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 und