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naments, — that involuntarily led the remembrance 

 to the household life of the meek and innocent race 

 that once peopled them. The peculiar trees that 

 shadowed their dwellings, — the calabash that supplied 

 them with drinking bowls ; the starry caymite ; the 

 russet nispero ; the golden maraiion, the anacardium ; 

 the guanabana ; theanona; the rose-apple ; theguava; 

 the aguacate ; the mammea ; the orange ; the cirucla; 

 the maimon ; the tamarind ; the pine-apple, fruits 

 that made part of their simple repast, were all grow- 

 ing, blossoming, and bearing, amid groves of palm. 

 The nightingale * sings there, and the colibri visits 

 the bowers at noonday, — but the people that sat 

 beneath their shadows, where are they ? Their cot- 

 tages are in the village — the upright boards of the 

 palma real, braced with the unhewn hardwood and 

 tied with stems of bejuco, and covered with sheaths 

 of jagua, are the same sort of huts they inhabited. 

 The very hamac that swings there is theirs, but 

 another race are dwellers within them. The glitter- 

 ing palaces of the Spaniard are crumbled to dust — 

 earthquakes have buried them, and revolutions des- 

 troyed them. The golden dreams have faded. The 

 anticipated future has deceived the avarice of kings 

 and the venality of nobles. The empire conferred 

 by the high-styled vicegerent of God is passed away. 

 All has been cheated, — the cupidity of ambition, 

 and the eagerness of power. Nothing remains but 

 the sheltered hut and the shadowy garden, — the 



* The Mocking-bird ( Mimus polyglottus) is so called in the An- 

 tilles. 



