Tropics and Snows. A record of travel and adventure ... Illustrated by Miss Clare Burton, etc

Preface

— ♦ — The author's acknowledgments are clue to the proprietors of The Field, Land and Water, and The Asian, in which publications some of the matter contained in the folloAving pages has appeared. Junior Army and Navy Club, St. James's Street, Sept. 1898. CONTENTS

Chapter I Jamaica Pagk

Voyage of the Moselle — The Azores — Rough Weather — Fatal Accident — A Derelict — Fellow-passengers — Sombrero — The Cradle of our Sea-power — A Procession of Heroes — Rodney's Victor}- — Nelson — The Spaniards — Buccaneers and Pirates — Henry Morgan — Jamaica Riots — St. Thomas — A Waterspout — Puerto Rico — Haiti and San Domingo — Fires on the Island — Tortuga — Port-au-Prince — A Blood stained History — Cannibalism — Unfitness of Blacks for Self-government — Jamaica — Fort Augusta — Port Royal — The Panama Canal — Kingston — Up Park Camp — The West India Regiments — Newcastle — The Blue Mountains — Fauna of Jamaica — Game Birds — Spanishtown — Johnny Crow — Other Birds — Rock Fort — Oysters growing on Trees — Sharks — Vendor of Curiosities ..... 1

Chapter II Barbados

Voyage of the Don — Jacmel — St. Lucia and St. Vincent — Barbados — Physical Features of the Island — Climate — Denizens of tlie Deep— An Alligator— Bridgetown— The Ice-House— St. Anns Barracks— Behaviour of the Troops —Sir Charles Pearson— Hastings Rocks— The Negroes- Mulattoes— The Sugar Trade — Abolition of Slavery- Hurricanes— Earthquakes— The Winds of God — Sport on the Island — Indigenous Birds — Migratory Birds- Fishing— Voyage to England 21

Chapter III The Punjab

Voyage of the Rohilla — Bangalore — Multan — Country and Climate — The City— Murder of two English Officers— CONTENTS X PAGE Quail-shooting — Grey Cranes — The Chenab — On the March — Shershah — Crossing the River— Ships ofthe Desert — A Dreary Country — Dera din Pana— Leia — Suleiman Mountains— Duck - shooting— The Indus— Dera Ismael Khan— Sheik Budin— A Mirage — The Kurrum River— Wild-fowl at Narang Serai— Bunnoo— Frontier Robbers— Kohat— The Commander-in-Chief— The Kohat Pass — Peshawar — Climate— Fruit Gardens— The City— The Jhelum Salt Ran£e— Sport on the Cabul River— Sport near Aimal Chabutra — Chamkanni — Extremes of Heat and Cold— Rawal Pindi— Murree— View from the Moun tains—Fort Jamrud— A Dust Storm— The Khyber Pass- Colonel Warburton— Historic Ground— Ali Masjid— The Afridis— Landi Kotal— Frontier Warfare— Ferozepore— Native Method of shooting Antelope— Sport on the Sutlej River — Great Bag of Wild Geese — Crocodiles . ' . • 33

Chapter IV Kashmir

Journey to Kashmir — Road to Kohala — The Jhelum River — The Happy Valley— The Wular Lake— March up the Mountains — Camp in the Snow — An Avalanche — Moonlight March — Valley of the Kishengunga — Gurais — Ibex — View from a Mountain Pass — Prom Tilail — The Satai Nullah — Bear shot in the Zadgai — Red Bears — Sheep-killing Bear — Bear missed — Keen Scent of Bears — Two Bears seen — Another Bear — Ibex chased by Ounce — Mist on the Mountains — A Mountain Tarn — A Cunning Musk-deer — Four Bears seen — In the Clouds — Snow-leopards . 56

