GRENADA AND THE GRENADINES. 244 
Indians were confined in the small island of Balli- 
ceaux. 
The island in which they were prisoners was low 
and dry, without a tree large enough to shelter them 
from the sun; a few miles distant, full in sight, was 
the island of Bequia, six times theirs in size, with high 
hills covered with green forests. To them it was as 
Paradise; they longed for its breezy hills, sighed for 
the cool shade of #ts trees, but sighed in vain. De- 
_ prived of their canoes, of houses, of material for con- 
structing more than slight shelter, these poor people 
lay gasping beneath a tropic sun, gazing at the misty 
mountains of their native island and the green slopes 
of Bequia, without a possibility of reaching either. 
All about them the blackbirds sang praises of the dis- 
tant island: “Bequia sweet, sweet, Bequia sweet.” 
Though St. Vincent is but ten miles distant, the black- 
bird is never seen there, affording but one of many 
peculiarities in the distribution of animals throughout 
these islands. . 
The natives of the Grenadines display a love for 
their islands not easily understood by a resident of 
more fertile and more attractive lands. I can under- 
stand this, but can hardly explain it. There is a feel- 
ing born of the isolation, of the very barrenness of the 
land, of the loneliness of an island, that attracts one 
to it, especially if one there had his birth and passed 
his earlier years. 
We steamed out of Kingston Bay and down along 
the lovely Grenadines. Their appearance is that of 
a nearly submerged line of mountains. Sometimes a 
whole ridge is exposed; again, a conical peak or 
a mound of green just appears above the water. 
