130 
DOTTING® ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. IX.—B. S. 
porty belonging to the company. At that time, i.e. in 
May, 1866 , there was hut little house-room at St. 
Domingo, the fine buildings now to be found there 
having hardly been commenced, and nearly all the 
officers and the family of the manager were obliged to 
live in a small house, not a hundredth part so good as 
an ordinary English stable. In the room in which I 
was invited to sleep, eight other gentlemen took their 
nightly repose, as well as their daily meals, hammocks 
being slung one over the other. There were no chairs 
as yet, but a long table, used in the daytime for dining 
and writing, at night as a bedstead, stood alongside 
one of the walls. A small window, the open door, 
and numerous crevices, admitted light and air, and 
allowed the escape of smoke which from the back 
kitchen penetrated into the apartment. Yet this 
house, with all its drawbacks, was a great improve¬ 
ment upon the native dwellings, and one really expe¬ 
rienced a feeling of comfort, odd as it may sound, 
creeping over one on entering this commencement of a 
European settlement. Everything was being done to 
improve upon the existing state of things; and every 
day some articles were made or arrived from home 
which contributed towards the comfort of the em¬ 
ployes of the company. 
On the day when the first chairs had made their 
appearance, two Englishwomen arrived, who were 
to take up their abode in the mines. I was stand¬ 
ing at the door, and never shall forget their utter de¬ 
jection when to their question how far St. Domingo, 
the head-quarters of the Chontales Company, was from 