Chapter V

Kashmir — (continued) Charge and Death of a Bear — Ferocity of Bears — Jackal killed by an Ounce — One Bear killed, another missed — Bad Luck — Bear and Cubs sighted — Desperate Climb — Death of two Bears — Bear in a Sheepfold — The Heights above Bernai — A Herd of Ibex — A Bear killed — Night in a Cave — Return to Gurais — Musk-deer — More Bears — Length of Red Bears — Return to the Valley — Black Bear shot at Mullingaon — The Lolab Valley — Voyage to Srinagar— The Venice of the East — Bridges in Srinagar — Horrible Slums — Kashmiris — The Chenar Bagh — Flight of Importunate Merchants — The Dal Lake — Life in a House-boat — Unsuccessful Search for Black Bears — Colonisation of Kashmir — Mountain Villa"es — The Preservation of Game — Return to India ... CONTENTS XI

Chapter VI Berar

Geography and History of the Province— The Mahrattas— The rA0E Korkus— Malarial Fever— The Hyderabad Contingent- Climate of Berar— Education in India— The Satpura Hills- Game in the Satpuras — Fauna of Berar— Ellichpur — Scor pions and Snakes— Chikalda— Gawilgarh — Extract from Wellington's Despatches— Muktagiri— Antelope-shooting — Great Bustard— Wolves— Man-eating Pack of Wolves— Gazelle-shooting — Barking Deer — Four-horned Antelope — A Jungle Pool 88

Chapter VII

berar — (continued) Wild Dogs — Panthers near Ellichpur — Habits of Panthers — Methods of shooting them — Death of a Panther — Mode of killing Prey — Man-eating Panthers — A Midnight Vigil — Panther Cub — A Wounded Tigress — Expedition to the Melghat Forest — Charge of a Bear — Death of a Bear and Cub — A Fierce She-Bear — Lesser Civet Cat — Panther shot — Bear visits my Camp — Two Bison shot — Ratels — Bear killed — Panther in the Camp — Wild Dog shot — Watch for a Panther — Eclipse of the Moon — Night Shooting — Bison killed by Tiger — Sand-grouse Shooting — Duck at Darberi Pardis — Cruelty of Natives — Voyage of the Crocodile. . 105

Chapter VIII Journey To Russia

— MOSCOW Return from Exile — Dead Sea Fruit — Voyage of the Guadalquivir — Marseilles — Stromboli — Scylla and Charybdis — Etna — The Gulf of Salamis — Quarantine — The Rock of Xerxes — The Acropolis — Quarantine Island — Fellow-passengers — Piræus — Collision with a Greek Vessel — Athens — Visit to the Acropolis — The Areopagus — Stormy Weather — Smyrna — The Dardanelles — The Sea of Marmora — The Golden Horn — Constantinople — The Mosque of St. Sophia — The Bazaar — Pera and Stamboul — The Hall of the Thousand and One Columns — The Bosphorus — The Black Sea — The Isle of Serpents — Odessa — Journey to Moscow — The White City — Life in a Russian Family — Winter in Moscow — The Kremlin — The Belfry of Ivan the Great — The Palace of Arms — The Great Bell — Theatres — Beggars — Skating — The Streets of Moscow — Country Life — The Sparrow Hills — Passports — Entry of Alexander in. — Police Precautions — Plot against the Tzar — Murder of a Nihilist — Student Revolutionists CONTENTS XII PAGE

Chapter IX White Russia

— RUSSIAN LITERATURE Visit to White Russia— Borodino— Smolensk — Journey in a Sleigh — A Russian Country House — Bieshenkovichy — The Grand Army — Ostrovno — A Centenarian — The Coming of Napoleon — A Russian Estate — The River Dvina — A Drive to the Forest — A Forest Hut — Hunt for Bears — Freedom in Russia — The Jews in Russia — Return to Moscow — The Russian Language — Russian Fictional Literature — Pessimism in Literature — The Press Censor — Characteristics of Russian Fiction — Translations — Dostoevski — Tolstoi — Poushkin the Poet — Lermontoff, his Life and Tragic Death — Turgenev — Gogol — His Description of the Dnieper — Korolenko — The Censorship of the Press — Suppression of Newspapers — Persecution of Turgenev — Effects of the Censorship 145

