across the room; and being somewhat fatigued, and satisfied that no reptile could reach him in his secure position, he soon fell into a sound sleep. His precaution, however, did not preserve him. It happened that one of these venomous animals was actually concealed in the chamber; and, having succeeded in getting up the wall, it coiled itself round the rope, slid down into the hammock, where it gave the unfortunate officer a bite of which he expired the following day. Here I will bring this chapter to a conclusion, convinced, as I am, that my readers, like all good huntsmen, will be satisfied with being in at the death. CHAPTER XIX. ISLAND OF ST. LUCIA. "He gives a brief description of the place, CASTRIES, which is the capital of St. Lucia, is one of the dirtiest looking holes I ever witnessed; my short stay did not permit me to see, and therefore I cannot describe the houses of public note therein contained. I landed on the wharf, and those along the Carenage presented the general appearance of West India buildings. My first ride was to the garrison, an excursion which, under the favor of heaven, I will never repeat. It is a jaunt only fit for such as love to risk their bones, and even their important necks, where there is no reasonable motive for so doing. Don Quixote himself would have paused ere he ascended that mountain, even to the assistance of a damsel in distress. Therefore, reader, unto the respectable and sure footed horse, belonging to some good-natured individual, whose name I wis not, that carried me in safety to the top, and brought me in safety to the bottom of the said steep declivity of zigzag memory, I did render my most hearty thanks, M * adding thereunto the more acceptable offering of a bundle of green guinea-grass, for which I paid ten dogs to a certain venerable and delightful looking personage of sable hue; who, when I dismounted, advanced towards me with the aforementioned bundle on his head, and an indescribable grin upon his countenance. This was "the dogs going to the horses," and not in accordance with Cruikshank's famous caricature, which displays "the horses going to the dogs." The accommodations for the troops at St. Lucia are by no means good; yet the barracks for the men are better than those allotted to the officers. Indeed, neither are the officers of the line, nor those on the staff at St. Lucia provided with the roomy and convenient quarters which they ought to have on so unhealthy and disagreeable a station. Officers seldom like to carry their wives and children to such a spot as this; and, indeed, they go thither themselves rather with the hope than the expectation of returning. There is, therefore, very little society among the military, and not much more in the town. The island of St. Lucia was originally a French colony, and remained such to a very late period in every thing but the name. The inhabitants were of the Catholic religion, and the officiating priests were neither enlightened nor liberal, but rather continued to oppose any thing like the commencement (for I may not say the advancement of what was not * A coin used in the West Indies. begun) of education and Christian knowledge. The language spoken in the garrison, was hardly known in the town, where the people were all French, and where the customs, the principles, and the manners were French also. There was no island legislature, and the powers of the governor were only limited by the authorities in England. A change for the better has been effected in this island, since the arrival of the Bishop, through whose influence a church has been erected, schools opened, and a clergyman of the Protestant religion sent thither. Thus the sun of education is beginning to rise; and there is no doubt but that its rays, as they diffuse more widely, will be productive of the most beneficial effects. It is a great pity that another language should be predominant in an island belonging to the English; and a still greater one, that so little intercourse should subsist between the British and French inhabitants. Every effort should be made to find a gradual remedy for this important evil. Something should be done. to give an English aspect to the colony, and to render its inhabitants attached to, and contented with the British dominion. Protestant schools may do this among the less wealthy classes of people, who will perhaps prefer seeing their children educated in these, to seeing them without any education at all; but they will not affect those whose property enables them to send their children, for their education, to France, where they imbibe feelings and principles, foreign to the interests of Great Britain; and learn to hope that their island may eventually revert to the possession of the French. The Bishop has made a commencement that promises well; and provided his zealous and praise-worthy exertions are supported, by the encouragement of a mild and conciliating, yet firm and enterprising governor, there is no doubt but that the condition of St. Lucia will be materially changed for the better, and that those who have improved it, when reflecting on the superstitious bigotry, the pitiable ignorance, and the foreign influence that once prevailed, will be able to say with Molière "Nous avons changé tout cela." The soil of St. Lucia is good, and the island is capable of much more cultivation than is at present visible perhaps such a circumstance would tend to render it more healthy; at present I can only compare it to Sierra Leone. It is, indeed, not quite so bad as that detestable place, but heaven knows it is bad enough. There are always deaths among the Europeans; and the greater number of those who go there, either return with their health injured, and their constitutions broken; or, what is still worse, never return at all. Of course there are a few sturdy fellows on whom the climate has little or no effect, but then every rule has its exceptions. The remains of old eruptions evidently prove that some of the mountains of St. Lucia are, or rather were, volcanic. The island also contains several |