318 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



remains, with solid towering rocks on one side, and 

 bowlders above and below, as in the days of her who 

 once blessed it with her presence. 



It must have been somewhere on this very path, if 

 not within a gunshot of this same bathing-pool, that 

 Josephine met the Sibyl who prophesied so truly her 

 future fate : " You will be married soon ; that union 

 will not be happy ; you will become a widow, and 

 then — then you will be Queen of France ! " 



It is not difficult to imagine her here again, sporting, 

 dancing, along the bank of this rocky stream. From 

 her own pen we have a glimpse of her at that period, 

 one hundred years ago: "I ran, I jumped, I danced, 

 from morning to night. Why restrain the wild move- 

 ments of my childhood? " 



And this maiden, who graced in later life the salons 

 of an emperor, who lives in the memory of the peo- 

 ple as a creation of our own generation, this "lovely 

 Creole," passed the happiest days of her existence 

 here; roamed over these very hills, danced along these 

 self-same valleys ; gazed perhaps upon this same silk- 

 cotton that rears its towering crown above me now ! 



One hundred years ago ! 



Leaving the river, we climbed the hills to the west 

 and began our search for birds. Above a tangled 

 mass of thorny acacia hovered a tiny humming-bird, 

 with slender beak and pointed helmet, darting at the 

 spicy blossoms of an unknown vine ; gold and silver 

 was he in the sunshine. The little gem dropped into 

 the thicket, with quivering wings that never again 

 would bear their owner upward. Quickly my little 

 companion darted forward to tear the vines apart to 

 get at the bird which lay upon the ground beneath. 



