318 
rarely adopted by the planters, gives to M. Boulger's resi- 
dence the air of a gentleman's country-seat in Europe. 
After dinner, we were furnished by our host with horses to 
carry us to Blancard's, where we remained that night. 
* Our road next morning led us round the Baie du Cap, 
after which we had to scramble over a difficult pass called 
the Chemin des Beeufs. This defile, hardly practicable even 
to foot passengers, is the common channel of communication 
between the Savanne and the leeward side of the island. 
On turning the Pointe de Corail, at which the latter com- 
mences, we had the Morne de Brabant. This singular 
mountain, connected with the island by a low isthmus, has 
the most picturesque appearance imaginable. It is a per 
pendicular rock, three hundred fathoms in height; the 
summit an inclined plane, the only access to which is by a 
narrow intricate path, terminating at a frightful chasm in 
the rock, over which the trunk of an old tree serves as à 
bridge to such as venture to cross it. The summit of the 
mountain is said to be occupied by a few runaway slaves, 
who eke out a miserable and precarious existence by noc- 
turnal depredations on the neighbouring farms. — . 
* From the Morne the road leads through a succession 
of plantations along the shore, not far from which is the 
‘Ile Morne,’ a low coral bank, covered with a fine grove 
of cocoa palms. Between the road and the shore there is 2 
thick belt of Hibiscus tiliaceus, a large distorted shrub, 8t 
this time in full blossom. The bark of this shrub is 50 
tough as to serve the common purposes of cordage, and the 
wood so light, that the fishermen use it as a substitute for 
cork. We passed through several fields of wheat, the 
produce of which had just been gathered in; and we 
observed groupes of slaves in the act of thrashing it. s» 
sheaves were arranged on an elevated platform, and ten OF 
fifteen slaves of either sex, standing in a circle, with long 
heavy switches, kept beating them until the grain wee 
ed. This operation was carried on in a sort of 
measured cadence, regulated b lainti usical chorus 
"m y a plaintive m 
which, at the distance we passed, struck our ear as very 
