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 h