he 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,