where land and sea and air parted from each other. + +We stopped to gaze, and breathe; and then downward again for nigh +two thousand feet toward Blanchisseuse. And so, leading our tired +horses, we went cheerily down the mountain side in Indian file, +hopping and slipping from ledge to mud and mud to ledge, and calling +a halt every five minutes to look at some fresh curiosity: now a +tree-fern, now a climbing fern; now some huge tree-trunk, whose name +was only to be guessed at; now a fresh armadillo-burrow; now a +parasol-ants' warren, which had to be avoided lest horse and man +should sink in it knee-deep, and come out sorely bitten; now some +glimpse of sea and forest far below; now we cut a water-vine, and +had a long cool drink; now a great moth had to be hunted, if not +caught; or a toucan or some other strange bird listened to; or an +eagle watched as he soared high over the green gulf. Now all +stopped together; for the ground was sprinkled thick with great +beads, scarlet, with a black eye, which had fallen from some tree +high overhead; and we all set to work like schoolboys, filling our +pockets with them for the ladies at home. Now the path was lost, +having vanished in the six months' growth of weeds; and we had to +beat about for it over fallen logs, through tangles of liane and +thickets of the tall Arouma, {221} a cane with a flat tuft of leaves +atop, which is plentiful in these dark, damp, northern slopes. Now +we struggled and hopped, horse and man, down and round a corner, at +the head of a glen, where a few flagstones fallen across a gully +gave an uncertain foothold, and paused, under damp rocks covered +with white and pink Begonias and ferns of innumerable forms, to +drink the clear mountain water out of cups extemporised from a +Calathea leaf; and then struggled up again over roots and ledges, +and round the next spur, in cool green darkness on which it seemed +the sun had never shone, and in a silence which when our own voices +ceased, was saddening, all but appalling. + +At last, striking into a broader trace which came from the westward, +we found ourselves some six or eight hundred feet above the sea, in +scenery still like a magnified Clovelly, but amid a vegetation +which--how can I describe? Suffice it to say, that right and left +of the path, and arching together over head, rose a natural avenue +of Cocorite palms, beneath whose shade I rode for miles, enjoying +the fresh trade wind, the perfume of the Vanilla flowers, and last, +but not least, the conversation of one who used his high post to +acquaint himself thoroughly with the beauties, the productions, the +capabilities of the island which he governed, and his high culture +to make such journeys as this a continuous stream of instruction and +pleasure to those who accompanied him. Under his guidance we +stopped at one point, silent with delight and awe. + +Through an arch of Cocorite boughs--ah that English painters would +go to paint such pictures, set in such natural frames--we saw, +nearly a thousand feet below us, the little bay of Fillette. The +height of the horizon line told us how high we were ourselves, for +the blue of the Caribbean Sea rose far above a point which stretched +out on our right, covered with noble wood, while the dark olive +cliffs along its base were gnawed by snowy surf. On our left, the +nearer mountain woods rushed into the sea, cutting off the view, and +under our very feet, in the centre of an amphitheatre of wood, as +the eye of the whole picture, was a group--such as I cannot hope to +see again. Out of a group of scarlet Bois Immortelles rose three +Palmistes, and close to them a single Balata, whose height I hardly +dare to estimate. So tall they were, that though they were perhaps +a thousand feet below us, they stood out against the blue sea, far +up toward the horizon line, the central palm a hundred and fifty +feet at least, the two others, as we guessed, a hundred and twenty +feet or more. Their stems were perfectly straight and motionless, +while their dark crowns, even at that distance, could be seen to +toss and rage impatiently before the rush of the strong trade wind. +The black glossy head of the Balata, almost as high aloft as they, +threw off sheets of spangled light, which mingled with the spangles +of the waves, and, above the tree tops, as if poised in a blue hazy +sky, one tiny white sail danced before the breeze. The whole scene +swam in soft sea air, and such combined grandeur and delicacy of +form and of colour I never beheld before. + +We rode on and downward, toward a spot where we expected to find +water. Our Negroes had lagged behind with the provisions; and, +hungry and thirsty, we tethered our horses to the trees at the +bottom of a gully, and went down through the bush toward a low +cliff. As we went, if I recollect, we found on the ground many +curious pods, {224} curled two or three times round, something like +those of a Medic, and when they split, bright red inside, setting +off prettily enough the bright blue seeds. Some animal or other, +however, admired these seeds as much as we; for they had been +stripped as soon as they opened, and out of hundreds of pods we only +secured one or two beads. + +We got to the cliff--a smugglers' crack in the rock, and peered +down, with some disgust. There should have been a pole or two +there, to get down by: but they were washed away; a canoe also: +but it had been carried off, probably out of the way of the surf. +To get down the crack, for active men, was easy enough: but to get +up again seemed, the longer we looked at it, the more impossible, at +least for me. So after scrambling down, holding on by wild pines, +as far as we dare--during which process one of us was stung (not +bitten) by a great hunting-ant, causing much pain and swelling--we +turned away; for the heat of the little corner was intolerable. But +wistful eyes did we cast back at the next point of rock, behind +which broke out the tantalising spring, which we could just not +reach. + +We rode on, sick and sorry, to find unexpected relief. We entered a +clearing, with Bananas and Tanias, Cacao and Bois Immortelle, and +better still, Avocado pears and orange-tree, with fruit. A tall and +stately dame was there; her only garment a long cotton-print gown, +which covered her tall figure from throat to ankle and wrist, +showing brown feet and hands which had once been delicate, and a +brown face, half Spanish, half Indian, modest and serious enough. +We pointed to a tall orange-tree overhead, laden with fruit of every +hue from bright green to gold. She, on being appealed to in +Spanish, answered with a courteous smile, and then a piercing scream +of--'Candelaria, come hither, and get oranges for the Governor and +other senors!' Candelaria, who might have been eighteen or twenty, +came sliding down under the Banana-leaves, all modest smiles, and +blushes through her whity-brown skin. But having no more clothes on +than her mother, she naturally hesitated at climbing the tree; and +after ineffectual attempts to knock down oranges with a bamboo, +screamed in her turn for some Jose or Juan. Jose or Juan made his +appearance, in a ragged shirt. A lanky lad, about seventeen years +old, he was evidently the oaf or hobbedehoy of the family, just as +he would have been on this side of the sea; was treated as such; and +was accustomed to be so treated. In a tone of angry contempt (the +poor boy had done and said nothing) the two women hounded him up the +tree. He obeyed in meek resignation, and in a couple of minutes we +had more oranges than we could eat. And such oranges: golden- +green, but rather more green than gold, which cannot be (as at home) +bitten or sucked; for so strong is the fragrant essential oil in the +skin, that it would blister the lips and disorder the stomach; and +the orange must be carefully stripped of the outer coat before you +attack a pulp compared with which, for flavour, the orange of our +shops is but bad sugar and water. + +As I tethered my horse to a cacao-stem, and sat on a log among +hothouse ferns, peeling oranges with a bowie-knife beneath the +burning mid-day sun, the quaintest fancy came over me that it was +all a dream, a phantasmagoria, a Christmas pantomime got up by my +host for my special amusement; and that if I only winked my eyes +hard enough, when I opened them again it would be all gone, and I +should find myself walking with him on Ascot Heath, while the snow +whirled over the heather, and the black fir-trees groaned in the +north-east wind. + +We soon rode on, with blessings on fair Candelaria and her stately +mother, while the noise of the surf grew louder and louder in front +of us. We took (if I remember right) a sudden turn to the left, to +get our horses to the shore. Our pedestrians held straight on; +there was a Mangrove swamp and a lagoon in front, for which they, +bold lads, cared nothing. + +We passed over a sort of open down, from which all vegetation had +been cleared, save the Palmistes--such a wood of them as I had never +seen before. A hundred or more, averaging at least a hundred feet +in height, stood motionless in the full cut of the strong trade- +wind. One would have expected them, when the wood round was felled, +to feel the sudden nakedness. One would have expected the inrush of +salt air and foam to have injured their foliage. But, seemingly, it +was not so. They stood utterly unharmed; save some half-dozen who +had had their tops snapped off by a gale--there are no hurricanes in +Trinidad--and remained as enormous unmeaning pikes, or posts, fifty +to eighty feet high, transformed, by that one blast, from one of the +loveliest to one of the ugliest natural objects. + +Through the Palmiste pillars; through the usual black Roseau scrub; +then under tangled boughs down a steep stony bank; and we were on a +long beach of deep sand and quartz gravel. On our right the Shore- +grapes with their green bunches of fruit, the Mahauts {226} with +their poplar-like leaves and great yellow flowers, and the +ubiquitous Matapalos, fringed the shore. On our left weltered a +broad waste of plunging foam; in front green mountains were piled on +mountains, blazing in sunlight, yet softened and shrouded by an air +saturated with steam and salt. We waded our horses over the mouth +of the little Yarra, which hurried down through the sand, brown and +foul from the lagoon above. We sat down on bare polished logs, +which floods had carried from the hills above, and ate and drank-- +for our Negroes had by now rejoined us; and then scrambled up the +shore back again, and into a trace running along the low cliff, even +more beautiful, if possible, than that which we had followed in the +morning. Along the cliff tall Balatas and Palmistes, with here and +there an equally tall Cedar, and on the inside bank a green wall of +Balisiers, with leaves full fifteen feet long and heads of scarlet +flowers, marked the richness of the soil. Here and there, too, a +Cannon-ball tree rose, grand and strange, among the Balatas; and in +one place the ground was strewn with large white flowers, whose +peculiar shape told us at once of some other Lecythid tree high +overhead. These Lecythids are peculiar to the hottest parts of +South America; to the valleys of the Orinoco and Amazon; to +Trinidad, as a fragment of the old Orinocquan land, and possibly to +some of the southern Antilles. So now, as we are in their home, it +may be worth our while to pause a little round these strange and +noble forms. + +Botanists tell us that they are, or rather may have been in old +times, akin to myrtles. If so, they have taken a grand and original +line of their own, and persevered in it for ages, till they have +specialised themselves to a condition far in advance of most +myrtles, in size, beauty, and use. They may be known from all other +trees by one mark--their large handsome flowers. A group of the +innumerable stamens have grown together on one side of the flower +into a hood, which bends over the stigma and the other stamens. +Tall trees they are, and glorious to behold, when in full flower; +but they are notorious mostly for their huge fruits and delicious +nuts. One of their finest forms, and the only one which the +traveller is likely to see often in Trinidad, is the Cannon-ball +tree. {227} There is a grand specimen in the Botanic Garden; and +several may be met with in any day's ride through the high woods, +and distinguished at once from any other tree. The stem rises, +without a fork, for sixty feet or more, and rolls out at the top +into a head very like that of an elm trimmed up, and like an elm too +in its lateral water-boughs. For the whole of the stem, from the +very ground to the forks, and the larger fork-branches likewise, are +feathered all over with numberless short prickly pendent branchlets, +which roll outward, and then down, and then up again in graceful +curves, and carry large pale crimson flowers, each with a pink hood +in the middle, looking like a new-born baby's fist. Those flowers, +when torn, turn blue on exposure to the light; and when they fall, +leave behind them the cannon-ball, a rough brown globe, as big as a +thirty two pound shot, which you must get down with a certain +caution, lest that befall you which befell a certain gallant officer +on the mainland of America. For, fired with a post-prandial +ambition to obtain a cannon ball, he took to himself a long bamboo, +and poked at the tree. He succeeded: but not altogether as he had +hoped. For the cannon ball, in coming down, avenged itself by +dropping exactly on the bridge of his nose, felling him to the +ground, and giving him such a pair of black eyes that he was not +seen on parade for a fortnight. + +The pulp of this cannon-ball is, they say, 'vinous and pleasant' +when fresh; but those who are mindful of what befell our forefather +Adam from eating strange fruits, will avoid it, as they will many +more fruits eaten in the Tropics, but digestible only by the dura +ilia of Indians and Negroes. Whatever virtue it may have when +fresh, it begins, as soon as stale, to give out an odour too +abominable to be even recollected with comfort. + +More useful, and the fruit of an even grander tree, are those +'Brazil nuts' which are sold in every sweet-shop at home. They +belong to Bertholletia excelsa, a tree which grows sparingly--I have +never seen it wild--in the southern part of the island, but +plentifully in the forests of Guiana, and which is said to be one of +the tallest of all the forest giants. The fruit, round like the +cannon-ball, and about the size of a twenty-four pounder, is harder +than the hardest wood, and has to be battered to pieces with the +back of a hatchet to disclose the nuts, which lie packed close +inside. Any one who has hammered at a Bertholletia fruit will be +ready to believe the story that the Indians, fond as they are of the +nuts, avoid the 'totocke' trees till the fruit has all fallen, for +fear of fractured skulls; and the older story which Humboldt gives +out of old Laet, {228} that the Indians dared not enter the forests, +when the trees were fruiting, without having their heads and +shoulders covered with bucklers of hard wood. These 'Almendras de +Peru' (Peru almonds), as they were called, were known in Europe as +early as the sixteenth century, the seeds being carried up the +Maragnon, and by the Cordilleras to Peru, men knew not from whence. +To Humboldt himself, I believe, is due the re-discovery of the tree +itself and its enormous fruit; and the name of Bertholletia excelsa +was given by him. The tree, he says, 'is not more than two or three +feet in diameter, but attains one hundred or one hundred and twenty +feet in height. It does not resemble the Mammee, the star-apple, +and several other trees of the Tropics, of which the branches, as in +the laurels of the temperate zone, rise straight toward the sky. +The branches of the Bertholletia are open, very long, almost +entirely bare toward the base, and loaded at their summits with +tufts of very close foliage. This disposition of the semi- +coriaceous leaves, a little silvery beneath and more than two feet +long, makes the branches bend down toward the ground, like the +fronds of the palm-trees.' + +'The Capuchin monkeys,' he continues, 'are singularly fond of these +"chestnuts of Brazil," and the noise made by the seeds, when the +fruit is shaken as it fell from the tree, excites their appetency in +the highest degree.' He does not, however, believe the 'tale, very +current on the lower Oroonoco, that the monkeys place themselves in +a circle, and by striking the shell with a stone succeed in opening +it.' That they may try is possible enough; for there is no doubt, I +believe, that monkeys--at least the South American--do use stones to +crack nuts; and I have seen myself a monkey, untaught, use a stick +to rake his food up to him when put beyond the reach of his chain. +The impossibility in this case would lie, not in want of wits, but +want of strength; and the monkeys must have too often to wait for +these feasts till the rainy season, when the woody shell rots of +itself, and amuse themselves meanwhile, as Humboldt describes them, +in rolling the fruit about, vainly longing to get their paws in +through the one little hole at its base. The Agoutis, however, and +Pacas, and other rodents, says Humboldt, have teeth and perseverance +to gnaw through the shell; and when the seeds are once out, 'all the +animals of the forest, the monkeys, the manaviris, the squirrels, +the agoutis, the parrots, the macaws, hasten thither to dispute the +prey. They have all strength enough to break the woody covering of +the seeds; they get out the kernel and carry it to the tops of the +trees. "It is their festival also," said the Indians who had +returned from the nut-harvest; and on hearing their complaints of +the animals you perceive that they think themselves alone the +legitimate masters of the forest.' + +But if Nature has played the poor monkeys a somewhat tantalising +trick about Brazil nuts, she has been more generous to them in the +case of some other Lecythids, {229} which go by the name of monkey- +pots. Huge trees like their kinsfolk, they are clothed in bark +layers so delicate that the Indians beat them out till they are as +thin as satin-paper, and use them as cigarette-wrappers. They carry +great urn-shaped fruits, big enough to serve for drinking-vessels, +each kindly provided with a round wooden cover, which becomes loose +and lets out the savoury sapucaya nuts inside, to the comfort of all +our 'poor relations.' Ah, when will there arise a tropic Landseer +to draw for us some of the strange fashions of the strange birds and +beasts of these lands?--to draw, for instance, the cunning, selfish, +greedy grin of delight on the face of some burly, hairy, goitred old +red Howler, as he lifts off a 'tapa del cacao de monos' (a monkey- +cacao cover), and looks defiance out of the corners of his winking +eyes at his wives and children, cousins and grandchildren, who sit +round jabbering and screeching, and, monkey fashion, twisting their +heads upside down, as they put their arms round each other's waists +to peer over each other's shoulders at the great bully, who must +feed himself first as his fee for having roared to them for an hour +at sunrise on a tree-top, while they sat on the lower branches and +looked up, trembling and delighted at the sound and fury of the +idiot sermon. + +What an untried world is here for the artist of every kind, not +merely for the animal painter, for the landscape painter, for the +student of human form and attitude, if he chose to live awhile among +the still untrained Indians of the Main, or among the graceful +Coolies of Trinidad and Demerara, but also for the botanical artist, +for the man who should study long and carefully the more striking +and beautiful of these wonderful leaves and stems, flowers and +fruits, and introduce them into ornamentation, architectural or +other. + +And so I end my little episode about these Lecythids, only adding +that the reader must not confound with their nuts the butter-nuts, +Caryocar, or Souari, which may be bought, I believe, at Fortnum and +Mason's, and which are of all nuts the largest and the most +delicious. They have not been found as yet in Trinidad, though they +abound in Guiana. They are the fruit also of an enormous tree +{230}--there is a young one fruiting finely in the Botanic Garden at +Port of Spain--of a quite different order; a cousin of the Matapalos +and of the Soap-berries. It carries large threefold leaves on +pointed stalks; spikes of flowers with innumerable stamens; and here +and there a fruit something like the cannon-ball, though not quite +as large. On breaking the soft rind you find it full of white meal, +probably eatable, and in the meal three or four great hard wrinkled +nuts, rounded on one side, wedge-shaped on the other, which, +cracked, are found full of almond-like white jelly, so delicious +that one can well believe travellers when they tell us that the +Indian tribes wage war against each other for the possession of the +trees which bear these precious vagaries of bounteous nature. + +And now we began to near the village, two scattered rows of clay and +timber bowers right and left of the trace, each half buried in +fruit-trees and vegetables, and fenced in with hedges of scarlet +Hibiscus; the wooded mountains shading them to the south, the sea +thundering behind them to the north. As we came up we heard a bell, +and soon were aware of a brown mob running, with somewhat mysterious +in the midst. Was it the Host? or a funeral? or a fight? Soon the +mob came up with profound salutations, and smiles of self- +satisfaction, evidently thinking that they had done a fine thing; +and disclosed, hanging on a long bamboo, their one church-bell. +Their old church (a clay and timber thing of their own handiwork) +had become ruinous; and they dared not leave their bell aloft in it. +But now they were going to build themselves a new and larger church, +Government giving them the site; and the bell, being on furlough, +was put into requisition to ring in His Excellency the Governor and +his muddy and quaintly attired--or unattired--suite. + +Ah, that I could have given a detailed picture of the scene before +the police court-house--the coloured folk, of all hues of skin, all +types of feature, and all gay colours of dress, crowding round, the +tall stately brown policeman, Thompson, called forward and receiving +with a military salute the Governor's commendations for having +saved, at the risk of his life, some shipwrecked folk out of the +surf close by; and the flash of his eye when he heard that he was to +receive the Humane Society's medal from England, and to have his +name mentioned, probably to the Queen herself; the greetings, too, +of almost filial respect which were bestowed by the coloured people +on one who, though still young, had been to them a father; who, +indeed, had set the policeman the example of gallantry by saving, in +another cove near by, other shipwrecked folk out of a still worse +surf, by swimming out beyond a ledge of rock swarming with sharks, +at the risk every moment of a hideous death. There, as in other +places since, he had worked, like his elder brother at Montserrat, +as a true civiliser in every sense of the word; and, when his health +broke down from the noxious climate, had moved elsewhere to still +harder and more extensive work, belying, like his father and his +brothers, the common story that the climate forbids exertion, and +that the Creole gentleman cannot or will not, when he has a chance, +do as good work as the English gentleman at home. I do not mention +these men's names. In England it matters little; in Trinidad there +is no need to mention those whom all know; all I shall say is, +Heaven send the Queen many more such public servants, and me many +more such friends. + +Then up hurried the good little priest, and set forth in French--he +was very indignant, by the by, at being taken for a Frenchman, and +begged it to be understood that he was Belgian born and bred-- +setting forth how His Excellency had not been expected till next +day, or he would have had ready an address from the loyal +inhabitants of Blanchisseuse testifying their delight at the honour +of, etc. etc.; which he begged leave to present in due form next +day; and all the while the brown crowd surged round and in and out, +and the naked brown children got between every one's legs, and every +one was in a fume of curiosity and delight--anything being an event +in Blanchisseuse--save the one Chinaman, if I recollect right, who +stood in his blue jacket and trousers, his hands behind his back, +with visage unimpassioned, dolorous, seemingly stolid, a creature of +the earth, earthy,--say rather of the dirt, dirty,--but doubtless by +no means as stolid as he looked. And all the while the palms and +bananas rustled above, and the surf thundered, and long streams of +light poured down through the glens in the black northern wall, and +flooded the glossy foliage of the mangoes and sapodillas, and rose +fast up the palm-stems, and to their very heads, and then vanished; +for the sun was sinking, and in half an hour more, darkness would +have fallen on the most remote little paradise in Her Majesty's +dominions. + +But where was the warden, who was by office, as well as by courtesy, +to have received us? He too had not expected us, and was gone home +after his day's work to his new clearing inland: but a man had been +sent on to him over the mountain; and over the mountain we must go, +and on foot too, for the horses could do no more, and there was no +stabling for them farther on. How far was the new clearing? Oh, +perhaps a couple of miles--perhaps a league. And how high up? Oh, +nothing--only a hundred feet or two. One knew what that meant; and, +with a sigh, resigned oneself to a four or five miles' mountain walk +at the end of a long day, and started up the steep zigzag, through +cacao groves, past the loveliest gardens--I recollect in one an +agave in flower, nigh thirty feet high, its spike all primrose and +golden yellow in the fading sunlight--then up into rastrajo; and +then into high wood, and a world of ferns--tree ferns, climbing +ferns, and all other ferns which ever delighted the eye in an +English hothouse. For along these northern slopes, sheltered from +the sun for the greater part of the year, and for ever watered by +the steam of the trade-wind, ferns are far more luxuriant and varied +than in any other part of the island. + +Soon it grew dark, and we strode on up hill and down dale, at one +time for a mile or more through burnt forest, with its ghastly +spider-work of leafless decaying branches and creepers against the +moonlit sky--a sad sight: but music enough we had to cheer us on +our way. We did not hear the howl of a monkey, nor the yell of a +tiger-cat, common enough on the mountains which lay in front of us; +but of harping, fiddling, humming, drumming, croaking, clacking, +snoring, screaming, hooting, from cicadas, toads, birds, and what +not, there was a concert at every step, which made the glens ring +again, as the Brocken might ring on a Walpurgis-night. + +At last, pausing on the top of a hill, we could hear voices on the +opposite side of the glen. Shouts and 'cooeys' soon brought us to +the party which were awaiting us. We hurried joyfully down a steep +hillside, across a shallow ford, and then up another hillside--this +time with care, for the felled logs and brushwood lay all about a +path full of stumps, and we needed a guide to show us our way in the +moonlight up to the hospitable house above. And a right hospitable +house it was. Its owner, a French gentleman of ancient Irish +family--whose ancestors probably had gone to France as one of the +valiant 'Irish Brigade'; whose children may have emigrated thence to +St. Domingo, and their children or grandchildren again to Trinidad-- +had prepared for us in the wilderness a right sumptuous feast: 'nor +did any soul lack aught of the equal banquet.' + +We went to bed; or, rather, I did. For here, as elsewhere before +and after, I was compelled, by the courtesy of the Governor, to +occupy the one bed of the house, as being the oldest, least +acclimatised, and alas! weakliest of the party; while he, his little +suite, and the owner of the house slept anywhere upon the floor; on +which, between fatigue and enjoyment of the wild life, I would have +gladly slept myself. + +When we turned out before sunrise next morning, I found myself in +perhaps the most charming of all the charming 'camps' of these +forests. Its owner, the warden, fearing the unhealthy air of the +sea-coast, had bought some hundreds of acres up here in the hills, +cleared them, and built, or rather was building, in the midst. As +yet the house was rudimentary. A cottage of precious woods cut off +the clearing, standing, of course, on stilts, contained two rooms, +an inner and an outer. There was no glass in the windows, which +occupied half the walls. Door or shutters, to be closed if the wind +and rain were too violent, are all that is needed in a climate where +the temperature changes but little, day or night, throughout the +year. A table, unpolished, like the wooden walls, but, like them, +of some precious wood; a few chairs or benches, not forgetting, of +course, an American rocking-chair; a shelf or two, with books of law +and medicine, and beside them a few good books of devotion: a +press; a 'perch' for hanging clothes--for they mildew when kept in +drawers--just such as would have been seen in a mediaeval house in +England; a covered four-post bed, with gauze curtains, indispensable +for fear of vampires, mosquitoes, and other forest plagues; these +make up the furniture of such a bachelor's camp as, to the man who +lives doing good work all day out of doors, leaves nothing to be +desired. Where is the kitchen? It consists of half a dozen great +stones under yonder shed, where as good meals are cooked as in any +London kitchen. Other sheds hold the servants and hangers-on, the +horses and mules; and as the establishment grows, more will be +added, and the house itself will probably expand laterally, like a +peripheral Greek temple, by rows of posts, probably of palm-stems +thatched over with wooden shingle or with the leaves of the Timit +{233} palm. If ladies come to inhabit the camp, fresh rooms will be +partitioned off by boardings as high as the eaves, leaving the roof +within open and common, for the sake of air. Soon, no regular +garden, but beautiful flowering shrubs--Crotons, Dracaenas, and +Cereuses, will be planted; great bushes of Bauhinia and blue Petraea +will roll their long curved shoots over and over each other; +Gardenias fill the air with fragrance; and the Bougain-villia or the +Clerodendron cover some arbour with lilac or white racemes. + +But this camp had not yet arrived at so high a state of +civilisation. All round it, almost up to the very doors, a tangle +of logs, stumps, branches, dead ropes and nets of liane lay still in +the process of clearing; and the ground was seemingly as waste, as +it was difficult--often impossible--to cross. A second glance, +however, showed that, amongst the stumps and logs, Indian corn was +planted everywhere; and that a few months would give a crop which +would richly repay the clearing, over and above the fact that the +whole materials of the house had been cut on the spot, and cost +nothing. + +As for the situation of the little oasis in the wilderness, it +bespoke good sense and good taste. The owner had stumbled, in his +forest wanderings, on a spot where two mountain streams, after +nearly meeting, parted again, and enclosed in a ring a hill some +hundred feet high, before they finally joined each other below. +That ring was his estate; which was formally christened on the +occasion of our visit, Avoca--the meeting of the waters; a name, as +all agreed, full of remembrances of the Old World and the land of +his remote ancestors; and yet like enough to one of the graceful and +sonorous Indian names of the island not to seem barbarous and out of +place. Round the clearing the mountain woods surged up a thousand +feet aloft; but so gradually, and so far off, as to allow free +circulation of air and a broad sheet of sky overhead; and as the +camp stood on the highest point of the rise, it did not give that +choking and crushing sensation of being in a ditch, which makes +houses in most mountain valleys--to me at least--intolerable. Up +one glen, toward the south, we had a full view of the green Cerro of +Arima, three thousand feet in height; and down another, to the +north-east, was a great gate in the mountains, through which we +could hear--though not see--the surf rolling upon the rocks three +miles away. + +I was woke that morning, as often before and afterwards, by a +clacking of stones; and, looking out, saw in the dusk a Negro +squatting, and hammering, with a round stone on a flat one, the +coffee which we were to drink in a quarter of an hour. It was +turned into a tin saucepan; put to boil over a firestick between two +more great stones; clarified, by some cunning island trick, with a +few drops of cold water; and then served up, bearing, in fragrance +and taste, the same relation to average English coffee as fresh +things usually do to stale ones, or live to dead. After which +'manana,' and a little quinine for fear of fever, we lounged about +waiting for breakfast, and for the arrival of the horses from the +village. + +Then we inspected a Coolie's great toe, which had been severely +bitten by a vampire in the night. And here let me say, that the +popular disbelief of vampire stories is only owing to English +ignorance, and disinclination to believe any of the many quaint +things which John Bull has not seen, because he does not care to see +them. If he comes to those parts, he must be careful not to leave +his feet or hands out of bed without mosquito curtains; if he has +good horses, he ought not to leave them exposed at night without +wire-gauze round the stable-shed--a plan which, to my surprise, I +never saw used in the West Indies. Otherwise, he will be but too +likely to find in the morning a triangular bit cut out of his own +flesh, or even worse, out of his horse's withers or throat, where +twisting and lashing cannot shake the tormentor off; and must be +content to have himself lamed, or his horses weakened to staggering +and thrown out of collar-work for a week, as I have seen happen more +than once or twice. The only method of keeping off the vampire yet +employed in stables is light; and a lamp is usually kept burning +there. But the Negro--not the most careful of men--is apt not to +fill and trim it; and if it goes out in the small hours, the horses +are pretty sure to be sucked, if there is a forest near. So +numerous and troublesome, indeed, are the vampires, that there are +pastures in Trinidad in which, at least till the adjoining woods +were cleared, the cattle would not fatten, or even thrive; being +found, morning after morning, weak and sick from the bleedings which +they had endured at night. + +After looking at the Coolie's toe, of which he made light, though +the bleeding from the triangular hole would not stop, any more than +that from the bite of a horse-leech, we feasted our ears on the +notes of delicate songsters, and our eyes on the colours and shapes +of the forest, which, rising on the opposite side of the streams +right and left, could be seen here more thoroughly than at any spot +I yet visited. Again and again were the opera-glasses in +requisition, to make out, or try to make out, what this or that tree +might be. Here and there a Norantea, a mile or two miles off, +showed like a whole crimson flower-bed in the tree-tops; or a Poui, +just coming into flower, made a spot of golden yellow--'a guinea +stuck against the mountain-side,' as some one said; or the head of a +palm broke the monotony of the broad-leaved foliage with its huge +star of green. + +Near us we descried several trees covered with pale yellow flowers, +conspicuous enough on the hillside. No one knew what they were; and +a couple of Negroes (who are admirable woodmen) were sent off to cut +one down and see. What mattered a tree or two less amid a world of +trees? It was a quaint sight,--the two stalwart black figures +struggling down over the fallen logs, and with them an Englishman, +who thought he discerned which tree the flowers belonged to; while +we at the house guided them by our shouts, and scanned the trunks +through the glasses to make out in our turn which tree should be +felled, from the moment that they entered under the green cloud, +they of course could see little or nothing over their heads. +Animated were the arguments--almost the bets--as to which tree-top +belonged to which tree-trunk. Many were the mistakes made; and had +it not been for the head of a certain palm, which served as a fixed +point which there was no mistaking, three or four trees would have +been cut before the right one was