suitable to the representation. The scene was generally placed in an
opening of the forest, where such parts of the wood as were penetrable
formed around us numerous arcades of foliage, beneath which we were
sheltered from the heat during the whole day; but when the sun descended
towards the horizon, its rays, broken upon the trunks of the trees,
diverged amongst the shadows of the forest in strong lines of light, which
produced the most sublime effect. Sometimes the whole of its broad disk
appeared at the end of an avenue, spreading one dazzling mass of
brightness. The foliage of the trees, illuminated from beneath by its
saffron beams, glowed with the lustre of the topaz and the emerald. Their
brown and mossy trunks appeared transformed into columns of antique bronze;
and the birds, which had retired in silence to their leafy shades to pass
the night, surprised to see the radiance of a second morning, hailed the
star of day with innumerable carols.

"Night soon overtook us during those rural entertainments; but the purity
of the air, and the mildness of the climate, admitted of our sleeping in
the woods secure from the injuries of the weather, and no less secure from
the molestation of robbers. At our return the following day to our
respective habitations, we found them exactly in the same state in which
they had been left. In this island, which then had no commerce, there was
so much simplicity and good faith, that the doors of several houses were
without a key, and a lock was an object of curiosity to many of the
natives.

"Amidst the luxuriant beauty of this favoured climate, Madame de la Tour
often regretted the quick succession from day to night which takes place
between the tropics, and which deprived her pensive mind of that hour of
twilight, the softened gloom of which is so soothing and sacred to the
feelings of tender melancholy. This regret is expressed in the following