ke roots wandering far off under water; while
on shore a soft, pleasant vegetation presented to the eye the whole
range of shades in green, from the bluish, sickly green of the idrys
to the dark, metallic green of the stenia. Farther inland, tall grapes,
lianes, aloes, and cactus formed impenetrable thickets, out of which
rose, like fluted columns, gigantic cocoa-palms, and the most graceful
trees on earth, areca-palms. Through clearings here and there, one could
follow, as far as the eye reached, the course of low, fever-breeding
marshes, an immense mud-plain covered with a carpet of undulating
verdure, which opened and closed again under the breeze, like the sea
itself.

"Ah! That is Saigon, is it?" said to Daniel a voice full of delight.

He turned round. It was his best friend on board, a lieutenant like
himself, who had come to his side, and, offering him a telescope, said
with a great sigh of satisfaction,--

"Look! there, do you see? At last we are here. In two hours, Champcey,
we shall be at anchor."

In the distance one could, in fact, make out upon the deep blue of the
sky the profile of the curved roof of the pagodas in Saigon. It took a
long hour yet, before, at a turn in the river, the town itself appeared,
miserable looking,--with all deference to our geographies, be it
said,--in spite of the immense labor of the French colony.

Saigon consists mainly of one wide street running parallel with the
right bank of the Dong-Nai, a primitive, unpaved street cut up into
ruts, broken in upon by large empty spaces, and lined with wooden houses
covered with rice-straw or palm-leaves.

Thousands of boats crowd against the banks of the river along this
street, and form a kind of floating suburb, overflowing with a strange
medley of Annamites, Hindoos, and Chinamen. At a little distance from
the river, there appear a few massive buildings with roofs of red tiles,
pleasing to the eye, and here and there an Annamite farm, which seems
to hide behind groups of areca-palms. Finally, on an eminence, rise the
citadel, the arsenal, the house of the French commander, and the former
dwelling of the Spanish colonel.

But every town is beautiful, where we land after a voyage of several
months. Hence, as soon as "The Conquest" was safely at anchor, all the
officers, except the midshipman on duty, went on shore, and hastened
to the government house to ask if letters from France had arrived there
before them. Their hopes were