TRADITIONAL LORE. 209 



It has never been my fortune to meet a Scotchman 

 on his native heath, and whether he is improved by 

 being transplanted to another clime, I cannot tell. 

 One thing is indisputable, he could not be more 

 generous, more hospitable, more companionable than 

 are those rare Scotchmen in the West Indies, with 

 especial reference to the managers of those estates in 

 Carib country. As all the estates were owned by one 

 firm, and that firm held that there were no managers 

 so skillful and faithful as their own countrymen, 

 this part of the island was often alluded to as New 

 Caledonia. 



From " Happy Hill," accompanied by its manager 

 and those of adjoining estates, I cantered, on a borrowed 

 pony, down the coast to the Carib settlement. At 

 Rabaca is the celebrated " Dry River " of the eastern 

 coast, which is very broad, and often swept by tor- 

 rents from the mountains. My friends rode with me 

 as far as Overland, a most interesting negro village 

 of wattled huts, built in a thick wood of cocoa-palms 

 and bread-fruits. Here they left me with friendly 

 adieus, and I went on alone. The Soufriere rose 

 grandly from out its surrounding forests, and the 

 great rock, shaped like a lion couchant, near which 

 my cave opened, was sharply cut against the bluest 

 of skies. 



The Carib settlement of Sandy Bay is the most 

 secluded in the island ; it is also the most picturesque ; 

 but, as rocks and wooded hills are the principal ele- 

 ments of a picturesque landscape, I fancy the Caribs 

 isolated here would gladly exchange their portion for 

 the more fertile fields near Rabaca. 



An Indian named Rabaca, a pure Carib, one 



*4 