hit upon. At last the right tree +came crashing down, and a branch of the flowers was brought up, to +be carried home, and verified at Port of Spain; and meanwhile, +disturbed by the axe-strokes, pair after pair of birds flew +screaming over the tree-tops, which looked like rooks, till, as they +turned in the sun, their colour--brilliant even at that distance-- +showed them to be great green parrots. + +After breakfast--which among French and Spanish West Indians means a +solid and elaborate luncheon--our party broke up. . . . I must be +excused if I am almost prolix over the events of a day memorable to +me. + +The majority went down, on horse and foot, to Blanchisseuse again on +official business. The site of the new church, an address from the +inhabitants to the Governor, inspection of roads, examination of +disputed claims, squatter questions, enclosure questions, and so +forth, would occupy some hours in hard work. But the piece de +resistance of the day was to be the examination and probable +committal of the Obeah-man of those parts. That worthy, not being +satisfied with the official conduct of our host the warden, had +advised himself to bribe, with certain dollars, a Coolie servant of +his to 'put Obeah upon him'; and had, with that intent, entrusted to +him a charm to be buried at his door, consisting, as usual, of a +bottle containing toad, spider, rusty nails, dirty water, and other +terrible jumbiferous articles. In addition to which attempt on the +life and fortunes of the warden, he was said to have promised the +Coolie forty dollars if he would do the business thoroughly for him. +Now the Coolie well understood what doing the business thoroughly +for an Obeah-man involved; namely, the putting Brinvilliers or other +bush-poison into his food; or at least administering to him sundry +dozes of ground glass, in hopes of producing that 'dysentery of the +country' which proceeds in the West Indies, I am sorry to say, now +and then, from other causes than that of climate. But having an +affection for his master, and a conscience likewise, though he was +but a heathen, he brought the bottle straight to the intended +victim; and the Obeah-man was now in durance vile, awaiting further +examination, and probably on his way to a felon's cell. + +A sort of petition, or testimonial, had been sent up to the +Governor, composed apparently by the hapless wizard himself, who +seemed to be no mean penman, and signed by a dozen or more of the +coloured inhabitants: setting forth how he was known by all to be +far too virtuous a personage to dabble in that unlawful practice of +Obeah, of which both he and his friends testified the deepest +abhorrence. But there was the bottle, safe under lock and key; and +as for the testimonial, those who read it said that it was not worth +the paper it was written on. Most probably every one of these poor +follows had either employed the Obeah-man themselves to avert +thieves or evil eye from a particularly fine fruit-tree, by hanging +up thereon a somewhat similar bottle--such as may be seen, and more +than one of them, in any long day's march. It was said again, that +if asked by an Obeah-man to swear to his good character, they could +not well refuse, under penalty of finding some fine morning a white +cock's head--sign of all supernatural plagues--in their garden path, +the beak pointing to their door; or an Obeah bottle under their +doorstep; and either Brinvilliers in their pottage, or such an +expectation of it, and of plague and ruin to them and all their +worldly belongings, in their foolish souls, as would be likely +enough to kill them, in a few months, of simple mortal fear. + +Here perhaps I may be allowed to tell what I know about this curious +custom of Obeah, or Fetish-worship. It appears to me, on closer +examination, that it is not a worship of natural objects; not a +primeval worship; scarcely a worship at all: but simply a system of +incantation, carried on by a priesthood, or rather a sorcerer class; +and this being the case, it seems to me unfortunate that the term +Fetish-worship should have been adopted by so many learned men as +the general name for the supposed primeval Nature-worship. The +Negro does not, as the primeval man is supposed to have done, regard +as divine (and therefore as Fetish, or Obeah) any object which +excites his imagination; anything peculiarly beautiful, noble, or +powerful; anything even which causes curiosity or fear. In fact, a +Fetish is no natural object at all; it is a spirit, an Obeah, Jumby, +Duppy, like the 'Duvvels' or spirits of the air, which are the only +deities of which our Gipsies have a conception left. That spirit +belongs to the Obeah, or Fetish-man; and he puts it, by magic +ceremonies, into any object which he chooses. Thus anything may +become Obeah, as far as I have ascertained. In a case which +happened very lately, an Obeah-man came into the country, put the +Obeah into a fresh monkey's jaw-bone, and made the people offer to +it fowls and plantains, which of course he himself ate. Such is +Obeah now; and such it was, as may be seen by De Bry's plates, when +the Portuguese first met with it on the African coast four hundred +years ago. + +But surely it is an idolatry, and not a nature-worship. Just so +does the priest of Southern India, after having made his idol, +enchant his god into it by due ceremonial. It may be a very ancient +system: but as for its being a primeval one, as neither I, nor any +one else, ever had the pleasure of meeting a primeval man, it seems +to me somewhat rash to imagine what primeval man's creeds and +worships must have been like; more rash still to conclude that they +must have been like those of the modern Negro. For if, as is +probable, the Negro is one of the most ancient varieties of the +human race; if, as is probable, he has remained--to his great +misfortune--till the last three hundred years isolated on that vast +island of Central Africa, which has probably continued as dry land +during ages which have seen the whole of Europe, and Eastern and +Southern Asia, sink more than once beneath the sea: then it is +possible, and even probable, that during these long ages of the +Negro's history, creed after creed, ceremonial after ceremonial, may +have grown up and died out among the different tribes; and that any +worship, or quasi-worship, which may linger among the Negroes now, +are likely to be the mere dregs and fragments of those older +superstitions. + +As a fact, Obeah is rather to be ranked, it seems to me, with those +ancient Eastern mysteries, at once magical and profligate, which +troubled society and morals in later Rome, when + + +'In Tiberim defluxit Orontes.' + + +If so, we shall not be surprised to find that a very important, +indeed the most practically important element of Obeah, is +poisoning. This habit of poisoning has not (as one might well +suppose) sprung up among the slaves desirous of revenge against +their white masters. It has been imported, like the rest of the +system, from Africa. Travellers of late have told us enough--and +too much for our comfort of mind--of that prevailing dread of poison +as well as of magic which urges the African Negroes to deeds of +horrible cruelty; and the fact that these African Negroes, up to the +very latest importations, are the special practisers of Obeah, is +notorious through the West Indies. The existence of this trick of +poisoning is denied, often enough. Sometimes Europeans, willing to +believe the best of their fellow-men--and who shall blame them?-- +simply disbelieve it because it is unpleasant to believe. +Sometimes, again, white West Indians will deny it, and the existence +of Obeah beside, simply because they believe in it a little too +much, and are afraid of the Negroes knowing that they believe in it. +Not two generations ago there might be found, up and down the +islands, respectable white men and women who had the same half- +belief in the powers of an Obeah-man as our own ancestors, +especially in the Highlands and in Devonshire, had in those of +witches: while as to poisoning, it was, in some islands, a matter +on which the less said the safer. It was but a few years ago that +in a West Indian city an old and faithful free servant, in a family +well known to me, astonished her master, on her death-bed, by a +voluntary confession of more than a dozen murders. + +'You remember such and such a party, when every one was ill? Well, +I put something in the soup.' + +As another instance; a woman who died respectable, a Christian and a +communicant, told this to her clergyman:--She had lived from youth, +for many years, happily and faithfully with a white gentleman who +considered her as his wife. She saw him pine away and die from slow +poison, administered, she knew, by another woman whom he had +wronged. But she dared not speak. She had not courage enough to be +poisoned herself likewise. + +It is easy to conceive the terrorism, and the exactions in the shape +of fowls, plantains, rum, and so forth, which are at the command of +an Obeah practitioner, who is believed by the Negro to be +invulnerable himself, while he is both able and willing to destroy +them. Nothing but the strong arm of English law can put down the +sorcerer; and that seldom enough, owing to the poor folks' dread of +giving evidence. Thus a woman, Madame Phyllis by name, ruled in a +certain forest-hamlet of Trinidad. Like Deborah of old, she sat +under her own palm-tree, and judged her little Israel--by the +Devil's law instead of God's. Her murders (or supposed murders) +were notorious: but no evidence could be obtained; Madame Phyllis +dealt in poisons, charms, and philtres; and waxed fat on her trade +for many a year. The first shock her reputation received was from a +friend of mine, who, in his Government duty, planned out a road +which ran somewhat nearer her dwelling than was pleasant or safe for +her privacy. She came out denouncing, threatening. The coloured +workmen dared not proceed. My friend persevered coolly; and Madame, +finding that the Government official considered himself Obeah-proof, +tried to bribe him off, with the foolish cunning of a savage, with a +present of--bottled beer. To the horror of his workmen, he +accepted--for the day was hot, as usual--a single bottle; and drank +it there and then. The Negroes looked--like the honest Maltese at +St. Paul--'when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead +suddenly': but nothing happened; and they went on with their work, +secure under a leader whom even Madame Phyllis dared not poison. +But he ran a great risk; and knew it. + +'I took care,' said he, 'to see that the cork had not been drawn and +put back again; and then, to draw it myself.' + +At last Madame Phyllis's cup was full, and she fell into the snare +which she had set for others. For a certain coloured policeman went +off to her one night; and having poured out his love-lorn heart, and +the agonies which he endured from the cruelty of a neighbouring +fair, he begged for, got, and paid for a philtre to win her +affections. On which, saying with Danton--'Que mon nom soit fletri, +mais que la patrie soit libre,' he carried the philtre to the +magistrate; laid his information; and Madame Phyllis and her male +accomplice were sent to gaol as rogues and impostors. + +Her coloured victims looked on aghast at the audacity of English +lawyers. But when they found that Madame was actually going to +prison, they rose--just as if they had been French Republicans-- +deposed their despot after she had been taken prisoner, sacked her +magic castle, and levelled it with the ground. Whether they did, or +did not, find skeletons of children buried under the floor, or what +they found at all, I could not discover; and should be very careful +how I believed any statement about the matter. But what they wanted +specially to find was the skeleton of a certain rival Obeah-man, who +having, some years before, rashly challenged Madame to a trial of +skill, had gone to visit her one night, and never left her cottage +again. + +The chief centre of this detestable system is St. Vincent, where--so +I was told by one who knows that island well--some sort of secret +College, or School of the Prophets Diabolic, exists. Its emissaries +spread over the islands, fattening themselves at the expense of +their dupes, and exercising no small political authority, which has +been ere now, and may be again, dangerous to society. In Jamaica, I +was assured by a Nonconformist missionary who had long lived there, +Obeah is by no means on the decrease; and in Hayti it is probably on +the increase, and taking--at least until the fall and death of +Salnave--shapes which, when made public in the civilised world, will +excite more than mere disgust. But of Hayti I shall be silent; +having heard more of the state of society in that unhappy place than +it is prudent, for the sake of the few white residents, to tell at +present. + +The same missionary told me that in Sierra Leone, also, Obeah and +poisoning go hand in hand. Arriving home one night, he said, with +two friends, he heard hideous screams from the house of a Portuguese +Negro, a known Obeah-man. Fearing that murder was being done, they +burst open his door, and found that he had tied up his wife hand and +foot, and was flogging her horribly. They cut the poor creature +down, and placed her in safety. + +A day or two after, the missionary's servant came in at sunrise with +a mysterious air. + +'You no go out just now, massa.' + +There was something in the road: but what, he would not tell. My +friend went out, of course, in spite of the faithful fellow's +entreaties; and found, as he expected, a bottle containing the usual +charms, and round it--sight of horror to all Negroes of the old +school--three white cocks' heads--an old remnant, it is said, of a +worship 'de quo sileat musa'--pointing their beaks, one to his door, +one to the door of each of his friends. He picked them up, +laughing, and threw them away, to the horror of his servant. + +But the Obeah-man was not so easily beaten. In a few days the +servant came in again with a wise visage. + +'You no drink a milk to-day, massa.' + +'Why not?' + +'Oh, perhaps something bad in it. You give it a cat.' + +'But I don't want to poison the cat!' + +'Oh, dere a strange cat in a stable; me give it her.' + +He did so; and the cat was dead in half an hour. + +Again the fellow tried, watching when the three white men, as was +their custom, should dine together, that he might poison them all. +And again the black servant foiled him, though afraid to accuse him +openly. This time it was--'You no drink a water in a filter.' And +when the filter was searched, it was full of poison-leaves. + +A third attempt the rascal made with no more success; and then +vanished from Sierra Leone; considering--as the Obeah-men in the +West Indies are said to hold of the Catholic priests--that 'Buccra +Padre's Obeah was too strong for his Obeah.' + +I know not how true the prevailing belief is, that some of these +Obeah-men carry a drop of snake's poison under a sharpened finger- +nail, a scratch from which is death. A similar story was told to +Humboldt of a tribe of Indians on the Orinoco; and the thing is +possible enough. One story, which seemingly corroborates it, I +heard, so curiously illustrative of Negro manners in Trinidad during +the last generation, that I shall give it at length. I owe it--as I +do many curious facts--to the kindness of Mr. Lionel Fraser, chief +of police of the Port of Spain, to whom it was told, as it here +stands, by the late Mr. R---, stipendiary magistrate; himself a +Creole and a man of colour:-- + +'When I was a lad of about seventeen years of age, I was very +frequently on a sugar-estate belonging to a relation of mine; and +during crop-time particularly I took good care to be there. + +'Owing to my connection with the owner of the estate, I naturally +had some authority with the people; and I did my best to preserve +order amongst them, particularly in the boiling-house, where there +used to be a good deal of petty theft, especially at night; for we +had not then the powerful machinery which enables the planter to +commence his grinding late and finish it early. + +'There was one African on the estate who was the terror of the +Negroes, owing to his reputed supernatural powers as an Obeah-man. + +'This man, whom I will call Martin, was a tall, powerful Negro, who, +even apart from the mysterious powers with which he was supposed to +be invested, was a formidable opponent from his mere size and +strength. + +'I very soon found that Martin was determined to try his authority +and influence against mine; and I resolved to give him the earliest +possible opportunity for doing so. + +'I remember the occasion when we first came into contact perfectly +well. It was a Saturday night, and we were boiling off. The +boiling-house was but very dimly lighted by two murky oil-lamps, the +rays from which could scarcely penetrate through the dense +atmosphere of steam which rose from the seething coppers. +Occasionally a bright glow from the furnace-mouths lighted up the +scene for a single instant, only to leave it the next moment darker +than ever. + +'It was during one of these flashes of light that I distinctly saw +Martin deliberately filling a large tin pan with sugar from one of +the coolers. + +'I called out to him to desist; but he never deigned to take the +slightest notice of me. I repeated my order in a louder and more +angry tone; whereupon he turned his eyes upon me, and said, in a +most contemptuous tone, "Chut, ti beque: quitte moue tranquille, ou +tende sinon malheur ka rive ou." (Pshaw, little white boy: leave +me alone, or worse will happen to you.) + +'It was the tone more than the words themselves that enraged me; and +without for one moment reflecting on the great disparity between us, +I made a spring from the sort of raised platform on which I stood, +and snatching the panful of sugar from his hand, I flung it, sugar +and all, into the tache, from which I knew nothing short of a +miracle could recover it. + +'For a moment only did Martin hesitate; and then, after fumbling for +one instant with his right hand in his girdle, he made a rush at me. +Fortunately for me, I was prepared; and springing back to the spot +where I had before been standing, I took up a light cutlass, which I +always carried about with me, and stood on the defensive. + +'I had, however, no occasion to use the weapon; for, in running +towards me, Martin's foot slipped in some molasses which had been +spilt on the ground, and he fell heavily to the floor, striking his +head against the corner of one of the large wooden sugar-coolers. + +'The blow stunned him for the time, and before he recovered I had +left the boiling-house. + +'The next day, to my surprise, I found him excessively civil, and +almost obsequious: but I noticed that he had taken a violent +dislike to our head overseer, whom I shall call Jean Marie, and whom +he seemed to suspect as the person who had betrayed him to me when +stealing the sugar. + +'Things went on pretty quietly for some weeks, till the crop was +nearly over. + +'One afternoon Jean Marie told me there was to be a Jumby-dance +amongst the Africans on the estate that very night. Now Jumby- +dances were even then becoming less frequent, and I was extremely +anxious to see one; and after a good deal of difficulty, I succeeded +in persuading Jean Marie to accompany me to the hut wherein it was +to be held. + +'It was a miserable kind of an ajoupa near the river-side; and we +had some difficulty in making our way to it through the tangled dank +grass and brushwood which surrounded it. Nor was the journey +rendered more pleasant by the constant rustling among this +undergrowth, that reminded us that there were such things as snakes +and other ugly creatures to be met with on our road. + +'Curiosity, however, urged us on; and at length we reached the +ajoupa, which was built on a small open space near the river, +beneath a gigantic silk-cotton tree. + +'Here we found assembled some thirty Africans, men and women, very +scantily dressed, and with necklaces of beads, sharks' teeth, dried +frogs, etc., hung round their necks. They were all squatted on +their haunches outside the hut, apparently waiting for a signal to +go in. + +'They did not seem particularly pleased at seeing us; and one of the +men said something in African, apparently addressed to some one +inside the house; for an instant after the door was flung open, and +Martin, almost naked, and with his body painted to represent a +skeleton, stalked forth to meet us. + +'He asked us very angrily what we wanted there, and seemed +particularly annoyed at seeing Jean Marie. However, on my repeated +assurances that we only came to see what was going on, he at last +consented to our remaining to see the dance; only cautioning us that +we must keep perfect silence, and that a word, much more a laugh, +would entail most serious consequences. + +'As long as I live I shall never forget that scene. The hut was +lighted by some eight or ten candles or lamps; and in the centre, +dimly visible, was a Fetish, somewhat of the appearance of a man, +but with the head of a cock. Everything that the coarsest fancy +could invent had been done to make this image horrible; and yet it +appeared to be the object of special adoration to the devotees +assembled. + +'Jean Marie, to be out of the way, clambered on to one of the cross- +beams that supported the roof, whilst I leaned against the side +wall, as near as I could get to the aperture that served for a +window, to avoid the smells, which were overpowering. + +'Martin took his seat astride of an African tom-tom or drum; and I +noticed at the time that Jean Marie's naked foot hung down from the +cross-beam almost directly over Martin's head. + +'Martin now began to chant a monotonous African song, accompanying +with the tom-tom. + +'Gradually he began to quicken the measure; quicker went the words; +quicker beat the drum; and suddenly one of the women sprang into the +open space in front of the Fetish. Round and round she went, +keeping admirable time with the music. + +'Quicker still went the drum. And now the whole of the woman's body +seemed electrified by it; and, as if catching the infection, a man +now joined her in the mad dance. Couple after couple entered the +arena, and a true sorcerers' sabbath began; while light after light +was extinguished, till at last but one remained; by whose dim ray I +could just perceive the faint outlines of the remaining persons. + +'At this moment, from some cause or other, Jean Marie burst into a +loud laugh. + +'Instantly the drum stopped; and I distinctly saw Martin raise his +right hand, and, as it appeared to me, seize Jean Marie's naked foot +between his finger and thumb. + +'As he did so, Jean Marie, with a terrible scream, which I shall +never forget, fell to the ground in strong convulsions. + +'We succeeded in getting him outside. But he never spoke again; and +died two hours afterwards, his body having swollen up like that of a +drowned man. + +'In those days there were no inquests; and but little interest was +created by the affair. Martin himself soon after died.' + +But enough of these abominations, of which I am forced to omit the +worst. + +That day--to go on with my own story--I left the rest of the party +to go down to the court-house, while I stayed at the camp, sorry to +lose so curious a scene, but too tired to face a crowded tropic +court, and an atmosphere of perspiration and perjury. + +Moreover, that had befallen me which might never befall me again--I +had a chance of being alone in the forests; and into them I would +wander, and meditate on them in silence. + +So, when all had departed, I lounged awhile in the rocking-chair, +watching two Negroes astride on the roof of a shed, on which they +were nailing shingles. Their heads were bare; the sun was intense; +the roof on which they sat must have been of the temperature of an +average frying-pan on an English fire: but the good fellows worked +on, steadily and carefully, though not fast, chattering and singing, +evidently enjoying the very act of living, and fattening in the +genial heat. Lucky dogs: who had probably never known hunger, +certainly never known cold; never known, possibly, a single animal +want which they could not satisfy. I could not but compare their +lot with that of an average English artisan. Ah, well: there is no +use in fruitless comparisons; and it is no reason that one should +grudge the Negro what he has, because others, who deserve it +certainly as much as he, have it not. After all, the ancestors of +these Negroes have been, for centuries past, so hard-worked, ill- +fed, ill-used too--sometimes worse than ill-used--that it is hard if +the descendants may not have a holiday, and take the world easy for +a generation or two. + +The perpetual Saturnalia in which the Negro, in Trinidad at least, +lives, will surely give physical strength and health to the body, +and something of cheerfulness, self-help, independence to the +spirit. If the Saturnalia be prolonged too far, and run, as they +seem inclined to run, into brutality and licence, those stern laws +of Nature which men call political economy will pull the Negro up +short, and waken him out of his dream, soon enough and sharply +enough--a 'judgment' by which the wise will profit and be preserved, +while the fools only will be destroyed. And meanwhile, what if in +these Saturnalia (as in Rome of old) the new sense of independence +manifests itself in somewhat of self-assertion and rudeness, often +in insolence, especially disagreeable, because deliberate? What if +'You call me black fellow? I mash you white face in,' were the +first words one heard at St. Thomas's from a Negro, on being asked, +civilly enough, by a sailor to cast off from a boat to which he had +no right to be holding on? What if a Negro now and then addresses +you as simple 'Buccra,' while he expects you to call him 'Sir'; or +if a Negro woman, on being begged by an English lady to call to +another Negro woman, answers at last, after long pretences not to +hear, 'You coloured lady! you hear dis white woman a wanting of +you'? Let it be. We white people bullied these black people quite +enough for three hundred years, to be able to allow them to play +(for it is no more) at bullying us. As long as the Negroes are +decently loyal and peaceable, and do not murder their magistrates +and drink their brains mixed with rum, nor send delegates to the +President of Hayti to ask if he will assist them, in case of a +general rising, to exterminate the whites--tricks which the harmless +Negroes of Trinidad, to do them justice, never have played, or had a +thought of playing--we must remember that we are very seriously in +debt to the Negro, and must allow him to take out instalments of his +debt, now and then, in his own fashion. After all, we brought him +here, and we have no right to complain of our own work. If, like +Frankenstein, we have tried to make a man, and made him badly; we +must, like Frankenstein, pay the penalty. + +So much for the Negro. As for the coloured population--especially +the educated and civilised coloured population of the towns--they +stand to us in an altogether different relation. They claim to be, +and are, our kinsfolk, on another ground than that of common +humanity. We are bound to them by a tie more sacred, I had almost +said more stern, than we are to the mere Negro. They claim, and +justly, to be considered as our kinsfolk and equals; and I believe, +from what I have seen of them, that they will prove themselves such, +whenever they are treated as they are in Trinidad. What faults some +of them have, proceed mainly from a not dishonourable ambition, +mixed with uncertainty of their own position. Let them be made to +feel that they are now not a class; to forget, if possible, that +they ever were one. Let any allusion to the painful past be +treated, not merely as an offence against good manners, but as what +it practically is, an offence against the British Government; and +that Government will find in them, I believe, loyal citizens and +able servants. + +But to go back to the forest. I sauntered forth with cutlass and +collecting-box, careless whither I went, and careless of what I saw; +for everything that I could see would be worth seeing. I know not +that I found many rare or new things that day. I recollect, amid +the endless variety of objects, Film-ferns of various delicate +species, some growing in the moss tree-trunks, some clasping the +trunk itself by horizontal lateral fronds, while the main rachis +climbed straight up many feet, thus embracing the stem in a network +of semi-transparent green Guipure lace. I recollect, too, a coarse +low fern {245} on stream-gravel which was remarkable, because its +stem was set with thick green prickles. I recollect, too, a dead +giant tree, the ruins of which struck me with awe. The stump stood +some thirty feet high, crumbling into tinder and dust, though its +death was so recent that the creepers and parasites had not yet had +time to lay hold of it, and around its great spur-roots lay what had +been its trunk and head, piled in stacks of rotten wood, over which +I scrambled with some caution, for fear my leg, on breaking through, +might be saluted from the inside by some deadly snake. The only +sign of animal life, however, I found about the tree, save a few +millipedes and land snails, were some lizard-eggs in a crack, about +the size of those of a humming-bird. + +I scrambled down on gravelly beaches, and gazed up the green avenues +of the brooks. I sat amid the Balisiers and Aroumas, above still +blue pools, bridged by huge fallen trunks, or with wild Pines of +half a dozen kinds set in rows: I watched the shoals of fish play +in and out of the black logs at the bottom: I gave myself up to the +simple enjoyment of looking, careless of what I looked at, or what I +thought about it all. There are times when the mind, like the body, +had best feed, gorge if you will, and leave the digestion of its +food to the unconscious alchemy of nature. It is as unwise to be +always saying to oneself, 'Into what pigeon-hole of my brain ought I +to put this fact, and what conclusion ought I to draw from it?' as +to ask your teeth how they intend to chew, and your gastric juice +how it intends to convert your three courses and a dessert into +chyle. Whether on a Scotch moor or in a tropic forest, it is well +at times to have full faith in Nature; to resign yourself to her, as +a child upon a holiday; to be still and let her speak. She knows +best what to say. + +And yet I could not altogether do it that day. There was one class +of objects in the forest which I had set my heart on examining, with +all my eyes and soul; and after a while, I scrambled and hewed my +way to them, and was well repaid for a quarter of an hour's very +hard work. + +I had remarked, from the camp, palms unlike any I had seen before, +starring the opposite forest with pale gray-green leaves. Long and +earnestly I had scanned them through the glasses. Now was the time +to see them close, and from beneath. I soon guessed (and rightly) +that I was looking at that Palma de Jagua, {246} which excited--and +no wonder--the enthusiasm of the usually unimpassioned Humboldt. +Magnificent as the tree is when its radiating leaves are viewed from +above, it is even more magnificent when you stand beneath it. The +stem, like that of the Coconut, usually curves the height of a man +ere it rises in a shaft for fifty or sixty feet more. From the +summit of that shaft springs a crown--I had rather say, a fountain-- +of pinnated leaves; only eight or ten of them; but five-and-twenty +feet long each. For three-fourths of their length they rise at an +angle of 45 degrees or more; for the last fourth they fall over, +till the point hangs straight down; and each leaflet, which is about +two feet and a half long, falls over in a similar curve, completing +the likeness of the whole to a fountain of water, or a gush of +rockets. I stood and looked up, watching the innumerable curled +leaflets, pale green above and silver-gray below, shiver and rattle +amid the denser foliage of the broad-leaved trees; and then went on +to another and to another, to stare up again, and enjoy the mere +shape of the most beautiful plant I had ever beheld, excepting +always the Musa Ensete, from Abyssinia, in the Palm-house at Kew. +Truly spoke Humboldt, of this or a closely allied species, 'Nature +has lavished every beauty of form on the Jagua Palm.' + +But here, as elsewhere to my great regret, I looked in vain for that +famous and beautiful tree, the Piriajo, {247} or 'Peach Palm,' which +is described in Mr. Bates's book, vol ii. p. 218, under the name of +Pupunha. It grows here and there in the island, and always marks +the site of an ancient Indian settlement. This is probable enough, +for 'it grows,' says Mr. Bates, 'wild nowhere on the Amazons. It is +one of those few vegetable productions (including three kinds of +Manioc and the American species of Banana) which the Indians have +cultivated from time immemorial, and brought with them in their +original migration to Brazil.' From whence? It has never yet been +found wild; 'its native home may possibly,' Mr. Bates thinks, 'be in +some still unexplored tract on the eastern slopes of the AEquatorial +Andes.' Possibly so: and possibly, again, on tracts long sunk +beneath the sea. He describes the tree as 'a noble ornament, from +fifty to sixty feet in height, and often as straight as a scaffold- +pole. The taste of the fruit may be compared to a mixture of +chestnuts and cheese. Vultures devour it greedily, and come in +quarrelsome flocks to the trees when it is ripe. Dogs will also eat +it. I do not recollect seeing cats do the same, though they will go +into the woods to eat Tucuma, another kind of palm fruit.' + +'It is only the more advanced tribes,' says Mr. Bates, 'who have +kept up the cultivation. . . . Bunches of sterile or seedless +fruits'--a mark of very long cultivation, as in the case of the +Plantain--'occur. . . . It is one of the principal articles of food +at Ega when in season, and is boiled and eaten with treacle or salt. +A dozen of the seedless fruits make a good nourishing meal for a +full-grown person. It is the general belief that there is more +nutriment in Pupunha than in fish, or Vacca Marina (Manati).' + +My friend Mr. Bates will, I am sure, excuse my borrowing so much +from him about a tree which must be as significant in his eyes as it +is in mine. + +So passed many hours, till I began to be tired of--I may almost say, +pained by--the appalling silence and loneliness; and I was glad to +get back to a point where I could hear the click of the axes in the +clearing. I welcomed it just as, after a long night on a calm sea, +when one nears the harbour again, one welcomes the sound of the +children's voices and the stir of life about the quay, as a relief +from the utter blank, and feels oneself no longer a bubble afloat on +an infinity which knows one not, and cares nothing for one's +existence. For in the dead stillness of mid-day, when not only the +deer, and the agoutis, and the armadillos, but the birds and insects +likewise, are all asleep, the crack of a falling branch was all that +struck my ear, as I tried in vain to verify the truth of that +beautiful passage of Humboldt's--true, doubtless, in other forests, +or for ears more acute than mine. 