A PICT U.KESQUE VOYAGE.* "How would you like to go

to the Caribbean Islands?"

said an individual whom Mr. Paton mentions only as ." the Doctor," to the author of the truly delightful book of travel before us. To be asked such a question just before noon, and to find one's self actually en route for the original Cannibal Islands—the islands of Columbus's discovery, whose "King" lives with King Cole in perpetual memory—at four o'clock, was as prompt a proceeding as could be desired by the Young Rapid of A Cure for the Heartache himself. The steamship Barracouta ' sailed from New York on her five weeks' voyage in cold and storm, but in three days got into such glorious weather that the travellers had only to bask in sunshine and watch the beautiful seabirds, of whose ways and manners, after the crossing of "the river in the ocean" (Gulf Stream), Mr. Paton gives a charming account :--

"When the stormy gulls forsook us," he says, "we were taken under the protection of other seafowl, called by sailors'bo'suns,' from the fancied resemblance of their long tail-feathers to marlin- spikes, but known to landsmen as man-o'-war birds, of all winged creatures the most graceful, flying so easily, wafted with so little effort from wave to cloud that one is never tired of watching them, for ever circling and poising in mid-air. These attendant spirits accompanied us for days, until we reached the Caribbean Islands, and thence, when we were northward bound, escorted us back again to that place between the sea and sky where they had first taken us into their care and keeping."

The Americans, who do not bind themselves to our nomen-

clature, call Caribbean that series among the West Indian islands which to the north includes the Virgin Islands, and to the south terminates with Trinidad : these were the formerly

dimly-known specks in the vast space alluded to in the once familiar lines that related how— "Some got shot and some got hanged, and some, beyond the seas, Got scraped to death with oyster-shells among the Caribbees."

Mr. Paton is not too instructive, but has a pleasant way of letting us know exactly where we are in his company, which obviates the difficulty that a reader who starts from a foreign

instead of a home port is likely to experience. He is a humorous, observant, and sympathetic traveller, and his pictures of places and people are delightfully vivid. Steaming past Anguilla, scene of the strange "Wild Irish" colonisation of two hundred years ago, St. Martin's, with its grand coast- line, wide savannahs, and dense forests on the mountain- steeps; and passing between the majestic cones of Stella and Saba, the latter presenting a circular rampart of stupendous cliffs, the voyagers reach St. Christopher's. But Saba, a strange solitude in the sea, arrests our attention :—

" The island is inhabited by about two thousand settlers of Dutch ancestry who dwell high up above the sea in little settlements ; • Down the Islands: a Voyage to the Canlbees. By William Agnew Paton. London : Kegan Paul and Co.

the largest of them, 1,000 ft. above sea-level, is called the Bottom, for the reason that its houses cuddle together in the depths of a crater of an extinct volcano. The cliffs rise perpendicularly from the ocean, and access to the habitable part of this quaint colony is to be had only by climbing up a flight of eight hundred steps cut in the solid rock. The people of Baba are celebrated throughout the Caribbean Islands for the fishing-boats they build in a crater, —the oddest place imaginable for a shipyard. When the boats are ready to be launched, they are lowered down the overhanging precipices into the sea. There is no timber growing on the island, no beach from which to launch a boat when it is built, no harbour to shelter one when launched, and yet these Dutch West Indians profit by their trade of boat-building, and cruise all about the Caribbean Archipelago in the staunch, seaworthy craft they con- struct in the hollow of a crater on the top of their mountain- colony."

Where do these indomitable Dutch people get the timber?

"Rambles in St. Kitts" is the title of a pleasant chapter. Well may the Kittefonians be proud of the beauty and wonderful fertility of their island, of its seaside capital Basse- terre, with its great palms, banana, mango, ceiba, and plantain trees, and the luxuriant growths that turn the town into a tropical garden. "Here are ferns in bewildering variety," says the author, "roses and lilies, rare plants to be seen only in the greenhouses of grand domains or public gardens at the North, cactuses and orchids, delicate creepers and vines clinging to trunk and branch, hoar and venerable trees covered from root to the farthest end of their spreading boughs with parasites and air plants." The sides of the houses are covered with vines and creepers, and wherever there is a morsel of earth to give foothold to the most delicate tendril, there will some graceful living green thing be found rejoicing in sunlight, dew, and rain. Seven days from mid- winter in New York to the glorious summer and gorgeous flora of St. Kitts ! Only the interior of Antigua is fertile; the island was long ago entirely denuded of its primeval forests, and earthquakes are frequent there; fruits and sugar-canes are the chief produce; humming-birds like winged jewels deck the scene ; gaudy insects and darting lizards abound; the Maypole aloe shoots up to a height of thirty feet, crowned with yellow blossoms; the " darkies " are fat and

seemingly happy; kinder-hearted, more gracious folk than the West Indian people are not to be found by the traveller; green turtle, cooked to perfection, is an every-day dish; and

of the pines the writer writes almost too enthusiastically. "How delicious my experience of them !" he says, "how tantalising the craving for their rich flavour, their delicate fragrance, that haunts the memories of my visit to Antigua!"

