10 



THE TROPICS. 



rounds it on all aides. These hills are indented, apparently, 



by the centurial washing of running waters, until they look 



as if some astringent had been poured over them in their 



days of formation, and corrugated their surface into its 



present shape. They were green, and as I afterwards 



discovered, were cultivated and inhabited to their very 

 summits. 



As we approached the shore, and the vegetation began 

 to reveal itself, I realized, for the first time, that we were 

 within the tropics. We have hot weather at the north, 

 and custom-house officers and negroes — weather as hot, 

 custom-house officers as troublesome, and negroes as black 

 as any I have yet encountered, but I had never before seen 

 the cocoa-nut and the plaintain growing, as I did now. 

 Here, in the depth of winter, orange trees were dropping 

 their fruit, and the bananas were ready to be plucked ; the 

 the lignumvitce tree waved its luxuriant foliage, orna- 

 mented with a delicate blossom of surpassing beauty ; and 

 in the distance, our eyes were directed to the waving sugar 

 fields of the Caymanos, and on the mountains, to the 

 abandoned coffee estates, belonging to the bankrupt Duke 

 of Buckingham. I was most impatient to get on shore, 

 that I might stray into the country and stare the wonders 

 of tropical vegetation full in the face. 



Notwithstanding my impatience, I was compelled to 

 submit to many delays. My largest trunk, which was 



