WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 125 



filial attention, to remove the settled gloom from 

 his too guilty brow. 



This was not the time for a traveller to enjoy 

 Cayenne. The hospitality of the inhabitants was 

 the same as ever, but they had lost their wonted 

 gaiety in public, and the stranger might read in 

 their countenances, as the recollection of recent 

 humiliations and misfortunes every now and then 

 kept breaking in upon them, that they were still 

 in sorrow for their fallen country : the victorious 

 hostile cannon of Waterloo still sounded in their 

 ears : their Emperor was a prisoner amongst the 

 hideous rocks of St. Helena ; and many a French- 

 man who had fought and bled for France was now 

 amongst them, begging for a little support to pro- 

 long a life which would be forfeited on the parent 

 soil. To add another handful to the cypress and 

 wormwood already scattered amongst these po- 

 lite colonists, they had just received orders from 

 the court of Janeiro to put on deep mourning for 

 six months, and half-mourning for as many more, 

 on account of the death of the Queen of Portugal. 



About a day's journey in the interior is the 

 celebrated national plantation. This spot was 

 judiciously chosen, for it is out of the reach of 

 enemies' cruisers. It is called La Gabrielle. No 

 plantation in the western world can vie with La 

 Gabrielle. Its spices are of the choicest kind ; its 

 soil particularly favourable to them; its arrange- 

 ments beautiful; and its directeur, Monsieur 

 Martin, a botanist of first-rate abilities. This 

 indefatigable naturalist ranged through the East, 

 under a royal commission, in quest of botanical 

 knowledge; and during his stay in the western 