'In the mid-day,' he says, {248a} +'the larger animals seek shelter in the recesses of the forest, and +the birds hide themselves under the thick foliage of the trees, or +in the clefts of the rocks: but if, in this apparent entire +stillness of nature, one listens for the faintest tones which an +attentive ear can seize, there is perceived an all-pervading +rustling sound, a humming and fluttering of insects close to the +ground, and in the lower strata of the atmosphere. Everything +announces a world of organic activity and life. In every bush, in +the cracked bark of the trees, in the earth undermined by +hymenopterous insects, life stirs audibly. It is, as it were, one +of the many voices of Nature, and can only be heard by the sensitive +and reverent ear of her true votaries.' + +Be not too severe, great master. A man's ear may be reverent +enough: but you must forgive its not being sensitive while it is +recovering from that most deafening of plagues, a tropic cold in the +head. + +Would that I had space to tell at length of our long and delightful +journey back the next day, which lay for several miles along the +path by which we came, and then, after we had looked down once more +on the exquisite bay of Fillette, kept along the northern wall of +the mountains, instead of turning up to the slope which we came over +out of Caura. For miles we paced a mule-path, narrow, but well +kept--as it had need to be; for a fall would have involved a roll +into green abysses, from which we should probably not have +reascended. Again the surf rolled softly far below; and here and +there a vista through the trees showed us some view of the sea and +woodlands almost as beautiful as that at Fillette. Ever and anon +some fresh valuable tree or plant, wasting in the wilderness, was +pointed out. More than once we became aware of a keen and dreadful +scent, as of a concentrated essence of unwashed tropic humanity, +which proceeded from that strange animal, the porcupine with a +prehensile tail, {248b} who prowls in the tree-tops all night, and +sleeps in them all day, spending his idle hours in making this +hideous smell. Probably he or his ancestors have found it pay as a +protection; for no jaguar or tiger-cat, it is to be presumed, would +care to meddle with anything so exquisitely nasty, especially when +it is all over sharp prickles. + +Once--I should know the spot again among a thousand--where we +scrambled over a stony brook just like one in a Devonshire wood, the +boulders and the little pools between them swarmed with things like +scarlet and orange fingers, or sticks of sealing-wax, which we +recognised, and, looking up, saw a magnificent Bois Chataigne, +{249a}--Pachira, as the Indians call it,--like a great horse- +chestnut, spreading its heavy boughs overhead. And these were the +fallen petals of its last-night's crop of flowers, which had opened +there, under the moonlight, unseen and alone. Unseen and alone? +How do we know that? + +Then we emerged upon a beach, the very perfection of typical tropic +shore, with little rocky coves, from one to another of which we had +to ride through rolling surf, beneath the welcome shade of low +shrub-fringed cliffs; while over the little mangrove-swamp at the +mouth of the glen, Tocuche rose sheer, like M'Gillicuddy's Reeks +transfigured into one huge emerald. + +We turned inland again, and stopped for luncheon at a clear brook, +running through a grove of Cacao and Bois Immortelles. We sat +beneath the shade of a huge Bamboo clump; cut ourselves pint-stoups +out of the joints; and then, like great boys, got, some of us at +least, very wet in fruitless attempts to catch a huge cray-fish nigh +eighteen inches long, blue and gray, and of a shape something +between a gnat and a spider, who, with a wife and child, had taken +up his abode in a pool among the spurs of a great Bois Immortelle. +However, he was too nimble for us; and we went on, and inland once +more, luckily not leaving our bamboo stoups behind. + +We descended, I remember, to the sea-shore again, at a certain +Maraccas Bay, and had a long ride along bright sands, between surf +and scrub; in which ride, by the by, the civiliser of Montserrat and +I, to avoid the blinding glare of the sand, rode along the firm sand +between the sea and the lagoon, through the low wood of Shore Grape +and Mahaut, Pinguin and Swamp Seguine {249b}--which last is an Arum +with a knotted stem, from three to twelve feet high. We brushed our +way along with our cutlasses, as we sat on our saddles, enjoying the +cool shade; till my companion's mule found herself jammed tight in +scrub, and unable to forge either ahead or astern. Her rider was +jammed too, and unable to get off; and the two had to be cut out of +the bush by fair hewing, amid much laughter, while the wise old +mule, as the cutlasses flashed close to her nose, never moved a +muscle, perfectly well aware of what had happened, and how she was +to be got out of the scrape, as she had been probably fifty times +before. + +We stopped at the end of the long beach, thoroughly tired and +hungry, for we had been on the march many hours; and discovered for +the first time that we had nothing left to eat. Luckily, a certain +little pot of 'Ramornie' essence of soup was recollected and brought +out. The kettle was boiling in five minutes, and half a teaspoonful +per man of the essence put on a knife's point, and stirred with a +cutlass, to the astonishment of the grinning and unbelieving +Negroes, who were told that we were going to make Obeah soup, and +were more than half of that opinion themselves. Meanwhile, I saw +the wise mule led up into the bush; and, on asking its owner why, +was told that she was to be fed--on what, I could not see. But, +much to my amusement, he cut down a quantity of the young leaves of +the Cocorite palm; and she began to eat them greedily, as did my +police-horse. And, when the bamboo stoups were brought out, and +three-quarters of a pint of good soup was served round--not +forgetting the Negroes, one of whom, after sucking it down, rubbed +his stomach, and declared, with a grin, that it was very good Obeah- +-the oddness of the scene came over me. The blazing beach, the +misty mountains, the hot trade-wind, the fantastic leaves overhead, +the black limbs and faces, the horses eating palm-leaves, and we +sitting on logs among the strange ungainly Montrichardias, drinking +'Ramornie' out of bamboo, washing it down with milk from green +coconuts--was this, too, a scene in a pantomime? Would it, too, +vanish if one only shut one's eyes and shook one's head? + +We turned up into the loveliest green trace, where, I know not how, +the mountain vegetation had, some of it, come down to the sea-level. +Nowhere did I see the Melastomas more luxuriant; and among them, +arching over our heads like parasols of green lace, between us and +the sky, were tall tree-ferns, as fine as those on the mountain +slopes. + +In front of us opened a flat meadow of a few acres; and beyond it, +spur upon spur, rose a noble mountain, in so steep a wall that it +was difficult to see how we were to ascend. + +Ere we got to the mountain foot, some of our party had nigh come to +grief. For across the Savanna wandered a deep lagoon brook. The +only bridge had been washed away by rains; and we had to get the +horses through as we could, all but swimming them, two men on each +horse; and then to drive the poor creatures back for a fresh double +load, with fallings, splashings, much laughter, and a qualm or two +at the recollection that there might be unpleasant animals in the +water. Electric eels, happily, were not invented at the time when +Trinidad parted from the Main, or at least had not spread so far +east: but alligators had been by that time fully developed, and had +arrived here in plenty; and to be laid hold of by one, would have +been undesirable; though our party was strong enough to have made +very short work with the monster. + +So over we got, and through much mud, and up mountains some fifteen +hundred feet high, on which the vegetation was even richer than any +we had seen before; and down the other side, with the great lowland +and the Gulf of Paria opening before us. We rested at a police- +station--always a pleasant sight in Trinidad, for the sake of the +stalwart soldier-like brown policemen and their buxom wives, and +neat houses and gardens a focus of discipline and civilisation amid +what would otherwise relapse too soon into anarchy and barbarism; we +whiled away the time by inspecting the ward police reports, which +were kept as neatly, and worded as well, as they would have been in +England; and then rolled comfortably in the carriage down to Port of +Spain, tired and happy, after three such days as had made old blood +and old brains young again. + + + +CHAPTER XII: THE SAVANNA OF ARIPO + + + +The last of my pleasant rides, and one which would have been perhaps +the pleasantest of all, had I had (as on other occasions) the +company of my host, was to the Cocal, or Coco-palm grove, of the +east coast, taking on my way the Savanna of Aripo. It had been our +wish to go up the Orinoco, as far as Ciudad Bolivar (the Angostura +of Humboldt's travels), to see the new capital of Southern +Venezuela, fast rising into wealth and importance under the wise and +pacific policy of its president, Senor Dalla Costa, a man said to +possess a genius and an integrity far superior to the average of +South American Republicans--of which latter the less said the +better; to push back, if possible, across those Llanos which +Humboldt describes in his Personal Narrative, vol. iv. p. 295; it +may be to visit the Falls of the Caroni. But that had to be done by +others, after we were gone. My days in the island were growing +short; and the most I could do was to see at Aripo a small specimen +of that peculiar Savanna vegetation, which occupies thousands of +square miles on the mainland. + +If, therefore, the reader cares nothing for botanical and geological +speculations, he will be wise to skip this chapter. But those who +are interested in the vast changes of level and distribution of land +which have taken place all over the world since the present forms of +animals and vegetables were established on it, may possibly find a +valuable fact or two in what I thought I saw at the Savanna of +Aripo. + +My first point was, of course, the little city of San Josef. To an +Englishman, the place will be always interesting as the scene of +Raleigh's exploit, and the capture of Berreos; and, to one who has +received the kindness which I have received from the Spanish +gentlemen of the neighbourhood, a spot full of most grateful +memories. It lies pleasantly enough, on a rise at the southern foot +of the mountains, and at the mouth of a torrent which comes down +from the famous 'Chorro,' or waterfall, of Maraccas. In going up to +that waterfall, just at the back of the town, I found buried, in +several feet of earth, a great number of seemingly recent but very +ancient shells. Whether they be remnants of an elevated sea-beach, +or of some Indian 'kitchen-midden,' I dare not decide. But the +question is well worth the attention of any geologist who may go +that way. The waterfall, and the road up to it, are best described +by one who, after fourteen years of hard scientific work in the +island, now lies lonely in San Fernando churchyard, far from his +beloved Fatherland--he, or at least all of him that could die. I +wonder whether that of him which can never die, knows what his +Fatherland is doing now? But to the waterfall of Maraccas, or +rather to poor Dr. Krueger's description of it:-- + +'The northern chain of mountains, covered nearly everywhere with +dense forests, is intersected at various angles by numbers of +valleys presenting the most lovely character. Generally each valley +is watered by a silvery stream, tumbling here and there over rocks +and natural dams, ministering in a continuous rain to the strange- +looking river-canes, dumb-canes, and balisiers that voluptuously +bend their heads to the drizzly shower which plays incessantly on +their glistening leaves, off which the globules roll in a thousand +pearls, as from the glossy plumage of a stately swan. + +'One of these falls deserves particular notice--the Cascade of +Maraccas--in the valley of that name. The high road leads up the +valley a few miles, over hills, and along the windings of the river, +exhibiting the varying scenery of our mountain district in the +fairest style. There, on the river-side, you may admire the +gigantic pepper-trees, or the silvery leaves of the Calathea, the +lofty bamboo, or the fragrant Pothos, the curious Cyclanthus, or +frowning nettles, some of the latter from ten to twelve feet high. +But how to describe the numberless treasures which everywhere strike +the eye of the wandering naturalist? + +'To reach the Chorro, or Cascade, you strike to the right into a +"path" that brings you first to a cacao plantation, through a few +rice or maize fields, and then you enter the shade of the virgin +forest. Thousands of interesting objects now attract your +attention: here, the wonderful Norantea or the resplendent +Calycophyllum, a Tabernaemontana or a Faramea filling the air afar +off with the fragrance of their blossoms; there, a graceful +Heliconia winking at you from out some dark ravine. That shrubbery +above is composed of a species of Boehmeria or Ardisia, and that +scarlet flower belongs to our native Aphelandra. In the rear are +one or two Philodendrons--disagreeable guests, for their smell is +bad enough, and they blister when imprudently touched. There also +you may see a tree-fern, though a small one. Nearer to us, and low +down beneath our feet, that rich panicle of flowers belongs to a +Begonia; and here also is an assemblage of ferns of the genera +Asplenium, Hymenophyllum, and Trichomanes, as well as of Hepaticae +and Mosses. But what are those yellow and purple flowers hanging +above our heads? They are Bignonias and Mucunas--creepers straying +from afar which have selected this spot, where they may, under the +influence of the sun's beams, propagate their race. Those chain- +like, fantastic, strange-looking lianes, resembling a family of +boas, are Bauhinias; and beyond, through the opening you see, in the +abandoned ground of some squatter's garden, the trumpet-tree +(Cecropia) and the groo-groo, the characteristic plants of the +rastrajo. + +'Now, let us proceed on our walk; we mean the cascade:--Here it is, +opposite to you, a grand spectacle indeed! From a perpendicular +wall of solid rock, of more than three hundred feet, down rushes a +stream of water, splitting in the air, and producing a constant +shower, which renders this lovely spot singularly and deliciously +cool. Nearly the whole extent of this natural wall is covered with +plants, among which you can easily discern numbers of ferns and +mosses, two species of Pitcairnia with beautiful red flowers, some +Aroids, various nettles, and here and there a Begonia. How +different such a spot would look in cold Europe! Below, in the +midst of a never-failing drizzle, grow luxuriant Ardisias, Aroids, +Ferns, Costas, Heliconias, Centropogons, Hydrocotyles, Cyperoids, +and Grasses of various genera, Tradescantias and Commelynas, +Billbergias, and, occasionally, a few small Rubiaceae and +Melastomaceae.' + +The cascade, when I saw it, was somewhat disfigured above and below. +Above, the forest-fires of last year had swept the edge of the +cliff, and had even crawled half-way down, leaving blackened rocks +and gray stems; and below, loyal zeal had cut away only too much of +the rich vegetation, to make a shed or stable, in anticipation of a +visit from the Duke of Edinburgh, who did not come. A year or two, +however, in this climate will heal these temporary scars, and all +will be as luxuriant as ever. Indeed such scars heal only too fast +here. For the paths become impassable from brush and weeds every +six months, and have to be cutlassed out afresh; and when it was +known that we were going up to the waterfall, a gang had to be set +to work to save the lady of the party being wetted through by leaf- +dew up to her shoulders, as she sat upon her horse. Pretty it was-- +a bit out of an older and more simple world--to see the yeoman- +gentleman who had contracted for the mending of the road, and who +counts among his ancestors the famous Ponce de Leon, meeting us +half-way on our return; dressed more simply, and probably much +poorer, than an average English yeoman: but keeping untainted the +stately Castilian courtesy, as with hat in hand--I hope I need not +say that my hat was at my saddle-bow all the while--he inquired +whether La Senorita had found the path free from all obstructions, +and so forth. + + +'The old order changes, giving place to the new: +Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.' + + +But when, two hundred years hence, there are no more such gentlemen +of the old school left in the world, what higher form of true +civilisation shall we have invented to put in its place? None as +yet. All our best civilisation, in every class, is derived from +that; from the true self respect which is founded on respect for +others. + +From San Josef, I was taken on in the carriage of a Spanish +gentleman through Arima, a large village where an Indian colony +makes those baskets and other wares from the Arouma-leaf for which +Trinidad is noted; and on to his estate at Guanapo, a pleasant +lowland place, with wide plantations of Cacao, only fourteen years +old, but in full and most profitable bearing; rich meadows with huge +clumps of bamboo; and a roomy timber-house, beautifully thatched +with palm, which serves as a retreat, in the dry season, for him and +his ladies, when baked out of dusty San Josef. On my way there, by +the by, I espied, and gathered for the first and last time, a flower +very dear to me--a crimson Passion flower, rambling wild over the +bush. + +When we arrived, the sun was still so high in heaven that the kind +owner offered to push on that very afternoon to the Savanna of +Aripo, some five miles off. Police-horses had arrived from Arima, +in one of which I recognised my trusty old brown cob of the Northern +Mountains, and laid hands on him at once; and away three or four of +us went, the squire leading the way on his mule, with cutlass and +umbrella, both needful enough. + +We went along a sandy high road, bordered by a vegetation new to me. +Low trees, with wiry branches and shining evergreen leaves, which +belonged, I was told, principally to the myrtle tribe, were +overtopped by Jagua palms, and packed below with Pinguins; with wild +pine-apples, whose rose and purple flower-heads were very beautiful; +and with a species of palm of which I had often heard, but which I +had never seen before, at least in any abundance, namely, the Timit, +{256a} the leaves of which are used as thatch. A low tree, seldom +rising more than twenty or thirty feet, it throws out wedge shaped +leaves some ten or twelve feet long, sometimes all but entire, +sometimes irregularly pinnate, because the space between the +straight and parallel side nerves has not been filled up. These +flat wedge-shaped sheets, often six feet across, and the oblong +pinnae, some three feet long by six inches to a foot in breadth, +make admirable thatch; and on emergency, as we often saw that day, +good umbrellas. Bundles of them lay along the roadside, tied up, +ready for carrying away, and each Negro or Negress whom we passed +carried a Timit-leaf, and hooked it on to his head when a gush of +rain came down. + +After a while we turned off the high road into a forest path, which +was sound enough, the soil being one sheet of poor sand and white +quartz gravel, which would in Scotland, or even Devonshire, have +carried nothing taller than heath, but was here covered with +impenetrable jungle. The luxuriance of this jungle, be it +remembered, must not delude a stranger, as it has too many ere now, +into fancying that the land would be profitable under cultivation. +As long as the soil is shaded and kept damp, it will bear an +abundant crop of woody fibre, which, composed almost entirely of +carbon and water, drains hardly any mineral constituents from the +soil. But if that jungle be once cleared off, the slow and careful +work of ages has been undone in a moment. The burning sun bakers up +everything; and the soil, having no mineral staple wherewith to +support a fresh crop if planted, is reduced to aridity and sterility +for years to come. Timber, therefore, I believe, and timber only, +is the proper crop for these poor soils, unless medicinal or +otherwise useful trees should be discovered hereafter worth the +planting. To thin out the useless timbers--but cautiously, for fear +of letting in the sun's rays--and to replace them by young plants of +useful timbers, is all that Government can do with the poorer bits +of these Crown lands, beyond protecting (as it does now to the best +of its power) the natural crop of Timit-leaves from waste and +destruction. So much it ought to do; and so much it can and will do +in Trinidad, which--happily for it--possesses a Government which +governs, instead of leaving every man, as in the Irishman's +paradise, to 'do what is right in the sight of his own eyes, and +what is wrong too, av he likes.' Without such wise regulation, and +even restraint, of the ignorant greediness of human toil, intent +only (as in the too exclusive cultivation of the sugar-cane and of +the cotton-plant) on present profits, without foresight or care for +the future, the lands of warmer climates will surely fall under that +curse, so well described by the venerable Elias Fries, of Lund. +{257a} + +'A broad belt of waste land follows gradually in the steps of +cultivation. If it expands, its centre and its cradle dies, and on +the outer borders only do we find green shoots. But it is not +impossible, only difficult, for man, without renouncing the +advantage of culture itself, one day to make reparation for the +injury which he has inflicted; he is the appointed lord of creation. +True it is that thorns and thistles, ill-favoured and poisonous +plants, well named by botanists "rubbish-plants," mark the track +which man has proudly traversed through the earth. Before him lay +original Nature in her wild but sublime beauty. Behind him he +leaves the desert, a deformed and ruined land; for childish desire +of destruction or thoughtless squandering of vegetable treasures has +destroyed the character of Nature; and, terrified, man himself flies +from the arena of his actions, leaving the impoverished earth to +barbarous races or to animals, so long as yet another spot in virgin +beauty smiles before him. Here, again, in selfish pursuit of +profit, and, consciously or unconsciously, following the abominable +principle of the great moral vileness which one man has expressed-- +"Apres nous le deluge"--he begins anew the work of destruction. +Thus did cultivation, driven out, leave the East, and perhaps the +Deserts formerly robbed of their coverings: like the wild hordes of +old over beautiful Greece, thus rolls the conquest with fearful +rapidity from east to west through America; and the planter now +often leaves the already exhausted land, the eastern climate becomes +infertile through the demolition of the forests, to introduce a +similar revolution into the far West.' + +For a couple of miles or more we trotted on through this jungle, +till suddenly we saw light ahead; and in five minutes the forest +ended, and a scene opened before us which made me understand the +admiration which Humboldt and other travellers have expressed at the +far vaster Savannas of the Orinoco. + +A large sheet of gray-green grass, bordered by the forest wall, as +far as the eye could see, and dotted with low bushes, weltered in +mirage; while stretching out into it, some half a mile off, a gray +promontory into a green sea, was an object which filled me with more +awe and admiration than anything which I had seen in the island. + +It was a wood of Moriche palms; like a Greek temple, many hundred +yards in length, and, as I guessed, nearly a hundred feet in height; +and, like a Greek temple, ending abruptly at its full height. The +gray columns, perfectly straight and parallel, supported a dark roof +of leaves, gray underneath, and reflecting above, from their broad +fans, sheets of pale glittering-light. Such serenity of grandeur I +never saw in any group of trees; and when we rode up to it, and +tethered our horses in its shade, it seemed to me almost irreverent +not to kneel and worship in that temple not made with hands. + +When we had gazed our fill, we set hastily to work to collect +plants, as many as the lateness of the hour and the scalding heat +would allow. A glance showed the truth of Dr. Krueger's words:-- + +'It is impossible to describe the feelings of the botanist when +arriving at a field like this, so much unlike anything he has seen +before. Here are full-blowing large Orchids, with red, white, and +yellow flowers; and among the grasses, smaller ones of great +variety, and as great scientific interest--Melastomaceous plants of +various genera; Utricularias, Droseras, rare and various grasses, +and Cyperoids of small sizes and fine kinds, with a species of +Cassytha; in the water, Ceratophyllum (the well-known hornwort of +the English ponds) and bog-mosses. Such a variety of forms and +colours is nowhere else to be met with in the island.' + +Of the Orchids, we only found one in flower; and of the rest, of +course, we had time only to gather a very few of the more +remarkable, among which was that lovely cousin of the Clerodendrons, +the crimson Amasonia, which ought to be in all hothouses. The low +bushes, I found, were that curious tree the Chaparro, {259a} but not +the Chaparro {259b} so often mentioned by Humboldt as abounding on +the Llanos. This Chaparro is remarkable, first, for the queer +little Natural Order to which it belongs; secondly, for its tanning +properties; thirdly, for the very nasty smell of its flowers; +fourthly, for the roughness of its leaves, which make one's flesh +creep, and are used, I believe, for polishing steel; and lastly, for +its wide geographical range, from Isla de Pinos, near Cuba--where +Columbus, to his surprise, saw true pines growing in the Tropics-- +all over the Llanos, and down to Brazil; an ancient, ugly, sturdy +form of vegetation, able to get a scanty living out of the poorest +soils, and consequently triumphant, as yet, in the battle of life. + +The soil of the Savanna was a poor sandy clay, treacherous, and +often impassable for horses, being half dried above and wet beneath. +The vegetation grew, not over the whole, but in innumerable +tussocks, which made walking very difficult. The type of the rushes +and grasses was very English; but among them grew, here and there, +plants which excited my astonishment; above all, certain Bladder- +worts, {259c} which I had expected to find, but which, when found, +were so utterly unlike any English ones, that I did not recognise at +first what they were. Our English Bladder-worts, as everybody +knows, float in stagnant water on tangles of hair-like leaves, +something like those of the Water-Ranunculus, but furnished with +innumerable tiny bladders; and this raft supports the little scape +of yellow snapdragon-like flowers. There are in Trinidad and other +parts of South America Bladder-worts of this type. But those which +we found to-day, growing out of the damp clay, were more like in +habit to a delicate stalk of flax, or even a bent of grass, upright, +leafless or all but leafless, with heads of small blue or yellow +flowers, and carrying, in one species, a few very minute bladders +about the roots, in another none at all. A strange variation from +the normal type of the family; yet not so strange, after all, as +that of another variety in the high mountain woods, which, finding +neither ponds to float in nor swamp to root in, has taken to lodging +as a parasite among the wet moss on tree-trunks; not so strange, +either, as that of yet another, which floats, but in the most +unexpected spots, namely, in the water which lodges between the +leaf-sheaths of the wild pines, perched on the tree-boughs, a +parasite on parasites; and sends out long runners, as it grows, +along the bough, in search of the next wild pine and its tiny +reservoirs. + +In the face of such strange facts, is it very absurd to guess that +these Utricularias, so like each other in their singular and highly +specialised flowers, so unlike each other in the habit of the rest +of the plant, have started from some one original type perhaps long +since extinct; and that, carried by birds into quite new situations, +they have adapted themselves, by natural selection, to new +circumstances, changing the parts which required change--the leaves +and stalks; but keeping comparatively unchanged those which needed +no change--the flowers? + +But I was not prepared, as I should have been had I studied my +Griesbach's West Indian Flora carefully enough beforehand, for the +next proof of the wide distribution of water-plants. For as I +scratched and stumbled among the tussocks, 'larding the lean earth +as I stalked along,' my kind guide put into my hand, with something +of an air of triumph, a little plant, which was--there was no +denying it--none other than the long-leaved Sundew, {260a} with its +clammy-haired paws full of dead flies, just as they would have been +in any bog in Devonshire or in Hampshire, in Wales or in Scotland. +But how came it here? And more, how has it spread, not only over +the whole of Northern Europe, Canada, and the United States, but +even as far south as Brazil? Its being common to North America and +Europe is not surprising. It may belong to that comparatively +ancient Flora which existed when there was land way between the two +continents by way of Greenland, and the bison ranged from Russia to +the Rocky Mountains. But its presence within the Tropics is more +probably explained by supposing that it, like the Bladder-worts, has +been carried on the feet or in the crop of birds. + +The Savanna itself, like those of Caroni and Piarco, offers, I +suspect, a fresh proof that a branch of the Orinoco once ran along +the foot of the northern mountains of Trinidad. + +'It is impossible,' says Humboldt, {260b} 'to cross the burning +plains' (of the Orinocquan Savannas) 'without inquiring whether they +have always been in the same state; or whether they have been +stripped of their vegetation by some revolution of nature. The +stratum of mould now found on them is very thin. . . . The plains +were, doubtless, less bare in the fifteenth century than they are +now; yet the first Conquistadores, who came from Coro, described +them then as Savannas, where nothing could be perceived save the sky +and the turf; which were generally destitute of trees, and difficult +to traverse on account of the reverberation of heat from the soil. +Why does not the great forest of the Oroonoco extend to the north, +or the left bank of that river? Why does it not fill that vast +space that reaches as far as the Cordillera of the coast, and which +is fertilised by various rivers? This question is connected with +all that relates to the history of our planet. If, indulging in +geological reveries, we suppose that the Steppes of America and the +desert of Sahara have been stripped of their vegetation by an +irruption of the ocean, or that they formed the bottom of an inland +lake'--(the Sahara, as is now well known, is the quite recently +elevated bed of a great sea continuous with the Atlantic)--'we may +conceive that thousands of years have not sufficed for the trees and +shrubs to advance toward the centre from the borders of the forests, +from the skirts of the plains either naked or covered with turf, and +darken so vast a space with their shade. It is more difficult to +explain the origin of bare savannas enclosed in forests, than to +recognise the causes which maintain forests and savannas within +their ancient limits like continents and seas.' + +With these words in my mind, I could not but look on the Savanna of +Aripo as one of the last-made bits of dry land in Trinidad, still +unfurnished with the common vegetation of the island. The two +invading armies of tropical plants--one advancing from the north, +off the now almost destroyed land which connected Trinidad and the +Cordillera with the Antilles; the other from the south-west, off the +utterly destroyed land which connected Trinidad with Guiana--met, as +I fancy, ages since, on the opposite banks of a mighty river, or +estuary, by which the Orinoco entered the ocean along the foot of +the northern mountains. As that river-bed rose and became dry land, +the two Floras crossed and intermingled. Only here and there, as at +Aripo, are left patches, as it were, of a third Flora, which once +spread uninterruptedly along the southern base of the Cordillera and +over the lowland which is now the Gulf of Paria, along the alluvial +flats of the mighty stream; and the Moriche palms of Aripo may be +the lineal descendants of those which now inhabit the Llanos of the +main; as those again may be the lineal descendants of the Moriches +which Schomburgk found forming forests among the mountains of +Guiana, up to four thousand feet above the sea. Age after age the +Moriche apples floated down the stream, settling themselves on every +damp spot not yet occupied by the richer vegetation of the forests, +and ennobled, with their solitary grandeur, what without them would +have been a dreary waste of mud and sand. + +These Savannas of Trinidad stand, it must be remembered, in the very +line where, on such a theory, they might be expected to stand, along +the newest deposit; the great band of sand, gravel, and clay rubbish +which stretches across the island at the mountain-foot, its highest +point in thirty-six miles being only two hundred and twenty feet--an +elevation far less than the corresponding depression of the Bocas, +which has parted Trinidad from the main Cordillera. That the +rubbish on this line was deposited by a river or estuary is as clear +to me as that the river was either a very rapid one, or subject to +violent and lofty floods, as the Orinoco is now. For so are best +explained, not merely the sheets of gravel, but the huge piles of +boulder which have accumulated at the mouth of the mountain gorges +on the northern side. + +As for the southern shore of this supposed channel of the Orinoco, +it at once catches the eye of any one standing on the northern +range. He must see that he is on one shore of a vast channel, the +other shore of which is formed by the Montserrat, Tamana, and +Manzanilla hills; far lower now than the northern range, Tamana only +being over a thousand feet, but doubtless, in past ages, far higher +than now. No one can doubt this who has seen the extraordinary +degradation going on still about the summits, or who remembers that +the strata, whether tertiary or lower chalk, have been, over the +greater part of the island, upheaved, faulted, set on end, by the +convulsions seemingly so common during the Miocene epoch, and since +then sawn away by water and air into one rolling outline, quite +independent of the dip of the strata. The whole southern two thirds +of Trinidad represent a wear and tear which is not to be counted by +thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of years; and yet which, I +verily believe, has taken place since the average plants, trees, and +animals of the island dwelt therein. + +This elevation may have well coincided with the depression of the +neighbouring Gulf of Paria. That the southern portion of that gulf +was once dry land; that the Serpent's Mouth did not exist when the +present varieties of plants and animals were created, is matter of +fact, proven by the identity of the majority of plants and animals +on both shores. How else--to give a few instances out of hundreds-- +did the Mora, the Brazil-nut, the Cannon-ball tree: how else did +the Ant-eater, the Coendou, the two Cuencos, the Guazupita deer, +enter Trinidad? Humboldt--though, unfortunately, he never visited +the island--saw this at a glance. While he perceived that the +Indian story, how the Boca Drago to the north had been only lately +broken through, had a foundation of truth, 'It cannot be doubted,' +he says, 'that the Gulf of Paria was once an inland basin, and the +Punta Icacque (its south-western extremity) united to the Punta +Toleto, east of the Boca de Pedernales.' {262} In which case there +may well have been--one may almost say there must have been--an +outlet for that vast body of water which pours, often in tremendous +floods, from the Pedernales' mouth of the Orinoco, as well as from +those of the Tigre, Guanipa, Caroli, and other streams between it +and the Cordillera on the north; and this outlet probably lay along +the line now occupied by the northern Savannas of Trinidad. + +So much this little natural park of Aripo taught, or seemed to teach +me. But I did not learn the whole of the lesson that afternoon, or +indeed till long after. There was no time then to work out such +theories. The sun was getting low, and more intolerable as he sank; +and to escape a sunstroke on the spot, or at least a dark ride home, +we hurried off into the forest shade, after one last look at the +never-to-be-forgotten Morichal, and trotted home to luxury and +sleep. + + + +CHAPTER XIII: THE COCAL + + + +Next day, like the 'Young Muleteers of Grenada,' a good song which +often haunted me in those days, + + +'With morning's earliest twinkle +Again we are up and gone,' + + +with two horses, two mules, and a Negro and a Coolie carrying our +scanty luggage in Arima baskets: but not without an expression of +pity from the Negro who cleaned my boots. 'Where were we going?' +To the east coast. Cuffy turned up what little nose he had. He +plainly considered the east coast, and indeed Trinidad itself, as +not worth looking at. 