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. Bu