00 LEAVES FROM A LOG. 



expire ; ergo, I could not go to his house to dine with him. Having 

 explained the matter to Mr. Oldboy, I wished him a good afternoon, 

 and we passed each other. 



On the two next plantations where I called I had equally as little 

 success as at the preceding ones ; the first of these estates was under 

 the direction of a manager of the name of Wrangle. When 1 called 

 he was in the height of a matrimonial difference with Mrs. Wrangle ; 



1 had therefore too much good sense to intrude on their private 

 amusement ; and the proprietor of the last place I called at was in 

 town, and the manager dying with theyellow fever, I verily believed, 

 for the express purpose of disappointing me of my dinner. 



Thank my stars ! I have at length arrived at Don Jose-Maria- 

 Henrico Hospedero Hedalgon's, the extent of this day's journey. 



Fatigued and hungry as I was, I could not but admire the beauty 

 of the cocoa plantation ; and, indeed, I know of no species of cultiva- 

 tion that will at all compete in this respect with a cocoa walk, with 

 the exception of some few grounds laid out by skilful landscape 

 gardeners. The fine rows of oristaro cocoas traversed each other at 

 right angles ; they were planted at regular intervals ; their leaves 

 were green, red, and brown, and their stems and limbs so trimmed 

 and lopped that they all grew the same height, and had much the 

 same form; they had regularity without stiffness; the sun which was 

 sinking into the western horizon gave a splendour to the skies, in- 

 conceivable to those who have never been between the tropics ; the 

 blazing clouds harmonized well with the rows of " bois immortel" 

 trees called by the Spaniards " la madre de cacao," the mother of 

 cocoa. These trees are planted also at regular intervals, to shade the 

 cocoa, and grow about the height of an English oak, so that from an 

 elevation they appear a forest growing, as it were, out of a forest ; 

 the height of the cocoa trees being about twenty feet, forms a thick 

 canopy of foliage ; the stately trunks of the bois immortel shoot up 

 from this leafy roof, and terminate by forming an other covering of 

 branches and leaves, and when the immortel is in full blossom, 

 which it was at that time, the beauty of this wood is not to be sur- 

 passed. Some slight conception of this the reader may form, if he can 

 imagine several miles square covered with trees, planted in rows, cross- 

 ing each other at right angles ; the body and limbs of which trees 

 are as high as any in Europe, having a thick foliage of the deepest 

 and most brilliant rose colour. 



The dwelling-house of the Don was situated on a mound beside 

 the large shed for curing cocoa ; the former was a spacious lofty 

 building, the wall and partitions of which were wattled, that is, 

 formed with roseaux into a kind of basket-work, plastered with 

 earth, and whitewashed ; the hall was unfloored, but the chambers 

 had a floor of Palmiste boards ; the whole building was admirably 

 adapted to the climate; its open gables and loftiness rendered it 

 delightfully cool. It is true this structure was not formed to stand 

 against a hurricane : hurricanes, however, never occur in Trinidad ; 

 but so admirably was it made proof against the effects of earthquakes, 

 which sometimes happen here, that the ground might undulate like 

 the face of the ocean, and its basket and earthen walls, its bamboo 





