PREFACE. Vll 



cade, or a composition peculiarly tropical, I photo- 

 graphed it ; and my publishers have used as subjects 

 for illustration only these photographs from nature, 

 which have never been presented before. As with 

 the illustrations, so with the sketches in type. I have 

 but photographed the scenes I visited and the people 

 I saw and lived among. Now and then, in follow- 

 ing a thread of history that connects these islands and 

 people with an almost forgotten past, I have availed 

 myself of the language of the historian, but in rare 

 instances. My only claim is, that these sketches are 

 original, and fresh from new fields — new, yet old in 

 American history, — and that they are accurate, so 

 far as my power of description extends. They have 

 not, like the engravings, had the benefit of touches 

 from more skillful hands, and they may be crude and 

 unfinished, and lack the delicate shadings and half- 

 tones a more cunning artist could have given them ; 

 but they are, at least, true to nature. 



Though the voyage to and from these islands 

 was fraught with incident, there was little that did 

 not savor of the ordinary sea-voyage, hence it has 

 been left out, and the narrative begins and ends in 

 the Caribbees. Beside this, there yet remains much 

 material which has not been drawn upon, comprising 

 more of pure adventure, which, should public and 

 publishers pass a favorable verdict upon this, may 

 form a volume for another year. 

 Beverly, Mass., October, 1879. 



