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tion of this opinion, it may be observed that the coast which 

 borders the Pays brule recedes considerably, forming a 

 portion of a circle, of which a line drawn between the points 

 of the two ramparts would be the chord. 



"A late French traveller has described, in glowing language, 

 the melancholy impression made on his mind by the frightful 

 sterility of the Pays brule, and by its ' profound solitude, 

 undisturbed by the screams of birds or the voice of man.' 

 To a person who has travelled much in Bourbon, unless he 

 belongs to the sentimental caste, the Pays brule is not the 

 part of the country most likely to suggest those frightful ideas 

 of sterility which a florid detail of its horrors is apt to excite. 

 For its extent, it is the smoothest portion of the whole island, 

 and, at certain seasons of the year, less repulsive than many 

 others. Nothing can be more dismal, in truth, or more 

 strongly indicative of barrenness, than those tracts all over 

 the island, which, stripped of their native wood, are left in 

 an uncultivated state. At this season, in particular, when 

 the herbage is parched by the sun, or set on fire, according 

 to annual practice, they present to view a surface as black 

 as the Pays brule ; and are, besides, disfigured by ridges and 

 chasms, and by fragments of rocks and stones, strewed over 

 the ground, or piled on each other in the strangest confusion. 

 The Pays brule is void of all these asperities; its surface is 

 unbroken, and it possesses also its vegetation, such as it is. 

 Its Lichens are a little shrivelled at present, it must be con- 

 fessed, but let the slightest shower fall, and they assume a 

 delicate verdure, what Botanists term a ' glaucous green,' the 

 softest and most pleasing of all colours, reminding us of the 

 first frail efforts of spring after the ravages of a boisterous 

 winter. Nor is it in Bourbon that a man of genuine sensi- 

 bility would be most likely to feel the ennui of solitude, or to 

 wish it disturbed by the voice of man, where that voice most 

 usually assails the ear in the half-stifled groan of the slave 

 bending under his burden. 



" From the Pays brule to the village of Ste. Rose, the road 

 passes through a succession of plantations in the midst of a 

 natural scenery of great beauty. This district enjoying the 



