ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 343 
well worth a year of common life to view. Beneath 
me, in full view, were those six islands discovered by 
Columbus on that memorable November day in 1493. 
Far away, east by north, lay Désirade, the first land 
seen by Columbus on his second voyage, a low, table- 
surfaced rock. South by east lay Dominica, looking 
like a glorious vision of cloud-land, the first of the 
Caribbees at which Columbus touched; and east, right 
below, the island of Marigalante, where first in this 
archipelago the royal banner of Spain was displayed. 
I looked down to the eastward, over a sloping plain 
of verdure, upon forest almost as impenetrable and 
wide-spreading as on that day, nearly four centuries 
ago, when it resounded to the blasts of trumpets and 
the firing of arquebuses. For, the second day of his 
arrival here, one of the captains of the great admiral’s 
fleet strayed into the forest with some men and was 
lost. For several days they wandered in trackless 
forest so dense as almost to exclude the light of day. 
“Some, who were experienced seamen, climbed the 
trees to get a sight of the stars by which to govern 
their course, but the spreading branches and thick 
foliage shut out all view of the heavens.” A party 
sent in search wearied themselves in wading the many 
streams, which number, at this day, more than fifty. 
Almost under the cliffs of the volcano lay the 
Saintes, a cluster of rocky islets discovered on All- 
Saints’ Day. There is a significance and poetic mean- 
ing attached to every name bestowed by Columbus 
on these islands, as witness those already mentioned. 
With but few exceptions, fortunately, they retain his 
perfect appellations. Away north is the triple crown 
of Montserrat, and I fancied I could discover the dim 
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