the botanist with employment, and an observatory erected on one of the peaks would enable the astronomer to trace the various movements of the heavenly bodies which roll through the ethereal vault. Their extensive circles would insensibly expand the mind while engaged in contemplation, and lead the pious soul to adore that Power which communicated motion to their enormous bodies."

The magnificent natural scenery of the Grand Etang had led the doctor into rhapsodies, and he has enumerated a number of advantages attendant on a residence in that rural spot, which, I think, few of my readers, if they had seen the place, would ever have dreamt of.

In the first place, the varieties of vegetation which he says would furnish the botanist with employment, at present only expel the rays of the sun, and nourish gnats, insects, and mosquitos in myriads; things which have just sense enough to pick out the most delicate spot on the face of a white intruder into their regions, and thereon to fix themselves, and fly away, leaving behind them the memory of a bite which is little short of purgatory. Secondly, were an observatory to be erected on any one of the peaks near the Grand Etang, it would assuredly be blown down by the first September gale; so that its owner, instead of surveying the bodies which "roll in the ethereal vault," would have a chance of rolling himself down a mighty precipice of some two hundred feet deep, and deposited, telescope and all, into a vault by no means ethereal.

Thirdly, unless the gentleman were a catholic, he might not like to live on wild pigeons and fresh water fish; and it would be impossible to get any other provision nearer than Georgetown.

With these considerations, Heaven forfend that I should be condemned to drag on a botanical or astronomical existence among the forests of the Grand Etang. No, no; I have better hopes and fairer prospects of happiness; and much as I admire the beauty of its lakes, the grandeur of its woody mountains, and the awful sublimity of its precipices, yet I give a dearer preference to the valleys of my native land; above all for the vale where Laura is living in her purity; where the jessamine, the honeysuckle, and the rose are climbing over the cottage of my beloved.

Here there is an endless summer, and the flowers bloom without fading, and the trees are not deprived of their foliage. Season after season the earth pours forth her treasures and the same orb that shines upon the frozen waters of a colder region is ripening the fruits of the tropics; but what is all this to the heart of an exile? how can I enjoy them without Laura, my own, my beautiful, my betrothed?

I go where the aspens quiver,

And I take my wild guitar;

But the music of the zephyrs
To me is dearer far.

The sweet, soft tones you lov'd to hear

Have lost their sweetness now;

And the only voice I welcome

Is the whisper-Where art thou?

CHAPTER LVI.

COLORED PEOPLE.

"The free mulattoes in the West Indies would naturally incline rather to the side which elevates, than to that which degrades them in society: they are an obvious bulwark of defence to the whites against the blacks."

Coleridge.

"Grenada is honorably distinguished among the Antilles for its liberal treatment of the colored classes of the inhabitants."

Ibid.

I SEE no just cause or impediment why my readers should not now be brought to the consideration of the characters and customs of a class of people, which, though essentially differing from the white and black inhabitants of the tropic islands, are, nevertheless, the connecting link which binds them together, and the barrier of defence to the former. I speak of the free colored people, who form so large a portion of the population of the Antilles, but whose value in many of the islands, from the prevalence of prejudice, has not been appreciated as it deserves.

From the black to the white there are so many gradations of color, that I should never have been able to present them before my readers, had not some good man, whose name I wis not, been kind enough to draw the marks of distinction to a nicety. "A

samboe," says he, " is the nearest remove from black, being the child of a mulatto father and negro woman, or vice versa; a mulatto is the child of a white man by a negress; a quadroon is the offspring of a white man and a mulatto mother; the child of a quadroon by a white man is a mustee; the child of a white man by a mustee woman is a mustiphini; the child of a mustiphini by a white father is a quintroon; and the child of a quintroon by a white woman is free by law."

Among all these names, hard to pronounce and harder to remember, the samboe or mongrel, as it is oftener called, the mulatto and the mustee, are the only distinctions between the black and white that really pass current, though more have been defined; and the whole posse of grades, which, as the reader perceives, is somewhat formidable, may be easily comprised in the one simple appellation of colored people.

In describing them it may be well to give the ladies the precedence, and I may perhaps gain some favor among them by enumerating the personal charms which have captivated, in their day, the hearts of English, Irish, and Scotch, but more especially of the latter.

If I accord the palm of female beauty to the ladies of color, I do not at the same time deteriorate the attractions of the fairer creoles; the stately and graceful demeanor which calls upon us to admire the one, does not forbid us to be fascinated by the modest loveliness of the other; yet I will acknowledge that

I prefer the complexion that is tinged, if not too darkly, with all the richness of the olive, to the face which, however fair in its paleness, can never look as lovely as when it wore the rose-blush of beauty which has faded away.

I know no prettier scene than a group of young and handsome colored girls taking their evening walk, along the moonlit avenues of mountain cabbage trees, which are generally found in the vicinity of the West India towns. They are extremely fond of dress, and make their toilet with much taste and extravagance.

A sort of many colored turban is twisted gracefully about their heads; their dresses of spotless silk or muslin, are fastened with a flowing sash of ribbon, of the brightest hue (for nearly all of them are fond of dashing colors); their pretty ancles are ornamented with gay sandals, tied over le bas de soie blanc, and the tout ensemble is adorned with bracelets, and broaches, and earrings, which only doubloons can procure, but which they cannot resist buying, parce qu'elles sont si jolies.

I do not, however, think their love of dress would yield to their love of pleasure, for though the climate inclines them (and every body else) to be lazy and languishing to a miracle, yet they have a high flow of spirits, and a natural liveliness of disposition, which enables them to dance and play and romp and enjoy themselves with as much gaiety of heart as their fairer sisters on the hills of Albion.

With all this they have much to answer for, for I