WJS IT A DEE AM? Ill 



more green than gold, which cannot be (as at home) bitten ov 

 sucked ; for so strong is the fragrant essential-oil in the skin, 

 that it would blister the lips and disorder the stomach ; and 

 the orange must be carefully stripped of the outer coat before 

 you attack a pulp compared with which, for flavour, the 

 orange of our shops is but bad sugar and water. 



As I tethered my horse to a cacao-stem, and sat on a 

 log among hothouse ferns, peeling oranges with a bowie-knife 

 beneath the burning mid-day sun, the quaintest fancy came 

 over me that it was all a dream, a phantasmagoria, a Christ- 

 mas pantomime got up by my host for my special amuse- 

 ment ; and that if I only winked my eyes hard enough, 

 when I opened them again it ^^'ould be all gone, and I should 

 find myself walking with him on Ascot Heath, Avhile the 

 snow whirled over the heather, and the black fir-trees 

 groaned in the north-east wind. 



We soon rode on, with blessings on fair Candelaria and her 

 stately mother, while the noise of the surf grew louder and 

 louder in front of us. We took (if I remember right) a 

 sudden turn to the left, to get our horses to the shore. Our 

 pedestrians held straight on ; there was a ]\^angro^'e swamp 

 and a lagoon in front, for which they, bold lads, cared 

 nothing. 



We passed over a sort of open down, from which all vege- 

 tation had been cleared, save the Palmistes such a wood of 



