326 
it. The morning was serene, and the sky without a cloud. 
The sun had just cleared the horizon, and tinged with his 
golden beams the summits of numerous small conical hills 
that stood scattered over the plain, amidst cultivated fields, 
clumps of wood, and tracts of vitrified lava. On the right 
hand lay the coast, fortified by a rocky rampart of fuliginous 
aspect, recently expelled from the bowels of the earth by the 
force of one element, but now opposing, with sullen defiance, 
the assaults of another. On the left, we had a distant view 
of the burning dome of the volcano, towering above the 
neighbouring peaks, and shaded by its smoky parasol. 
* Having crossed the ravine, we soon arrived at the residence 
of M. Loiseau, where we breakfasted, and rested for a couple 
of hours. We thence continued our journey by a path that 
led through the scene which had enchanted us in the morn- 
ing. But the enchantment was now gone. The imposing 
grandeur which distance lent to these irregularities of nature 
vanished when we came to view them in detail, and gave 
place to a very different sentiment when they met us as 
obstacles not easily to be got over. After a tedious day's 
journey, we arrived in the evening at the house of a M. Deley, 
where we were received with great hospitality. 3 
“ The settlement of this district is of recent date. Its dis- 
tance from the seat of Government; the general sterility of 
its soil; an inaccessible coast on one side, and on the other 
B burning mountain, always active and threatening every 
with instantaneous ruin; these were obstacles sufficient t 
deter adventurers of ordinary resolution from settling 1n 
St. Joseph's, and nothing, one would suppose, but misfortune 
or crime, could urge human beings to secrete themselves 2 
such a desolate region. Thinly scattered over a rugged gol 
that yields but a precarious return to the cultivator, the 
inhabitants of this district have lost, in a great measure 
loquacious and gregarious disposition that forms so prominent 
a feature in the French character; and have acquired, in lieu 
of it, the recluse, taciturn, independent habits of the boors 
South Africa, 
* About six miles beyond Deley's residence, the tract o 
