ST. VINCENT. 
37 
were but scantily realised, for the panorama which unfolded itself as the ship steamed up the 
qhannel between St. Antonio and St. Vincent was one for which we were hardly prepared. The 
islands seen in the morning resolved themselves into a chaotic mass of bare rocks and 
precipitous cliffs—in fact, confused heaps of volcanic rocks, mud, and ashes, without apparently 
the least trace of vegetation. At the inner extremity of a bay, the entrance to which is marked 
by a pyramidal rock, we noticed the masts of shipping, and behind them a cluster of red-roofed 
houses with whitened walls : this was Porto Grande, the well-known coaling station of St. 
Vincent, and port of call for steamers bound for the Cape of Good Hope and South America. 
The town consists of a custom-house, a coaling depbt, a town-hall—nearly completed at the time 
of our visit—a church, a military barrack, a few inns and shops, the residences of officials, and a 
few streets composed of the simple dwellings of the negroes. The latter are a strong race, with 
dark-brown complexion and occasionally pleasant features. The men are chiefly employed on 
the coaling wharf and barges ; the women, some of them tall and good- 
looking, are for ever gathered in chattering groups about the wells, and, 
though poorly clad, are never without earrings and necklaces. As they 
carry their large water-jars upon their head, they walk perfectly upright, 
and their large eyes and well-shaped arms and wrists remind one of 
the female figures on the walls of the temples of Egypt. Sometimes a 
mother may be seen reposing on a mattress laid down on the shady 
side of the street, while her dark-skinned babes, unencumbered with 
garments, are playing about her. The boys congregate on the landing-stage, ever ready 
to dive for a copper, and with such dexterity that the coin has hardly time to reach 
the bottom before it is triumphantly seized between the teeth of the victorious plunger; 
or at times stroll along the beach, armed with a stone to hurl at some unwary crab. 
Barren and desolate as appeared the hills which enclose the bay, the prospect seen 
from the ship was not without its peculiar beauty. At sunrise their wild and fantastic crests 
would stand out sharply defined upon the cloudless morning sky; at sunset their red and 
grey flanks would present the most exquisite gradations of tints, from the delicate purple 
of the distant mountain to the rich warm colour of the red hills overlooking the town. The 
lofty eminence behind Porto Grande is called the “ Green Mountain,” owing to a faint 
tinge of vegetation visible at a distance, and due to the moisture distilled by the clouds 
which the trade-wind piles up upon the eastern slopes of the island. On the south side of 
the bay rises Mount Washington, so named on account of a supposed resemblance in the 
profile of this time-worn range to the face of the illustrious republican. Upon the precipitous 
sides of this mountain, absolutely destitute of water and vegetation, perished one who had 
been sent out from England to join H.M.S. “Challenger” at this point. He was to have 
filled the place of the schoolmaster whose death occurred so suddenly on the day of our arrival 
at Bermudas. He had gone out for a walk over these sunburnt hills, whence he never 
returned. Long after, his remains were found in the direction of Mount Washington ; but 
the immediate cause of his untimely death has never been ascertained. 
