256 BLUEFIELDS. 



little creature in the island ; but Mr. Lewin informed 

 me some months afterwards, that a second individual 

 had been found in his house. There is a specimen 

 in the British Museum, marked as Brazilian ; it is 

 curious that so feeble a reptile should be so widely 

 spread. It may, however, have been accidentally 

 introduced into one of these localities, with goods or 

 passengers' baggage ; the more readily, as like its 

 congeners, it is an inhabitant of houses. 



BEAUTY OF NEGRO VILLAGES. 



One cannot look on a little negro hamlet without 

 being struck with its extreme picturesqueness. The 

 peasants who commonly labour on the same estate 

 usually have their huts congregated together, not by 

 the side of a high road, but retired into some secluded 

 nook, approachable through a narrow winding path. 

 You might pass within a stone's throw of the village, 

 and hardly be aware of its existence, except by the 

 hogs which scamper away on the sight of a stranger 

 into the bush, or the poultry that strut and pick 

 about the vicinity. This love of seclusion is almost 

 invariable, and is no doubt a habit inherited from 

 " slavery-time," when it was an object to keep the 

 domestic economy as much out of the way of 

 Buckra as possible. If you purposely seek the 

 collection of cabins, you will probably have some 

 difficulty in threading the maze of Pinguins into 

 which the original fence has spread. This plant 

 {Bromelia jpinguin) is very commonly cultivated as a 