'Ah! you should go Barbadoes, sa. Dat de +country to see. I Barbadian, sa.' No doubt. It is very quaint, +this self-satisfaction of the Barbadian Negro. Whether or not he +belonged originally to some higher race--for there are as great +differences of race among Negroes as among any white men--he looks +down on the Negroes, and indeed on the white men, of other islands, +as beings of an inferior grade; and takes care to inform you in the +first five minutes that he is 'neider C'rab nor Creole, but true +Barbadian barn.' This self-conceit of his, meanwhile, is apt to +make him unruly, and the cause of unruliness in others when he +emigrates. The Barbadian Negroes are, I believe, the only ones who +give, or ever have given, any trouble in Trinidad; and in Barbadoes +itself, though the agricultural Negroes work hard and well, who that +knows the West Indies knows not the insubordination of the +Bridgetown boatmen, among whose hands a traveller and his luggage +are, it is said, likely enough to be pulled in pieces? However, +they are rather more quiet just now; for not a thousand years ago a +certain steamer's captain, utterly unable to clear his quarter of +the fleet of fighting, jabbering brown people, turned the steam pipe +on them. At which quite unexpected artillery they fled +precipitately; and have had some rational respect for a steamer's +quarter ever since. After all, I do not deny that this man's being +a Barbadian opened my heart to him at once, for old sakes' sake. + +Another specimen of Negro character I was to have analysed, or tried +to analyse, at the estate where I had slept. M. F--- had lately +caught a black servant at the brook-side busily washing something in +a calabash, and asked him what was he doing there? The conversation +would have been held, of course, in French-Spanish-African--Creole +patois, a language which is becoming fixed, with its own grammar and +declensions, etc. A curious book on it has lately been published in +Trinidad by Mr. Thomas, a coloured gentleman, who seems to be at +once no mean philologer and no mean humorist. The substance of the +Negro's answer was, 'Why, sir, you sent me to the town to buy a +packet of sugar and a packet of salt; and coming back it rained so +hard, the packets burst, and the salt was all washed into the sugar. +And so--I am washing it out again.' . . . + +This worthy was to have been brought to me, that I might discover, +if possible, by what processes of 'that which he was pleased to call +his mind' he had arrived at the conclusion that such a thing could +be done. Clearly, he could not plead unavoidable ignorance of the +subject-matter, as might the old cook at San Josef, who, the first +time her master brought home Wenham Lake ice from Port of Spain, was +scandalised at the dirtiness of the 'American water,' washed off the +sawdust, and dried the ice in the sun. His was a case of Handy- +Andyism, as that intellectual disease may be named, after Mr. +Lover's hero; like that of the Obeah-woman, when she tried to bribe +the white gentleman with half a dozen of bottled beer; a case of +muddle-headed craft and elaborate silliness, which keeps no +proportion between the means and the end; so common in insane +persons; frequent, too, among the lower Irish, such as Handy Andy; +and very frequent, I am afraid, among the Negroes. But--as might +have been expected--the poor boy's moral sense had proved as shaky +as his intellectual powers. He had just taken a fancy to some goods +of his master's; and had retreated, to enjoy them the more securely, +into the southern forests, with a couple of brown policemen on his +track. So he was likely to undergo a more simple investigation than +that which was submitted to my analysis, viz. how he proposed to +wash the salt out of the sugar. + +We arrived after a while at Valencia, a scattered hamlet in the +woods, with a good shop or 'store' upon a village green, under the +verandah whereof lay, side by side with bottled ale and biscuit +tins, bags of Carapo {265} nuts; trapezoidal brown nuts--enclosed +originally in a round fruit--which ought some day to form a valuable +article of export. Their bitter anthelminthic oil is said to have +medicinal uses; but it will be still more useful for machinery, as +it has--like that curious flat gourd the Sequa {266a}--the property +of keeping iron from rust. The tree itself, common here and in +Guiana, is one of the true Forest Giants; we saw many a noble +specimen of it in our rides. Its timber is tough, not over heavy, +and extensively used already in the island; while its bark is a +febrifuge and tonic. In fact it possesses all those qualities which +make its brethren, the Meliaceae, valuable throughout the Tropics. +But it is not the only tree of South America whose bark may be used +as a substitute for quinine. They may be counted possibly by +dozens. A glance at the excellent enumerations of the uses of +vegetable products to be found in Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom (a +monument of learning) will show how God provides, how man neglects +and wastes. As a single instance, the Laurels alone are known +already to contain several valuable febrifuges, among which the +Demerara Greenheart, or Bibiri, {266b} claims perhaps the highest +rank. 'Dr. Maclagan has shown,' says Dr. Lindley, 'that sulphate of +Bibiri acts with rapid and complete success in arresting ague.' +This tree spreads from Jamaica to the Spanish Main. It is plentiful +in Trinidad; still more plentiful in Guiana; and yet all of it which +reaches Europe is a little of its hard beautiful wood for the use of +cabinetmakers; while in Demerara, I am assured by an eye-witness, +many tons of this precious Greenheart bark are thrown away year by +year. So goes the world; and man meanwhile at once boasts of his +civilisation, and complains of the niggardliness of Nature. + +But if I once begin on this subject I shall not know where to end. + +Our way lay now for miles along a path which justified all that I +had fancied about the magnificent possibilities of landscape +gardening in the Tropics. A grass drive, as we should call it in +England--a 'trace,' as it is called in the West Indies--some sixty +feet in width, and generally carpeted with short turf, led up hill +and down dale; for the land, though low, is much ridged and gullied, +and there has been as yet no time to cut down the hills, or to metal +the centre of the road. It led, as the land became richer, through +a natural avenue even grander than those which I had already seen. +The light and air, entering the trace, had called into life the +undergrowth and lower boughs, till from the very turf to a hundred +and fifty feet in height rose one solid green wall, spangled here +and there with flowers. Below was Mamure, Roseau, Timit, Aroumas, +and Tulumas, {266c} mixed with Myrtles and Melastomas; then the +copper Bois Mulatres among the Cocorite and Jagua palms; above them +the heads of enormous broad-leaved trees of I know not how many +species; and the lianes festooning all from cope to base. The +crimson masses of Norantea on the highest tree-tops were here most +gorgeous; but we had to beware of staring aloft too long, for fear +of riding into mud-holes--for the wet season would not end as yet, +though dry weather was due--or, even worse, into the great Parasol- +ant warrens, which threatened, besides a heavy fall, stings +innumerable. At one point, I recollect, a gold-green Jacamar sat on +a log and looked at me till I was within five yards of her. At +another we heard the screams of Parrots; at another, the double note +of the Toucan; at another, the metallic clank of the Bell-bird, or +what was said to be the Bell-bird. But this note was not that +solemn and sonorous toll of the Campanese of the mainland which is +described by Waterton and others. It resembled rather the less +poetical sound of a woman beating a saucepan to make a swarm of bees +settle. + +At one point we met a gang of Negroes felling timber to widen the +road. Fresh fallen trees, tied together with lianes, lay +everywhere. What a harvest for the botanist was among them! I +longed to stay there a week to examine and collect. But time +pressed; and, indeed, collecting plants in the wet season is a +difficult and disappointing work. In an air saturated with moisture +specimens turn black and mouldy, and drop to pieces; and unless +turned over and exposed to every chance burst of sunshine, the +labour of weeks is lost, if indeed meanwhile the ants, and other +creeping things, have not eaten the whole into rags. + +Among these Negroes was one who excited my astonishment; not merely +for his size, though he was perhaps the tallest man whom I saw among +the usually tall Negroes of Trinidad; but for his features, which +were altogether European of the highest type; the forehead high and +broad, the cheek-bones flat, the masque long and oval, and the nose +aquiline and thin enough for any prince. Conscious of his own +beauty and strength, he stood up among the rest as an old Macedonian +might have stood up among the Egyptians he had conquered. We tried +to find out his parentage. My companions presumed he was an +'African,' i.e. imported during the times of slavery. He said No: +that he was a Creole, island born; but his father, it appeared, had +been in one of our Negro regiments, and had been settled afterwards +on a Government grant of land. Whether his beauty was the result of +'atavism'--of the reappearance, under the black skin and woolly +hair, of some old stain of white blood; or whether, which is more +probable, he came of some higher African race; one could not look at +him without hopeful surmises as to the possible rise of the Negro, +and as to the way in which it will come about--the only way in which +any race has permanently risen, as far as I can ascertain; namely, +by the appearance among them of sudden sports of nature; individuals +of an altogether higher type; such a man as that terrible Daaga, +whose story has been told. If I am any judge of physiognomy, such a +man as that, having--what the Negro has not yet had--'la carriere +ouverte aux talents,' might raise, not himself merely, but a whole +tribe, to an altogether new level in culture and ability. + +Just after passing this gang we found, lying by the road, two large +snakes, just killed, which I would gladly have preserved had it been +possible. They were, the Negroes told us, 'Dormillons,' or +'Mangrove Cascabel,' a species as yet, I believe, undescribed; and, +of course, here considered as very poisonous, owing to their +likeness to the true Cascabel, {268} whose deadly fangs are justly +dreaded by the Lapo hunter. For the Cascabel has a fancy for living +in the Lapo's burrow, as does the rattlesnake in that of the prairie +dog in the Western United States, and in the same friendly and +harmless fashion; and is apt, when dug out, to avenge himself and +his host by a bite which is fatal in a few hours. But these did not +seem to me to have the heads of poisonous snakes; and, in spite of +the entreaties of the terrified Negroes, I opened their mouths to +judge for myself, and found them, as I expected, utterly fangless +and harmless. I was not aware then that Dr. De Verteuil had stated +the same fact in print; but I am glad to corroborate it, for the +benefit of at least the rational people in Trinidad: for snakes, +even poisonous ones, should be killed as seldom as possible. They +feed on rats and vermin, and are the farmer's good friend, whether +in the Tropics or in England; and to kill a snake, or even an adder- +-who never bites any one if he is allowed to run away--is, in +nineteen cases out of twenty, mere wanton mischief. + +The way was beguiled, if I recollect rightly, for some miles on, by +stories about Cuba and Cuban slavery from one of our party. He +described the political morality of Cuba as utterly dissolute; told +stories of great sums of money voted for roads which are not made to +this day, while the money had found its way into the pockets of +Government officials; and, on the whole, said enough to explain the +determination of the Cubans to shake off Spanish misrule, and try +what they could do for themselves on this earth. He described Cuban +slavery as, on the whole, mild; corporal punishment being restricted +by law to a few blows, and very seldom employed: but the mildness +seemed dictated rather by self-interest than by humanity. 'Ill-use +our slaves?' said a Cuban to him. 'We cannot afford it. You take +good care of your four-legged mules: we of our two-legged ones.' +The children, it seems, are taken away from the mothers, not merely +because the mothers are needed for work, but because they neglect +their offspring so much that the children have more chance of +living--and therefore of paying--if brought up by hand. So each +estate has, or had, its creche, as the French would call it--a great +nursery, in which the little black things are reared, kindly enough, +by the elder ladies of the estate. To one old lady, who wearied +herself all day long in washing, doctoring, and cramming the babies, +my friend expressed pity for all the trouble she took about her +human brood. 'Oh dear no,' answered she; 'they are a great deal +easier to rear than chickens.' The system, however, is nearly at an +end. Already the Cuban Revolution has produced measures of half- +emancipation; and in seven years' time probably there will not be a +slave in Cuba. + +We waded stream after stream under the bamboo clumps, and in one of +them we saw swimming a green rigoise, or whip-snake, which must have +been nearly ten feet long. It swam with its head and the first two +feet of its body curved aloft like a swan, while the rest of the +body lay along the surface of the water in many curves--a most +graceful object as it glided away into dark shadow along an oily +pool. At last we reached an outlying camp, belonging to one of our +party who was superintending the making of new roads in that +quarter, and there rested our weary limbs, some in hammock, some on +the tables, some, again, on the clay floor. Here I saw, as I saw +every ten minutes, something new--that quaint vegetable plaything +described by Humboldt and others; namely, the spathe of the Timit +palm. It encloses, as in most palms, a branched spadix covered with +innumerable round buds, most like a head of millet, two feet and a +half long: but the spathe, instead of splitting and forming a hood +over the flowers, as in the Cocorite and most palms, remains entire, +and slips off like the finger of a glove. When slipped off, it is +found to be made of two transverse layers of fibre--a bit of +veritable natural lace, similar to, though far less delicate than, +the famous lace-bark of the Lagetta-tree, peculiar, I believe, to +one district in the Jamaica mountains. And as it is elastic and +easily stretched, what hinders the brown child from pulling it out +till it makes an admirable fool's cap, some two feet high, and +exactly the colour of his own skin, and dancing about therein, the +fat oily little Cupidon, without a particle of clothing beside? And +what wonder if we grown-up whites made fools' caps too, for children +on the other side of the Atlantic? During which process we found-- +what all said they had never seen before--that one of the spadices +carried two caps, one inside the other, and one exactly like the +other; a wanton superfluity of Nature, which I should like to hear +explained by some morphologist. + +We rode away from that hospitable group of huts, whither we were to +return in two or three days; and along the green trace once more. +As we rode, M--- the civiliser of Montserrat and I side by side, +talking of Cuba, and staring at the Noranteas overhead, a dull sound +was heard, as if the earth had opened; as indeed it had, engulfing +in the mud the whole forehand of M---'s mule; and there he knelt, +his beard outspread upon the clay, while the mule's visage looked +patiently out from under his left arm. However, it was soft falling +there. The mule was hauled out by main force. As for cleaning +either her or the rider, that was not thought of in a country where +they were sure to be as dirty as ever in an hour; and so we rode on, +after taking a note of the spot, and, as it happened, forgetting it +again--one of us at least. + +On again, along the green trace, which rose now to a ridge, with +charming glimpses of wooded hills and glens to right and left; past +comfortable squatters' cottages, with cacao drying on sheets at the +doors or under sheds; with hedges of dwarf Erythrina, dotted with +red jumby beads, and here and there that pretty climbing vetch, the +Overlook. {270} I forgot, by the by, to ask whether it is planted +here, as in Jamaica, to keep off the evil eye, or 'overlook'; whence +its name. Nor can I guess what peculiarity about the plant can have +first made the Negro fix on it as a fetish. The genesis of folly is +as difficult to analyse as the genesis of most other things. + +All this while the dull thunder of the surf was growing louder and +louder; till, not as in England over a bare down, but through +thickest foliage down to the high tide mark, we rode out upon the +shore, and saw before us a right noble sight; a flat, sandy, surf +beaten shore, along which stretched, in one grand curve, lost at +last in the haze of spray, fourteen miles of Coco palms. + +This was the Cocal; and it was worth coming all the way from England +to see it alone. I at once felt the truth of my host's saying, that +if I went to the Cocal I should find myself transported suddenly +from the West Indies to the East. Just such must be the shore of a +Coral island in the Pacific. + +These Cocos, be it understood, are probably not indigenous. They +spread, it is said, from an East Indian vessel which was wrecked +here. Be that as it may, they have thoroughly naturalised +themselves. Every nut which falls and lies, throws out, during the +wet season, its roots into the sand; and is ready to take the place +of its parent when the old tree dies down. + +About thirty to fifty feet is the average height of these Coco +palms, which have all, without exception, a peculiarity which I have +noticed to a less degree in another sand- and shore-growing tree, +the Pinaster of the French Landes. They never spring-upright from +the ground. The butt curves, indeed lies almost horizontal in some +cases, for the lowest two or three yards; and the whole stem, up to +the top, is inclined to lean; it matters not toward which quarter, +for they lean as often toward the wind as from it, crossing each +other very gracefully. I am not mechanician enough to say how this +curve of the stem increases their security amid loose sands and +furious winds. But that it does so I can hardly doubt, when I see a +similar habit in the Pinaster. Another peculiarity was noteworthy: +their innumerable roots, long, fleshy, about the thickness of a +large string, piercing the sand in every direction, and running down +to high-tide mark, apparently enjoying the salt water, and often +piercing through bivalve shells, which remained strung upon the +roots. Have they a fondness for carbonate of lime, as well as for +salt? + +The most remarkable, and to me unexpected, peculiarity of a Cocal is +one which I am not aware whether any writer has mentioned; namely, +the prevalence of that amber hue which we remarked in the very first +specimens seen at St. Thomas's. But this is, certainly, the mark +which distinguishes the Coco palm, not merely from the cold dark +green of the Palmiste, or the silvery gray of the Jagua, but from +any other tree which I have ever seen. + +When inside the Cocal, the air is full of this amber light. +Gradually the eye analyses the cause of it, and finds it to be the +resultant of many other hues, from bright vermilion to bright green. +Above, the latticed light which breaks between and over the +innumerable leaflets of the fruit fronds comes down in warmest +green. It passes not over merely, but through, the semi-transparent +straw and amber of the older leaves. It falls on yellow spadices +and flowers, and rich brown spathes, and on great bunches of green +nuts, to acquire from them more yellow yet; for each fruit-stalk and +each flower-scale at the base of the nut is veined and tipped with +bright orange. It pours down the stems, semi-gray on one side, then +yellow, and then, on the opposite side, covered with a powdery +lichen varying in colour from orange up to clear vermilion, and +spreads itself over a floor of yellow sand and brown fallen nuts, +and the only vegetation of which, in general, is a long crawling +Echites, with pairs of large cream-white flowers. Thus the +transparent shade is flooded with gold. One looks out through it at +the chequer-work of blue sky, all the more intense from its +contrast; or at a long whirl of white surf and gray spray; or, +turning the eyes inland toward the lagoon, at dark masses of +mangrove, above which rise, black and awful, the dying balatas, +stag-headed, blasted, tottering to their fall; and all as through an +atmosphere of Rhine wine, or from the inside of a topaz. + +We rode along, mile after mile, wondering at many things. First, +the innumerable dry fruits of Timit palm, which lay everywhere; +mostly single, some double, a few treble, from coalition, I suppose, +of the three carpels which every female palm flower ought to have, +but of which it usually develops only one. They may have been +brought down the lagoon from inland by floods; but the common belief +is, that most of them come from the Orinoco itself, as do also the +mighty logs which lie about the beach in every stage of wear and +tear; and which, as fast as they are cut up and carried away, are +replaced by fresh ones. Some of these trees may actually come from +the mainland, and, drifting into this curving bay, be driven on +shore by the incessant trade wind. But I suspect that many of them +are the produce of the island itself; and more, that they have +grown, some of them, on the very spot where they now lie. For there +are, I think, evidences of subsidence going on along this coast. +Inside the Cocal, two hundred yards to the westward, stretches +inland a labyrinth of lagoons and mangrove swamps, impassable to +most creatures save alligators and boa-constrictors. But amid this +labyrinth grow everywhere mighty trees--balatas in plenty among +them, in every stage of decay; dying, seemingly, by gradual +submergence of their roots, and giving a ghastly and ragged +appearance to the forest. At the mouth of the little river Nariva, +a few miles down, is proof positive, unless I am much mistaken, of +similar subsidence. For there I found trees of all sizes--roseau +scrub among them--standing rooted below high-tide mark; and killed +where they grew. + +So we rode on, stopping now and then to pick up shells; chip-chips, +{274a} which are said to be excellent eating; a beautiful purple +bivalve, {274b} to which, in almost every case, a coralline {274c} +had attached itself, of a form quite new to me. A lash some +eighteen inches long, single or forked; purplish as long as its coat +of lime--holding the polypes--still remained, but when that was +rubbed off a mere round strip of dark horn; and in both cases +flexible and elastic, so that it can be coiled up and tied in knots; +a very curious and graceful piece of Nature's workmanship. Among +them were curious flat cake-urchins, with oval holes punched in +them, so brittle that, in spite of all our care, they resolved +themselves into the loose sand of which they had been originally +compact; and I could therefore verify neither their genus nor their +species. + +These were all, if I recollect, that we found that day. The next +day we came on hundreds of a most beautiful bivalve, {274d} their +purple colour quite fresh, their long spines often quite uninjured. +Some change of the sandy bottom had unearthed a whole warren of the +lovely things; and mixed with chip-chips innumerable, and with a +great bivalve {274e} with a thin wing along the anterior line of the +shell, they strewed the shore for a quarter of a mile and more. + +We came at last to a little river, or rather tideway, leading from +the lagoon to the sea, which goes by the name of Doubloon River. +Some adventurous Spaniard, the story goes, contracted to make a +cutting which would let off the lagoon water in time of flood for +the sum of one doubloon--some three pound five; spent six times the +money on it; and found his cutting, when once the sea had entered, +enlarge into a roaring tideway, dangerous, often impassable, and +eating away the Cocal rapidly toward the south; Mother Earth, in +this case at least, having known her own business better than the +Spaniard. + +How we took off our saddles, sat down on the sand, hallooed, waited; +how a black policeman--whose house was just being carried away by +the sea--appeared at last with a canoe; how we and our baggage got +over one by one in the hollow log without--by seeming miracle--being +swept out to sea or upset: how some horses would swim, and others +would not; how the Negroes held on by the horses till they all went +head over ears under the surf; and how, at last, breathless with +laughter and anxiety for our scanty wardrobes, we scrambled ashore +one by one into prickly roseau, re-saddled our horses in an +atmosphere of long thorns, and then cut our way and theirs out +through scrub into the Cocal;--all this should not be written in +these pages, but drawn for the benefit of Punch, by him who drew the +egg-stealing frog--whose pencil I longed for again and again amid +the delightful mishaps of those forest rambles, in all of which I +never heard a single grumble, or saw temper lost for a moment. We +should have been rather more serious, though, than we were, had we +been aware that the river-god, or presiding Jumby, of the Doubloon +was probably watching us the whole time, with the intention of +eating any one whom he could catch, and only kept in wholesome awe +by our noise and splashing. + +At last, after the sun had gone down, and it was ill picking our way +among logs and ground-creepers, we were aware of lights; and soon +found ourselves again in civilisation, and that of no mean kind. A +large and comfortable house, only just rebuilt after a fire, stood +among the palm-trees, between the sea and the lagoon; and behind it +the barns, sheds, and engine-houses of the coco-works; and inside it +a hearty welcome from a most agreeable German gentleman and his +German engineer. A lady's hand--I am sorry to say the lady was not +at home--was evident enough in the arrangements of the central room. +Pretty things, a piano, and good books, especially Longfellow and +Tennyson, told of cultivation and taste in that remotest wilderness. +The material hospitality was what it always is in the West Indies; +and we sat up long into the night around the open door, while the +surf roared, and the palm trees sighed, and the fireflies twinkled, +talking of dear old Germany, and German unity, and the possibility +of many things which have since proved themselves unexpectedly most +possible. I went to bed, and to somewhat intermittent sleep. +First, my comrades, going to bed romping, like English schoolboys, +and not in the least like the effeminate and luxurious Creoles who +figure in the English imagination, broke a four-post bedstead down +among them with hideous roar and ruin; and had to be picked up and +called to order by their elders. Next, the wind, which ranged +freely through the open roof, blew my bedclothes off. Then the dogs +exploded outside, probably at some henroost-robbing opossum, and had +a chevy through the cocos till they tree'd their game, and bayed it +to their hearts' content. Then something else exploded--and I do +not deny it set me more aghast than I had been for many a day-- +exploded, I say, under the window, with a shriek of Hut-hut-tut-tut, +hut-tut, such as I hope never to hear again. After which, dead +silence; save of the surf to the east and the toads to the west. I +fell asleep, wondering what animal could own so detestable a voice; +and in half an hour was awoke again by another explosion; after +which, happily, the thing, I suppose, went its wicked way, for I +heard it no more. + +I found out the next morning that the obnoxious bird was not an owl, +but a large goat-sucker, a Nycteribius, I believe, who goes by the +name of jumby-bird among the English Negroes: and no wonder; for +most ghostly and horrible is his cry. But worse: he has but one +eye, and a glance from that glaring eye, as from the basilisk of +old, is certain death: and worse still, he can turn off its light +as a policeman does his lantern, and become instantly invisible: +opinions which, if verified by experiment, are not always found to +be in accordance with facts. But that is no reason why they should +not be believed. + +In St. Vincent, for instance, the Negroes one evening rushed +shrieking out of a boiling-house, 'Oh! Massa Robert, we all killed. +Dar one great jumby-bird come in a hole a-top a roof. Oh! Massa +Robert, you no go in; you killed, we killed,' etc. etc. Massa +Robert went in, and could see no bird. 'Ah, Massa Robert, him darky +him eye, but him see you all da same. You killed, we killed,' etc. +Da capo. + +Massa Robert was not killed: but lives still, to the great benefit +of his fellow-creatures, Negroes especially. Nevertheless, the +Negroes held to their opinion. He might, could, would, or should +have been killed; and was not that clear proof that they were right? + +After this, who can deny that the Negro is a man and a brother, +possessing the same reasoning faculties, and exercising them in +exactly the same way, as three out of four white persons? + +But if the night was disturbed, pleasant was the waking next +morning; pleasant the surprise at finding that the whistling and +howling air-bath of the night had not given one a severe cold, or +any cold at all; pleasant to slip on flannel shut and trousers-- +shoes and stockings were needless--and hurry down through a stampede +of kicking, squealing mules, who were being watered ere their day's +work began, under the palms to the sea; pleasant to bathe in warm +surf, into which the four-eyes squattered in shoals as one ran down, +and the moment they saw one safe in the water, ran up with the next +wave to lie staring at the sky; pleasant to sit and read one's book +upon a log, and listen to the soft rush of the breeze in the palm- +leaves, and look at a sunrise of green and gold, pink and orange, +and away over the great ocean, and to recollect, with a feeling of +mingled nearness and loneliness, that there was nothing save that +watery void between oneself and England, and all that England held; +and then, when driven in to breakfast by the morning shower, to +begin a new day of seeing, and seeing, and seeing, certain that one +would learn more in it than in a whole week of book-reading at home. + +We spent the next morning in inspecting the works. We watched the +Negroes splitting the coconuts with a single blow of that all-useful +cutlass, which they handle with surprising dexterity and force, +throwing the thick husk on one side, the fruit on the other. We saw +the husk carded out by machinery into its component fibres, for +coco-rope matting, coir-rope, saddle-stuffing, brushes, and a dozen +other uses; while the fruit was crushed down for the sake of its +oil; and could but wish all success to an industry which would be +most profitable, both to the projectors and to the island itself, +were it not for the uncertainty, rather than the scarcity, of +labour. Almost everything is done, of course, by piecework. The +Negro has the price of his labour almost at his own command; and +when, by working really hard and well for a while, he has earned a +little money, he throws up his job and goes off, careless whether +the whole works stand still or not. However, all prosperity to the +coco-works of Messrs. Uhrich and Gerold; and may the day soon come +when the English of Trinidad, like the Ceylonese and the Dutch of +Java, shall count by millions the coco-palms which they have planted +along their shores, and by thousands of pounds the profit which +accrues from them. + +After breakfast--call it luncheon rather--we started for the lagoon. +We had set our hearts on seeing Manatis ('sea cows'), which are +still not uncommon on the east coast of this island, though they +have been exterminated through the rest of the West Indies since the +days of Pere Labat. That good missionary speaks of them in his +delightful journal as already rare in the year 1695; and now, as far +as I am aware, none are to be found north of Trinidad and the +Spanish Main, save a few round Cuba and Jamaica. We were anxious, +too, to see, if not to get, a boa-constrictor of one kind or other. +For there are two kinds in the island, which may be seen alive at +the Zoological Gardens in the same cage. The true Boa, {277a} which +is here called Mahajuel, is striped as well as spotted with two +patterns, one over the other. The Huillia, Anaconda, or Water-boa, +{277b} bears only a few large round spots. Both are fond of the +water, the Huillia living almost entirely in it; both grow to a very +large size; and both are dangerous, at least to children and small +animals. That there were Huillias about the place, possibly within +fifty yards of the house, there was no doubt. One of our party had +seen with his own eyes one of seven-and-twenty feet long killed, +with a whole kid inside it, only a few miles off. The brown +policeman, crossing an arm of the Guanapo only a month or two +before, had been frightened by meeting one in the ford, which his +excited imagination magnified so much that its head was on the one +bank while its tail was on the other--a measurement which must, I +think, be divided at least by three. But in the very spot in which +we stood, some four years since, happened what might have been a +painful tragedy. Four young ladies, whose names were mentioned to +me, preferred, not wisely, a bathe in the still lagoon to one in the +surf outside; and as they disported themselves, one of them felt +herself seized from behind. Fancying that one of her sisters was +playing tricks, she called out to her to let her alone; and looking +up, saw, to her astonishment, her three sisters sitting on the bank, +and herself alone. She looked back, and shrieked for help: and +only just in time; for the Huillia had her. The other three girls, +to their honour, dashed in to her assistance. The brute had luckily +got hold, not of her poor little body, but of her bathing-dress, and +held on stupidly. The girls pulled; the bathing-dress, which was, +luckily, of thin cotton, was torn off; the Huillia slid back again +with it in his mouth into the dark labyrinth of the mangrove-roots; +and the girl was saved. Two minutes' delay, and his coils would +have been round her; and all would have been over. + +The sudden daring of these lazy and stupid animals is very great. +Their brain seems to act like that of the alligator or the pike, +paroxysmally, and by rare fits and starts, after lying for hours +motionless as if asleep. But when excited, they will attempt great +deeds. Dr. De Verteuil tells a story--and if he tells it, it must +be believed--of some hunters who wounded a deer. The deer ran for +the stream down a bank; but the hunters had no sooner heard it +splash into the water than they heard it scream. They leapt down to +the place, and found it in the coils of a Huillia, which they killed +with the deer. And yet this snake, which had dared to seize a full- +grown deer, could have had no hope of eating her; for it was only +seven feet long. + +We set out down a foul porter-coloured creek, which soon opened out +into a river, reminding us, in spite of all differences, of certain +alder and willow-fringed reaches of the Thames. But here the wood +which hid the margin was altogether of mangrove; the common +Rhizophoras, or black mangroves, being, of course, the most +abundant. Over them, however, rose the statelier Avicennias, or +white mangroves, to a height of fifty or sixty feet, and poured down +from their upper branches whole streams of air-roots, which waved +and creaked dolefully in the breeze overhead. But on the water was +no breeze at all. The lagoon was still as glass; the sun was +sickening; and we were glad to put up our umbrellas and look out +from under them for Manatis and Boas. But the Manatis usually only +come in at night, to put their heads out of water and browse on the +lowest mangrove leaves; and the Boas hide themselves so cunningly, +either altogether under water, or with only the head above, that we +might have passed half a dozen without seeing them. The only +chance, indeed, of coming across them, is when they are travelling +from lagoon to lagoon, or basking on the mud at low tide. + +So all the game which we saw was a lovely white Egret, {278} its +back covered with those stiff pinnated plumes which young ladies-- +when they can obtain them--are only too happy to wear in their hats. +He, after being civil enough to wait on a bough till one of us got a +sitting shot at him, heard the cap snap, thought it as well not to +wait till a fresh one was put on, and flapped away. He need not +have troubled himself. The Negroes--but too apt to forget something +or other--had forgotten to bring a spare supply; and the gun was +useless. + +As we descended, the left bank of the river was entirely occupied +with cocos; and the contrast between them and the mangroves on the +right was made all the more striking by the afternoon sun, which, as +it sank behind the forest, left the mangrove wall in black