WEST INDIA SOCIETY. 73 



cupola of mountains, the Johanians occupy a spot comparatively 

 level, and fringed about with thicket approaching almost to their 

 doors. One might fancy some of those over-grown Misses Gul- 

 liver fell in love with to have erected their baby-houses in a 

 tropical bower here. But the channel without this inlet presents 

 another of those ocean lakes so characteristic of her scenery. 



The chain of northern quays commencing with Josvan Dykes, 

 where occurred the election described in a former letter, after a 

 break about midway, is resumed within closer range by those 

 behind St. John's. They wear an aspect of wild magnificence, 

 without any signs of vegetation whatever, over to the water's edge ; 

 while their rocky summits are broken here and there into what 

 might seem the cromlechs of an extinct race. One cannot sail 

 by these marks of natural desolation without recurring to the fate 

 of the Carribs — although this group when discovered was I believe, 

 without inhabitants. The heaps of calcined coral lying along 

 shore under them, are not either without their effect, they may 

 revive, perhaps, in classic associations, the piles that burned on 

 the strand before Troy. But why not turn to the living prospect ? 

 A remnant of the earth's surface scarce larger than — in the license 

 of voyagers — a whale's back, emerges off the western extremity 

 of St. John's : here, as we passed, the crew of a vessel loading 

 sugar, for Copenhagen, chequered with the usual medley of 

 negroes, were hauling their seine on a beach of the finest sand in 

 the world. This lies in the broad passage forward, by a larger 

 quay, which again is linked in another direction so closely to the 

 main land of St. Thomas', that (from the yard-arm of a square- 

 rigged vessel) you may drop on shore in going through the deep 

 boca between them. The quay, St. Andrews', has one, and only 

 one, dwelling on it; a neat little edifice situate on a low knoll 

 that abutts toward the north-east, and shaded by its living viranda 

 of bamboos — just such a spot as our modern Anacreon pictures for 

 the sweet exile of himself and love. Happiness, they say, was 

 born a twin ; but one, to fix his abode in places like these, should 

 better after all resolve on becoming an anchorite. I would not 

 indulge a moment in the selfish thought of drawing one from 

 among the beautiful daughters of my own land — and here is a 

 departed spirit like Rachael's, methinks, to shield my heart from 

 all other influence ; — I would not transplant such flower to bloom 

 or wither equally unheeded here. There would always be the 

 tiny humming bird to peep in on, and cheer, my reveries; and 

 the mangostuni and the cashew apples inciting one's spirit to 

 VOL. vi.~1835. K 



