1894
March 1
Martinique

  Cloudy most of the day with an endless procession
of heavy showers.

  We left Dominica at midnight and reached
Martinique early this morning. The first thing I
saw when I looked out of my port hole was
a curiously shaped little boat about five feet in
length [diagram] and very narrow in which were two
negro boys naked save for a cloth about the loins.
They were diving for coins which our passengers were
throwing over and which they overtook with surprising
ease. One of them swam directly under the
steamer coming up on the other side although
we are now drawing 18 ft.

  Chapman and I went ashore directly after
breakfast and drove directly to the Jardin de Platnas 
where we spent most of the forenoon. The almost
incessant and often very heaving showers interfered
seriously with our photography but I made a series
of mental pictures which should never fade. To describe
them even so feebly and imperfectly is utterly beyond
my favors. As the garden is said to be one of
the most beautiful in the world I was in a
measure prepared for the wonderful variety of
rare and curious trees, shrubs and plants but I
was totally unprepared for the natural beauties of
the place. It is a ravine two or three hundreds
yards wide at the mouth, narrowing to a width
of only three or four rods at the upper and where
a little river which flows through the whole comes