BEPA.HTURE rnoii TRINIDAD. 199 



The interest of this impression was heighltaed at the periol 

 to which I here advert ; wLcn Saint Domingo was the centre 

 of great political agitations, and threatened to involve the 

 other islands in one of those sanguinary struggles which 

 reveal to man the ferocity of his nature. These threatened 

 dangers were happily averted ; the storm was appeased on 

 the spot which gave it birth ; and a free black population, 

 far from troubling the peace of the neighbouring islands, 

 has made some steps in the progress of civilization, and has 

 promoted the establishment of good institutions. Porto Kico, 

 Cuba, and Jamaica, with 370,000 whites and 885,000 men 

 of colour, surround Hayti, where a population of 900,000 

 negros and mulattos have been emancipated by their own 

 efforts. The negros, .more inclined to cultivate alimentary 

 plants than colonial productions, augment with a rapidity 

 only surpassed by the increase of the population of the 

 United States. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



Passage from Trinidad de Cuba to Rio Sinu. Carthagena. Air Volcanos 

 of Turbaco. Canal of Mahates. 



ON the morning of the 17th of March, we came within 

 sight of the most eastern island of the group of the Lesser 

 Caymans. Comparing the reckoning with the chronometric 

 longitude, I ascertained that the currents had borne us in 

 seventeen hours twenty miles westward. The island is called 

 by the English pilots Cayman-brack, and by the Spanish 

 pilots, Cayman chico oriental. It forms a rocky wall, bare 

 and steep towards the south and south-east. The north and 

 north-west part is low, sandy, and scantily covered with vege- 

 tation. The rock is broken into narrow horizontal ledges. 

 From its whiteness and its proximity to the island of Cuba, 

 I supposed it to be of Jura limestone. We approached the 

 eastern extremity of Cayman-brack within the distance of 

 400 toises. The neighbouring coast is not entirely free 

 from danger and breakers ; yet the temperature of the 

 sea had not sensibly diminished at its surface. The chro- 

 nometer of Louis Berthoud gave me 82 7' 37' for the longi- 