Chapter X Nijni-novgorod And The Volcia

Travelling in Russia — Strategical Railways — Hotels — Journey to Nijni-Novgorod — Description of the Market — Tartars — Caucasian Wares— Russian Methods of Dealing— The Town of Nijni-Novgorod — Voyage on a River Steamer — Burning of a Steamer — Sad Death of a Russian General — Tragedy aud Comedy — Navigation on the Volga — Scenery — The Djiguli Hills— Moonlight on the Volga— A Solitary Waste — Kazan — Characteristics of the Russian People — Tartars of the Golden Horde— Rafts— Samara— Bandits on the Volga — The Alexandrovski Bridge — Steamer on the Shoals — Saratoff — A Gloomy Hotel — Museum — Tzaritzin — Steppes— A Howling Wilderness— Astrakhan— Fisheries — Fruit — Locusts — Armenians and Persians — Breaking up of the Ice on the Volga ig5

Chapter XI Superstition And Civilisation In Russia

Superstition among the Peasants— Bacon on Superstition— The Iberian Madonna— Tlie Russian Clergy— Popular Rumours —Strange Stories— A Wicked Witch— Story of the Three Chanticleers — The Russian Peasant — Drunkenness — Strange Marriage Custom— Want of Energy among the Russians— Siberia— Sakhalin— Horrors of the Penal Settlement—Barbarous Act of Superstitious Peasantry— Cholera Riots at Saratoff— Corrupt Administration— Stoppage of the Tzar's Train— Fear of Officials . . . CONTENTS XIII 228

Chapter XII The Cossacks In War Tage

Origin of the Cossacks — 1812 — Degeneration and Dragooning — Characteristics of the Cossacks — Inspection by Tzar Nicholas — Russian Press on the Cossacks — Method of rais ing a Regiment — The Hetman Denisoff — Organisation, Equipment, and Training — Cossack Boyhood — The Cossack Lava — The Venter — Action at Corelichy — The Golden Epoch of Cossack History — Frays and Forays — Cossacks in Fiction — Action with the Tartars in 1774 — Crossing Rivers — Attack on a Polish Position — The Lava in action against the Turks — Operations against the French . . . .196

Chapter XIII Hingoli And Panther-shooting

Hingoli — The Road to Cantonment — The Hot "Weather at Hingoli — A Shady Garden — The Khair River — Small Game — Wild-fowl Shooting — Green Pigeons — Panthers — Singhi Ghaut — Dacoits — Panther shot by Night — Bear killed — Ahnd Trackers— Panther killed at Oundha— Two Panthers shot at Gadalla— Panther on the Puma River— Put to Hight by Wild Bees — Unwillingness of Natives to give Information — A Stern Chase— Panther killed— To the Purna River again — Panther killed with Buckshot — Poona — March to Beder— Beder City and Fort— Fish swallowing Snake and Snipe 212

Chapter XIV Bison-shooting

The Melghat revisited— Drive of One hundred and twenty Miles— Narnala Fort— Camp at Pirkhera— Jungle Sounds —Fine Prospect— A Bull Bison— Wild Dogs— A Herd of Bison— Death of the Bull— A Tigress— A Midnight Vigil The Construction of a Machan — Animal Life at Sunset — Night in the Jungle— Reflections— A Bison by Night- Dawn— Leopard and Hyena— Hyena killed— On the Track of the Bull— Wounded and Lost — A Jet-black Bull— Another Bison— Wounded— On the Blood-trail— Sambhur —A Family of Bears

Chapter XV Tiger-shooting

Expedition after Tigers— Decrease of Game— Habitat of Animals —Nature of the Tiger— The Dangers of Tiger-shooting— CONTENTS XIV rAOE 245 274 Wounded Tigers— The Mahore Jungles— Virgin Ground- Camp at Kupti— My Shikaris— Bhima the Bhil— Work of Shikaris— Nuttoo Shikari— Chunder— The Pein Gunga— Haunts of Tigers— Sheik Farid's Ziarat— A necessary Ceremony— A Midnight Tragedy— Death of a Tigress- Tiger killed in Chichkora— Tigers and Porcupines— A Hindu Shrine — Denizens of the Jungle — Sacrifices to the Jungle Gods— Blue Bull shot— Tiger killed in the Dili Nullah— Spotted Deer— The Charm of the Jungle— The Voices of the Forest— Cunning Tigers— Ganeshpur— An Empty Beat — Escape of a Tiger near Lhona — Sunstroke- Tigress in the Beat— The Tiger again — Marked down — Death of the Lhona Tiger— March to Dhygaon— Tiger shot at C Tiger wounded at Pipri — Panther killed — Following a wounded Tiger — Move to Burgaon — A Canni bal Tiger — Recalled to Hingoli ......

