and eels of incredible size, from fifteen to twenty feet long. The two
principal rivers took their rise from this plain, augmenting in their
course by the tribute of an infinity of streamlets; till swollen into bulk
and strength, like two rival monarchs, they ran parallel for a awhile,
trying to outvie each other in pomp and velocity, springing over their
rocky beds. After some distance they separated to the right and left, and
passed through their different districts, to pay, in their turn, tribute
to the mightier ocean."

"We left the lake on our right, skirted the base of _Piton du Milieu_,
over a volcanic soil of pulverized cinders, and, by gentle descents,
proceeded towards the south. Again we were among mountains, passing green
lawns, and marshes overgrown with vitti-vert, (which is used for
thatching,) fern, marsh mallows, waving bamboos, and wild tobacco. We saw
plantations of the manioc, (bread-fruit,) maize, sweet potatoes, the
cotton-tree, the sugar-cane, coffee, and cloves. Then we crossed rocky
channels of clear rippling water, hedged by dwarf oaks and the
dusky-coloured olive, underneath which flourished the dark-green fig-tree,
with its strawberry-red marrowy fruit, bared by the bursting of its
emerald-green rind. Here the majestic palmiste towered grandly alone,
crowned with its first, tardy, and only fruit; and when deprived of that
diadem, like earthly monarchs, it perishes. We penetrated the wild native
woods, where grew the iron-wood tree, the oak, the black cinnamon, the
apple, the acacia, the tamarind, and the nutmeg. Our path was arched by
wild vines, jessamine, and a multitude of deep scarlet-blossomed creepers,
so thickly interlaced in their living cordage, that neither sun nor storm
could penetrate them; or if a wandering beam found entrance through the
thick natural trellice-work, it was only enough to cover some little tuft
of violets or strawberries, its own offspring, growing up in its genial
warmth with a strength and vigour pre-eminent amidst the pale and sickly