332 ha'iti. 



see occasionally specimens which come to us from the 

 neighbouring continent, with the silky flow of hair 

 common in the Spaniel, and the Maltese Dog, those 

 caressed household favourites of Europe, but the best 

 known variety of the Indian Alco is the woolly 

 breed, so much sought after under the appellation of 

 the Mexican Mopsy. It assumes the lanigerous cha- 

 racter, we may suppose, in the colder atmosphere 

 of the mountains of Mexico, — or it may be that it 

 has been mixed with a breed remarkable for a woolly 

 coating found beyond the Rocky Mountains. The 

 Indians are said to spin and work the hair of a dog, 

 along with other woollen materials, into garments. 



"When these Islands first greeted the eyes of their 

 European discoverers, the simple manner of life of 

 the natives, free from toil and disquietude, strangely 

 fascinated them. Existence in these Western Edens 

 seemed like a delicious dream. Their holiday life 

 was a reiteration of luxurious indolence. Under a 

 serene sky and a voluptuous climate, they enjoyed 

 the quietude of home, in which their little dog bore 

 them company and shared their affection with their 

 children. In Yasica, in Eastern Haiti, I found un- 

 changed memorials of the ancient Indians. Peculiar 

 slopes, cut like terraces along the hills of the vale, 

 decidedly artificial, were gardens of the aboriginal 

 inhabitants. The little stockade cottages upon these 

 terraces, surrounded by groves of palms, and trees 

 laden with fruit, and with fences enclosing a court- 

 yard filled with flowering shrubs, had, to my eyes, 

 a character so primitive, and so identical with the 

 life of the Indians, that I could not fail to recur 



