GRENADA AND THE GRENADINES. 247 



Indians were confined in the small island of Balli- 

 ceaux. 



The island in which they were prisoners was low 

 and dry, without a tree large enough to shelter them 

 from the sun ; a few miles distant, full in sight, was 

 the island of Bequia, six times theirs in size, with high 

 hills covered with green forests. To them it was as 

 Paradise ; they longed for its breezy hills, sighed for 

 the cool shade of its trees, but sighed in vain. De- 

 prived of their canoes, of houses, of material for con- 

 structing more than slight shelter, these poor people 

 lay gasping beneath a tropic sun, gazing at the misty 

 mountains of their native island and the green slopes 

 of Bequia, without a possibility of reaching either. 

 All about them the blackbirds sang praises of the dis- 

 tant island : " Bequia sweet, sweet, Bequia sweet." 

 Though St. Vincent is but ten miles distant, the black- 

 bird is never seen there, affording but one of many 

 peculiarities in the distribution of animals throughout 

 these islands. 



The natives of the Grenadines display a love for 

 their islands not easily understood by a resident of 

 more fertile and more attractive lands. I can under- 

 stand this, but can hardly explain it. There is a feel- 

 ing born of the isolation, of the very barrenness of the 

 land, of the loneliness of an island, that attracts one 

 to it, especially if one there had his birth and passed 

 his earlier years. 



We steamed out of Kingston Bay and down along 

 the lovely Grenadines. Their appearance is that of 

 a nearly submerged line of mountains. Sometimes a 

 whole ridge is exposed ; again, a conical peak or 

 a mound of green just appears above the water. 



