HOW TO PLANT. 35 



carried stately trees scattered on tlie turf, aud a sheet of 

 artificial water. Coolies, in red or yellow waistcloths, and 

 Coolie children, too, with nothing save a string round their 

 stomachs (the smaller ones at least), were lishing in the shade. 

 To the left, again, began at once the rich cultivation of the 

 rolling cane-fields, among which the Squire had left standing, 

 somewhat against the public opinion of his less tasteful 

 neighbours, tall Carats, carrying their heads of fan-leaves on 

 smooth stalks from fifty to eighty feet high, and Ceibas 

 some of them the hugest I had ever seen. Below in the 

 valley were the sugar- works ; and beyond this half-natural, 

 half-artificial scene, rose, some mile off, the lowering wall of 

 the yet untouched forest. 



It had taken only fifteen years, but fifteen years of hard 

 work, to create this paradise. And only the summer before 

 all had been well-nigh swept away again. During the great 

 drought the fire had ra^^ed about the w^oods. Estate after 

 estate around had been reduced to ashes. And one day our 

 host's turn came. The fire burst out of the woods at three 

 different points. All worked with a will to stop it by cut- 

 ting traces. But the wind was wild ; burning masses from 

 the tree-tops were hurled far among the canes, and all was 

 lost. The canes burnt like shavings, exploding with a per- 

 petual crackle at each joint. In a few hours the whole estate, 



works, Coolie barracks, Negro huts, was black ash ; and the, 



D 2 



