OUR FIRST WALK ASHORE 



5 



Indian women carrying their naked children astride on 

 their hips, and other samples of the motley life of the 

 place, we passed down a long narrow street leading to 

 the suburbs. Beyond this, our road lay across a grassy 

 common into a picturesque lane leading to the virgin 

 forest. The long street was inhabited by the poorer 

 class of the population. The houses were of one story 

 only, and had an irregular and mean appearance. The 

 windows were without glass, having, instead, projecting 

 lattice casements. The street was unpaved and inches 

 deep in loose sand. Groups of people were cooling them- 

 selves outside their doors : people of all shades in colour 

 of skin, European, Negro and Indian, but chiefly an un- 

 certain mixture of the three. Amongst them were several 

 handsome women, dressed in a slovenly manner, barefoot 

 or shod in loose slippers ; but wearing richly-decorated 

 ear-rings, and around their necks strings of very large 

 gold beads. They had dark expressive eyes, and remark- 

 ably rich heads of hair. It was a mere fancy, but I thought 

 the mingled squalor, luxuriance and beauty of these 

 women were pointedly in harmony with the rest of the 

 scene ; so striking, in the view, was the mixture of natural 

 riches and human poverty. The houses were mostly in 

 a dilapidated condition, and signs of indolence and 

 neglect were everywhere visible. The wooden palings 

 which surrounded the w^eed-grown gardens were strewn 

 about, broken ; and hogs, goats and ill-fed poultry, 

 wandered in and out through the gaps. But amidst all, 

 and compensating every defect, rose the overpowering 

 beauty of the vegetation. The massive dark crowns of 

 shady mangos were seen everywhere amongst the dwellings, 

 amidst fragrant blossoming orange, lemon, and many 

 other tropical fruit trees ; some in flower, others in fruit, 

 at varying stages of ripeness. Here and there, shooting 

 above the more dome-like and sombre trees, were the 

 smooth columnar stems of palms, bearing aloft their 

 magnificent crowns of finely-cut fronds. Amongst the 

 latter the slim assai-palm was especially noticeable ; 

 growing in groups of four or five ; its smooth, gently- 

 curving stem, twenty to thirty feet high, terminating in 

 a head of feather}^ foliage, inexpressibly light and elegant 

 in outline. On the boughs of the taller and more ordinary- 

 looking trees sat tufts of curiously-leaved parasites. 

 Slender woody lianas hung in festoons from the branches, 