He gives an interesting description of a sugar-factory, and tells us that in every Caribbean town which he visited he found a conveniently placed, well-appointed, well-stocked library of carefully selected books. Judging from the sketch given in these pages, the history of the Island of Antigua is by no means dry reading, especially that part of it which relates to the "precious rascal" whom the Duke of Marlborough was the means of letting loose upon the people in the person of his

aide-de-camp, Daniel Park. Antigua has not been altogether happy in her Governors ; if Park was a dangerous villain, Lord Lavington was a pompous fool. The latter

"would not upon any occasion receive a letter or parcel from the hands of a black or coloured man; and in order to guard against such horrible defilement, he had a golden instrument wrought something like a pair of sugar-tongs, in which to hold the presented article. He would not allow his blacks to wear shoes or stockings ; his footmen used to stand behind his carriage with their naked legs shining from the butter with which, by his Excellency's orders, they were daily compelled to anoint them."

The picture of the sea-life is very attractive; the kindly humour of the author shines in this, and in perfect harmony with him we sail on to Dominica, the Isle of the Sabbath, the grandest and most magnificent of all the Caribbees, many of whose peaka and pinnacles attain a height of 3,000 ft. or 4,000 ft., with Diablotin, the highest mountain in the Windwards, in its midst. lifting its head more than a mile above the sea. Mr. Paton thinks with Mr. Anthony Trollope, that Dominica is by far the most picturesque of all the islands; its dark, irregular mass of lofty mountains rises abruptly from the ocean, and its rugged grandeur is softened by the mantle of green that everywhere coven its surface from the sea margin to the topmost heights. The Isle of the Sabbath had a special fascination for the imagination of the writer, and he succeeds. admirably in imparting its charm to the reader, as he tells of the wondrous beauty and variety, the rapid growth, the equally rapid decay, the sublime Alpine scenery, the glorious colouring, the ever-shifting skies, the red-tinged waters, the pure air, the impenetrable forests, the hillsides which have resisted axe and ploughshare, remaining unbroken wilderness, and the mere fringe of cultivation, which, nevertheless, suffices, so rich is the product in woods and spices ; and revives the legends of the Carib people, their struggle for liberty, their mad fight for existence. It was a bad day for the natives of that beautiful gem of ocean, when, on Sunday, November 3rd, 1493, Columbus discovered it, and called it by the desecrated name of the Sabbath; the process of civilisation has never been more barbarously carried on than in the ease of the Caribs, by Spaniards, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, and Englishmen in suc- cession. "There remains of the ancient possessors of these islands," says Mr. Paton, "but a handful on Dominica, and a wretched band of half-breeds (half Carib, half runaway-slave) on the island of St. Vincent." The " handful" on Dominica are not unhappy; their place of refuge is almost inaccessible; the men hunt a little, and do as little work as possible, helping the women to make baskets of a peculiar grass, so closely woven that they will hold water. Their town, Salibia, is seldom visited by white people. The lot of the " derides " in the cultivated parts of the island would seem paradisaical to our miserables. "Food is abundant, living is cheap, the island is not overcrowded ; no one need go hungry at any time of the year,—no one, at least, who will walk into the woods, where are wild fruits and vegetables to be had at no more trouble to the would-be eater than to put forth his hand and pluck." The writer declares himself unable to record his sense of "the indescribable glory of Martinique," but gives a charming description of St. Pierre and Port Royal, beautifully illus- trated, as, indeed, the whole book is. A sketch of the humble cottage in which Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie was born (the great house of the family having been burned down just before), is very interesting. He says of the Empress, whom he describes as "this unfortunate lady," that she was mindful of the land of her birth. "It was due to the good use she made of whatever influence she may have had over the Emperor, that her own people had joy and gladness, a feast, and a good day' all the time of her glory. They were not forgetful of her goodness when she was past interceding for them, as witness a statue they erected to her dear memory in Fort de France, where it looks down benignly upon the market-place until this day." Barbadoes—(known as "Bimshire," and Bar- badians as "Buns," nobody can tell why)—is not interesting as the other islands are, although the author takes us for a pleasant walk in Bridgetown; nor do we care so very much for Demerara, not even though the wonderful Victoria regia lily grows in hundreds in the ditches. And now, we have no more space in which to follow this picturesque voyage, in the company of so sympathetic and appreciative a traveller; but can only recommend all who love such glimpses of the beautiful world, to go with him to Trinidad, to the Hindoo town of San Fernando—its coolie population afford a most curious and interesting study, and the portrait-illustrations are remarkably fine—to mark well his record of the Hindoo and African increase, and the decline of the white population : to go on to Grenada, and learn about its wonderful fruits, and its strange history; to St. Lucia, with its incomparably beautiful coast, its fish of many colours, its record of Carib wars, the struggle for its possession between France and England,—a century and a half of warfare—its memories of Rodney and Sir John Moore, its wonderful Sulphur Mountain, its exquisite tree- shaded beach. There is much more than all these to follow through the pages of Mr. Paton's charming book, which is -written with spirit, taste, and refinement of a rare kind.