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 prob