CiiAr. I. OUR FIRST WALK ASHOEE. 7 



The impressions received during this first walk can 

 never wholly fade from my mind. After traversing the 

 few streets of tall, gloomy, convent-looking buildings near 

 the port, inhabited chiefly by merchants and shopkeepers, 

 along which idle soldiers, dressed in shabby uniforms, car- 

 rying their muskets carelessly over their arms, priests, 

 negi-esses with red water-jars on their heads, sad-look- 

 ing Indian women carrying their naked children astride 

 on their hips, and other samples of the motley life of 

 the place, were seen, we passed down a long narrow street 

 leading to the suburbs. Beyond this, our road lay 

 across a grassy common into a picturesque lane leading 

 to the virgin forest. The long street was inhabited by 

 the poorer class of the population. The houses were of 

 one story only, and had an irregular and mean appear- 

 ance. The windows were without glass, having, instead, 

 projecting lattice casements. The street was unpaved 

 and inches deep in loose sand. Groups of people were 

 cooling themselves outside their doors : people of 

 all shades in colour of skin, European, Negro and 

 Indian, but chiefly an uncertain mixture of the 

 three. Amongst them were several handsome women, 

 dressed in a slovenly manner, barefoot or shod in 

 loose slippers ; but wearing richly-decorated ear-rings, 

 and around their necks strings of very large gold beads. 

 They had dark expressive eyes, and remarkably rich 

 heads of hair. It was a mere fancy, but I thought 

 the mingled squalor, luxuriance and beauty of these 

 women were pointedly in harmony with the rest of the 

 scene ; so striking, in the view, was the mixture of 

 natural riches and human poverty. The houses were 



