might produce the finest in the world. 'There
are dollars in that island, sir,' as an American gentleman said to me,
'if they look for them in the right way.' Nothing of this kind was going
on at Castleton; so much the worse, but perhaps things will mend
by-and-by. I was consoled partly by another specimen of the _Amherstia
nobilis_. It was not so large as those which I had seen at Trinidad, but
it was in splendid bloom, and certainly is the most gorgeous flowering
tree which the world contains.

Wild nature also was luxuriantly beautiful. We picnicked by the river,
which here is a full rushing stream with pools that would have held a
salmon, and did hold abundant mullet. We found a bower formed by a
twisted vine, so thick that neither sun nor rain could penetrate the
roof. The floor was of shining shingle, and the air breathed cool from
off the water. It was a spot which nymph or naiad may haunt hereafter,
when nymphs are born again in the new era. The creatures of imagination
have fled away from modern enlightenment. But we were a pleasant party
of human beings, lying about under the shade upon the pebbles. We had
brought a blanket of ice with us, and the champagne was manufactured
into cup by choicest West Indian skill. Figures fall unconsciously at
such moments into attitudes which would satisfy a painter, and the
scenes remain upon the memory like some fine finished work of art. We
had done with the gardens, and I remember no more of them except that I
saw a mongoose stalking a flock of turkeys. The young ones and their
mother gathered together and showed fight. The old cock, after the
manner of the male animal, seemed chiefly anxious for his own skin,
though a little ashamed at the same time, as if conscious that more was
expected of him. On the way back we met the returning stream of women
and children, loaded heavily as before and with the same elastic step.
In spite of all that is incorrect about them, the women are the material
to work upon; and if they saw that we were in earnest, they would lend
their help to make their husbands bestir themselves. A Dutch gentleman
once boasted to me of the wonderful prosperity of Java, where everybody
was well off and everybody was industrious. He so insisted upon the
industry that I ask him how it was brought about. Were the people
slaves? 'Oh,' he cried, as if shocked, 'God forbid that a Christian
nation should be so wicked as to keep slaves!' 'Do they never wish to be
i