106 



WANDERINGS IN 



Second 

 Journey. 



Plantation 

 of La Ga- 

 brielle. 



national plantation. This spot was judiciously chosen, 

 for it is out of the reach of enemies' cruisers. It is called 

 La Gabrielle. No plantation in the western world can 

 vie with La Gabrielle. Its spices are of the choicest 

 kind ; its soil particularly favourable to them ; its arrange- 

 ments beautiful ; and its directeur, Monsieur Martin, a 

 botanist of first-rate abilities. This indefatigable natu- 

 ralist ranged through the East, under a royal commission, 

 in quest of botanical knowledge ; and during his stay in 

 the western regions, has sent over to Europe from twenty 

 to twenty-five thousand specimens, in botany and zoology. 

 La Gabrielle is on a far-extending range of woody hills. 

 Figure to yourself a hill in the shape of a bowl reversed, 

 with the buildings on the top of it, and you Avill have an 

 idea of the appearance of La Gabrielle. You approach 

 the house through a noble avenue, five hundred toises 

 long, of the choicest tropical fruit trees, planted with 

 the greatest care and judgment ; and should you chance 

 to stray through it, after sunset, when the clove-trees 

 are in blossom, you would fancy yourself in the Idalian 

 groves, or near the banks of the Nile, where they were 

 burning the finest incense, as the queen of Egypt passed. 



On La Gabrielle there are twenty-two thousand clove- 

 trees in full bearing. They are planted thirty feet asunder. 

 Their lower branches touch the ground. In general the 

 trees are topped at five and twenty feet high ; though 

 you will see some here towering up above sixty. The 



