38 SAVANNA-LE-MAR. 



season, as now, liable every day to be flooded, each 

 a foaming torrent of muddy water rushing and froth- 

 ing into the great mangrove morass that environs the 

 town. Most of the houses are shops, or stores as 

 they are called in American fashion ; each store, 

 whatever the character of its merchandize, — shoes, 

 drapery, " dry-goods," " hard-ware," spirits, tobacco, 

 provisions, or what not, — fitted up in the same 

 manner, with an open piazza in front, three or four 

 yards wide, in which the various goods are exposed, 

 and in which the owner may commonly be seen with 

 a friend or customer, seated on chairs, the feet often 

 on another chair (this too in American fashion) dis- 

 cussing the amenities of a cigar or a glass of " malt." 

 Behind the piazza is the shop, with unglazed win- 

 dov/s, through which communication freely takes 

 place to the clerks and shopmen inside ; this is fitted 

 up with counters and shelves, rather more in English 

 style. Above, the ceiling of the piazza being sup- 

 ported, on the street line, by one or two slender 

 pillars, are the rooms of the dwelling-house, or else 

 balconies ; in either case furnished with jalousies, 

 or strong Venetian blinds, which admit light and air 

 from beneath, excluding the sun's rays ; or can be 

 entirely closed. Towards the upper end of the long 

 street the shops cease, the houses become more 

 elegant, each inclosed in a court or garden, often 

 adorned with the beautiful or fragrant blossoming 

 trees and plants of the island, or such as unite fruit 

 with beauty and shade. Of the former the scarlet 

 Cordia, the noble Agave, and the Oleander or South 

 Sea Rose, both beautiful and odorous, are great 