shadow, +while it bathed the palm-groves opposite with yellow light. In one +of these palm-groves we landed, for we were right thirsty; and to +drink lagoon water would be to drink cholera or fever. But there +was plenty of pure water in the coco-trees, and we soon had our +fill. A Negro walked--not climbed--up a stem like a four-footed +animal, his legs and arms straight, his feet pressed flat against +it, his hands clinging round it--a feat impossible, as far as I have +seen, to an European--tossed us down plenty of green nuts; and our +feast began. + +Two or three blows with the cutlass, at the small end of the nut, +cut off not only the pith-coat, but the point of the shell; and +disclose--the nut being held carefully upright meanwhile--a cavity +full of perfectly clear water, slightly sweet, and so cold (the +pith-coat being a good non-conductor of heat) that you are advised, +for fear of cholera, to flavour it with a little brandy. After +draining this natural cup, you are presented with a natural spoon of +rind, green outside and white within, and told to scoop out and eat +the cream which lines the inside of the shell, a very delicious food +in the opinion of Creoles. After which, if you are as curious as +some of us were, you will sit down under the amber shade, and +examine at leisure the construction and germination of these famous +and royal nuts. Let me explain it, even at the risk of prolixity. +The coat of white pith outside, with its green skin, will gradually +develop and harden into that brown fibre of which matting is made. +The clear water inside will gradually harden into that sweetmeat +which little boys eat off stalls and barrows in the street; the +first delicate deposit of which is the cream in the green nut. This +is albumen, intended to nourish the young palm till it has grown +leaves enough to feed on the air, and roots enough to feed on the +soil; and the birth of that young palm is in itself a mystery and a +miracle, well worth considering. Much has been written on it, of +which I, unfortunately, have read very little; but I can at least +tell what I have seen with my own eyes. + +If you search among the cream-layer at the larger end of the nut, +you will find, gradually separating itself from the mass, a little +white lump, like the stalk of a very young mushroom. That is the +ovule. In that lies the life, the 'forma formativa,' of the future +tree. How that life works, according to its kind, who can tell? +What it does, is this: it is locked up inside a hard woody shell, +and outside that shell are several inches of tough tangled fibre. +How can it get out, as soft and seemingly helpless as a baby's +finger? + +All know that there are three eyes in the monkey's face, as the +children call it, at the butt of the nut. Two of these eyes are +blind, and filled up with hard wood. They are rudiments--hints-- +that the nut ought to have, perhaps had uncounted ages since, not +one ovule, but three, the type-number in palms. One ovule alone is +left; and that is opposite the one eye which is less blind than the +rest; the eye which a schoolboy feels for with his knife, when he +wants to get out the milk. + +As the nut lies upon the sand, in shade, and rain, and heat, that +baby's finger begins boring its way, with unerring aim, out of the +weakest eye. Soft itself, yet with immense wedging power, from the +gradual accretion of tiny cells, it pierces the wood, and then rends +right and left the tough fibrous coat. Just so may be seen--I have +seen--a large flagstone lifted in a night by a crop of tiny soft +toadstools which have suddenly blossomed up beneath it. The baby's +finger protrudes at last, and curves upward toward the light, to +commence the campaign of life: but it has meanwhile established, +like a good strategist, a safe base of operations in its rear, from +which it intends to draw supplies. Into the albuminous cream which +lines the shell, and into the cavity where the milk once was, it +throws out white fibrous vessels, which eat up the albumen for it, +and at last line the whole inside of the shell with a white pith. +The albumen gives it food wherewith to grow, upward and downward. +Upward, the white plumule hardens into what will be a stem; the one +white cotyledon which sheaths it develops into a flat, ribbed, +forked, green leaf, sheathing it still; and above it fresh leaves, +sheathing always at their bases, begin to form a tiny crown; and +assume each, more and more, the pinnate form of the usual coco-leaf. +But long ere this, from the butt of the white plumule, just outside +the nut, white threads of root have struck down into the sand; and +so the nut lies, chained to the ground by a bridge-like chord, which +drains its albumen, through the monkey's eye, into the young plant. +After a while--a few months, I believe--the draining of the nut is +complete; the chord dries up--I know not how, for I had neither +microscope nor time wherewith to examine--and parts; and the little +plant, having got all it can out of its poor wet-nurse, casts her +ungratefully off to wither on the sand; while it grows up into a +stately tree, which will begin to bear fruit in six or seven years, +and thenceforth continue, flowering and fruiting the whole year +round without a pause, for sixty years and more. + +I think I have described this--to me--'miraculum' simply enough to +be understood by the non-scientific reader, if only he or she have +first learned the undoubted fact--known, I find, to very few +'educated' English people--that the coco-palm which produces coir- +rope, and coconuts, and a hundred other useful things, is not the +same plant as the cacao-bush which produces chocolate, nor anything +like it. I am sorry to have to insist upon this fact: but till +Professor Huxley's dream--and mine--is fulfilled, and our schools +deign to teach, in the intervals of Latin and Greek, some slight +knowledge of this planet, and of those of its productions which are +most commonly in use, even this fact may need to be re-stated more +than once. + +We re-embarked again, and rowed down to the river-mouth to pick up +shells, and drink in the rich roaring trade breeze, after the +choking atmosphere of the lagoon; and then rowed up home, tired, and +infinitely amused, though neither Manati nor Boa-constrictor had +been seen; and then we fell to siesta; during which--with Mr. +Tennyson's forgiveness--I read myself to sleep with one of his best +poems; and then went to dinner, not without a little anxiety. + +For M--- (the civiliser of Montserrat) had gone off early, with +mule, cutlass, and haversack, back over the Doubloon and into the +wilds of Manzanilla, to settle certain disputed squatter claims, and +otherwise enforce the law; and now the night had fallen, and he was +not yet home. However, he rode up at last, dead beat, with a strong +touch of his old swamp-fever, and having had an adventure, which had +like to have proved his last. For as he rode through the Doubloon +at low tide in the morning, he espied in the surf that river-god, or +Jumby, of which I spoke just now; namely, the gray back-fin of a +shark; and his mule espied it too, and laid back her ears, knowing +well what it was. M--- rode close up to the brute. He seemed full +seven feet long, and eyed him surlily, disinclined to move off; so +they parted, and M--- went on his way. But his business detained +him longer than he expected; when he got back to the river-mouth it +was quite dark, and the tide was full high. He must either sleep on +the sands, which with fever upon him would not have been over-safe, +or try the passage. So he stripped, swam the mule over, tied her +up, and then went back, up to his shoulders in surf; and cutlass in +hand too, for that same shark might be within two yards of him. But +on his second journey he had to pile on his head, first his saddle, +and then his clothes and other goods; few indeed, but enough to +require both hands to steady them: and so walked helpless through +the surf, expecting every moment to be accosted by a set of teeth, +from which he would hardly have escaped with life. To have faced +such a danger, alone and in the dark, and thoroughly well aware, as +an experienced man, of its extremity, was good proof (if any had +been needed) of the indomitable Scots courage of the man. +Nevertheless, he said, he never felt so cold down his back as he did +during that last wade. By God's blessing the shark was not there, +or did not see him; and he got safe home, thankful for dinner and +quinine. + +Going back the next morning at low tide, we kept a good look-out for +M---'s shark, spreading out, walkers and riders, in hopes of +surrounding him and cutting him up. There were half a dozen weapons +among us, of which my heavy bowie-knife was not the worst; and we +should have given good account of him had we met him, and got +between him and the deep water. But our valour was superfluous. +The enemy was nowhere to be seen; and we rode on, looking back +wistfully, but in vain, for a gray fin among the ripples. + +So we rode back, along the Cocal and along that wonderful green +glade, where I, staring at Noranteas in tree-tops, instead of at the +ground beneath my horse's feet, had the pleasure of being swallowed +up--my horse's hindquarters at least--in the very same slough which +had engulfed M---'s mule three days before, and got a roll in much +soft mud. Then up to ---'s camp, where we expected breakfast, not +with greediness, though we had been nigh six hours in the saddle, +but with curiosity. For he had promised to send out the hunters for +all game that could be found, and give us a true forest meal; and we +were curious to taste what lapo, quenco, guazupita-deer, and other +strange meats might be like. Nay, some of us agreed, that if the +hunters had but brought in a tender young red monkey, {282a} we +would surely eat him too, if it were but to say that we had done it. +But the hunters had had no luck. They had brought in only a Pajui, +{282b} an excellent game bird; an Ant-eater, {282c} and a great +Cachicame, or nine-banded Armadillo. The ant-eater the foolish +fellows had eaten themselves--I would have given them what they +asked for his skeleton; but the Armadillo was cut up and hashed for +us, and was eaten, to the last scrap, being about the best game I +ever tasted. I fear he is a foul feeder at times, who by no means +confines himself to roots, or even worms. If what I was told be +true, there is but too much probability for Captain Mayne Reid's +statement, that he will eat his way into the soft parts of a dead +horse, and stay there until he has eaten his way out again. But, to +do him justice, I never heard him accused, like the giant Armadillo +{282d} of the Main, of digging dead bodies out of their graves, as +he is doing in a very clever drawing in Mr. Wood's Homes without +Hands. Be that as it may, the Armadillo, whatever he feeds on, has +the power of transmuting it into most delicate and wholesome flesh. + +Meanwhile--and hereby hangs a tale--I was interested, not merely in +the Armadillo, but in the excellent taste with which it, and +everything else, was cooked in a little open shed over a few stones +and firesticks. And complimenting my host thereon, I found that he +had, there in the primeval forest, an admirable French cook, to whom +I begged to be introduced at once. Poor fellow! A little lithe +Parisian, not thirty years old, he had got thither by a wild road. +Cook to some good bourgeois family in Paris, he had fallen in love +with his master's daughter, and she with him. And when their love +was hopeless, and discovered, the two young foolish things, not +having--as is too common in France--the fear of God before their +eyes, could think of no better resource than to shut themselves up +with a pan of lighted charcoal, and so go they knew not-whither. +The poor girl went--and was found dead. But the boy recovered; and +was punished with twenty years of Cayenne; and here he was now, on a +sort of ticket-of-leave, cooking for his livelihood. I talked a +while with him, cheered him with some compliments about the +Parisians, and so forth, dear to the Frenchman's heart--what else +was there to say?--and so left him, not without the fancy that, if +he had had but such an education as the middle classes in Paris have +not, there were the makings of a man in that keen eye, large jaw, +sharp chin. 'The very fellow,' said some one, 'to have been a +first-rate Zouave.' Well: perhaps he was a better man, even as he +was, than as a Zouave. + +And so we rode away again, and through Valencia, and through San +Josef, weary and happy, back to Port of Spain. + +I would gladly, had I been able, have gone farther due westward into +the forests which hide the river Oropuche, that I might have visited +the scene of a certain two years' Idyll, which was enacted in them +some forty years and more ago. + +In 1827 cacao fell to so low a price (two dollars per cwt.) that it +was no longer worth cultivating; and the head of the F--- family, +leaving his slaves to live at ease on his estates, retreated, with a +household of twelve persons, to a small property of his own, which +was buried in the primeval forests of Oropuche. With them went his +second son, Monsignor F---, then and afterwards cure of San Josef, +who died shortly before my visit to the island. I always heard him +spoken of as a gentleman and a scholar, a saintly and cultivated +priest of the old French School, respected and beloved by men of all +denominations. His church of San Josef, though still unfinished, +had been taxed, as well as all the Roman Catholic churches of the +island, to build the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Port of Spain; and +he, refusing to obey an order which he considered unjust, threw up +his cure, and retreated with the rest of the family to the palm-leaf +ajoupas in the forest. + +M. F--- chose three of his finest Negroes as companions. Melchior +was to go out every day to shoot wild pigeons, coming every morning +to ask how many were needed, so as not to squander powder and shot. +The number ordered were always punctually brought in, besides +sometimes a wild turkey--Pajui--or other fine birds. Alejos, who is +now a cacao proprietor, and owner of a house in Arima, was chosen to +go out every day, except Sundays, with the dogs; and scarcely ever +failed to bring in a lapp or quenco. Aristobal was chosen for the +fishing, and brought in good loads of river fish, some sixteen +pounds weight: and thus the little party of cultivated gentlemen +and ladies were able to live, though in poverty, yet sumptuously. + +The Bishop had given Monsignor F--- permission to perform service on +any of his father's estates. So a little chapel was built; the +family and servants attended every Sunday, and many days in the +week; and the country folk from great distances found their way +through the woods to hear Mass in the palm-thatched sanctuary of 'El +Riposo.' + +So did that happy family live 'the gentle life' for some two years; +till cacao rose again in price, the tax on the churches was taken +off, and the F---s returned again to the world: but not to +civilisation and Christianity. Those they had carried with them +into the wilderness; and those they brought back with them +unstained. + + + +CHAPTER XIV: THE 'EDUCATION QUESTION' IN TRINIDAD + + + +When I arrived in Trinidad, the little island was somewhat excited +about changes in the system of education, which ended in a +compromise like that at home, though starting from almost the +opposite point. + +Among the many good deeds which Lord Harris did for the colony was +the establishment throughout it of secular elementary ward schools, +helped by Government grants, on a system which had, I think, but two +defects. First, that attendance was not compulsory; and next, that +it was too advanced for the state of society in the island. + +In an ideal system, secular and religious education ought, I +believe, to be strictly separate, and given, as far as possible, by +different classes of men. The first is the business of scientific +men and their pupils; the second, of the clergy and their pupils: +and the less either invades the domain of the other, the better for +the community. But, like all ideals, it requires not only first- +rate workmen, but first-rate material to work on; an intelligent and +high-minded populace, who can and will think for themselves upon +religious questions; and who have, moreover, a thirst for truth and +knowledge of every kind. With such a populace, secular and +religious education can be safely parted. But can they be safely +parted in the case of a populace either degraded or still savage; +given up to the 'lusts of the flesh'; with no desire for +improvement, and ignorant of that 'moral ideal,' without the +influence of which, as my friend Professor Huxley well says, there +can be no true education? It is well if such a people can be made +to submit to one system of education. Is it wise to try to burden +them with two at once? But if one system is to give way to the +other, which is the more important: to teach them the elements of +reading, writing, and arithmetic; or the elements of duty and +morals? And how these latter can be taught without religion is a +problem as yet unsolved. + +So argued some of the Protestant and the whole of the Roman Catholic +clergy of Trinidad, and withdrew their support from the Government +schools, to such an extent that at least three-fourths of the +children, I understand, went to no school at all. + +The Roman Catholic clergy had, certainly, much to urge on their own +behalf. The great majority of the coloured population of the +island, besides a large proportion of the white, belonged to their +creed. Their influence was the chief (I had almost said the only) +civilising and Christianising influence at work on the lower orders +of their own coloured people. They knew, none so well, how much the +Negro required, not merely to be instructed, but to be reclaimed +from gross and ruinous vices. It was not a question in Port of +Spain, any more than it is in Martinique, of whether the Negroes +should be able to read and write, but of whether they should exist +on the earth at all for a few generations longer. I say this openly +and deliberately; and clergymen and police magistrates know but too +well what I mean. The priesthood were, and are, doing their best to +save the Negro; and they naturally wished to do their work, on +behalf of society and of the colony, in their own way; and to +subordinate all teaching to that of religion, which includes, with +them, morality and decency. They therefore opposed the Government +schools; because they tended, it was thought, to withdraw the Negro +from his priest's influence. + +I am not likely, I presume, to be suspected of any leaning toward +Romanism. But I think a Roman Catholic priest would have a right to +a fair and respectful hearing, if he said:-- + +'You have set these people free, without letting them go through +that intermediate stage of feudalism, by which, and by which alone, +the white races of Europe were educated into true freedom. I do not +blame you. You could do no otherwise. But will you hinder their +passing through that process of religious education under a +priesthood, by which, and by which alone, the white races of Europe +were educated up to something like obedience, virtue, and purity? + +'These last, you know, we teach in the interest of the State, as +well as of the Negro: and if we should ask the State for aid, in +order that we may teach them, over and above a little reading and +writing--which will not be taught save by us, for we only shall be +listened to--are we asking too much, or anything which the State +will not be wise in granting us? We can have no temptation to abuse +our power for political purposes. It would not suit us--to put the +matter on its lowest ground--to become demagogues. For our +congregations include persons of every rank and occupation; and +therefore it is our interest, as much as that of the British +Government, that all classes should be loyal, peaceable, and +wealthy. + +'As for our peculiar creed, with its vivid appeals to the senses: +is it not a question whether the utterly unimaginative and illogical +Negro can be taught the facts of Christianity, or indeed any +religion at all, save through his senses? Is it not a question +whether we do not, on the whole, give him a juster and clearer +notion of the very truths which you hold in common with us, than an +average Protestant missionary does? + +'Your Church of England'--it must be understood that the relations +between the Anglican and the Romish clergy in Trinidad are, as far +as I have seen, friendly and tolerant--' does good work among its +coloured members. But it does so by speaking, as we speak, with +authority. It, too, finds it prudent to keep up in its services +somewhat at least of that dignity, even pomp, which is as necessary +for the Negro as it was for the half-savage European of the early +Middle Age, if he is to be raised above his mere natural dread of +spells, witches, and other harmful powers, to somewhat of admiration +and reverence. + +'As for the merely dogmatic teaching of the Dissenters: we do not +believe that the mere Negro really comprehends one of those +propositions, whether true or false, Catholic or Calvinist, which +have been elaborated by the intellect and the emotions of races who +have gone through a training unknown to the Negro. With all respect +for those who disseminate such books, we think that the Negro can no +more conceive the true meaning of an average Dissenting Hymn-book, +than a Sclavonian of the German Marches a thousand years ago could +have conceived the meaning of St. Augustine's Confessions. For what +we see is this--that when the personal influence of the white +missionary is withdrawn, and the Negro left to perpetuate his sect +on democratic principles, his creed merely feeds his inordinate +natural vanity with the notion that everybody who differs from him +is going to hell, while he is going to heaven whatever his morals +may be.' + +If a Roman Catholic priest should say all this, he would at least +have a right, I believe, to a respectful hearing. + +Nay, more. If he were to say, 'You are afraid of our having too +much to do with the education of the Negro, because we use the +Confessional as an instrument of education. Now how far the +Confessional is needful, or useful, or prudent, in a highly +civilised and generally virtuous community, may be an open matter. +But in spite of all your English dislike of it, hear our side of the +question, as far as Negroes and races in a similar condition are +concerned. Do you know why and how the Confessional arose? Have +you looked, for instance, into the old middle-age Penitentials? If +so, you must be aware that it arose in an age of coarseness, which +seems now inconceivable; in those barbarous times when the lower +classes of Europe, slaves or serfs, especially in remote country +districts, lived lives little better than those of the monkeys in +the forest, and committed habitually the most fearful crimes, +without any clear notion that they were doing wrong: while the +upper classes, to judge from the literature which they have left, +were so coarse, and often so profligate, in spite of nobler +instincts and a higher sense of duty, that the purest and justest +spirits among them had again and again to flee from their own class +into the cloister or the hermit's cell. + +'In those days, it was found necessary to ask Christian people +perpetually--Have you been doing this, or that? For if you have, +you are not only unfit to be called a Christian; you are unfit to be +called a decent human being. And this, because there was every +reason to suppose that they had been doing it; and that they would +not tell of themselves, if they could possibly avoid it. So the +Confessional arose, as a necessary element for educating savages +into common morality and decency. And for the same reasons we +employ it among the Negroes of Trinidad. Have no fears lest we +should corrupt the minds of the young. They see and hear more harm +daily than we could ever teach them, were we so devilishly minded. +There is vice now, rampant and notorious, in Port of Spain, which +eludes even our Confessional. Let us alone to do our best. God +knows we are trying to do it, according to our light.' + +If any Roman Catholic clergyman in Port of Spain spoke thus to me-- +and I have been spoken to in words not unlike these--I could only +answer, 'God's blessing on you, and all your efforts, whether I +agree with you in detail or not.' + +The Roman Catholic inhabitants of the island are to the Protestant +as about 2.5 to 1. {288} The whole of the more educated portion of +them, as far as I could ascertain, are willing to entrust the +education of their children to the clergy. The Archbishop of +Trinidad, Monsignor Gonin, who has jurisdiction also in St. Lucia, +St. Vincent, Grenada, and Tobago, is a man not only of great energy +and devotion, but of cultivation and knowledge of the world; having, +I was told, attained distinction as a barrister elsewhere before he +took Holy Orders. A group of clergy is working under him--among +them a personal friend of mine--able and ready to do their best to +mend a state of things in which most of the children in the island, +born nominal Roman Catholics, but the majority illegitimate, were +growing up not only in ignorance, but in heathendom and brutality. +Meanwhile, the clergy were in want of funds. There were no funds at +all, indeed, which would enable them to set up in remote forest +districts a religious school side by side with the secular ward +school; and the colony could not well be asked for Government grants +to two sets of schools at once. In face of these circumstances, the +late Governor thought fit to take action on the very able and +interesting report of Mr. J. P. Keenan, one of the chiefs of +inspection of the Irish National Board of Education, who had been +sent out as special commissioner to inquire into the state of +education in the island; to modify Lord Harris's plan, however +excellent in itself; and to pass an Ordinance by which Government +aid was extended to private elementary schools, of whatever +denomination, provided they had duly certificated teachers; were +accessible to all children of the neighbourhood without distinction +of religion or race; and 'offered solid guarantees for abstinence +from proselytism and intolerance, by subjecting their rules and +course of teaching to the Board of Education, and empowering that +Board at any moment to cancel the certificate of the teacher.' In +the wards in which such schools were founded, and proved to be +working satisfactorily, the secular ward schools were to be +discontinued. But the Government reserved to itself the power of +reopening a secular school in the ward, in case the private school +turned out a failure. + +Such is a short sketch of an Ordinance which seems, to me at least, +a rational and fair compromise, identical, mutatis mutandis, with +that embodied in Mr. Forster's new Education Act; and the only one +by which the lower orders of Trinidad were likely to get any +education whatever. It was received, of course, with applause by +the Roman Catholics, and by a great number of the Protestants of the +colony. But, as was to be expected, it met with strong expressions +of dissent from some of the Protestant gentry and clergy; especially +from one gentleman, who attacked the new scheme with an acuteness +and humour which made even those who differed from him regret that +such remarkable talents had no wider sphere than a little island of +forty-five miles by sixty. An accession of power to the Roman +Catholic clergy was, of course, dreaded; and all the more because it +was known that the scheme met with the approval of the Archbishop; +that it was, indeed, a compromise with the requests made in a +petition which that prelate had lately sent in to the Governor; a +petition which seems to me most rational and temperate. It was +argued, too, that though the existing Act--that of 1851--had more or +less failed, it might still succeed if Lord Harris's plan was fully +carried out, and the choice of the ward schoolmaster, the selection +of ward school-books, and the direction of the course of +instruction, were vested in local committees. The simple answer +was, that eighteen years had elapsed, and the colony had done +nothing in that direction; that the great majority of children in +the island did not go to school at all, while those who did attended +most irregularly, and learnt little or nothing; {290} that the +secular system of education had not attracted, as it was hoped, the +children of the Hindoo immigrants, of whom scarcely one was to be +found in a ward school; that the ward schoolmasters were generally +inefficient, and the Central Board of Education inactive; that there +was no rigorous local supervision, and no local interest felt in the +schools; that there were fewer children in the ward schools in 1868 +than there had been in 1863, in spite of the rapid increase of +population: and all this for the simple reason which the Archbishop +had pointed out--the want of religious instruction. As was to be +expected, the good people of the island, being most of them +religious people also, felt no enthusiasm about schools where little +was likely to be taught beyond the three royal R's. + +I believe they were wrong. Any teaching which involves moral +discipline is better than mere anarchy and idleness. But they had a +right to their opinion; and a right too, being the great majority of +the islanders, to have that opinion respected by the Governor. Even +now, it will be but too likely, I think, that the establishment and +superintendence of schools in remote districts will devolve--as it +did in Europe during the Middle Age--entirely on the different +clergies, simply by default of laymen of sufficient zeal for the +welfare of the coloured people. Be that as it may, the Ordinance +has become Law; and I have faith enough in the loyalty of the good +folk of Trinidad to believe that they will do their best to make it +work. + +If, indeed, the present Ordinance does not work, it is difficult to +conceive any that will. It seems exactly fitted for the needs of +Trinidad. I do not say that it is fitted for the needs of any and +every country. In Ireland, for instance, such a system would be, in +my opinion, simply retrograde. The Irishman, to his honour, has +passed, centuries since, beyond the stage at which he requires to be +educated by a priesthood in the primary laws of religion and +morality. His morality is--on certain important points--superior to +that of almost any people. What he needs is to be trained to +loyalty and order; to be brought more in contact with the secular +science and civilisation of the rest of Europe: and that must be +done by a secular, and not by an ecclesiastical system of education. + +The higher education, in Trinidad, seems in a more satisfactory +state than the elementary. The young ladies, many of them, go +'home'--i.e. to England or France--for their schooling; and some of +the young men to Oxford, Cambridge, London, or Edinburgh. The +Gilchrist Trust of the University of London has lately offered +annually a Scholarship of 100 pounds a year for three years, to lads +from the West India colonies, the examinations for it to be held in +Jamaica, Barbadoes, Trinidad, and Demerara; and in Trinidad itself +two Exhibitions of 150 pounds a year each, tenable for three years, +are attainable by lads of the Queen's Collegiate School, to help +them toward their studies at a British University. + +The Collegiate School received aid from the State to the amount of +3000 pounds per annum--less by the students' fees; and was open to +all denominations. But in it, again, the secular system would not +work. The great majority of Roman Catholic lads were educated at +St. Mary's College, which received no State aid at all. 417 +Catholic pupils at the former school, as against 111 at the latter, +were--as Mr. Keenan says--'a poor expression of confidence or favour +on the part of the colonists.' The Roman Catholic religion was the +creed of the great majority of the islanders, and especially of the +wealthier and better educated of the coloured families. Justice +seemed to demand that if State aid were given, it should be given to +all creeds alike; and prudence certainly demanded that the +respectable young men of Trinidad should not be arrayed in two alien +camps, in which the differences of creed were intensified by those +of race, and--in one camp at least--by a sense of something very +like injustice on the part of a Protestant, and, it must always be +remembered, originally conquering, Government. To give the lads as +much as possible the same interests, the same views; to make them +all alike feel that they were growing up, not merely English +subjects, but English men, was one of the most important social +problems in Trinidad. And the simplest way of solving it was, to +educate them as much as possible side by side in the same school, on +terms of perfect equality. + +The late Governor, therefore, with the advice and consent of his +Council, determined to develop the Queen's Collegiate School into a +new Royal College, which was to be open to all creeds and races +without distinction: but upon such terms as will, it is hoped, +secure the willing attendance of Roman Catholic scholars. {291} Not +only it, but schools duly affiliated to it, are to receive +Government aid; and four Exhibitions of 150 pounds a year each, +instead of two, are granted to young men going home to a British +University. The College was inaugurated--I am sorry to say after I +had left the island--in June 1870, by the Governor, in the presence +of (to quote the Port of Spain Gazette) the Council, consisting of-- + + +The Honourable the Chief Judge Needham. +J. Scott Bushe (Colonial Secretary). +Charles W. Warner, C.B. +E. J. Eagles. +F. Warner. +Dr. L. A. A. Verteuil. +Henry Court. +M. Maxwell Philip. +His Honour Mr. Justice Fitzgerald. +Andre Bernard, Esq. + + +The last five of these gentlemen being, I believe, Roman Catholics. +Most of the Board of Education were also present; the Principal and +Masters of the Collegiate School, the Superiors and Reverend +Professors of St. Mary's College, the Clergy of the Church of +England in the island; the leading professional men and merchants, +etc., and especially a large number of the Roman Catholic gentry of +the island; 'MM. Ambard, O'Connor, Giuseppi, Laney, Farfan, +Gillineau, Rat, Pantin, Leotaud, Besson, Fraser, Paull, Hobson, +Garcia, Dr. Padron,' etc. I quote their names from the Gazette, in +the order in which they occur. Many of them I have not the honour +of knowing: but judging of those whom I do not know by those whom I +do, I should say that their presence at the inauguration was a solid +proof that the foundation of the new College was a just and politic +measure, opening, as the Gazette well says, a great future to the +youth of all creeds in the colony. + +The late Governor's speech on the occasion I shall print entire. It +will explain the circumstances of the case far better than I can do; +and it may possibly meet with interest and approval from those who +like to hear sound sense spoken, even in a small colony. + +'We are met here to-day to inaugurate the Royal College, an +institution in which the benefits of a sound education, I trust, +will be secured to Protestants and Roman Catholics alike, without +the slightest compromise of their respective principles. + +'The Queen's Collegiate School, of which this College is, in some +sort, an out-growth and development, was founded with the same +object: but, successful as it has been in other respects, it cannot +be said to have altogether attained this. + +'St. Mary's College was founded by private enterprise with a +different view, and to meet the wants of those who objected to the +Collegiate School. + +'It has long been felt the existence of two Colleges--one, the +smaller, almost entirely supported by the State; the other, the +larger, wholly without State aid--was objectionable; and that the +whole question of secondary education presented a most difficult +problem. + +'Some saw its solution in the withdrawal of all State aid from +higher education; others in the establishment by the State of two +distinct Denominational Colleges. + +'I have elsewhere explained the reason why I consider both these +suggestions faulty, and their probable effect bad; the one being +certain to check and discourage superior education altogether, the +other likely to substitute inefficient for efficient teaching, and +small exclusive schools for a wide national institution. + +'I knew that, whilst insuperable objections existed to a combined +education in all subjects, that objection had its limits: that in +America and in Germany I had seen Protestants and Catholics learning +side by side; that in Mauritius, a