ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 343 



well worth a year of common life to view. Beneath 

 me, in full view, were those six islands discovered by 

 Columbus on that memorable November day in 1493. 

 Far away, east by north, lay Desirade, the first land 

 seen by Columbus on his second voyage, a low, table- 

 surfaced rock. South by east lay Dominica, looking 

 like a glorious vision of cloud-land, the first of the 

 Caribbees at which Columbus touched ; and east, right 

 below, the island of Maricjalante, where first in this 

 archipelago the royal banner of Spain was displayed. 

 I looked down to the eastward, over a sloping plain 

 of verdure, upon forest almost as impenetrable and 

 wide-spreading as on that day, nearly four centuries 

 ago, when it resounded to the blasts of trumpets and 

 the firing of arquebuses. For, the second day of his 

 arrival here, one of the captains of the great admiral's 

 fleet strayed into the forest with some men and was 

 lost. For several days they wandered in trackless 

 forest so dense as almost to exclude the light of day. 

 "Some, who were experienced seamen, climbed the 

 trees to get a sight of the stars by which to govern 

 their course, but the spreading branches and thick 

 foliage shut out all view of the heavens." A party 

 sent in search wearied themselves in wading the many 

 streams, which number, at this day, more than fifty. 



Almost under the cliffs of the volcano lay the 

 Saintes, a cluster of rocky islets discovered on All- 

 Saints' Day. There is a significance and poetic mean- 

 ing attached to every name bestowed by Columbus 

 on these islands, as witness those already mentioned. 

 With but few exceptions, fortunately, they retain his 

 perfect appellations. Away north is the triple crown 

 of Montserrat, and I fancied I could discover the dim 



