ON A SUGAR ESTATE. 231 



resided on this estate, as manager, for twenty years. 

 In all that time he had been sick but once, though 

 exposed to the morning mists and mid-day sun, and, 

 in the season of crops, sometimes engaged in the mill- 

 house whole nights at a time, without rest. Sur- 

 rounded by a large family of healthy children, who 

 enjoyed without stint the blessings of the delightful 

 climate, my friend reposed in this valley with his flocks 

 and herds in almost patriarchal simplicity. He was a 

 man of educated tastes, and had gathered about him 

 a large and well-selected library, which proved a 

 blessing in the heat of the day, when it was not pos- 

 sible to stir out of doors. 



At that season, January, the sun sinks behind the 

 low ridge that barely hides the sea before six o'clock. 

 Hardly has it given its last wink, and left the valley 

 in cool shade, when the bats come out in large num- 

 bers, taking the place of the swifts of the day-time, 

 who, morning and evening, and after every shower, 

 are skimming the cane-fields and circling swiftly 

 about the trees and buildings. Thus the aerial in- 

 sect world is left without rest from incessant pursuit ; 

 scarcely has one class of enemies departed than an- 

 other comes forward, waging a nocturnal and diurnal 

 warfare that must be very destructive, when carried 

 on with so much vigor and by so many foes. 



One evening my attention was called to some bats, 

 or birds, which appeared only when every trace of 

 twilight had faded, and circled rapidly around an 

 almond tree, either after insects or nuts. After one 

 or two turns, pe'rhaps poising themselves on a twig 

 a few seconds, they would dart off, returning in ten 

 minutes or so to make their circuits about the tree. 