Chapter XVI

tiger-shooting — (continued) March to Jaina — Wild Cat and Pea-fowl — Blue Bull killed — The Lake of Lonar — Jaina — Aurungabad — Dowlatabad — Rosa — Ellora — Spearing a Panther — Return to Hingoli — Expedition after Tigers in 1896 — Old Haunts — Ceremony at the Ziarat — Tigress shot, and Panther missed — Lhona — Examining Kills — Fine Tiger killed at Lhona — Heathen Rites — March to Dhygaon — Wild Dog shot — Cholera — Run after a Tigress — Bear killed — Tigress and Cubs — Spearing a Cobra — At Burgaon again — Telingi Beaters — Tigress escapes — Beat for the Tigress — Flight of the Burghers of Burgaon — Tigress killed by Sepoys — Behaviour of Beaters — Return to Dhygaon — Hunt for the Patoda Tiger — The K River — Death of a Tiger and Tigress— The Patoda Tiger killed— His Stronghold— Tigress stalked and shot at Lhona — Buffalo mauled by Tigress — Tigers killing Bears .

Chapter XVII Wild Animals

— THE LAND OF THE GONDS Bolarum — Shamiapett — Sunset on the Lake — Panthers near Bolarum — Magistrate's Work — Oriental Veracity — Crime at Hingoli — Panthers and Small Game — Four Days' Shooting — Run after a Bear — Bear missed — Bear killed, and Cubs caught — Death of Man-eating Tiger — Bear shot She- Bear killed — Tiger and Tigress — Escape of a Tigress Bear wounded — Fierce Animals — Panther attacks a Man Officers killed by Wild Beasts— The Land of the Gonds CONTENTS XV PAGE 313 Habits of the Gonds — Description of their Country — Timidity of Aborigines — Indru the Gond — A Terra Incog nita — Bad Water — Untruthfulness of the Gonds — Super stitions — The Gond Rajah — Reputed Man-eater — Abori ginal Hunters — The Rajah's Domain — A Jungle Elysium — Native Officials — Narrow Escape of the Rajah — Gond Customs aud Superstitions — The Tiger God — Famine and Drought — Jubilee Rejoicings 292

Chapter XVIII Tiger-shooting

Expedition after Tigers in 1897 — Camp at Kupti again — Effect of Drought — A Useless Beat — Tigress in Chichkora — Narrow Escape of Nuttoo — Spotted Deer-shooting — Tigress shot above Lhona — Empty Beat — Eluding the Forest Guards — A Tiger killed — Young Panther shot — Death of a Tigress — Horse attacked by Colic — Tiger killed above C Tigers in the K River — Camp at S ■ — Ten Blank Days — Lakes, Game, and Wild-fowl — Tigress shot — I miss a Tigress — A Fruitless Night Watch — Death of a Tiger — Tiger shot at K ■ — Gond Women and Tiger — A Cunning Tigress — March across the Mountains — Old Tiger and Tigress killed — Another Tigress shot — Tiger killed at S Our Last Tiger — Game Preservation — The killing of Tiger Cubs — The Length of Tigers

Chapter XIX

A MONTH IN NORWAY Voyage to Europe — Brindisi — Naples — Pompeii — Rome — Voyage to Norway — Travelling in Norway — Bergen — The Sogn Fjord — Vadheini — Sande — The Viks Lake — Trout in Norway — A Fisherman's Cottage — Norwegian Hotels — Langeland — Ferde Hafstadt — Timber in Norway — Nedre Vasenden — A Land of no Night — The Jolster Lake and River — Voyage to Skei — The Great Jolster Glacier — Fishing at Skei — The Bredheim Lake — Sombre Scenery — Absence of Fauna— Great Lake Trout— "Otters"— The Sandals Lake— The Red River— A Wonderful Valley- Remnants of the Glacial Epoch — Moraines — Red — Return Journey — Character of the Norwegians .... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE A Trophy of the Chase Frontispiece On the Coast of Barbados 20 A Herd of Ibex 60 Himalayan Bear and Cubs 73 Panther and Kill 107 A Russian Troika 150 Cossacks 196 Chunder and Nuttoo, Shikaris 253 A Tiger in the Beat 280 Black Bear and Cubs 296 The Rajah's Domain ........ 307 One of our Buffaloes was killed 328 TEOPICS AND SNOWS

