Chap. X. THE BOOM. 165 
This is all I had an opportunity of learning of the his- 
tory and present state of St. Thomas— a place which 
has become so conspicuous in the development of unfa- 
vourable opinions as regards colonization in tropical regions. 
Relata refero. 
As we continued to ascend the river the scenery became 
still more beautiful. Lined by thickets of an elegant but 
diminutive species of palm-tree, which might be kept among 
the ornamental plants of a drawing-room, showing on a 
miniature scale all the relative proportions of the most 
characteristic representatives of palmaceae — fringed, still 
higher up, by the gigantic light-green wafts of the bamboo, 
that drop gently over the water's surface, like the downy 
plumes of delicate marabouts — the banks rise some twenty 
or thirty feet above the average height of the river. Fine 
savanas extend on either side, interrupted, in a park-like 
manner, by patches of forest or clusters of trees. Here the 
majestic shafts of the cabbage-palm, representing a natural 
prototype of the Grecian column, and smooth as its marble, 
stand in plastic beauty ; while the Corozo, or Cahoon-nut 
tree, may be considered as the most perfect representative 
of the picturesque in tropical vegetation. With its trunk 
clad in the richest attire of parasitic aroideae, orchideae, or 
bromeliaceae, its feathery leaves bent into elegant curves by 
the weight of their own luxuriance or the burden of orna- 
mental climbers : — this species of palm might be compared 
to a beautiful Indian maiden, such as may have adorned 
the court of the Aztec princes or of the Yncas of Peru. 
At no place, as far as I had an opportunity of seeing 
the country, do these palm-trees unite in composing a more 
delightful scene than in the neighbourhood of what is called 
the Boom. Here they stand, scattered along the smooth 
surface of a beautiful prairie, over which numerous herds 