College numbering 700 pupils, +partly Protestants, partly Roman Catholics, existed; and that +similar establishments were not uncommon elsewhere. + +'I therefore determined to endeavour to effect the establishment of +a College where combined study might be carried on in those branches +of education with respect to which no objection to such a course was +felt, and to support with Government aid, and bring under Government +supervision, those establishments where those branches in which a +separate education was deemed necessary were taught. + +'I had, when last at home, some anxious conferences with the highest +ecclesiastical authority of the Roman Catholic Church in England on +the subject, and came to a complete understanding with him in +respect to it. That distinguished prelate, himself a man of the +highest University eminence, is not one to be indifferent to the +interests of learning. His position, his known opinions, afford a +guarantee that nothing sanctioned by him could, even by the most +scrupulous, be considered in the least degree inconsistent with the +interests of his Church or his religion. + +'He expressed a strong preference for a totally separate education: +but candidly admitted the objections to such a course in a small and +not very wealthy island, and drew a wide distinction between +combination for all purposes, and for some only. + +'There were certain courses of instruction in which combined +instruction could not possibly be given consistently with due regard +to the faith of the pupils; there were others where it was difficult +to decide whether it could or could not properly be given; there +were others again where it might be certainly given without +objection. + +'On this understanding the plan carried into effect is based: but +the Legislature have gone far beyond what was then agreed; and +whilst Archbishop Manning would have assented to an arrangement +which would have excluded certain branches only of education from +the common course, the law, as now in force, allows exemption from +attendance on all, provided competent instruction is given to the +pupils in the same branches elsewhere; till, in fact, all that +remains obligatory is attendance at examinations, and at the course +of instruction in one or more of four given branches of education, +if it should so happen that no adequate teaching in that particular +branch is given in the pupil's own school. + +'A scheme more liberal--a bond more elastic--could hardly have been +devised, capable of effecting, if desired, the closest union-- +capable of being stretched to almost any degree of slight +connection; and even if some Catholics would still prefer a wholly +separate system, they must, if candid men, admit that the Protestant +population here have a right to demand that they should not be +called on to surrender, in order to satisfy a mere preference, the +great advantages they derive from a united College under State +control, with its efficient staff and national character. + +'If religious difficulties are met, and conscientious scruples are +not wounded, a sacrifice of preferences must often be made. Private +wishes must often yield to the public good. + +'In the first instance, all the boys of the former Collegiate School +have become students of the College; but probably a school of a +similar character, but affiliated to the College, will shortly be +formed, in which a large number of those boys will be included. + +'That the headship of the College should be entrusted to the +Principal of the Queen's Collegiate School will, I am sure, be +universally felt to be only a just tribute to the zeal, efficiency, +and success with which he has hitherto laboured in his office, +whilst, in addition to these qualifications, he possesses the no +less important one for the post he is about to fill, of a mind +singularly impartial, just, liberal, and candid. + +'I hope that the other Professors of the College may be taken from +affiliated schools indiscriminately, the lectures being given as may +be most convenient, and as may be arranged by the College Council. + +'It is intended by the College Council that the fees charged for +attendance at the Royal College should be much lower than those +heretofore charged at the Queen's Collegiate School. I do not +believe that the mere financial loss will be great, whilst I believe +a good education will, by this means, be placed within the reach of +many who cannot now afford it. + +'I hope--but I express only my own personal wish, not that of the +Council, which, as yet, has pronounced no opinion--that some of the +changes introduced in most states of modern education will be made +here, and that especial attention will be given to the teaching of +some of the Eastern languages. + +'It is almost impossible to overrate the importance of this both to +the Government and the community;--to the Government, as enabling it +to avail itself of the services of honest, competent, and +trustworthy interpreters; and to the general community, as relieving +both employer and employed from the necessity of depending on the +interpretation of men not always very competent, nor always very +scrupulous, whose mistakes or errors, whether wilful or accidental, +may often effect much injustice, and on whose fidelity life may not +unfrequently depend. + +'I thank the members of the College Council for having accepted a +task which will, at first, involve much delicate tact, forbearance, +caution, and firmness, and the exercise of talents I know them to +possess, and which I am confident will be freely bestowed in working +out the success of the institution committed to their care. + +'I thank the Principal and his staff for their past exertions, and I +count with confidence on their future labours. + +'I thank the parents who, by their presence, have manifested their +interest in our undertaking, and their wishes for its success, and I +especially thank the ladies who have been drawn within these walls +by graver attractions than those which generally bring us together +at this building. + +'I rejoice to see here the Superior of St. Mary's College, and the +goodly array of those under his charge, and I do so for many +reasons. + +'I rejoice, because being not as yet affiliated or in any way +officially connected with the Royal College, their presence is a +spontaneous evidence of their goodwill and kindly feeling, and of +the spirit in which they have been disposed to meet the efforts made +to consult their feelings in the arrangements of this institution; a +spirit yet further evinced by the fact that the Superior has +informed me that he is about voluntarily to alter the course of +study pursued in St. Mary's College, so as more nearly to assimilate +it to that pursued here. + +'I rejoice, because in their presence I hail a sign that the +affiliation which is, I believe, desired by the great body of the +Roman Catholic community in this island, and to which it has been +shown no insuperable religious obstacle exists, will take place at +no more distant day than is necessary to secure the approval, the +naturally requisite approval, of ecclesiastical authority elsewhere. + +'I rejoice at their presence, because it enables me before this +company to express my high sense of the courage and liberality which +have maintained their College for years past without any aid +whatever from the State, and, in spite of manifold obstacles and +discouragements, have caused it to increase in numbers and +efficiency. + +'I rejoice at their presence, because I desire to see the youth of +Trinidad of every race, without indifference to their respective +creeds, brought together on all possible occasions, whether for +recreation or for work; because I wish to see them engaged in +friendly rivalry in their studies now, as they will hereafter be in +the world, which I desire to see them enter, not as strangers to +each other, but as friends and fellow-citizens. + +'I rejoice, because their presence enables me to take a personal +farewell of so many of those who will in the next generation be the +planters, the merchants, the official and professional men of +Trinidad. By the time that you are men all the petty jealousies, +all the mean resentments of this our day, will have faded into the +oblivion which is their proper bourn. But the work now accomplished +will not, I trust, so fade. They will melt and perish as the snow +of the north would before our tropical sun: but the College will, I +trust, remain as the rock on which the snow rests, and which remains +uninjured by the heat, unmoved by the passing storm. May it endure +and strengthen as it passes from the first feeble beginnings of this +its infancy to a vigorous youth and maturity. You will sometimes in +days to come recall the inauguration of your College, and perhaps +not forget that its founder prayed you to bear in mind the truth +that you will find, even now, the truest satisfaction in the strict +discharge of duty; that he urged you to form high and unselfish +aims--to seek noble and worthy objects; and as you enter on the +world and all its tossing sea of jealousies, strife, division and +distrust, to heed the lesson which an Apostle, whose words we all +alike revere, has taught us, "If ye bite and devour one another, +take ye heed that ye be not consumed one of another." + +'Here, we hope, a point of union has been found which may last +through life, and that whilst every man cherishes a love for his own +peculiar School, all alike will have an interest in their common +College, all alike be proud of a national institution, jealous of +its honour, and eager to advance its welfare. + +'It is a common thing to hear the bitterness of religious discord +here deplored. I for one, looking back on the history of past +years, cannot think, as some seem to do, that it has increased. On +the contrary, it seems to me that it has greatly diminished in +violence when displayed, and that its displays are far less +frequent. Such, I believe, will be more and more the case; and that +whilst religious distinctions will remain the same, and +conscientious convictions unaltered, social and party differences +consequent on those distinctions and convictions will daily +diminish; that all alike will more and more feel in how many things +they can think and act together for the benefit of their common +country, and of the community of which they all are members; how +they can be glad together in her prosperity, and be sad together in +the day of her distress; and work together at all times to promote +her good. That this College is calculated to aid in a great degree +in effecting this happy result, I for one cannot entertain the +shadow of a doubt. "Esto perpetua!"' + +'Esto perpetua.' But there remains, I believe, more yet to be done +for education in the West Indies; and that is to carry out Mr. +Keenan's scheme for a Central University for the whole of the West +Indian Colonies, {297a} as a focus of higher education; and a focus, +also, of cultivated public opinion, round which all that is +shrewdest and noblest in the islands shall rally, and find strength +in moral and intellectual union. I earnestly recommend all West +Indians to ponder Mr. Keenan's weighty words on this matter; +believing that, as they do so, even stronger reasons than he has +given for establishing such an institution will suggest themselves +to West Indian minds. + +I am not aware, nor would the reader care much to know, what schools +there may be in Port of Spain for Protestant young ladies. I can +only say that, to judge from the young ladies themselves, the +schools must be excellent. But one school in Port of Spain I am +bound in honour, as a clergyman of the Church of England, not to +pass by without earnest approval, namely, 'The Convent,' as it is +usually called. It was established in 1836, under the patronage of +the Roman Catholic Bishop, the Right Rev. Dr. Macdonnel, and was +founded by the ladies of St. Joseph, a religious Sisterhood which +originated in France a few years since, for the special purpose of +diffusing instruction through the colonies. {297b} This +institution, which Dr. De Verteuil says is 'unique in the West +Indies,' besides keeping up two large girls' schools for poor +children, gave in 1857 a higher education to 120 girls of the middle +and upper classes, and the number has much increased since then. It +is impossible to doubt that this Convent has been 'a blessing to the +colony.' At the very time when, just after slavery was abolished, +society throughout the island was in the greatest peril, these good +ladies came to supply a want which, under the peculiar circumstances +of Trinidad, could only have been supplied by the self-sacrifice of +devoted women. The Convent has not only spread instruction and +religion among the wealthier coloured class: but it has done more; +it has been a centre of true civilisation, purity, virtue, where one +was but too much needed; and has preserved, doubtless, hundreds of +young creatures from serious harm; and that without interfering in +any wise, I should think, with their duty to their parents. On the +contrary, many a mother in Port of Spain must have found in the +Convent a protection for her daughters, better than she herself +could give, against influences to which she herself had been but too +much exposed during the evil days of slavery; influences which are +not yet, alas! extinct in Port of Spain. Creoles will understand my +words; and will understand, too, why I, Protestant though I am, bid +heartily God speed to the good ladies of St. Joseph. + +To the Anglican clergy, meanwhile, whom I met in the West Indies, I +am bound to offer my thanks, not for courtesies shown to me--that is +a slight matter--but for the worthy fashion in which they seem to be +upholding the honour of the good old Church in the colonies. In +Port of Spain I heard and saw enough of their work to believe that +they are in nowise less active--more active they cannot be--than if +they were seaport clergymen in England. The services were performed +thoroughly well; with a certain stateliness, which is not only +allowable but necessary, in a colony where the majority of the +congregation are coloured; but without the least foppery or +extravagance. The very best sermon, perhaps, for matter and manner, +which I ever heard preached to unlettered folk, was preached by a +young clergyman--a West Indian born--in the Great Church of Port of +Spain; and he had no lack of hearers, and those attentive ones. The +Great Church was always a pleasant sight, with its crowded +congregation of every hue, all well dressed, and with the universal +West Indian look of comfort; and its noble span of roof overhead, +all cut from island timber--another proof of what the wood-carver +may effect in the island hereafter. Certainly distractions were +frequent and troublesome, at least to a newcomer. A large centipede +would come out and take a hurried turn round the Governor's seat; or +a bat would settle in broad daylight in the curate's hood; or one +had to turn away one's eyes lest they should behold--not vanity, +but--the magnificent head of a Cabbage-palm just outside the +opposite window, with the black vultures trying to sit on the +footstalks in a high wind, and slipping down, and flopping up again, +half the service through. But one soon got accustomed to the +strange sights; though it was, to say the least, somewhat startling +to find, on Christmas Day, the altar and pulpit decked with +exquisite tropic flowers; and each doorway arched over with a single +pair of coconut leaves, fifteen feet high. + +The Christmas Day Communion, too, was one not easily to be +forgotten. At least 250 persons, mostly coloured, many as black as +jet, attended; and were, I must say for them, most devout in manner. +Pleasant it was to see the large proportion of men among them, many +young white men of the middle and upper class; and still more +pleasant, too, to see that all hues and ranks knelt side by side +without the least distinction. One trio touched me deeply. An old +lady--I know not who she was--with the unmistakable long, delicate, +once beautiful features of a high-bred West Indian of the 'Ancien +Regime,' came and knelt reverently, feebly, sadly, between two old +Negro women. One of them seemed her maid. Both of them might have +been once her slaves. Here at least they were equals. True +Equality--the consecration of humility, not the consecration of +envy--first appeared on earth in the house of God, and at the altar +of Christ: and I question much whether it will linger long in any +spot on earth where that house and that altar are despised. It is +easy to propose an equality without Christianity; as easy as to +propose to kick down the ladder by which you have climbed, or to saw +off the bough on which you sit. As easy; and as safe. + +But I must not forget, while speaking of education in Trinidad, one +truly 'educational' establishment which I visited at Tacarigua; +namely, a Coolie Orphan Home, assisted by the State, but set up and +kept up almost entirely by the zeal of one man--the Rev. --- +Richards, brother of the excellent Rector of Trinity Church, Port of +Spain. This good man, having no children of his own, has taken for +his children the little brown immigrants, who, losing father and +mother, are but too apt to be neglected by their own folk. At the +foot of the mountains, beside a clear swift stream, amid scenery and +vegetation which an European millionaire might envy, he has built a +smart little quadrangle, with a long low house, on one side for the +girls, on the other for the boys; a schoolroom, which was as well +supplied with books, maps, and pictures as any average National +School in England; and, adjoining the buildings, a garden where the +boys are taught to work. A matron--who seemed thoroughly worthy of +her post--conducts the whole; and comfort, cleanliness, and order +were visible everywhere. A pleasant sight; but the pleasantest +sight of all was to see the little bright-eyed brown darlings +clustering round him who was indeed their father in God; who had +delivered them from misery and loneliness, and--in the case of the +girls--too probably vice likewise; and drawn them, by love, to +civilisation and Christianity. The children, as fast as they grow +up, are put out to domestic service, and the great majority of the +boys at least turn out well. The girls, I was told, are curiously +inferior to the boys in intellect and force of character; an +inferiority which is certainly not to be found in Negroes, among +whom the two sexes are more on a par, not only intellectually, but +physically also, than among any race which I have seen. One +instance, indeed, we saw of the success of the school. A young +creature, brought up there, and well married near by, came in during +our visit to show off her first baby to the matron and the children; +as pretty a mother and babe as one could well see. Only we +regretted that, in obedience to the supposed demands of +civilisation, and of a rise in life, she had discarded the graceful +and modest Hindoo dress of her ancestresses, for a French bonnet and +all that accompanies it. The transfiguration added, one must +charitably suppose, to her self-respect; if so, it must be condoned +on moral grounds: but in an aesthetic view, she had made a great +mistake. + +In remembrance of our visit, a little brown child, some three or +four years old, who had been christened that day, was named after +me; and I was glad to have my name connected, even in so minute an +item, with an institution which at all events delivers children from +the fancy that they can, without being good or doing good, +conciliate the upper powers by hanging garlands on a trident inside +a hut, or putting red dust on a stump of wood outside it, while they +stare in and mumble prayers to they know not what of gilded wood. + +The coolie temples are curious places to those who have never before +been face to face with real heathendom. Their mark is, generally, a +long bamboo with a pennon atop, outside a low dark hut, with a broad +flat verandah, or rather shed, outside the door. Under the latter, +opposite each door, if I recollect rightly, is a stone or small +stump, on which offerings are made of red dust and flowers. From it +the worshippers can see the images within. The white man, stooping, +enters the temple. The attendant priest, so far from forbidding +him, seems highly honoured, especially if the visitor give him a +shilling; and points out, in the darkness--for there is no light +save through the low doors--three or four squatting abominations, +usually gilded. Sometimes these have been carved in the island. +Sometimes the poor folk have taken the trouble to bring them all the +way from India on board ship. Hung beside them on the walls are +little pictures, often very well executed in the miniature-like +Hindoo style by native artists in the island. Large brass pots, +which have some sacred meaning, stand about, and with them a curious +trident-shaped stand, about four feet high, on the horns of which +garlands of flowers are hung as offerings. The visitor is told that +the male figures are Mahadeva, and the female Kali: we could hear +of no other deities. I leave it to those who know Indian mythology +better than I do, to interpret the meaning--or rather the past +meaning, for I suspect it means very little now--of all this +trumpery and nonsense, on which the poor folk seem to spend much +money. It was impossible, of course, even if one had understood +their language, to find out what notions they attached to it all; +and all I could do, on looking at these heathen idol chapels, in the +midst of a Christian and civilised land, was to ponder, in sadness +and astonishment, over a puzzle as yet to me inexplicable; namely, +how human beings first got into their heads the vagary of +worshipping images. I fully allow the cleverness and apparent +reasonableness of M. Comte's now famous theory of the development of +religions. I blame no one for holding it. But I cannot agree with +it. The more of a 'saine appreciation,' as M. Comte calls it, I +bring to bear on the known facts; the more I 'let my thought play +freely around them,' the more it is inconceivable to me, according +to any laws of the human intellect which I have seen at work, that +savage or half-savage folk should have invented idolatries. I do +not believe that Fetishism is the parent of idolatry; but rather--as +I have said elsewhere--that it is the dregs and remnants of +idolatry. The idolatrous nations now, as always, are not the savage +nations; but those who profess a very ancient and decaying +civilisation. The Hebrew Scriptures uniformly represent the non- +idolatrous and monotheistic peoples, from Abraham to Cyrus, as lower +in what we now call the scale of civilisation, than the idolatrous +and polytheistic peoples about them. May not the contrast between +the Patriarchs and the Pharaohs, David and the Philistines, the +Persians and the Babylonians, mark a law of history of wider +application than we are wont to suspect? But if so, what was the +parent of idolatry? For a natural genesis it must have had, whether +it be a healthy and necessary development of the human mind--as some +hold, not without weighty arguments on their side; or whether it be +a diseased and merely fungoid growth, as I believe it to be. I +cannot hold that it originated in Nature-worship, simply because I +can find no evidence of such an origin. There is rather evidence, +if the statements of the idolaters themselves are to be taken, that +it originated in the worship of superior races by inferior races; +possibly also in the worship of works of art which those races, +dying out, had left behind them, and which the lower race, while +unable to copy them, believed to be possessed of magical powers +derived from a civilisation which they had lost. After a while the +priesthood, which has usually, in all ages and countries, proclaimed +itself the depository of a knowledge and a civilisation lost to the +mass of the people, may have gained courage to imitate these old +works of art, with proper improvements for the worse, and have +persuaded the people that the new idols would do as well as the old +ones. Would that some truly learned man would 'let his thoughts +play freely' round this view of the mystery, and see what can be +made out of it. But whatever is made out, on either view, it will +still remain a mystery--to me at least, as much as to Isaiah of old- +-how this utterly abnormal and astonishing animal called man first +got into his foolish head that he could cut a thing out of wood or +stone which would listen to him and answer his prayers. Yet so it +is; so it has been for unnumbered ages. Man may be defined as a +speaking animal, or a cooking animal. He is best, I fear, defined +as an idolatrous animal; and so much the worse for him. But what if +that very fact, diseased as it is, should be a sure proof that he is +more than an animal? + + + +CHAPTER XV: THE RACES--A LETTER + + + +Dear ---, I have been to the races: not to bet, nor to see the +horses run: not even to see the fair ladies on the Grand Stand, in +all the newest fashions of Paris via New York: but to wander en +mufti among the crowd outside, and behold the humours of men. And I +must say that their humours were very good humours; far better, it +seemed to me, than those of an English race-ground. Not that I have +set foot on one for thirty years; but at railway stations, and +elsewhere, one cannot help seeing what manner of folk, beside mere +holiday folk, rich or poor, affect English races; or help +pronouncing them, if physiognomy be any test of character, the most +degraded beings, even some of those smart-dressed men who carry bags +with their names on them, which our pseudo-civilisation has yet done +itself the dishonour of producing. Now, of that class I saw +absolutely none. I do not suppose that the brown fellows who hung +about the horses, whether Barbadians or Trinidad men, were of very +angelic morals: but they looked like heroes compared with the +bloated hangdog roughs and quasi-grooms of English races. As for +the sporting gentlemen, not having the honour to know them, I can +only say that they looked like gentlemen, and that I wish, in all +courtesy, that they had been more wisely employed. + +But the Negro, or the coloured man of the lower class, was in his +glory. He was smart, clean, shiny, happy, according to his light. +He got up into trees, and clustered there, grinning from ear to ear. +He bawled about island horses and Barbadian horses--for the +Barbadians mustered strong, and a fight was expected, which, +however, never came off; he sang songs, possibly some of them +extempore, like that which amused one's childhood concerning a once +notable event in a certain island-- + + +'I went to da Place +To see da horse-race, +I see Mr. Barton +A-wipin' ob his face. + +'Run Allright, +Run for your life; +See Mr Barton +A comin wid a knife. + +'Oh, Mr Barton, +I sarry for your loss; +If you no believe me, +I tie my head across.' + + +That is--go into mourning. But no one seemed inclined to tie their +heads, across that day. The Coolies seemed as merry as the Negroes, +even about the face of the Chinese there flickered, at times, a +feeble ray of interest. + +The coloured women wandered about, in showy prints, great +crinolines, and gorgeous turbans. The Coolie women sat in groups on +the glass--ah! Isle of the Blest, where people can sit on the grass +in January--like live flower beds of the most splendid and yet +harmonious hues. As for jewels, of gold as well as silver, there +were many there, on arms, ankles, necks, and noses, which made white +ladies fresh from England break the tenth commandment. + +I wandered about, looking at the live flower beds, and giving +passing glances into booths, which I longed to enter, and hear what +sort of human speech might be going on therein but I was deterred, +first by the thought that much of the speech might not be over +edifying, and next by the smells, especially by that most hideous of +all smells--new rum. + +At last I came to a crowd, and in the midst of it, one of those +great French merry-go-rounds turned by machinery, with pictures of +languishing ladies round the central column. All the way from the +Champs Elysees the huge piece of fool's tackle had lumbered and +creaked hither across the sea to Martinique, and was now making the +round of the islands, and a very profitable round, to judge from the +number of its customers. The hobby-horses swarmed with Negresses +and Hindoos of the lower order. The Negresses, I am sorry to say, +forgot themselves, kicked up their legs, shouted to the bystanders, +and were altogether incondite. The Hindoo women, though showing +much more of their limbs than the Negresses, kept them gracefully +together, drew their veils round their heads, and sat coyly, half +frightened, half amused, to the delight of their papas, or husbands, +who had in some cases to urge them to get up and ride, while they +stood by, as on guard, with the long hardwood quarter staff in hand. + +As I looked on, considered what a strange creature man is, and +wondered what possible pleasure these women could derive from being +whirled round till they were giddy and stupid, I saw an old +gentleman seemingly absorbed in the very same reflection. He was +dressed in dark blue, with a straw hat. He stood with his hands +behind his back, his knees a little bent, and a sort of wise, half- +sad, half-humorous smile upon his aquiline high-cheek-boned +features. I took him for an old Scot; a canny, austere man--a man, +too, who had known sorrow, and profited thereby; and I drew near to +him. But as he turned his head deliberately round to me, I beheld +to my astonishment the unmistakable features of a Chinese. He and I +looked each other full in the face, without a word; and I fancied +that we understood each other about the merry-go-round, and many +things besides. And then we both walked off different ways, as +having seen enough, and more than enough. Was he, after all, an +honest man and true? Or had he, like Ah Sin, in Mr. Bret Harte's +delectable ballad, with 'the smile that was child-like and bland'-- + + +'In his sleeves, which were large, + Twenty-four packs of cards, +And--On his nails, which were taper, + What's common in tapers--that's wax'? + + +I know not; for the Chinese visage is unfathomable. But I incline +to this day to the more charitable judgment; for the man's face +haunted me, and haunts me still; and I am weak enough to believe +that I should know the man and like him, if I met him in another +planet, a thousand years hence. + +Then I walked back under the blazing sun across the Savanna, over +the sensitive plants and the mole-crickets' nests, while the great +locusts whirred up before me at every step; toward the archway +between the bamboo-clumps, and the red sentry shining like a spark +of fire beneath its deep shadow; and found on my way a dying +racehorse, with a group of coloured men round him, whom I advised in +vain to do the one thing needful--put a blanket over him to keep off +the sun, for the poor thing had fallen from sunstroke; so I left +them to jabber and do nothing: asking myself--Is the human race, in +the matter of amusements, as civilised as it was--say three thousand +years ago? People have, certainly--quite of late years--given up +going to see cocks fight, or heretics burnt: but that is mainly +because the heretics just now make the laws--in favour of themselves +and the cocks. But are our amusements to be compared with those of +the old Greeks, with the one exception of liking to hear really good +music? Yet that fruit of civilisation is barely twenty years old; +and we owe its introduction, be it always remembered, to the +Germans. French civilisation signifies practically, certainly in +the New World, little save ballet-girls, billiard-tables, and thin +boots: English civilisation, little save horse-racing and cricket. +The latter sport is certainly blameless; nay, in the West Indies, +laudable and even heroic, when played, as on the Savanna here, under +a noonday sun which feels hot enough to cook a mutton-chop. But +with all respect for cricket, one cannot help looking back at the +old games of Greece, and questioning whether man has advanced much +in the art of amusing himself rationally and wholesomely. + +I had reason to ask the same question that evening, as we sat in the +cool verandah, watching the fireflies flicker about the tree-tops, +and listening to the weary din of the tom-toms which came from all +sides of the Savanna save our own, drowning the screeching and +snoring of the toads, and even, at times, the screams of an European +band, which was playing a 'combination tune,' near the Grand Stand, +half a mile off. + +To the music of tom-tom and chac-chac, the coloured folk would dance +perpetually till ten o'clock, after which time the rites of Mylitta +are silenced by the policeman, for the sake of quiet folk in bed. +They are but too apt, however, to break out again with fresh din +about one in the morning, under the excuse--'Dis am not last night, +Policeman. Dis am 'nother day.' + +Well: but is the nightly tom-tom dance so much more absurd than the +nightly ball, which is now considered an integral element of white +civilisation? A few centuries hence may not both of them be looked +back on as equally sheer barbarisms? + +These tom-tom dances are not easily seen. The only glance I ever +had of them was from the steep slope of once beautiful Belmont. +'Sitting on a hill apart,' my host and I were discoursing, not 'of +fate, free-will, free-knowledge absolute,' but of a question almost +as mysterious--the doings of the Parasol-ants who marched up and +down their trackways past us, and whether these doings were guided +by an intellect differing from ours, only in degree, but not in +kind. A hundred yards below we espied a dance in a negro garden; a +few couples, mostly of women, pousetting to each other with violent +and ungainly stampings, to the music of tom-tom and chac-chac, if +music it can be called. Some power over the emotions it must have; +for the Negroes are said to be gradually maddened by it; and white +people have told me that its very monotony, if listened to long, is +strangely exciting, like the monotony of a bagpipe drone, or of a +drum. What more went on at the dance we could not see; and if we +had tried, we should probably not have been allowed to see. The +Negro is chary of admitting white men to his amusements; and no +wonder. If a London ballroom were suddenly invaded by Phoebus, +Ares, and Hermes, such as Homer drew them, they would probably be +unwelcome guests; at least in the eyes of the gentlemen. The latter +would, I suspect, thoroughly sympathise with the Negro in the old +story, intelligible enough to those who know what is the favourite +food of a West Indian chicken. + +'Well, John, so they gave a dignity ball on the estate last night?' + +'Yes, massa, very nice ball. Plenty of pretty ladies, massa.' + +'Why did you not ask me, John? I like to look at pretty ladies as +well as you.' + +'Ah, massa: when cockroach give a ball, him no ask da fowls.' + +Great and worthy exertions are made, every London Season, for the +conversion of the Negro and the Heathen, and the abolition of their +barbarous customs and dances. It is to be hoped that the Negro and +the Heathen will some day show their gratitude to us, by sending +missionaries hither to convert the London Season itself, dances and +all; and assist it to take the beam out of its own eye, in return +for having taken the mote out of theirs. + + + +CHAPTER XVI: A PROVISION GROUND + + + +The 'provision grounds' of the Negroes were very interesting. I had +longed to behold, alive and growing, fruits and plants which I had +heard so often named, and seen so often figured, that I had expected +to recognise many of them at first sight; and found, in nine cases +out of ten, that I could not. Again, I had longed to gather some +hints as to the possibility of carrying out in the West Indian +islands that system of 'Petite Culture'--of small spade farming-- +which I have long regarded, with Mr. John Stuart Mill and others, as +not only the ideal form of agriculture, but perhaps the basis of any +ideal rustic civilisation. And what scanty and imperfect facts I +could collect I set down here. + +It was a pleasant sensation to have, day after day, old names +translated for me into new facts. Pleasant, at least to me: not so +pleasant, I fear, to my kind companions, whose courtesy I taxed to +the uttermost by stopping to look over every fence, and ask, 'What +is that? And that?' Let the reader who has a taste for the +beautiful as well as the useful in horticulture, do the same, and +look in fancy over the hedge of the nearest provision ground. + +There are orange-trees laden with fruit: who knows not them? and +that awkward-boughed tree, with huge green fruit, and deeply-cut +leaves a foot or more across--leaves