Chapter I Jamaica

Voyage of the Moselle— The Azores— Rough Weather— Fatal Accident — A Derelict — Fellow-Passengers — Sombrero — The Cradle of our Sea-power — A Procession of Heroes — Rodney's Victory— Nelson — The Spaniards — Buccaneers and Pirates — Henry Morgan — Jamaica Riots — St. Thomas — A Waterspout — Puerto Rico— Haiti and San Domingo — Fires on the Island — Tortuga — Port-au- Prince — A bloodstained History — Cannibalism — Unfitness of Blacks for Self-government — Jamaica — Fort Augusta — Port Royal — The Panama Canal — Kingston — Up Park Camp — The West India Regiments — Newcastle — The Blue Mountains — Fauna of Jamaica — Game Birds — Spanishtown — Johnny Crow — Other Birds — Rock Fort — Oysters growing on Trees — Sharks — Vendor of Curiosities. On the 2nd April 1885 I left England for the first time, having embarked on board the Moselle at Southampton, bound for Jamaica, where the corps to which I had been posted, the 1st West India Regiment, was stationed.

Our ship was perhaps the finest of a fine line of steamers, the Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, and was as comfortable and luxurious as the most fastidious traveller could desire. This vessel was some years afterwards totally wrecked off the coast of South America— I believe near Colon. There had been heavy storms for some time previous to our departure, and we came in for the edge of a hurricane ; but after a few days of very rough weather we fortunately passed beyond the Azores into calm and unruffled seas. The storm had, however, claimed a victim ; for one of the stewards lost his footing during its progress, and, falling down a hatchway, fractured his skull, and was killed on the spot. During the early part of our voyage we saw many evidences of the late storm, in the shape of broken spars and other wreckage, among which the dis masted hull of a small derelict schooner especially attracted our attention.

Our steamer slackened speed on nearing the wreck, but it was evidently deserted, and there was no sign of life on board; the boats were gone, so it was hoped that the crew might have escaped in them. My fellow -passengers were not altogether in teresting. They comprised a Jamaica planter, who was rather too fond of cocktails ; a dockyard official, who also required an "eye-opener" every morning before breakfast ; a mining engineer, bound for Peru ; a youth just escaped from school, who was going to the United States of Colombia with the hope of making a fortune in the silver mines ; and four yellow Mexican boys returning to Vera Cruz from school in England. There was also a German doctor engaged on a scientific mission to Cuba, who was much struck with the beauty of the ebony belles of St. Thomas.

After passing the Azores no land was seen for JAMAICA 3 ten days, when the small island of Sombrero, so called from its shape, was sighted. It is but a barren rock, sometimes temporarily inhabited by fishermen from the neighbouring islands ; but the sight of even such land was welcomed as a break in the monotony of an uneventful voyage, when the principal amusement consisted in watching the fiying-fish, and catching with improvised grapnels the seaweed brought from the Sargasso Sea by the current of the Gulf Stream. We were now well within the historic waters of the Caribbean Sea, the cradle of the sea power of Great Britain. Looking back through the mist of time on the splendid and romantic history of the past, a ghostly procession of mighty men passes before the mind's eye — an array of heroes who contributed so much to the building up of that great empire on which the sun never sets.

