A TRIP TO TRINIDAD. 



395 



employ a truthful and simple expression, in saying 

 that a gourd filled with cocuyos is an ever-lighted 

 torch; and in fact it is only extinguished by the 

 death of the insects which are easily kept alive 

 with a little sugar cane. A lady in Trinidad told 

 us that during a long and painful passage from 

 Costa Firme, she had availed herself of these phos- 

 phorescent insects whenever she wished to give the 

 breast to her child at night. The captain of the 

 ship would not permit any other light on board at 

 night, for fear of the privateers. 



As the breeze continued to freshen, and haul 

 steadily to the northeast, we laid our course so as to 

 clear the Cayman islands, but the current swept us 

 toward them. Steering south quarter east, we soon 

 lost sight of the palm-covered shore, of the hills 

 that rise over Trinidad, and finally of the high 

 mountains of Cuba. There is something impressive 

 in the contemplation of a land which one is leaving, 

 as it sinks, steadily and slowly beneath the horizon 

 of the sea. This impression was increased to us, in 

 its interest and grave import, at this time, when St. 

 Domingo, then the centre of great political agita- 

 tion, threatened to involve the surrounding islands in 

 one of those bloody struggles which demonstrate to 

 man the ferocity of his nature. Happily these 

 fears and menaces were not realized, for the tempest 



