CIIAP. IT. 
EXCURSION INTO THE COUNTRY. 
93 
parallel to tlie coast, we turned towards the interior, and 
passed through a rich and picturesque part of the island, 
different in some respects from the Moka and Plaines Wil¬ 
helms side, but equally beautiful. Our road, bordered by 
large tamarind and other large trees, amongst which was 
the flamboyant, or Poinciana regia , now in full bloom, 
lay through a valley to the northward of Mountain Long, and 
presented on either hand plantations of cane or manioc, with 
the huts of Creoles or Coolies, and the dwellings of planters. 
More distant, the Bay of Tombs lay in placid repose on the 
one hand, and the lofty and singularly formed mountain of 
the Peter Botte on the other. 
The cool morning air, the novel aspects of the scenery, both 
of mountain and plain, combined to render the journey in¬ 
teresting and pleasant, and I was musing on the profusion 
with which the beneficent Creator had diffused over the face 
of nature forms of purity and beauty almost in lavish exu¬ 
berance, when I noticed, at a short distance from the road, 
an Indian woman sitting on the ground amongst the flowers 
of a species of jessamine, growing unenclosed by any fence 
round the door of her straw hut. She held a bunch of the 
sweet flowers in her hand, apparently enjoying their fra¬ 
grance, for she took no notice of our passing; and was perhaps, 
in thought, far away amongst the flowers with which she had 
been familiar in her native country. 
After passing for some distance along a steep descent, we 
reached a stream of water, and alighted; as our carriage 
could proceed no farther. After crossing the brook, we as¬ 
cended by a steep and somewhat circuitous route, until, 
after walking about three-quarters of a mile, we reached 
Grande Donjon, the residence of Mr. Kittery, an Indian 
gentleman. The house with this remarkable name stands 
on a steep pile of basaltic or volcanic rock, rising almost per¬ 
pendicularly from the adjacent valley. The proprietor of the 
