4 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



me that what I proposed was not only useless, but 

 impossible. 



Struggle against the current of the mighty Orinoco ! 

 Attempt to baffle the wiles of a power unseen, that 

 always had acted in just such a manner, and had 

 carried him over the same course every voyage he 

 had made ! It would be preposterous ! At night, the 

 land-breeze would come down from the mountains, 

 and he would claw in-shore without any trouble what- 

 ever. 



Late in the afternoon, however, we descried a speck 

 dancing on the waves, which speck was, of course, a 

 boat ; and in that boat, when it reached us, I engaged 

 passage for the shore, my unhappy companions drift- 

 ing about until the next afternoon, sometimes in sight, 

 sometimes lost to view for a long time. As we neared 

 shore I had time to examine the character of the 

 scenery of the western coast, as one object after 

 another was unfolded, and the mass of green and 

 blue resolved itself into wooded hills, narrow valleys, 

 and misty mountain-tops that readied the -clouds. A 

 planter's house gleamed white in a valley ; a pebbly 

 beach stretched between high bluffs, with a grove 

 of cocoa palms half hiding a village of rude cabins 

 along its border. 



I was approaching an island of historic interest and 

 scenic beauty, of which the events of one and the 

 elements of the other are little known to the world at 

 large. It is the first island upon which Columbus 

 landed on his second voyage. Having been first seen 

 on Sunday, it was called by him Dominica, and this 

 event dates from the 3d of November, 1493. Blest 

 isle of the Sabbath day ! Many changes has it known 



