198 CRUSOE'S ISLAND. 



ou which the house was perched being some two 

 hundred feet in height, and with low ridges radiat- 

 ing in all directions from it to circumferential hills. 

 Straight down to the sea, a mile away, ran a road, 

 lined on both sides wdth the huts of the laborers, 

 with a stray palm here and there and a long row 

 near the beach, which evidenced the former existence 

 of that overarching avenue, of which its former 

 owner so proudly wrote, over one hundred years 

 ago, when this estate was called the " Louis d'Or," 

 and the slaves were counted by hundreds. Great 

 fields of cane were on every side, with varying tints 

 of gold, and through them ran a river from the 

 mountains, the hills above being cultivated to their 

 very tops. Thousands of cocoa trees lined the beach, 

 and a small drogher was lading with nuts, to be taken 

 to Barbados. 



The distance to my destination was not great, but 

 the time consumed in getting there was usually two 

 days, and to cover it the manager loaned me a mule, 

 while Thomas Ned awaited my return at the planta- 

 tion. My object was to view the southern end of the 

 island, where the outlook was over toward Trinidad, 

 as that was an important piece of evidence in favor 

 of this being the one-time residence of Robinson 

 Crusoe. The manager assured me that it was just as 

 related in the book, and that I might as well save 

 myself the journey, for he himself had been inter- 

 ested in the subject, and had made his own observa- 

 tions, which confirmed the statement of Crusoe in 

 every particular. 



