ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 327 
the wonderful Carzés, of whom he had heard so much 
in Hispaniola. The account he gave of their neat 
villages, of the finding here of the fragment of a 
vessel, and the first pine-apple, is extremely interest- 
ing, as are all descriptions of first things, or the 
discovery of things previously unknown, to us~of the 
present day. 
And this coast, which | later saw in all its grandeur 
of lofty cliffs and towering mountains, in its loveliness 
of curving bays and palm-bordered beaches, this 
coast was right abeam, hidden behind the impene- 
trable wall of night. A second time I sought a land- 
ing on Guadeloupe shore before daylight. We sailed 
into the roadstead of Basse Terre, on the open sea at 
the southern end of the island. Darkness covered 
everything ; a few cocks’ commenced crowing, a few 
lights gleamed out. At five, a gun boomed out from 
the fort, and the cathedral bell commenced at once, 
as if from the vibration, tolling for early mass. Day- 
light crawled slowly in and revealed the open market 
by the landing, already crowded with people, the 
noise of whose wrangling had reached us long since. 
Basse Terre is the seat of government of Guade- 
loupe, as Fort de France is that of Martinique. Like 
Fort de France, also, it is chosen by these far-seeing 
Frenchmen as the dépét of government property, that 
other towns, like that of Point 4 Pitre, and St. Pierre 
of Martinique, may not, by their superior advantages 
for commerce and trade, draw all the population 
thither. To this end, the distribution of wealth, 
and the better cultivation of the soil, the French 
have covered both their islands with roads, in striking 
contrast to the rough bridle-paths of the English 
