CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
—_<—_— 
CHAPTER I. 
DOMINICA. 
THE MYSTERIOUS OCEAN CURRENT. — DOMINICA AND COLUM- 
BUS.— ROSEAU AND ANTHONY TROLLOPE. — A WEST-INDIAN 
TOWN. — INTRODUCTION TO TROPICAL SCENES.— THE MOUN- 
TAINS. — THE FIRST CAMP. 
LONG the entire group of the Caribbee Isles, 
sweeping their western shores, flows a strange, 
mysterious current. Not subject, apparently, to the 
laws that govern the winds and tides of this region, 
it for years puzzled and baffled the ablest navigators 
and oldest sailors. Among the northernmost of these 
islands large ships were often sunk, carried by the 
force of this unseen and unsuspected stream upon 
sunken reefs or barren rocks. Even so long-ago as 
when Columbus was making his voyages, we have 
on record that he was detained by this very current 
among these same islands. 
It was not known until a comparatively recent 
period that it was the outflow of a mighty river—no 
less than the great Orinoco—that caused all this dis- 
turbance of waters, and that dependent upon its dif- 
