18 
Georgetown and My Countrymen 
tropical sky is all foreign to them. It was long before we could turn 
away from the charming picture, which changed with every second while 
fresh attractions and new surprises showed up with every peep, whether 
we took it near or far, over the breadth of the ocean, or across the ex- 
tensive plains of the coast-line. Hardly had we left the Lighthouse 
Tower than we heard the question “Qu’est-ce-que-dit?” repeatedly asked 
us from out of the neighbouring palms and foliage trees. In wonder and 
surprise we turned to look for the inquisitive fellow, at first however in 
vain, until we finally found him to be a yellowish bird about the size of 
a thrush, that must have been continually plagued with the most violent 
curiosity, for it renewed its enquiries without cessation. It was the 
Tyrannus sulphvratus Vieill., the “Qu’est-ce-que-dit” of the Colonists. 
To be or wish to be a Stoic, would have been impossible to-day, because 
every step brought something new to claim the whole of my interest and 
curiosity, so that at last I seemed to be like the boy from the country 
visiting the big city for the first time, when lie finds his fairy fancy- 
pictures far and away surpassed by the brilliant shop-fronts, and the 
everlasting scurry, hurry and hustle of the inhabitants. 
65. The streets through which we roamed were broad and intersect- 
ed with spacious canals, while the wooden houses, rarely more than two 
storeys high, that stretched along them, were shaded by a row of palms 
( Areca oleracea or Cocos nucifera ) : with few exceptions a garden en- 
closed each one, which was divided off from its neighbours by a canal or 
ditch. Nature, the ever-labouring mindful mother was the one and 
only gardener to have a free hand in almost all these grounds, though I 
also found several which were not only very tastefully planned but were 
kept in regulated cultivation by the ruling and attentive hand of Man. 
Nice and prettily-winding paths, bordered with the most glorious Orange- 
trees richly overladen with their golden fruit; Erythrinas; big bushes 
of flourishing "Oleander on pleasant verdant lawns; many a Jasmine, 
Clerodendrum , Ixora, Poinciana, Bauliinia, Quassia, Melia, Gardenia, 
Punica, Iusticia, Hibiscus rosa sinensis and chinensis overstrewn with 
their large red blossoms; Centifolias and Monthly Roses, which with 
the scorching climate had assumed a burnt colour; Balsams that grew 
like huge shrubs; Passion Flowers, Clitorias and Bignonias, the stems, 
branches and twigs of which had changed into floating garden-plots — 
everything reminded me that I was treading the land of Plenty, the land 
of Mighty Vegetation. Negroes with heavy loads on their heads, accom- 
panied by little boys and girls likewise securely balancing a bottle or 
basket with glass-ware in similar fashion, mulattoes of all shades of 
colour, carts with jarring wheels dragged by panting mules, all hurried 
and scurried past me in such bewildering confusion that what with all 
this disturbance, my attention was at last completely lost upon any one 
particular object until it found itself centred once more upon a negress 
who was carrying upon her head a bucket full of crystalline material. 
I could not satisfy myself that the stuff was really pure ice before touch- 
ing it, and a voice close by, “By God, pure Ice!” expressed the sensations 
which the surprise, still obvious, had aroused in me. “Ice, bv God, pure 
Ice!” Agreeably shocked T turned round and behind me stood a vigorous 
young fellow whose good-natured astonishment immediately indicated 
he was German, My greeting of “Good morning, countryman!” almost 
