82 TORTUGA. 



the purple gorges, and up at the mountain woods, over wliich 

 the stars were flasliing out bright and fast, and listened 

 to the soft strange notes of the forest birds going to roost, 

 again the thought came over me Why should not gentlemen 

 and ladies come to such spots as these to live ''the Gentle 

 Life?" 



We slept that night, some in beds, some in hammocks, 

 some on the floor, with the rich warm ni^ht wind rushin<^ 

 down through all the house ; and then were up once more in 

 the darkness of the dawn, to go down and bathe at a little 

 cascade, where a feeble stream dribbled under ferns and bali- 

 siers over soft square limestone rocks like the artificial rocks 

 of the Ser]3entine, and those copied probably from the rocks 

 of Fontainebleau which one sees in old French landscapes. 

 But a bathe was hardly necessary. So drenched was the 

 vegetation with night dew, that if one had taken off one's 

 clothes at the house, and simply walked under the bananas, 

 and through the tanias and maize which grew among them, 

 one would have been well washed ere one reached the stream. 

 As it was, the bathers came back with their clothes wet 

 through. Xo matter. The sun was up, and half an hour 

 would dry all again. 



One object, on the edge of the forest, was worth noticing, 

 and was watched long, through the glasses; namely, two or 

 three large trees, from which dangled a multitude of the pen- 



