4 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
me that what I proposed was not only useless, but 
impossible. 
Struggle against the current of the mighty Orinoco ! 
Attempt to baffle the wiles of a power unseen, that 
always had acted in just such a manner, and had 
carried him over the same course every voyage he 
had made! It would be preposterous! At night, the 
land-breeze would come down from the mountains, 
and he would claw in-shore without any trouble what- 
ever. 
Late in the afternoon, however, we descried a speck 
dancing on the waves, which speck was, of course, a 
boat; and in that boat, when it reached us, I engaged 
passage for the shore, my unhappy companions drift- 
ing about until the next afternoon, sometimes in sight, 
sometimes lost to view for a long time. As we neared 
shore I had time to examine the character of the 
scenery of the western coast, as one object after 
another was unfolded, and the mass of green and 
blue resolved itself into wooded hills, narrow valleys, 
and misty mountain-tops that reached the clouds. A 
planter’s house gleamed white in a valley; a pebbly 
beach stretched between high bluffs, with a grove 
of cocoa palms half hiding a village of rude cabins 
along its border. 
I was approaching an island of historic interest and 
scenic beauty, of which the events of one and the 
elements of the other are little known to the world at 
large. It is the first island upon which Columbus 
landed on his second voyage. Having been first seen 
on Sunday, it was called by him Domznica, and this 
event dates from the 3d of November; 1493. Blest 
isle of the Sabbath day! Many changes has it known 
