r
little iron cannon, which I should have much liked to carry off as a
memorial of our visit. We then turned up a narrow shadeless path,
bordered by stone walls, leading away from the sea, past a sugar-mill
and a ruin. A few almond, castor-oil, and fig trees were growing
amongst the sugar-canes, and as we mounted the hill we could see some
thirty round straw huts, like beehives, on the sandy slopes beside the
little stream. An abrupt turn in the mountains, amid which, at a
distance of three leagues, this tiny river takes its rise, hides it
from the sea, so that the narrow valley which it fertilises looks like
a small oasis in the desert of rocks and sand.

Mr. Martinez's house, where we sat for some time, and beneath the
windows of which the one stream of the island runs, was comparatively
cool. Outside, the negro washerwomen were busy washing clothes in large
turtle-shell tubs, assisted, or hindered, by the 'washerwoman-bird,'
a kind of white crane, who appeared quite tame, playing about just
like a kitten, pecking at the clothes or the women's feet, and
then running away and hiding behind a tree. The stream was full of
water-cresses, while the burnt-up little garden contained an abundance
of beautiful flowers. There were scarlet and yellow mimosas, of many
kinds, combining every shade of exquisite green velvety foliage,
alpinias, with pink, waxy flowers and crimson and gold centres,
oleanders, begonias, hibiscus, allamandas, and arum and other lilies.

[Illustration: Tarafal Bay, St. Antonio.]

Mr. Bingham sketched, I took some photographs, Dr. Potter and the
children caught butterflies, and the rest of our party wandered about.
Every five minutes a negro arrived with a portion of our supplies. One
brought a sheep, another a milch-goat for baby, while the rest
contributed, severally, a couple of cocoa-nuts, a papaya, three
mangoes, a few water-cresses, a sack of sweet potatoes, a bottle of
milk, three or four quinces, a bunch of bananas, a little honey,
half-a-dozen cabbages, some veal and pork, and so on; until it
appeared as if every little garden on either side of the three leagues
of stream must have yielded up its entire produce, and we had
accumulated sacks full of cocoa-nuts and potatoes, hundreds of eggs,
and dozens of chickens and ducks. It was very amusing to see the
things arrive. They were brought in by people varying in colour from
dark yellow to the blackest ebony, and ranging in size from fine
stalw