THE WONDERS OF THE WEST INDIES. I. INTRODUCTORY. It is not surprising, that to the vast continent of America was given the name of the New World, for as one approaches the West India Islands the whole face of nature wears a novel aspect. The winds apparently no longer blow whither they list, but, compelled by a gentle and invisible agency, waft the vessel pleasantly onward to the haven where it would be. For weeks, for months, it blows with very little variation from the same quarter. The sails are filled, and happy is the seaman's path across the ocean when under the influence of this propitious breeze. B Then the flying-fish arrest the attention, soaring for a moment or two from the billows, as if to catch the sunbeams, and bear them down into the waters. How magnificent and peculiar are the mountains! In some parts girdled with forests, in others craggy, and appearing like petrified billows. If so much be visible from the deep, the traveller, on landing, is inclined to feel he must stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. What is the oak-tree of our England when compared with the cedar or mahogany; the gigantic cotton-tree, whose very stem has produced a boat capable of containing more than a hundred persons; or the wild fig-tree, in itself almost a forest, of which Milton thus writes :— "The Fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renowned, High over-arched and echoing walks between." Birds, flowers, insects, all are strangers to us. The brilliant humming-bird, whose wings are as |
