DOMINICA. n 



Here I first heard the melody of the " solitaire." Long 

 since, the air of the town, hot and parching, had given 

 place to cool and delicious breezes. We went out 

 under the shade of trees, passing many a trickling 

 stream, until an elevation of nearly two thousand feet 

 was reached, when we heard voices, and suddenly 

 came upon a party of mountaineers (half Carib, half 

 negro), naked to the waist, hatless, and armed each 

 with his machete, or " cutlass," over two feet in length. 

 They saluted us politely, however, and we passed on 

 until near the " high woods," when w r e turned to the 

 right and rode down a narrow trail under large trees, 

 and reached finally a narrow gate of bars in a tall 

 hedge of oleander. 



Descending rapidly from the forest was an open 

 space of a hundred acres, perhaps, sloping westward, 

 green as a sward of guinea-grass could make it. 

 Over this were scattered volcanic rocks and clumps 

 of trees. This slope terminated abruptly in a cliff so 

 steep that the people living here could not descend 

 except by a long detour. Over this cliff fell the water- 

 fall we saw in coming up. Deep ravines seamed it at 

 intervals, all trending toward the valley wall, and on 

 all sides but this were nothing but forest and hills. 



From one of the mountaineers I secured a cabin, 

 one of the seven comprising this little hamlet, and 

 before nightfall had comfortably established myself. 

 My companion then left me alone to what proved but 

 the first of many camps in tropical forests. 



