FOURTH JOURNEY. 237 



Politicians of other countries imagine that intestine 

 feuds will cause a division in this commonwealth ; at 

 present there certainly appears to be no reason for such 

 a conjecture. Heaven forbid that it should happen. 

 The world at large would suffer by it. For ages yet to 

 come, may this great commonwealth continue to be the 

 United States of North America ! 



The sun was now within a week or two of passing 

 into the southern hemisphere, and the mornings and 

 evenings were too cold to be comfortable. I embarked 

 for the island of Antigua, with the intention 

 ^ ca lli n g a * the different islands in the 

 Caribbean sea, on my way once more towards 

 the wilds of Guiana. 



We were thirty days in making Antigua, and thanked 

 Providence for ordering us so long a passage. A tre- 

 mendous gale of wind, approaching to a hurricane, 

 had done much damage in the West Indies. Had our 

 passage been of ordinary length, we should inevitably 

 have been caught in the gale. 



St. John's is the capital of Antigua. In 



St. John's. . r 



better times it may have had its gaieties and 

 amusements : at present, it appears sad and woe-begone. 

 The houses, which are chiefly of wood, seem as if they 

 have not had a coat of paint for many years ; the streets 

 are uneven and ill-paved ; and as the stranger wanders 

 through them, he might fancy that they would afford a 

 congenial promenade to the man who is about to take 

 his last leave of surrounding worldly misery, before he 

 hangs himself. 



There had been no rain for some time, so that the 

 parched and barren pastures near the town might, with 

 great truth, be called Eosinante's own. The mules 



