the space they occupied
is then available for young plants. The wild hares are terrible enemies to
the first shoots of the cane, and we pass picturesque _gardiens_ armed
with amazing _fusils_ and clad in every variety of picturesque rag,
keeping a sort of boundary-guard at the edges of the sprouting
cane-fields. There are a great many dogs to be seen about, and they are
also regarded as gardiens; for the swarming miscellaneous Eastern
population does not bear the best reputation in the world for honesty, and
the police seem to have their hands full. All that I know about the use of
the dogs as auxiliaries is that they yelp and bark hideously all night at
each other, for every one seems to resent as a personal insult any
nocturnal visit from a neighbor's dog.

The horses are better than I expected. When one hears that every
four-footed beast has to be imported, one naturally expects dear and
indifferent horses, but I am agreeably surprised in this respect. We have
horses from the Cape, from Natal, and even from Australia, and they do not
appear to cost more here than they would in their respective countries. I
may add that there is also no difficulty whatever in providing yourself
with an excellent carriage of any kind you prefer, and it is far better to
choose one here than to import one. I mention this because a carriage or
conveyance of some sort is the necessary of necessaries here--as
indispensable as a pair of boots would be in England. I scarcely ever see
any one on horseback: people never seem to ride, to my great regret. I am
assured that it will be much too hot to do so in the summer evenings, and
that the hardness of the roads prevents riding from being an agreeable
mode of exercise. Every village can furnish sundry _carrioles_ for hire,
queer-looking little conveyances, like a minute section of a tilt-cart
mounted on two crazy wheels and drawn by a rat of a pony. Ponies are a
great institution here, and are really more suitable for ordinary work
than horses. They are imported in large numbers from Pegu and other parts
of Birmah, and also from Java, Timur and different places in the Malay
Archipelago. They stand about twelve or fourteen hands high, and are the
strongest, healthiest, pluckiest little beauties imaginable, full of fire
and go. Occasionally I meet a carriage drawn by a handsome pair of mules,
and they are much used in the numerous carts and for farm-work, especially
on the sugar estates. They are