an invalid, I reined in Prince, and as soon as dad had mounted Dandy, we
started away at a steady jog-trot, Jake following up close behind the
heels of the horses, with which he could at any time keep pace when put
to it, even when we went at a gallop.

Dear me! I shall never forget that ride.

Part of our way was past a wide stretching extent of primeval forest
that clothed the mountain-side with green. Here were wonderful
specimens of trees, some of which would rival the oaks of England--aye,
even those in Windsor great park! There was the sandbox, whose seeds
are contained in an oval pod about the size of a penny roll; which when
dry bursts like a shell, scattering its missiles about in every
direction; the iron-wood tree, which turns the edge of any axe, and can
only be brought low by fire; the caoutchouc-tree with its broad leaves
and milk-white sap, the original source from which all our waterproof
garments are made. Besides these were a host of others, such as the
avocado pear, soursop, sapodilla, and sapota, all of which, in addition
to their size and grand appearance, bear excellent fruit. But it would
have puzzled anyone to explore this almost impenetrable forest growth
without the aid of a cutlass to clear the path; for, tall vines, like
ship's cordage, hung from the limbs of the trees and knitted their
branches together in the most inextricable fashion, the lianas rooting
themselves down into the earth and then springing up again for fresh
entanglements, in the same way as the banyan-tree of India spreads
itself.

This was the outlook from one side only of our route. On the other were
to be seen patches of sugar-cane, planted with almost mathematical
regularity and looking like so many fields of some gigantic species of
wheat; green plantations of cocoa, with their ripe yellow fruit showing
out between the leaves, similar to that of ours at Mount Pleasant; and
several detached gardens, where the negro squatters were cultivating
their yams and tanias, or else preparing their farina for cassava from
the root of the manioc plant. The process consisted in first squeezing
out, by means of an old sack and a heavy stone for a press, the viscid
juice, which is a strong poison--the same, indeed, with which the Caribs
used to tip their arrows in the old days of the aborigines--and then
baking the flour on a griddle over a charcoal fire.

Passing through this varied scenery on either hand, our road led
prese