CHAP, iv.] WEST INDIES. 203 



On the southern side of the island, the scenery, as 

 I have before observed, is of a different nature. In 

 the landscape I have described, the prevailing charac- 

 teristics are variety and beauty: in that which remains, 

 the predominant features are grandeur and sublimity. 

 When I first approached this side of the island by sea, 

 and beheld, from afar, such of the stupendous and 

 soaring ridges of the blue mountains, as the clouds 

 here and there disclosed, the imagination (forming an 

 indistinct but awful idea of what was concealed, by 

 what was thus partially displayed) was filled with ad- 

 miration and wonder. Yet the sensation which I felt 

 was allied rather to terror than delight. Though the 



o o 



prospect before me was in the highest degree magni- 

 ficent, it seemed a scene of magnificent desolation. 

 The abrupt precipice and inaccessible cliff, had more 

 the aspect of a chaos than a creation ; or rather seemed 

 to exhibit the effects of some dreadful convulsion, 

 which had laid nature in ruins. Appearances, howe 

 ver, improved as we approached ; for, amidst ten 

 thousand bol.d features, too hard to be softened by cul- 

 ture, many a spot was soon discovered where the hand 

 of industry had awakened life and fertility.. With these 

 pleasing intermixtures^ the flowing line of the lower 

 range of mountains (which now began to be visible, 

 crowned with woods of majestic growth) combined 

 to soften and relieve the rude solemnity of the loftier 

 eminences; until at length the savannas at the bottom 

 met the sight. These are vast plains, clothed chiefly 

 with extensive cane-fields ; displaying, in all the pride 

 of cultivation, the verdure of spring blended with the 

 exuberance of autumn, and they are bounded only by 



