318 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
remains, with solid towering rocks on one side, and 
bowlders above and below, as in the days of her who 
once blessed it with her presence. 
It must have been somewhere on this very path, if 
not within a gunshot of this same bathing-pool, that 
Josephine met the Sibyl who prophesied so truly her 
future fate: “ You will be married soon; that union 
will not be happy; you will become a widow, and 
then — then you will be Queen of France!” 
It is not difficult to imagine her here again, sporting, 
dancing, along the bank of this rocky stream. From 
her own pen we have a glimpse of her at that period, 
one hundred years ago: “I ran, I jumped, I danced, 
from morning to night. Why restrain the wild move- 
ments of my childhood? ” 
And this maiden, who graced in later life the salons 
of an emperor, who lives in the memory of the peo- 
ple as a creation of our own generation, this “lovely 
creole,” passed the happiest days of her existence 
here ; roamed over these very hills, danced along these 
self-same valleys; gazed perhaps upon this same silk- 
cotton that rears its towering crown above me now! 
One hundred years ago! 
Leaving the river, we climbed the hills tothe west 
and began our search for birds. Above a tangled 
mass of thorny acacia hovered a tiny humming-bird, 
with slender beak and pointed helmet, darting at the 
spicy blossoms of an unknown vine; gold and silver 
was he in the sunshine. The little gem dropped into 
the thicket, with quivering wings that never again 
would bear their owner upward. Quickly my little 
companion darted forward to tear the vines apart to 
get at the bird which lay upon the ground beneath. 