so grand that, as one of our +party often suggested, their form ought to be introduced into +architectural ornamentation, and to take the place of the Greek +acanthus, which they surpass in beauty--that is, of course, a Bread- +fruit tree. + +That round-headed tree, with dark rich Portugal laurel foliage, +arranged in stars at the end of each twig, is the Mango, always a +beautiful object, whether in orchard or in open park. In the West +Indies, as far as I have seen, the Mango has not yet reached the +huge size of its ancestors in Hindostan. There--to judge, at least, +from photographs--the Mango must be indeed the queen of trees; +growing to the size of the largest English oak, and keeping always +the round oak-like form. Rich in resplendent foliage, and still +more rich in fruit, the tree easily became encircled with an +atmosphere of myth in the fancy of the imaginative Hindoo. + +That tree with upright branches, and large, dark, glossy leaves +tiled upwards along them, is the Mammee Sapota, {311a} beautiful +likewise. And what is the next, like an evergreen peach, shedding +from the under side of every leaf a golden light--call it not shade? +A Star-apple; {311b} and that young thing which you may often see +grown into a great timber-tree, with leaves like a Spanish chestnut, +is the Avocado, {311c} or, as some call it, alligator, pear. This +with the glossy leaves, somewhat like the Mammee Sapota, is a +Sapodilla, {311d} and that with leaves like a great myrtle, and +bright flesh-coloured fruit, a Malacca-apple, or perhaps a Rose- +apple. {311e} Its neighbour, with large leaves, gray and rough +underneath, flowers as big as your two hands, with greenish petals +and a purple eye, followed by fat scaly yellow apples, is the Sweet- +sop; {311f} and that privet-like bush with little flowers and green +berries a Guava, {311g} of which you may eat if you will, as you may +of the rest. + +The truth, however, must be told. These West Indian fruits are, +most of them, still so little improved by careful culture and +selection of kinds, that not one of them (as far as we have tried +them) is to be compared with an average strawberry, plum, or pear. + +But how beautiful they are all and each, after their kinds! What a +joy for a man to stand at his door and simply look at them growing, +leafing, blossoming, fruiting, without pause, through the perpetual +summer, in his little garden of the Hesperides, where, as in those +of the Phoenicians of old, 'pear grows ripe on pear, and fig on +fig,' for ever and for ever! + +Now look at the vegetables. At the Bananas and Plantains first of +all. A stranger's eye would not distinguish them. The practical +difference between them is, that the Plaintain {311h} bears large +fruits which require cooking; the Banana {312a} smaller and sweeter +fruits, which are eaten raw. As for the plant on which they grow, +no mere words can picture the simple grandeur and grace of a form +which startles me whenever I look steadily at it. For however +common it is--none commoner here--it is so unlike aught else, so +perfect in itself, that, like a palm, it might well have become, in +early ages, an object of worship. + +And who knows that it has not? Who knows that there have not been +races who looked on it as the Red Indians looked on Mondamin, the +maize-plant; as a gift of a god--perhaps the incarnation of a god? +Who knows? Whence did the ancestors of that plant come? What was +its wild stock like ages ago? It is wild nowhere now on earth. It +stands alone and unique in the vegetable kingdom, with distant +cousins, but no brother kinds. It has been cultivated so long that +though it flowers and fruits, it seldom or never seeds, and is +propagated entirely by cuttings. The only spot, as far as I am +aware, in which it seeds regularly and plentifully, is the remote, +and till of late barbarous Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. +{312b} + +There it regularly springs up in the second growth, after the forest +is cleared, and bears fruits full of seed as close together as they +can be pressed. How did the plant get there? Was it once +cultivated there by a race superior to the now utterly savage +islanders, and at an epoch so remote that it had not yet lost the +power of seeding? Are the Andamans its original home? or rather, +was its original home that great southern continent of which the +Andamans are perhaps a remnant? Does not this fact, as well as the +broader fact that different varieties of the Plantain and Banana +girdle the earth round at the Tropics, and have girdled it as long +as records go back, hint at a time when there was a tropic continent +or archipelago round the whole equator, and at a civilisation and a +horticulture to which those of old Egypt are upstarts of yesterday? +There are those who never can look at the Banana without a feeling +of awe, as at a token of holy ancient the race of man may be, and +how little we know of his history. + +Most beautiful it is. The lush fat green stem; the crown of huge +leaves, falling over in curves like those of human limbs; and below, +the whorls of green or golden fruit, with the purple heart of +flowers dangling below them; and all so full of life, that this +splendid object is the product of a few months. I am told that if +you cut the stem off at certain seasons, you may see the young leaf- +-remember that it is an endogen, and grows from within, like a palm, +or a lily, or a grass--actually move upward from within and grow +before your eyes; and that each stem of Plantain will bear from +thirty to sixty pounds of rich food during the year of its short +life. + +But, beside the grand Plantains and Bananas, there are other +interesting plants, whose names you have often heard. The tall +plant with stem unbranched, but knotty and zigzag, and leaves atop +like hemp, but of a cold purplish tinge, is the famous Cassava, +{313a} or Manioc, the old food of the Indians, poisonous till its +juice is squeezed out in a curious spiral grass basket. The young +Laburnums (as they seem), with purple flowers, are Pigeon-peas, +{313b} right good to eat. The creeping vines, like our Tamus, or +Black Bryony, are Yams, {313c}--best of all roots. + +The branching broad-leaved canes, with strange white flowers, is +Arrowroot. {313d} The tall mallow-like shrub, with large pale +yellowish-white flowers, Cotton. The huge grass with beads on it +{313e} is covered with the Job's tears, which are precious in +children's eyes, and will be used as beads for necklaces. The +castor-oil plants, and the maize--that last always beautiful--are of +course well known. The arrow leaves, three feet long, on stalks +three feet high, like gigantic Arums, are Tanias, {313f} whose roots +are excellent. The plot of creeping convolvulus-like plants, with +purple flowers, is the Sweet, or true, Potato. {313g} + +And we must not overlook the French Physic-nut, {313h} with its hemp +like leaves, and a little bunch of red coral in the midst, with +which the Negro loves to adorn his garden, and uses it also as +medicine; or the Indian Shot, {313i} which may be seen planted out +now in summer gardens in England. The Negro grows it, not for its +pretty crimson flowers, but because its hard seed put into a bladder +furnishes him with that detestable musical instrument the chac-chac, +wherewith he accompanies nightly that equally detestable instrument +the tom-tom. + +The list of vegetables is already long: but there are a few more to +be added to it. For there, in a corner, creep some plants of the +Earth-nut, {314a} a little vetch which buries its pods in the earth. +The owner will roast and eat their oily seeds. There is also a tall +bunch of Ochro {314b}--a purple-stemmed mallow-flowered plant--whose +mucilaginous seeds will thicken his soup. Up a tree, and round the +house-eaves, scramble a large coarse Pumpkin, and a more delicate +Granadilla, {314c} whose large yellow fruits hang ready to be +plucked, and eaten principally for a few seeds of the shape and +colour of young cockroaches. If he be a prudent man (especially if +he lives in Jamaica), he will have a plant of the pretty Overlook +pea, {314d} trailing aloft somewhere, to prevent his garden being +'overlooked,' i.e. bewitched by an evil eye, in case the Obeah- +bottle which hangs from the Mango-tree, charged with toad and +spider, dirty water, and so forth, has no terrors for his secret +enemy. He will have a Libidibi {314e} tree, too, for astringent +medicine; and his hedge will be composed, if he be a man of taste-- +as he often seems to be--of Hibiscus bushes, whose magnificent +crimson flowers contrast with the bright yellow bunches of the +common Cassia, and the scarlet flowers of the Jumby-bead bush, +{314f} and blue and white and pink Convolvuluses. The sulphur and +purple Neerembergia of our hothouses, which is here one mass of +flower at Christmas, and the creeping Crab's-eye Vine, {314g} will +scramble over the fence; while, as a finish to his little Paradise, +he will have planted at each of its four corners an upright +Dragon's-blood {314h} bush, whose violet and red leaves bedeck our +dinner-tables in winter; and are here used, from their unlikeness to +any other plant in the island, to mark boundaries. + +I have not dared--for fear of prolixity--to make this catalogue as +complete as I could have done. But it must be remembered that, over +and above all this, every hedge and wood furnishes wild fruit more +or less eatable; the high forests plenty of oily seeds, in which the +tropic man delights; and woods, forests, and fields medicinal plants +uncounted. 'There is more medicine in the bush, and better, than in +all the shops in Port of Spain,' said a wise medical man to me; and +to the Exhibition of 1862 Mr. M'Clintock alone contributed, from +British Guiana, one hundred and forty species of barks used as +medicine by the Indians. There is therefore no fear that the +tropical small farmer should suffer, either from want, or from +monotony of food; and equally small fear lest, when his children +have eaten themselves sick--as they are likely to do if, like the +Negro children, they are eating all day long--he should be unable to +find something in the hedge which will set them all right again. + +At the amount of food which a man can get off this little patch I +dare not guess. Well says Humboldt, that an European lately arrived +in the torrid zone is struck with nothing so much as the extreme +smallness of the spots under cultivation round a cabin which +contains a numerous family. The plantains alone ought, according to +Humboldt, to give one hundred and thirty-three times as much food as +the same space of ground sown with wheat, and forty-four times as +much as if it grew potatoes. True, the plantain is by no means as +nourishing as wheat: which reduces the actual difference between +their value per acre to twenty-five to one. But under his plantains +he can grow other vegetables. He has no winter, and therefore some +crop or other is always coming forward. From whence it comes, that, +as I just hinted, his wife and children seem to have always +something to eat in their mouths, if it be only the berries and nuts +which abound in every hedge and wood. Neither dare I guess at the +profit which he might make, and I hope will some day make, out of +his land, if he would cultivate somewhat more for exportation, and +not merely for home consumption. If any one wishes to know more on +this matter, let him consult the catalogue of contributions from +British Guiana to the London Exhibition of 1862; especially the +pages from lix. to lxviii. on the starch-producing plants of the +West Indies. + +Beyond the facts which I have given as to the plantain, I have no +statistics of the amount of produce which is usually raised on a +West Indian provision ground. Nor would any be of use; for a glance +shows that the limit of production has not been nearly reached. +Were the fork used instead of the hoe; were the weeds kept down; +were the manure returned to the soil, instead of festering about +everywhere in sun and rain: in a word, were even as much done for +the land as an English labourer does for his garden; still more, if +as much were done for it as for a suburban market-garden, the +produce might be doubled or trebled, and that without exhausting the +soil. + +The West Indian peasant can, if he will, carry 'la petite Culture' +to a perfection and a wealth which it has not yet attained even in +China, Japan, and Hindostan, and make every rood of ground not +merely maintain its man, but its civilised man. This, however, will +require a skill and a thoughtfulness which the Negro does not as yet +possess. If he ever had them, he lost them under slavery, from the +brutalising effects of a rough and unscientific 'grande culture'; +and it will need several generations of training ere he recovers +them. Garden-tillage and spade-farming are not learnt in a day, +especially when they depend--as they always must in temperate +climates--for their main profit on some article which requires +skilled labour to prepare it for the market--on flax, for instance, +silk, wine, or fruits. An average English labourer, I fear, if put +in possession of half a dozen acres of land, would fare as badly as +the poor Chartists who, some twenty years ago, joined in Feargus +O'Connor's land scheme, unless he knew half a dozen ways of eking +out a livelihood which even our squatters around Windsor and the New +Forest are, alas! forgetting, under the money-making and man- +unmaking influences of the 'division of labour.' He is vanishing +fast, the old bee-keeping, apple-growing, basket-making, copse- +cutting, many-counselled Ulysses of our youth, as handy as a sailor: +and we know too well what he leaves behind him; grandchildren better +fed, better clothed, better taught than he, but his inferiors in +intellect and in manhood, because--whatever they may be taught--they +cannot be taught by schooling to use their fingers and their wits. +I fear, therefore, that the average English labourer would not +prosper here. He has not stamina enough for the hard work of the +sugar plantation. He has not wit and handiness enough for the more +delicate work of a little spade-farm: and he would sink, as the +Negro seems inclined to sink, into a mere grower of food for +himself; or take to drink--as too many of the white immigrants to +certain West Indian colonies did thirty years ago--and burn the life +out of himself with new rum. The Hindoo immigrant, on the other +hand, has been trained by long ages to a somewhat scientific +agriculture, and civilised into the want of many luxuries for which +the Negro cares nothing; and it is to him that we must look, I +think, for a 'petite culture' which will do justice to the +inexhaustible wealth of the West Indian soil and climate. + +As for the house, which is embowered in the little Paradise which I +have been describing, I am sorry to say that it is, in general, the +merest wooden hut on stilts; the front half altogether open and +unwalled; the back half boarded up to form a single room, a passing +glance into which will not make the stranger wish to enter, if he +has any nose, or any dislike of vermin. The group at the door, +meanwhile, will do anything but invite him to enter; and he will +ride on, with something like a sigh at what man might be, and what +he is. + +Doubtless, there are great excuses for the inmates. A house in this +climate is only needed for a sleeping or lounging place. The +cooking is carried on between a few stones in the garden; the +washing at the neighbouring brook. No store rooms are needed, where +there is no winter, and everything grows fresh and fresh, save the +salt-fish, which can be easily kept--and I understand usually is +kept--underneath the bed. As for separate bedrooms for boys and +girls, and all those decencies and moralities for which those who +build model cottages strive, and with good cause--of such things +none dream. But it is not so very long ago that the British Isles +were not perfect in such matters; some think that they are not quite +perfect yet. So we will take the beam out of our own eye, before we +try to take the mote from the Negro's. The latter, however, no man +can do. For the Negro, being a freeholder and the owner of his own +cottage, must take the mote out of his own eye, having no landlord +to build cottages for him; in the meanwhile, however, the less said +about his lodging the better. + +In the villages, however, in Maraval, for instance, you see houses +of a far better stamp, belonging, I believe, to coloured people +employed in trades; long and low wooden buildings with jalousies +instead of windows--for no glass is needed here; divided into rooms, +and smart with paint, which is not as pretty as the native wood. +You catch sight as you pass of prints, usually devotional, on the +walls, comfortable furniture, looking-glasses, and sideboards, and +other pleasant signs that a civilisation of the middle classes is +springing up; and springing, to judge from the number of new houses +building everywhere, very rapidly, as befits a colony whose revenue +has risen, since 1855, from 72,300 pounds to 240,000 pounds, beside +the local taxation of the wards, some 30,000 pounds or 40,000 pounds +more. + +What will be the future of agriculture in the West Indian colonies I +of course dare not guess. The profits of sugar-growing, in spite of +all drawbacks, have been of late very great. They will be greater +still under the improved methods of manufacture which will be +employed now that the sugar duties have been at least rationally +reformed by Mr. Lowe. And therefore, for some time to come, capital +will naturally flow towards sugar-planting; and great sheets of the +forest will be, too probably, ruthlessly and wastefully swept away +to make room for canes. And yet one must ask, regretfully, are +there no other cultures save that of cane which will yield a fair, +even an ample, return, to men of small capital and energetic habits? +What of the culture of bamboo for paper-fibre, of which I have +spoken already? It has been, I understand, taken up successfully in +Jamaica, to supply the United States' paper market. Why should it +not be taken up in Trinidad? Why should not Plantain-meal {318a} be +hereafter largely exported for the use of the English working +classes? Why should not Trinidad, and other islands, export fruits- +-preserved fruits especially? Surely such a trade might be +profitable, if only a quarter as much care were taken in the West +Indies as is taken in England to improve the varieties by selection +and culture; and care taken also not to spoil the preserves, as now, +for the English market, by swamping them with sugar or sling. Can +nothing be done in growing the oil-producing seeds with which the +Tropics abound, and for which a demand is rising in England, if it +be only for use about machinery? Nothing, too, toward growing drugs +for the home market? Nothing toward using the treasures of gutta- +percha which are now wasting in the Balatas? Above all, can nothing +be done to increase the yield of the cacao-farms, and the quality of +Trinidad cacao? + +For this latter industry, at least, I have hope. My friend--if he +will allow me to call him so--Mr. John Law has shown what +extraordinary returns may be obtained from improved cacao-growing; +at least, so far to his own satisfaction that he is himself trying +the experiment. He calculates {318b} that 200 acres, at a maximum +outlay of about 11,000 dollars spread over six years, and +diminishing from that time till the end of the tenth year, should +give, for fifty years after that, a net income of 6800 dollars; and +then 'the industrious planter may sit down,' as I heartily hope Mr. +Law will do, 'and enjoy the fruits of his labour.' + +Mr. Law is of opinion that, to give such a return, the cacao must be +farmed in a very different way from the usual plan; that the trees +must not be left shaded, as now, by Bois Immortelles, sixty to +eighty feet high, during their whole life. The trees, he says with +reason, impoverish the soil by their roots. The shade causes excess +of moisture, chills, weakens and retards the plants; encourages +parasitic moss and insects; and, moreover, is least useful in the +very months in which the sun is hottest, viz. February, March, and +April, which are just the months in which the Bois Immortelles shed +their leaves. He believes that the cacao needs no shade after the +third year; and that, till then, shade would be amply given by +plantains and maize set between the trees, which would, in the very +first year, repay the planter some 6500 dollars on his first outlay +of some 8000. It is not for me to give an opinion upon the +correctness of his estimates: but the past history of Trinidad +shows so many failures of the cacao crop, that even a practically +ignorant man may be excused for guessing that there is something +wrong in the old Spanish system; and that with cacao, as with wheat +and every other known crop, improved culture means improved produce +and steadier profits. + +As an advocate of 'petite culture,' I heartily hope that such may be +the case. I have hinted in these volumes my belief that exclusive +sugar cultivation, on the large scale, has been the bane of the West +Indies. + +I went out thither with a somewhat foregone conclusion in that +direction. But it was at least founded on what I believed to be +facts. And it was, certainly, verified by the fresh facts which I +saw there. I returned with a belief stronger than ever, that +exclusive sugar cultivation had put a premium on unskilled slave- +labour, to the disadvantage of skilled white-labour; and to the +disadvantage, also, of any attempt to educate and raise the Negro, +whom it was not worth while to civilise, as long as he was needed +merely as an instrument exerting brute strength. It seems to me, +also, that to the exclusive cultivation of sugar is owing, more than +to any other cause, that frightful decrease throughout the islands +of the white population, of which most English people are, I +believe, quite unaware. Do they know, for instance, that Barbadoes +could in Cromwell's time send three thousand white volunteers, and +St. Kitts and Nevis a thousand, to help in the gallant conquest of +Jamaica? Do they know that in 1676 Barbadoes was reported to +maintain, as against 80,000 black, 70,000 free whites; while in 1851 +the island contained more than 120,000 Negroes and people of colour, +as against only 15,824 whites? That St. Kitts held, even as late as +1761, 7000 whites; but in 1826--before emancipation--only 1600? Or +that little Montserrat, which held, about 1648, 1000 white families, +and had a militia of 360 effective men, held in 1787 only 1300 +whites, in 1828 only 315, and in 1851 only 150? + +It will be said that this ugly decrease in the white population is +owing to the unfitness of the climate. I believe it to have been +produced rather by the introduction of sugar cultivation, at which +the white man cannot work. These early settlers had grants of ten +acres apiece; at least in Barbadoes. They grew not only provisions +enough for themselves, but tobacco, cotton, and indigo--products now +all but obliterated out of the British islands. They made cotton +hammocks, and sold them abroad as well as in the island. They +might, had they been wisely educated to perceive and use the natural +wealth around them, have made money out of many other wild products. +But the profits of sugar-growing were so enormous, in spite of their +uncertainty, that, during the greater part of the eighteenth +century, their little freeholds were bought up, and converted into +cane-pieces by their wealthier neighbours, who could afford to buy +slaves and sugar-mills. They sought their fortunes in other lands: +and so was exterminated a race of yeomen, who might have been at +this day a source of strength and honour, not only to the colonies, +but to England herself. + +It may be that the extermination was not altogether undeserved; that +they were not sufficiently educated or skilful to carry out that +'petite culture' which requires--as I have said already--not only +intellect and practical education, but a hereditary and traditional +experience, such as is possessed by the Belgians, the Piedmontese, +and, above all, by the charming peasantry of Provence and Languedoc, +the fathers (as far as Western Europe is concerned) of all our +agriculture. It may be, too, that as the sugar cultivation +increased, they were tempted more and more, in the old hard drinking +days, by the special poison of the West Indies--new rum, to the +destruction both of soul and body. Be that as it may, their +extirpation helped to make inevitable the vicious system of large +estates cultivated by slaves; a system which is judged by its own +results; for it was ruinate before emancipation; and emancipation +only gave the coup de grace. The 'Latifundia perdidere' the +Antilles, as they did Italy of old. The vicious system brought its +own Nemesis. The ruin of the West Indies at the end of the great +French war was principally owing to that exclusive cultivation of +the cane, which forced the planter to depend on a single article of +produce, and left him embarrassed every time prices fell suddenly, +or the canes failed from drought or hurricane. We all know what +would be thought of an European farmer who thus staked his capital +on one venture. 'He is a bad farmer,' says the proverb, 'who does +not stand on four legs, and, if he can, on five.' If his wheat +fails, he has his barley--if his barley, he has his sheep--if his +sheep, he has his fatting oxen. The Provencal, the model farmer, +can retreat on his almonds if his mulberries fail; on his olives, if +his vines fail; on his maize, if his wheat fails. The West Indian +might have had--the Cuban has--his tobacco; his indigo too; his +coffee, or--as in Trinidad--his cacao and his arrowroot; and half a +dozen crops more: indeed, had his intellect--and he had intellect +in plenty--been diverted from the fatal fixed idea of making money +as fast as possible by sugar, he might have ere now discovered in +America, or imported from the East, plants for cultivation far more +valuable than that Bread-fruit tree, of which such high hopes were +once entertained, as a food for the Negro. As it was, his very +green crops were neglected, till, in some islands at least, he could +not feed his cattle and mules with certainty; while the sugar-cane, +to which everything else had been sacrificed, proved sometimes, +indeed, a valuable servant: but too often a tyrannous and +capricious master. + +But those days are past; and better ones have dawned, with better +education, and a wider knowledge of the world and of science. What +West Indians have to learn--some of them have learnt it already--is +that if they can compete with other countries only by improved and +more scientific cultivation and manufacture, as they themselves +confess, then they can carry out the new methods only by more +skilful labour. They therefore require now, as they never required +before, to give the labouring classes a practical education; to +quicken their intellect, and to teach them habits of self-dependent +and originative action, which are--as in the case of the Prussian +soldier, and of the English sailor and railway servant--perfectly +compatible with strict discipline. Let them take warning from the +English manufacturing system, which condemns a human intellect to +waste itself in perpetually heading pins, or opening and shutting +trap-doors, and punishes itself by producing a class of workpeople +who alternate between reckless comfort and moody discontent. Let +them be sure that they will help rather than injure the labour- +market of the colony, by making the labourer also a small free- +holding peasant. He will learn more in his own provision ground-- +properly tilled--than he will in the cane-piece: and he will take +to the cane-piece and use for his employer the self-helpfulness +which he has learnt in the provision ground. It is so in England. +Our best agricultural day-labourers are, without exception, those +who cultivate some scrap of ground, or follow some petty occupation, +which prevents their depending entirely on wage-labour. And so I +believe it will be in the West Indies. Let the land-policy of the +late Governor be followed up. Let squatting be rigidly forbidden. +Let no man hold possession of land without having earned, or +inherited, money enough to purchase it, as a guarantee of his +ability and respectability, or--as in the case of Coolies past their +indenture's--as a commutation for rights which he has earned in +likewise. But let the coloured man of every race be encouraged to +become a landholder and a producer in his own small way. He will +thus, not only by what he produces, but by what he consumes, add +largely to the wealth of the colony; while his increased wants, and +those of his children, till they too can purchase land, will draw +him and his sons and daughters to the sugar-estates, as intelligent +and helpful day-labourers. + +So it may be: and I cannot but trust, from what I have seen of the +temper of the gentlemen of Trinidad, that so it will be. + + + +CHAPTER XVII (AND LAST): HOMEWARD BOUND + + + +At last we were homeward bound. We had been seven weeks in the +island. We had promised to be back in England, if possible, within +the three months; and we had a certain pride in keeping our promise, +not only for its own sake, but for the sake of the dear West Indies. +We wished to show those at home how easy it was to get there; how +easy to get home again. Moreover, though going to sea in the +Shannon was not quite the same 'as going to sea in a sieve,' our +stay-at-home friends were of the same mind as those of the dear +little Jumblies, whom Mr. Lear has made immortal in his New Book of +Nonsense; and we were bound to come back as soon as possible, and +not 'in twenty years or more,' if we wished them to say-- + + + 'If we live, +We too will go to sea in a sieve, +To the Hills of the Chankly bore.' + + +So we left. But it was sore leaving. People had been very kind; +and were ready to be kinder still; while we, busy--perhaps too busy- +-over our Natural History collections, had seen very little of our +neighbours; had been able to accept very few of the invitations +which were showered on us, and which would, I doubt not, have given +us opportunities for liking the islanders still more than we liked +them already. + +Another cause made our leaving sore to us. The hunger for travel +had been aroused--above all for travel westward--and would not be +satisfied. Up the Orinoco we longed to go: but could not. To La +Guayra and Caraccas we longed to go: but dared not. Thanks to +Spanish Republican barbarism, the only regular communication with +that once magnificent capital of Northern Venezuela was by a filthy +steamer, the Regos Ferreos, which had become, from her very looks, a +byword in the port. On board of her some friends of ours had lately +been glad to sleep in a dog-hutch on deck, to escape the filth and +vermin of the berths; and went hungry for want of decent food. +Caraccas itself was going through one of its periodic revolutions-- +it has not got through the fever fit yet--and neither life nor +property was safe. + +But the longing to go westward was on us nevertheless. It seemed +hard to turn back after getting so far along the great path of the +human race; and one had to reason with oneself--Foolish soul, +whither would you go? You cannot go westward for ever. If you go +up the Orinoco, you will long to go up the Meta. If you get to Sta. +Fe de Bogota, you will not be content till you cross the Andes and +see Cotopaxi and Chimborazo. When you look down on the Pacific, you +will be craving to go to the Gallapagos, after Darwin; and then to +the Marquesas, after Herman Melville; and then to the Fijis, after +Seeman; and then to Borneo, after Brooke; and then to the +Archipelago, after Wallace; and then to Hindostan, and round the +world. And when you get home, the westward fever will be stronger +on you than ever, and you will crave to start again. Go home at +once, like a reasonable man, and do your duty, and thank God for +what you have been allowed to see; and try to become of the same +mind as that most brilliant of old ladies, who boasted that she had +not been abroad since she saw the Apotheosis of Voltaire, before the +French Revolution; and did not care to go, as long as all manner of +clever people were kind enough to go instead, and write charming +books about what they had seen for her. + +But the westward fever was slow to cool: and with wistful eyes we +watched the sun by day, and Venus and the moon by night, sink down +into the gulf, to lighten lands which we should never see. A few +days more, and we were steaming out to the Bocas--which we had begun +to love as the gates of a new home--heaped with presents to the last +minute, some of them from persons we hardly knew. Behind us Port of +Spain sank into haze: before us Monos rose, tall, dark, and grim-- +if Monos could be grim--in moonless night. We ran on, and past the +island; this time we were going, not through the Boca de Monos, but +through the next, the Umbrella Bocas. It was too dark to see +houses, palm-trees, aught but the ragged outline of the hills +against the northern sky, and beneath, sparks of light in sheltered +coves, some of which were already, to one of us, well-beloved nooks. +There was the great gulf of the Boca de Monos. There was +Morrison's--our good Scotch host of seven weeks since; and the +glasses were turned on it, to see, if possible, through the dusk, +the almond-tree and the coco-grove for the last time. Ah, well-- +When we next meet, what will he be, and where? And where the +handsome Creole wife, and the little brown. Cupid who danced all +naked in the log canoe, till the white gentlemen, swimming round, +upset him; and canoe, and boy, and men rolled and splashed about +like a shoal of seals at play, beneath the cliff with the Seguines +and Cereuses; while the ripple lapped the Moriche-nuts about the +roots of the Manchineel bush, and the skippers leaped and flashed +outside, like silver splinters? And here, where we steamed along, +was the very spot where we had seen the shark's back-fin when we +rowed back from the first Guacharo cave. And it was all over. + +We are such stuff as dreams are made of. And as in a dream, or +rather as part of a dream, and myself a phantom and a play-actor, I +looked out over the side, and saw on the right the black Avails of +Monos, on the left the black walls of Huevos--a gate even grander, +though not as narrow, as that of Monos; and the Umbrella Rock, +capped with Matapalo and Cactus, and night-blowing Cereus, dim in +the dusk. And now we were outside. The roar of the surf, the +tumble of the sea, the rush of the trade-wind, told us that at once. +Out in the great sea, with Grenada, and kind friends in it, ahead; +not to be seen or reached till morning light. But we looked astern +and not ahead. We could see into and through the gap in Huevos, +through which we had tried to reach the Guacharo cave. Inside that +notch in the cliffs must be the wooded bay, whence we picked up the +shells among the fallen leaves and flowers. From under that dark +wall beyond it the Guacharos must be just trooping out for their +nightly forage, as they had trooped out since--He alone who made +them knows how long. The outline of Huevos, the outline of Monos, +were growing lower and grayer astern. A long ragged haze, far +loftier than that on the starboard quarter, signified the Northern +Mountains; and far off on the port quarter lay a flat bank of cloud, +amid which rose, or seemed to rise, the Cordillera of the Main, and +the hills where jaguars lie. Canopus blazed high astern, and +Fomalhaut below him to the west, as if bidding us a kind farewell. +Orion and Aldebaran spangled the zenith. The young moon lay on her +back in the far west, thin and pale, over Cumana and the Cordillera, +with Venus, ragged and red with earth mist, just beneath. And low +ahead, with the pointers horizontal, glimmered the cold pole-star, +for which we were steering, out of the summer into the winter once +more. We grew chill as we looked at him; and shuddered, it may be, +cowered for a moment, at the thought of 'Niflheim,' the home of +frosts and fogs, towards which we were bound. + +However, we were not yet out of the Tropics. We had still nearly a +fortnight before us in which to feel sure there was a sun in heaven; +a fortnight more of the 'warm champagne' atmosphere which was giving +fresh life and health to us both. And up the islands we went, +wiser, but not sadder, than when we went down them; casting wistful +eyes, though, to windward, for there away--and scarcely out of +sight--lay Tobago, to which we had a most kind invitation; and +gladly would we have looked at that beautiful and fertile little +spot, and have pictured to ourselves Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday +pacing along the coral beach in one of its little southern coves. +More wistfully still did we look to windward when we thought of +Barbadoes, and of the kind people who were ready to welcome us into +that prosperous and civilised little cane-garden, which deserves-- +and has deserved for now two hundred years, far more than poor old +Ireland--the name of 'The Emerald Gem of the Western World.' + +But it could not be. A few hours at Grenada, and a few hours at St. +Lucia, were all the stoppages possible to us. The steamer only +passes once a fortnight, and it is necessary to spend that time on +each island which is visited, unless the traveller commits himself-- +which he cannot well do if he has a lady with him--to the chances +and changes of coasting schooners. More frequent and easy +intercommunication is needed throughout the Antilles. The good +people, whether white or coloured, need to see more of each other, +and more of visitors from home. Whether a small weekly steamer +between the islands would pay in money, I know not. That it would +pay morally and socially, I am sure. Perhaps, when the telegraph is +laid down along the islands, the need of more steamers will be felt +and supplied. + +Very pleasant was the run up to St. Thomas's, not merely on account +of the scenery, but because we had once more--contrary to our +expectation--the most agreeable of captains. His French +cultivation--he had been brought up in Provence--joined to brilliant +natural talents, had made him as good a talker as he doubtless is a +sailor; and the charm of his conversation, about all matters on +earth, and some above the earth, will not be soon forgotten by those +who went up with him to St. Thomas's, and left him there with +regret. + +We transhipped to the Neva, Captain Woolward--to whom I must tender +my thanks, as I do to Captain Bax, of the Shannon, for all kinds of +civility. We slept a night in the harbour, the town having just +then a clean bill of health; and were very glad to find ourselves, +during the next few days, none the worse for having done so. On +remarking, the first evening, that I did not smell the harbour after +all, I was comforted by the answer that--'When a man did, he had +better go below and make his will.' It is a pity that the most +important harbour in the Caribbean Sea should be so unhealthy. No +doubt it offers advantages for traffic which can be found nowhere +else: and there the steamers must continue to assemble, yellow +fever or none. But why should not an hotel be built for the +passengers in some healthy and airy spot outside the basin--on the +south slope of Water Island, for instance, or on Buck Island--where +they might land at once, and sleep in pure fresh air and sea-breeze? +The establishment of such an hotel would surely, when once known, +attract to the West Indies many travellers to whom St. Thomas's is +now as much a name of fear as Colon or the Panama. + +We left St. Thomas's by a different track from that by which we came +to it. We ran northward up the magnificent land-locked channel +between Tortola and Virgin Gorda, to pass to leeward of Virgin Gorda +and Anegada, and so northward toward the Gulf Stream. + +This channel has borne the name of Drake, I presume, ever since the +year 1575. For in the account of that fatal, though successful +voyage, which cost the lives both of Sir John Hawkins, who died off +Porto Rico, and Sir Francis Drake, who died off Porto Bello, where +Hosier and the greater part of the crews of a noble British fleet +perished a hundred and fifty years afterward, it is written in +Hakluyt how--after running up N. and N.W. past Saba--the fleet +'stood away S.W., and on the 8th of November, being a Saturday, we +came to an anker some 7 or 8 leagues off among certain broken Ilands +called Las Virgines, which have bene accounted dangerous: but we +found there a very good rode, had it bene for a thousand sails of +ships in 7 & 8 fadomes, fine sand, good ankorage, high Ilands on +either side, but no fresh water that we could find: here is much +fish to be taken with nets and hookes: also we stayed on shore and +fowled. Here Sir John Hawkins was extreme sick' (he died within ten +days), 'which his sickness began upon newes of the taking of the +Francis' (his stern-most vessel). 