i6 
ROCKHAMPTON 
CHAP, i 
evening were invited out to dinner. The men were 
especially requested not to put on dress clothes, and 
they looked delightfully cool in their short, white shell 
jackets and cummerbunds. Mrs. D., our hostess, who 
was a good musician, played to us, and before the even- 
ing ended we had planned a visit to Habana, the next 
plantation. It is a dry and healthy heat at this time 
of the year, and not too cold to sit all the evening on 
the verandah. There I amuse myself often by catching 
night moths. Attracted by the light of the lamps, 
they come fluttering in against the window panes in 
dozens. Butterflies here, too, are most brilliant. One, 
a great, velvety black and green beauty, is six inches 
across, another blue, purple and green — in fact, every 
colour of the rainbow ; but the variety here is endless. 
There, too, we count the wretched flying foxes as they 
pass by to rob the peach trees, and we listen to the 
songs of night-birds : and then to sleep to the sound of 
ever-rushing water. 
