The mighty palm in the centre of Gordon Square had a neat railing round it, as befitted the Palladium of the village.

Behind the houses, among the stumps of huge trees, maize and cassava, pigeon- peas and sweet potatoes, fattened in the sun, on ground which till then had been shrouded by vegetation a hundred feet thick; and as we sat at the head man's house, with French and English prints upon the walls, and drank beer from a Chinese shop, and looked out upon the loyal, thriving little settlement, I envied the two young men who could say, 'At least, we have not lived in vain; for we have made this out of the primeval forest.' Then on again.

'We mounted' (I quote now from the notes of one to whom the existence of the settlement was due) 'to the crest of the hills, and had a noble view southwards, looking over the rich mass of dark wood, flecked here and there with a scarlet stain of Bois Immortelle, to the great sea of bright green sugar cultivation in the Naparimas, studded by white works and villages, and backed far off by a hazy line of forest, out of which rose the peaks of the Moruga Mountains.

More to the west lay San Fernando hill, the calm gulf, and the coast toward La Brea and Cedros melting into mist.

M--- thought we should get a better view of the northern mountains by riding up to old Nicano's house; so we went thither, under the cacao rich with yellow and purple pods.