'The 18th day wee weied and stood +north and by east into a lesser sound, which Sir Francis in his +barge discovered the night before; and ankored in 13 fadomes, having +hie steepe hiles on either side, some league distant from our first +riding. + +'The 12 in the morning we weied and set sayle into the Sea due south +through a small streit but without danger'--possibly the very gap in +which the Rhone's wreck now lies--'and then stode west and by north +for S. Juan de Puerto Rico.' + +This northerly course is, plainly, the most advantageous for a +homeward-bound ship, as it strikes the Gulf Stream soonest, and +keeps in it longest. Conversely, the southerly route by the Azores +is best for outward-bound ships; as it escapes most of the Gulf +Stream, and traverses the still Sargasso Sea, and even the extremity +of the westward equatorial current. + +Strange as these Virgin Isles had looked when seen from the south, +outside, and at the distance of a few miles, they looked still more +strange when we were fairly threading our way between them, +sometimes not a rifle-shot from the cliffs, with the white coral +banks gleaming under our keel. Had they ever carried a tropic +vegetation? Had the hills of Tortola and Virgin Gorda, in shape and +size much like those which surround a sea-loch in the Western +Islands, ever been furred with forests like those of Guadaloupe or +St. Lucia? The loftier were now mere mounds of almost barren earth; +the lower were often, like 'Fallen Jerusalem,' mere long earthless +moles, as of minute Cyclopean masonry. But what had destroyed their +vegetation, if it ever existed? Were they not, too, the mere +remnants of a submerged and destroyed land, connected now only by +the coral shoals? So it seemed to us, as we ran out past the +magnificent harbour at the back of Virgin Gorda, where, in the old +war times, the merchantmen of all the West Indies used to collect, +to be conveyed homeward by the naval squadron, and across a shallow +sea white with coral beds. We passed to leeward of the island, or +rather reef, of Anegada, so low that it could only be discerned, at +a few miles' distance, by the breaking surf and a few bushes; and +then plunged, as it were, suddenly out of shallow white water into +deep azure ocean. An upheaval of only forty fathoms would, I +believe, join all these islands to each other, and to the great +mountain island of Porto Rico to the west. The same upheaval would +connect with each other Anguilla, St. Martin, and St. Bartholomew, +to the east. But Santa Cruz, though so near St. Thomas's, and the +Virgin Gordas to the south, would still be parted from them by a +gulf nearly two thousand fathoms deep--a gulf which marks still, +probably, the separation of two ancient continents, or at least two +archipelagoes. + +Much light has been thrown on this curious problem since our return, +by an American naturalist, Mr. Bland, in a paper read before the +American Philosophical Society, on 'The Geology and Physical +Geography of the West Indies, with reference to the distribution of +Mollusca.' It is plain that of all animals, land-shells and +reptiles give the surest tokens of any former connection of islands, +being neither able to swim nor fly from one to another, and very +unlikely to be carried by birds or currents. Judging, therefore, as +he has a right to do, by the similarity of the land-shells, Mr. +Bland is of opinion that Porto Rico, the Virgins, and the Anguilla +group once formed continuous dry land, connected with Cuba, the +Bahamas, and Hayti; and that their shell-fauna is of a Mexican and +Central American type. The shell-fauna of the islands to the south, +on the contrary, from Barbuda and St. Kitts down to Trinidad, is +South American: but of two types, one Venezuelan, the other +Guianan. It seems, from Mr. Bland's researches, that there must +have existed once not merely an extension of the North American +Continent south-eastward, but that very extension of the South +American Continent northward, at which I have hinted more than once +in these pages. Moreover--a fact which I certainly did not expect-- +the western side of this supposed land, namely, Trinidad, Tobago, +Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia, have, as far as +land-shells are concerned, a Venezuelan fauna; while the eastern +side of it, namely, Barbadoes, Martinique, Dominica, Guadaloupe, +Antigua, etc., have, most strangely, the fauna of Guiana. + +If this be so, a glance at the map will show the vast destruction of +tropic land during almost the very latest geological epoch; and +show, too, how little, in the present imperfect state of our +knowledge, we ought to dare any speculations as to the absence of +man, as well as of other creatures, on those great lands now +destroyed. For, to supply the dry land which Mr. Bland's theory +needs, we shall have to conceive a junction, reaching over at least +five degrees of latitude, between the north of British Guiana and +Barbadoes; and may freely indulge in the dream that the waters of +the Orinoco, when they ran over the lowlands of Trinidad, passed +east of Tobago; then northward between Barbadoes and St. Lucia; then +turned westward between the latter island and Martinique; and that +the mighty estuary formed--for a great part at least of that line-- +the original barrier which kept the land-shells of Venezuela apart +from those of Guiana. A 'stretch of the imagination,' doubtless: +but no greater stretch than will be required by any explanation of +the facts whatsoever. + +And so, thanking Mr. Bland heartily for his valuable contribution to +the infant science of Bio-Geology--I take leave, in these pages at +least, of the Earthly Paradise. + +Our run homeward was quite as successful as our run out. The +magnificent Neva, her captain and her officers, were what these +Royal Mail steamers and their crews are--without, I believe, an +exception--all that we could wish. Our passengers, certainly, were +neither so numerous nor so agreeable as when going out; and the most +notable personage among them was a keen-eyed, strong-jawed little +Corsican, who had been lately hired--so ran his story--by the +coloured insurgents of Hayti, to put down the President--alias (as +usual in such Republics) Tyrant--Salnave. + +He seemed, by his own account, to have done his work effectually. +Seven thousand lives were lost in the attack on Salnave's quarters +in Port au Prince. Whole families were bayonetted, to save the +trouble of judging and shooting them. Women were not spared: and-- +if all that I have heard of Hayti be true--some of them did not +deserve to be spared. The noble old French buildings of the city +were ruined--the Corsican said, not by his artillery, but by +Salnave's. He had slain Salnave himself; and was now going back to +France to claim his rights as a French citizen, carrying with him +Salnave's sword, which was wrapped in a newspaper, save when taken +out to be brandished on the main deck. One could not but be +interested in the valiant adventurer. He seemed a man such as Red +Republics and Revolutions breed, and need; very capable of doing +rough work, and not likely to be hampered by scruples as to the +manner of doing it. If he is, as I take for granted, busy in France +just now, he will leave his mark behind. + +The voyage, however, seemed likely to be a dull one; and to relieve +the monotony, a wild-beast show was determined on, ere the weather +grew too cold. So one day all the new curiosities were brought on +deck at noon; and if some great zoologist had been on board, he +would have found materials in our show for more than one interesting +lecture. The doctor contributed an Alligator, some two feet six +inches long; another officer, a curiously-marked Ant-eater--of a +species unknown to me. It was common, he said, in the Isthmus of +Panama; and seemed the most foolish and helpless of beasts. As no +ants were procurable, it was fed on raw yolk of egg, which it +contrived to suck in with its long tongue--not enough, however, to +keep it alive during the voyage. + +The chief engineer exhibited a live 'Tarantula,' or bird-catching +spider, who was very safely barred into its box with strips of iron, +as a bite from it is rather worse than that of an English adder. + +We showed a Vulturine Parrot and a Kinkajou. The Kinkajou, by the +by, got loose one night, and displayed his natural inclination by +instantly catching a rat, and dancing between decks with it in his +mouth: but was so tame withal, that he let the stewardess stroke +him in passing. The good lady mistook him for a cat; and when she +discovered next morning that she had been handling a 'loose wild +beast,' her horror was as great as her thankfulness for the supposed +escape. In curious contrast to the natural tameness of the Kinkajou +was the natural untameness of a beautiful little Night-Monkey, +belonging to the purser. Its great owl's eyes were instinct with +nothing but abject terror of everybody and everything; and it was a +miracle that ere the voyage was over it did not die of mere fright. +How is it, en passant, that some animals are naturally fearless and +tamable, others not; and that even in the same family? Among the +South American monkeys the Howlers are untamable; the Sapajous less +so; while the Spider Monkeys are instinctively gentle and fond of +man: as may be seen in the case of the very fine Marimonda (Ateles +Beelzebub) now dying, I fear, in the Zoological Gardens at Bristol. + +As we got into colder latitudes, we began to lose our pets. The +Ant-eater departed first: then the doctor, who kept his alligator +in a tub on his cabin floor, was awoke by doleful wails, as of a +babe. Being pretty sure that there was not likely to be one on +board, and certainly not in his cabin, he naturally struck a light, +and discovered the alligator, who had never uttered a sound before, +outside his tub on the floor, bewailing bitterly his fate. Whether +he 'wept crocodile tears' besides, the doctor could not discover; +but it was at least clear, that if swans sing before they die, +alligators do so likewise: for the poor thing was dead next +morning. + +It was time, after this, to stow the pets warm between decks, and as +near the galley-fires as they could be put. For now, as we neared +the 'roaring forties,' there fell on us a gale from the north-west, +and would not cease. + +The wind was, of course, right abeam; the sea soon ran very high. +The Neva, being a long screw, was lively enough, and too lively; for +she soon showed a chronic inclination to roll, and that suddenly, by +fits and starts. The fiddles were on the tables for nearly a week: +but they did not prevent more than one of us finding his dinner +suddenly in his lap instead of his stomach. However, no one was +hurt, nor even frightened: save two poor ladies--not from Trinidad- +-who spent their doleful days and nights in screaming, telling their +beads, drinking weak brandy-and-water, and informing the hunted +stewardess that if they had known what horrors they were about to +endure, they would have gone to Europe in--a sailing vessel. The +foreigners--who are usually, I know not why, bad sailors--soon +vanished to their berths: so did the ladies: even those who were +not ill jammed themselves into their berths, and lay there, for fear +of falls and bruises; while the Englishmen and a coloured man or +two--the coloured men usually stand the sea well--had the deck all +to themselves; and slopped about, holding on, and longing for a +monkey's tail; but on the whole rather liking it. + +For, after all, it is a glorious pastime to find oneself in a real +gale of wind, in a big ship, with not a rock to run against within a +thousand miles. One seems in such danger; and one is so safe. And +gradually the sense of security grows, and grows into a sense of +victory, as with the boy who fears his first fence, plucks up heart +for the second, is rather pleased at the third, and craves for the +triumph of the fourth and of all the rest, sorry at last when the +run is over. And when a man--not being sea-sick--has once +discovered that the apparent heel of the ship in rolling is at least +four times less than it looks, and that she will jump upright again +in a quarter of a minute like a fisher's float; has learnt to get +his trunk out from under his berth, and put it back again, by +jamming his forehead against the berth-side and his heels against +the ship's wall; has learnt--if he sleep aft--to sleep through the +firing of the screw, though it does shake all the marrow in his +backbone; and has, above all, made a solemn vow to shave and bathe +every morning, let the ship be as lively as she will: then he will +find a full gale a finer tonic, and a finer stirrer of wholesome +appetite, than all the drugs of Apothecaries' Hall. + +This particular gale, however, began to get a little too strong. We +had a sail or two set to steady the ship: on the second night one +split with a crack like a cannon; and was tied up in an instant, +cordage and strips, into inextricable knots. + +The next night I was woke by a slap which shook the Neva from stem +to stern, and made her stagger and writhe like a live thing struck +across the loins. Then a dull rush of water which there was no +mistaking. We had shipped a green sea. Well, I could not bale it +out again; and there was plenty of room for it on board. So, after +ascertaining that R--- was not frightened, I went back to my berth +and slept again, somewhat wondering that the roll of the screw was +all but silent. + +Next morning we found that a sea had walked in over the bridge, +breaking it, and washing off it the first officer and the look-out +man--luckily they fell into a sail and not overboard; put out the +galley-fires, so that we got a cold breakfast; and eased the ship; +for the shock turned the indicator in the engine-room to 'Ease her.' +The engineer, thinking that the captain had given the order, obeyed +it. The captain turned out into the wet to know who had eased his +ship, and then returned to bed, wisely remarking, that the ship knew +her own business best; and as she had chosen to ease the engines +herself, eased she should be, his orders being 'not to prosecute a +voyage so as to endanger the lives of the passengers or the property +of the Company.' + +So we went on easily for sixteen hours, the wise captain judging-- +and his judgment proved true--that the centre of the storm was +crossing our course ahead; and that if we waited, it would pass us. +So, as he expected, we came after a day or two into an almost +windless sea, where smooth mountainous waves, the relics of the +storm, were weltering aimlessly up and down under a dark sad sky. + +Soon we began to sight ship after ship, and found ourselves on the +great south-western high-road of the Atlantic; and found ourselves, +too, nearing Niflheim day by day. Colder and colder grew the wind, +lower the sun, darker the cloud-world overhead; and we went on deck +each morning, with some additional garment on, sorely against our +wills. Only on the very day on which we sighted land, we had one of +those treacherously beautiful days which occur, now and then, in an +English February, mild, still, and shining, if not with keen joyful +blaze, at least with a cheerful and tender gleam from sea and sky. + +The Land's End was visible at a great distance; and as we neared the +Lizard, we could see not only the lighthouses on the Cliff, and +every well-known cove and rock from Mullion and Kynance round to St. +Keverne, but far inland likewise. Breage Church, and the great tin- +works of Wheal Vor, stood out hard against the sky. We could see up +the Looe Pool to Helston Church, and away beyond it, till we fancied +that we could almost discern, across the isthmus, the sacred hill of +Carnbrea. + +Along the Cornish shore we ran, through a sea swarming with sails: +an exciting contrast to the loneliness of the wide ocean which we +had left--and so on to Plymouth Sound. + +The last time I had been on that water, I was looking up in awe at +Sir Edward Codrington's fleet just home from the battle of Navarino. +Even then, as a mere boy, I was struck by the grand symmetry of that +ample basin: the break water--then unfinished--lying across the +centre; the heights of Bovisand and Cawsand, and those again of +Mount Batten and Mount Edgecumbe, left and right; the citadel and +the Hoe across the bottom of the Sound, the southern sun full on +their walls, with the twin harbours and their forests of masts, +winding away into dim distance on each side; and behind all and +above all, the purple range of Dartmoor, with the black rain-clouds +crawling along its top. And now, after nearly forty years, the +place looked to me even more grand than my recollections had +pictured it. The newer fortifications have added to the moral +effect of the scene, without taking away from its physical beauty: +and I heard without surprise--though not without pride--the +foreigners express their admiration of this, their first specimen of +an English port. + +We steamed away again, after landing our letters, close past the +dear old Mewstone. The warrener's hut stood on it still: and I +wondered whether the old he-goat, who used to terrify me as a boy, +had left any long-bearded descendants. Then under the Revelstoke +and Bolt Head cliffs, with just one flying glance up into the hidden +nooks of delicious little Salcombe, and away south-west into the +night, bound for Cherbourg, and a very different scene. + +We were awakened soon after midnight by the stopping of the steamer. +Then a gun. After awhile another; and presently a third: but there +was no reply, though our coming had been telegraphed from England; +and for nearly six hours we lay in the heart of the most important +French arsenal, with all our mails and passengers waiting to get +ashore; and nobody deigning to notice us. True, we could do no harm +there: but our delay, and other things which happened, were proofs- +-and I was told not uncommon ones--of that carelessness, +unreadiness, and general indiscipline of French arrangements, which +has helped to bring about, since then, an utter ruin. + +As the day dawned through fog, we went on deck to find the ship +lying inside a long breakwater bristling with cannon, which looked +formidable enough: but the whole thing, I was told, was useless +against modern artillery and ironclads: and there was more than one +jest on board as to the possibility of running the Channel Squadron +across, and smashing Cherbourg in a single night, unless the French +learnt to keep a better look-out in time of war than they did in +time of peace. + +Just inside us lay two or three ironclads; strong and ugly: untidy, +too, to a degree shocking to English eyes. All sorts of odds and +ends were hanging over the side, and about the rigging; the yards +were not properly squared, and so forth; till--as old sailors would +say--the ships had no more decency about them than so many collier- +brigs. + +Beyond them were arsenals, docks, fortifications, of which of course +we could not judge; and backing all, a cliff, some two hundred feet +high, much quarried for building-stone. An ugly place it is to look +at; and, I should think, an ugly place to get into, with the wind +anywhere between N.W. and N.E.; an artificial and expensive luxury, +built originally as a mere menace to England, in days when France, +which has had too long a moral mission to right some one, thought of +fighting us, who only wished to live in peace with our neighbours. +Alas! alas! 'Tu l'a voulu, George Dandin.' She has fought at last: +but not us. + +Out of Cherbourg we steamed again, sulky enough; for the delay would +cause us to get home on the Sunday evening instead of the Sunday +morning; and ran northward for the Needles. With what joy we saw at +last the white wall of the island glooming dim ahead. With what joy +we first discerned that huge outline of a visage on Freshwater +Cliff, so well known to sailors, which, as the eye catches it in one +direction, is a ridiculous caricature; in another, really noble, and +even beautiful. With what joy did we round the old Needles, and run +past Hurst Castle; and with what shivering, too. For the wind, +though dead south, came to us as a continental wind, harsh and keen +from off the frozen land of France, and chilled us to the very +marrow all the way up to Southampton. + +But there were warm hearts and kind faces waiting us on the quay, +and good news too. The gentlemen at the Custom-house courteously +declined the least inspection of our luggage; and we were at once +away in the train home. At first, I must confess, an English winter +was a change for the worse. Fine old oaks and beeches looked to us, +fresh from ceibas and balatas, like leafless brooms stuck into the +ground by their handles; while the want of light was for some days +painful and depressing But we had done it; and within the three +months, as we promised. As the king in the old play says, 'What has +been, has been, and I've had my hour.' At last we had seen it; and +we could not unsee it. We could not not have been in the Tropics. + + + +Footnotes: + +{4} Raleigh's Report of the Truth of the Fight about the Iles of +Azores. + +{8} Chiroteuthi and Onychoteuthi. + +{15a} Cocoloba uvifera. + +{15b} Plumieria. + +{25a} Anona squamosa. + +{25b} A. muricata. + +{25c} A. chierimolia. + +{25d} A. reticulata. + +{26a} Persea gratissima. + +{26b} Dioscorea. + +{26c} Colocasia esculcuta. + +{27a} Dr. Davy's West Indies. + +{27b} An account of the Souffriere of Montserrat is given by Dr. +Nugent, Geological Society's Transactions, vol. i., 1811. + +{28} For what is known of these, consult Dr. Nugent's 'Memoir on +the Geology of Antigua,' Transactions of Geological Society, vol. +v., 1821. See also Humboldt, Personal Narrative, book v. cap. 14. + +{33} Acrocomia. + +{36} Naval Chronicles, vol. xii. p. 206. + +{38} Craspedocephalus lanceolatus. + +{40} Coluber variabilis. + +{43a} Breen's St. Lucia, p. 295. + +{43b} Personal Narrative, book v. cap. 14. + +{44} Dr. Davy. + +{52a} Ipomaea Horsfallii. + +{52b} Spondias lutea. + +{58} Desmoncus. + +{65} M. Joseph, History of Trinidad, from which most of these facts +are taken. + +{74} Clitoria Ternatea; which should be in all our hothouses. + +{77} Peperomia. + +{78a} Sabal. + +{78b} Poinziana. + +{78c} Pandanus. + +{78d} Tecoma (serratifolia?) + +{78e} Panicum jumentorum. + +{79a} Cecropia. + +{79b} Andira inermis. + +{79c} Acrocomia sclerocarpa. + +{79d} Eriodendron anfractuosum. + +{81a} Heliconia Caribaea. + +{81b} Lygodium venustum. + +{81c} Inga Saman; 'Caraccas tree.' + +{81d} Hura crepitans. + +{81e} Erythrina umbrosa. + +{82a} Caryota. + +{82b} Maximiliana. + +{83a} Philodendron. + +{83b} Calamus Rotangi, from the East Indies. + +{83c} Garcinia Mangostana, from Malacca. The really luscious and +famous variety has not yet fruited in Trinidad. + +{84} Thevetia nerriifolia. + +{85a} Clusia. + +{85b} Brownea. + +{85c} Xylocopa. + +{87a} Cathartes Urubu. + +{87b} Crotophaga Ani. + +{87c} Lanius Pitanga. + +{87d} Troglodytes Eudon. + +{88} Ateles (undescribed species). + +{89} Alas for Spider! She came to the Zoological Gardens last +summer, only to die pitifully. + +{90} Cebus. + +{91a} Cercoleptes. + +{91b} Myrmecophaga Didactyla. I owe to the pencil of a gifted lady +this sketch of the animal in repose, which is as perfect as it is, I +believe, unique. + +{91c} Synetheres. + +{93a} Helias Eurypyga. + +{93b} Stedman's Surinam, vol. i. p. 118. What a genius was +Stedman. What an eye and what a pen he had for all natural objects. +His denunciations of the brutalities of old Dutch slavery are full +of genuine eloquence and of sound sense likewise; and the loves of +Stedman and his brown Joanna are one of the sweetest idylls in the +English tongue. + +{93c} Penelope (?). + +{93d} Crax. + +{95a} Philodendron. + +{95b} Bromelia. + +{102} Alosa Bishopi. + +{103a} Tetraodon. + +{103b} Anthurium Huegelii?--Grisebach, Flora of the West Indies. + +{104} Terminalia Catappa. + +{106} Pitcairnia? + +{107} Hippomane Mancinella. + +{110} Thalassia testudinum + +{111a} Cephaloptera. + +{111b} Steatornis Caripensis. + +{115a} Gynerium saccharoides. + +{115b} Xanthosoma; a huge plant like our Arums, with an edible +root. + +{115c} Costus. + +{115d} Heliconia. + +{115e} Bactris. + +{116a} Mimusops Balala, + +{116b} Probably Thrinax radiata (Grisebach, p. 515). + +{117} Geological Survey of Trinidad. + +{118a} Jacquinia armillaris. + +{118b} Combretum (laxifolium?). + +{120a} Eperua falcata. + +{120b} Posoqueria. + +{120c} Carolinea. + +{122a} Ardea leucogaster. + +{122b} Anableps tetropthalmus. + +{124} Oreodoxa oleracea. + +{126} Erythrina umbrosa. + +{127} Spigelia anthelmia. + +{129a} Carludovica. + +{129b} Maximiliama Caribaea. + +{129c} Schella excisa. + +{131a} Mycetes. + +{131b} Cebus. + +{131c} Tillandsia + +{131d} Philodendron, Anthurium, etc. + +{132} It may be a true vine, Vitis Caribaea, or Cissus Sicyoides (I +owe the names of these water-vines, as I do numberless facts and +courtesies, to my friend Mr. Prestoe, of the Botanic Gardens, Port +of Spain); or, again, a Cinchonaceous plant, allied to the Quinine +trees, Uncaria, Guianensis; or possibly something else; for the +botanic treasures of these forests are yet unexhausted, in spite of +the labours of Krueger, Lockhart, Purdie, and De Schach. + +{133a} Philodendron. + +{133b} Philodendron lacerum. A noble plant. + +{133c} Monstera pertusa; a still nobler one: which may be seen, +with Philodendrons, in great beauty at Kew. + +{133d} Lygodium. + +{133e} (-----------?). + +{133f} To know more of them, the reader should consult Dr. +Krueger's list of woods sent from Trinidad to the Exhibition of +1862; or look at the collection itself (now at Kew), which was made +by that excellent forester--if he will allow me to name him-- +Sylvester Devenish, Esquire, Crown Surveyor. + +{133g} Vitex. + +{133h} Carapa Guianensis. + +{133i} Cedrela. + +{133j} Machaerium. + +{133k} Hymenaea Courbaril. + +{133l} Tecoma serratifolia. + +{133m} Lecythis. + +{133n} Bucida. + +{133o} Brosimum Aubletii. + +{133p} Guaiacum. + +{134a} Copaifera. + +{134b} Eriodendron. + +{134c} Hura crepitans. + +{134d} Mimusops Balata. + +{137a} Bactris. + +{137b} Euterpe oleracea. + +{137c} Croton gossypifolium. + +{137d} Moronobea coccinea. + +{137e} Norantea. + +{137f} Spondias lutea (Hog-plum). + +{138a} Desmoncus. + +{138b} Heliconia. + +{138c} Spathiphyllum canufolium. + +{138d} Galbula. + +{139a} Dieffenbachia, of which varieties are not now uncommon in +hothouses. + +{139b} Xanthosoma. + +{139c} Calathea. + +{139d} Pentaclethra filamentosa. + +{139e} Brownea. + +{140a} Sabal. + +{140b} Ficus salicifolia? + +{145} Quoted from Codazzi, by Messrs. Wall and Sawkins, in an +Appendix on Asphalt Deposits, an excellent monograph which first +pointed out, as far as I am aware, the fact that asphalt, at least +at the surface, is found almost exclusively in the warmer parts of +the globe. + +{148a} Blechnum serrulatum. + +{148b} Geological Survey of Trinidad; Appendix G, on Asphaltic +Deposits. + +{149} Mauritia flexuosa. + +{150} American Journal of Science, Sept. 1855. + +{152} Chrysobalanus Pellocarpus. + +{154} Mauritia flexuosa. + +{155} See Mr. Helps' Spanish Conquest in America, vol. ii. p. 10. + +{157} Jambosa Malaccensis. + +{158} Oiketicus. + +{159} Phytelephas macrocarpa. + +{160} Humboldt, Personal Narrative, vol. v. pp. 728, 729, of Helen +Maria Williams's Translation. + +{161a} Costus. + +{161b} Scleria latifolia. + +{161c} Panicum divaricatum. + +{162a} Scleria flagellum. + +{162b} Echites symphytocarpa (?). + +{164} Ochroma. + +{170} Pronounced like the Spanish noun Daga. + +{172} See Bryan Edwards on the character of the African Negroes; +also Chanvelon's Histoire de la Martinique. + +{175} This man, who was a friend of Daaga's, owed his life to a +solitary act of humanity on the part of the chief of this wild +tragedy. A musket was levelled at him, when Daaga pushed it aside, +and said, 'Not this man.' + +{176a} People will smile at the simplicity of those savages; but it +should be recollected that civilised convicts were lately in the +constant habit of attempting to escape from New South Wales in order +to walk to China. + +{176b} I had this anecdote from one of his countrymen, an old +Paupau soldier, who said he did not join the mutiny. + +{179} One of his countrymen explained to me what Daaga said on this +occasion--viz., 'The curse of Holloloo on white men. Do they think +that Daaga fears to fix his eyeballs on death?' + +{184} Sabal. + +{186} Panicum sp. + +{187a} Inga. + +{187b} Ficus. + +{192} AEchmaea Augusta. + +{194a} Dicoteles (Peccary hog). + +{194b} Caelogenys paca. + +{195} Dr. Davy (West Indies, art. 'Trinidad'). + +{202a} Maximiliana Caribaea. + +{202b} M. regia. + +{204} I quote mostly from a report of my friend Mr. Robert +Mitchell, who, almost alone, did this good work, and who has, since +my departure, been sent to Demerara to assist at the investigation +into the alleged ill-usage of the Coolie immigrants there. No more +just or experienced public servant could have been employed on such +an errand. + +{209} Cassicus. + +{216} Asclepias curassavica. + +{218a} Hydrocyon. + +{218b} Serrasalmo. + +{218c} Spathiphyllum cannifolium. + +{219a} Pothomorphe. + +{219b} Enckea and Artanthe. + +{221} Ischnosiphon. + +{224} Pithecolobium (?). + +{226} Paritium and Thespesia. + +{227} Couroupita Guiainensis. + +{228} Personal Narrative, vol. v. p. 537. + +{229} Lecythis Ollaris, etc. + +{230} Caryocar butyrosum. + +{233} Manicaria. + +{245} Pteris podophylla. + +{246} Jessenia. + +{247} Gulielma speciosa. + +{248a} Aspects of Nature, vol. ii. p. 272. + +{248b} Synetheres. + +{249a} Carolinea insignis. + +{249b} Montrichardia. + +{256a} Manicaria. + +{257a} Schleiden's Plant: a Biography. End of Lecture xi. + +{259a} Curatella Americana. + +{259b} Rhopala. + +{259c} Utricularia. + +{260a} Drosera longifolia. + +{260b} Personal Narrative, vol. iv. p. 336 of H. M. Williams's +translation. + +{262} Personal Narrative, vol. v. p. 725. + +{265} Carapa Guianensis. + +{266a} Feuillea cordifolia. + +{266b} Nectandra Rodiaei. + +{266c} Manna. + +{268} Trigonocephalus Jararaca. + +{270} Canavalia. + +{274a} Trigonia. + +{274b} Tellina rosea. + +{274c} Xiphogorgia setacea (Milne-Edwards). + +{274d} Cytherea Dione. + +{274e} Mactrella alata. + +{277a} Boa-constrictor. + +{277b} Eunec urnus. + +{278} Ardea Garzetta. + +{282a} Mycetes ursinus. + +{282b} Penelope. + +{282c} Myrmecophaga tridactyla. + +{282d} Priodonta gigas. + +{288} In 1858 they were computed as-- + +Roman Catholics . . . 44,576 +Church of England . . . 16,350 +Presbyterians . . . 2,570 +Baptists . . . 449 +Independents, etc. . . 239 + +From Trinidad, its Geography, etc. by L. A. De Verteuil, M.D.P., a +very able and interesting book. I regret much that its accomplished +author resists the solicitations of his friends, and declines to +bring out a fresh edition of one of the most complete monographs of +a colony which I have yet seen. + +{290} See Mr Keenan's Report, and other papers, printed by order of +the House of Commons, 10th August 1870. + +{291} See Papers on the State of Education in Trinidad, p. 137 et +seq. + +{297a} Mr. Keenan's Report, pp. 63-67. + +{297b} Dr. De Verteuil's Trinidad. + +{311a} Lucuma mammosa. + +{311b} Chrysophyllum cainito. + +{311c} Persea gratassima. + +{311d} Sapota achras. + +{311e} Jambosa malaccensis, and vulgaris. + +{311f} Anona squamosa. + +{311g} Psidium Guava. + +{311h} Musa paradisiaca. + +{312a} M. sapientum. + +{312b} I owe these curious facts, and specimens of the seeds, to +the courtesy of Dr. King, of the Bengal Army. The seeds are now in +the hands of Dr. Hooker, at Kew. + +{313a} Janipha Manihot. + +{313b} Cajanus Indicus. + +{313c} Dioscorea. + +{313d} Maranta. + +{313e} Coix lacryma. + +{313f} Xanthosoma. + +{313g} Ipomaea Batatas + +{313h} Jatropha multifida. + +{313i} Canna. + +{314a} Arachis hypogaea. + +{314b} Abelmoschus esculentus. + +{314c} Passiflora. + +{314d} Canavalia. + +{314e} Libidibia coriacea, now largely imported into Liverpool for +tanning. + +{314f} Erythrina corallodendron. + +{314g} Abrus precatorius. + +{314h} Dracaena terminalis. + +{318a} Directions for preparing it may be found in the catalogue of +contributions from British Guiana to the International Exhibition of +1862. Preface, pp. lix. lxii. + +{318b} 'How to Establish and Cultivate an Estate of One Square Mile +in Cacao:' a Paper read to the Scientific Association of Trinidad, +1865. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT LAST*** + + +******* This file should be named 10669.txt or 10669.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/6/6/10669 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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