^AN INDIAN PATH. 51 



and only re -discovered some century since that the " first 

 step in civilization is to make roads ; the second, to make 

 more roads ; and the third, to make more roads still." 



Through this very district (aided by men whose talents he 

 had the talent to discover and employ) he lias run wide, 

 level, and sound roads, either already completed or in pro- 

 gress through all parts of the island which I visited, save 

 the precipitous glens of the northern shore. 



Of such roads we saw more than one in the next few days. 

 That day we had to commit ourselves, when we turned off 

 the royal road, to one of the old Spanish-Indian jungle 

 tracks. And here is a recipe for making one : Take a rail- 

 way embankment of average steepness, strew it freely with 

 wreck, rigging and all, to imitate the fallen timber, roots, and 

 lianes a few flagstones and boulders here and there will be 

 quite in place ; plant the whole with the thickest pheasant - 

 cover; set a field of huntsmen to find their way through 

 it at the points of least resistance three times a week during 

 a wet winter ; and if you dare follow their footsteps, you 

 will find a very accurate imitation of a forest-track in the 

 wet season. 



At one place we seemed to be fairly stopped. We plunged 



and slid down into a muddy brook, luckily with a gravel bar 



i^i which the horses could stand, at least one by one ; and 



found opposite us a bank of smooth clay, bound with slippery 



E 2 