There were Frobisher and Raleigh and Drake, and crowds of buccaneers — pirates and patriots — the men who humbled the power of Spain on these seas, who took her galleons ancl ravaged her colonies, thus establishing in the fair islands of the Caribbean Sea the basis of the British Empire. Following these great men, other giants appear in the kaleidoscope of history, and many shadow shapes, pale phantoms of the past, come and go — Rodney, who, by the utter destruction of the French fleet on 12th April 1782, ensured the ascendency of Great Britain in these islands, once the brightest jewels in the British crown, but now, alas ! from various causes, fallen from their high estate. Then Nelson and Collingwood passed across these seas again and again, and finally sailed hence to gain the culminating victory of Trafalgar, which, although resulting in the death of the greatest of England's sons, contributed so much towards the downfall of Napoleon, and the successful issue of the struggle of Europe against his domination.

But there is another side to the picture. First came the Spaniards, with their iniquitous inquisition and other methods of conversion, by means of which they converted the harmless Caribs off the face of the earth. They brought fire and sword in their train. I know not if they also brought rum, or its equivalent in those days, as do our modern mission aries in other parts of the world, where they appear to be the forerunners of a similar conversion or extinction. After the Spaniards followed the buccaneers and pirates, Spanish, French, and English, who held high revel at Port Royal, where also the gallows trees bore a heavy crop of human fruit. Nor must we forget Henry Morgan, buccaneer and patriot, who captured Panama and governed Jamaica. And to finish the dark page of history, in modern times happened the unfortunate Jamaica riots — a sad story, more of mistake than crime, ending in the shameful death of the insurgent Gordon, and the consequent disgrace of the hapless Eyre.

But enough of history. On the morning of 15th April we entered the beautiful little harbour of St. Thomas, our first anchorage, and lay-to about a quarter of a mile from the shore. The harbour is almost landlocked, and consequently provides a safe refuge from the storms that sometimes rage in this part of the Atlantic ; for the wind may blow ever so JAMAICA 5 fiercely without, but the waves beat in vain against the lofty rocks, standing like sentinels over the harbour, within which reigns eternal calm. The town of St. Thomas is picturesquely built on the slope of a mountain, stretching down to the low, sandy shore ; the white houses, nestling among feathery palm-trees and deep green bananas, look very pretty with their red roofs and green jalousies. The ship was no sooner at anchor than it was surrounded by a yelling crowd of negroes, some plying their boats for hire to take the passengers ashore ; others offering fruit, vegetables, curiosities, and various other articles for sale ; whilst diving boys, in defiance of sharks, performed feats rival ling even those of the Somalis at Aden.

After being fought for by a struggling mass of boatmen, some of us succeeded in getting into a dinghy, and were pulled to the shore by the lusty blacks. Having a few hours to spare, we proceeded to the market-place, where sugar-cane, mangoes, plantains, cocoanuts, and other tropical fruits were exposed for sale. Then we went to the icediouse, where sherry-cobblers and other American drinks were dispensed ; but on the whole there was little of interest to be seen. St. Thomas was at this time a port of call for the steamers of the Royal Mail Company, where mails and passengers were tran shipped for some of the other islands, and for Demerara ; but this route has since been abandoned, and Barbados is now the port of call. It was noticeable that the greater part of the trade of St. Thomas appeared to be in English hands, although the island is a Danish possession.

Shortly after leaving the harbour we observed a great waterspout in the distance, but it was visible only for a few seconds. Rising from the sea like a pillar of dark cloud, the tall column of water joined the ocean to the vault of heaven, stood wavering for some seconds, and then, suddenly collapsing, melted away in the waste of waters. At night some mild excitement was obtained in watching the revolving light of Puerto Rico, for even such an insignificant incident is of sufficient interest to break the monotony of life on board ship. On the lGth April, soon after sunrise, we sighted the shores of Hispaniola, the island containing the black republics of Haiti and San Domingo. At first the sierras appeared dimly blue in the morning mist, but as we approached the mountains became clearer, the mist disappeared, and the tall rocks, although some miles distant, seemed to stand close ahead in the deep blue waters of the Caribbean Sea.

