OLD HAKBOUE. 299 



THE LIGUANEA MOUNTAINS. 



Early in March, a day's pleasant sailing along the 

 south shore of the island, in a little coasting steamer, 

 carried me to Kingston. The aspect of the country 

 generally, from the sea, is forbidding : very few 

 traces of cultivation are seen ; the harbours are few, 

 and an almost interminable range of dark forest 

 meets the eye, frequently degenerating to low,, 

 scrubby bushes, giving the impression of a very 

 barren soil. This is especially the character of the 

 scenery between the bold abrupt promontory called 

 Pedro Bluff, whose broad front of chalk stands up 

 almost perpendicularly from the sea, and the long 

 peninsula of Portland, on which not a single planta- 

 tion breaks the dismal uniformity of the stunted 

 olive-brown bushes. 



Once past this rugged point, the scene becomes 

 more fair and interesting. We open a broad and 

 deep bay, known as Old Harbour, dotted with beau- 

 tiful islands ; its shores rising up in an amphitheatre 

 of verdant hills, bearing the marks of cultivation and 

 residence. The wide mouth of the bay, about four- 

 teen miles from point to point, is studded thick with 

 little low kays, or rocky islets, breaking the waste of 

 water with their refreshing greenness. This noble 

 bay, when Columbus discovered it, was inhabited by 

 thousands of Indians, the most intelligent and the 

 most civilised of all the aborigines of the Antilles 

 that he had seen. On the largest of these islets, 

 embosomed in the sheltered lake-like harbour, dwelt 



