My companions presumed he was an 'African,' i.e.imported during the times of slavery.

He said No: that he was a Creole, island born; but his father, it appeared, had been in one of our Negro regiments, and had been settled afterwards on a Government grant of land.

Whether his beauty was the result of 'atavism'-- of the reappearance, under the black skin and woolly hair, of some old stain of white blood; or whether, which is more probable, he came of some higher African race; one could not look at him without hopeful surmises as to the possible rise of the Negro, and as to the way in which it will come about--the only way in which any race has permanently risen, as far as I can ascertain; namely, by the appearance among them of sudden sports of nature; individuals of an altogether higher type; such a man as that terrible Daaga, whose story has been told.

If I am any judge of physiognomy, such a man as that, having--what the Negro has not yet had--'la carriere ouverte aux talents,' might raise, not himself merely, but a whole tribe, to an altogether new level in culture and ability.
Just after passing this gang we found, lying by the road, two large snakes, just killed, which I would gladly have preserved had it been possible.

They were, the Negroes told us, 'Dormillons,' or 'Mangrove Cascabel,' a species as yet, I believe, undescribed; and, of course, here considered as very poisonous, owing to their likeness to the true Cascabel, {268} whose deadly fangs are justly dreaded by the Lapo hunter.