The hills, rising from fertile plains, green savannahs, and miasmatic swamps, were clothed with mahogany, ebony, and other trees. Down the valleys rushed foaming torrents, now lost to view in dark gorges and thick brushwood, anon reappearing, and leaping from height to height, until they sped away to water thc stretching plains below, where they disappeared in the luxuriance of the tropical vegetation. The rocky cliffs stood up on a stretch of golden sand, fringed with lines of palm-trees. At night the vessel steamed along close inshore, and a scorching wind, hot as a blast from Hades, was borne towards us across the phosphorescent waves. The mountains loomed black against the starlit sky, and innumer- JAMAICA 7 able fires burned amid their rocky fastnesses. In all directions there blazed the mysterious flames ; perhaps they were kindled in honour of Mumbo Jumbo and Obi, the gods of the heathen, for the people are given to idolatry, and are fast relapsing into barbarism.

Perchance the natives were cooking some of their own kind, for they are said to be, in some parts, addicted to cannibalism. We were, however, too far off to distinguish any odour of burnt flesh. No scent, save that of the tropic woods with their fragrant spices, was wafted towards us from the rocky shore of Hispaniola ; no sound was heard, save the ceaseless breaking of the surf on the adjacent shore. Morning broke, and found us still steaming along the coast. We passed through a narrow channel, between Haiti and the small island of Tortuga. The latter was in former times a great stronghold of the buccaneers, who used to collect their ill-gotten spoil for concealment on this island, where, tradition says, some treasure still lies hidden. During the whole day we passed along this coast, with its strips of sand fringed with palm-trees and cactus.

A varied landscape presented itself to our view. Wild forest-clad mountains rose tier upon tier in theatral majesty ; green savannahs, covered with long prairie grass, stretched like an undulating sea of emerald, in the midst of which appeared here and there a village, or a small patch of cultivation. In the early morning of the third day from St. Thomas we entered a long, narrow bay, the Bight of Leogane, an arm of the sea, whose unruffled waters were crimsoned by the rays of the rising sun. On either side were the usual sandy shores and cocoanut palms, whilst above rose bush-covered mountains, sloping gently to the sand. Passing some small mangrove-covered islands, on one of which stood an insignificant stone fort, we anchored at the head of the bay, not far from the Haitian navy, which consisted of one small man-of-war.

In a hollow in front of us, between two hills, lay the town of Port-au-Prince, a long, crowded city, formed of ruined huts and squalid habitations, relieved here and there by some tall church spire or public building, appearing curiously incongruous amid the surroundings. I was unable to land here, and, after staying about an hour, we left the bay, and coasted along that seemingly peaceful shore — so peaceful, so still, that the silent woods seemed to be wrapped in everlasting slumber. Yet these woods often resound with the clash of arms, for an interne cine struggle frequently rages, and those deep forests and green savannahs have often been incarnadined with blood. It is a sad contrast — the beauty of the land, and its unfortunate and bloodstained history — a history that proves how unfitted the negro is for self-government.

These two black republics of Haiti ancl San Domingo formerly belonged to France and Spain respectively. Many years ago thc blacks rose and massacred the whites. Now the negroes o-overn the country after their own fashion, and the whites are the down-trodden race— a curious reversal of the usual order of things. But the republics, begun with savage bloodshed, have not prospered, and JAMAICA 9 the government of this island is a blot on the face of creation. The inhabitants are barbarians and idolaters, with a thin veneer of civilisation and Christianity. They have relapsed into the practice of African heathen rites, which include human sacrifices and cannibalism. Such crimes are perpe trated with impunity in Haiti and San Domingo. Such is this fair land, one of the most beautiful islands of the earth, gifted by nature with all things, where the only wild beasts that haunt the forests are those in human form.

The negroes are not improved by freedom, but rather are liable to drift back into the black depths of barbarism, from which they have scarcely emerged. o Those who would attempt to govern black people in the same manner as the white would do well to pause and study the bloodstained history of Hispaniola, and glance at that island as it now is. Government should be adapted to the characteristics of a race, and its methods should be varied accord ingly. It is no use attempting to apply a consti tution like that of England either to the East or the West Indies. History has proved that both the negroes and the natives of India are unfit to govern themselves. They must be ruled, and, when necessary, ruled with an iron hand. At daybreak on 19th April, seventeen days after leaving Southampton, we sighted Jamaica, and at eight o'clock in the morning the guu announced our arrival outside the wharf at Kingston.