University of Virginia Library

FEBRUARY 7.

We were to return by the North. Road, and set out at six in the morning. The first stage was to the West Tavern, nineteen miles; and nothing can be imagined more sublime or more beautiful than the scenery. Our road lay along the banks of the Rio Cobre, which runs up to Spanish Town, where its floods frequently commit dreadful ravages. Large masses of rock intercept its current at small intervals, which, as well as its shallowness, render it unnavigable. The cliffs and trees are of the most gigantic size; and the road goes so near the brink of a tremendous precipice that we were obliged always to send a servant forwards to warn any other carriage of our approach, in that it might stay in some broader part while we passed it. A bridge had been attempted to be built over the river, but a storm demolished it before its completion, and nothing was now left standing but a single enormous arch. In like manner, the " Dry River " sets all bridges at defiance: when we crossed it, between Old Harbour and Spanish Town, it was nothing but a waste of sand; but its floods frequently pour down with irresistible strength and rapidity, and sometimes render it impassable for weeks together. I was extremely delighted with the first ten miles of this stage: unluckily, a mist then arose, so thick that it was utterly impossible even to guess at the surrounding scenery, and the morning was so cold that I was very glad to wrap myself in my cloak as closely as if I had been travelling in an English December.

By the time of our leaving the West Tavern the mist had dispersed, and I was able to admire the extraordinary beauty of Mount Diavolo, which we were then crossing. Though we had

left the river, the road was still a narrow shelf of rock running along the edge of ravines of great depth, and filled with broken masses of stone and trees of wonderful magnitude. At intervals we emerged for a time into places resembling ornamental parks in England, the lawns being of the liveliest verdure, the ground rising and falling in an endless variety, and enriched with a profusion of trees, majestic in stature and picturesque in their shapes, many of them entirely covered with the beautiful flowers of " hogsmeat," and other creeping plants. The logwood, too, is now perfectly golden with its full bloom, and perfumes all , the air; and nothing can be more gay than the quantity of wild flowers which catch the eye on all sides, particularly the wild pine and the wild ipecacuanha. We travelled for sixteen miles, which brought us to our harbour for the night-a solitary tavern, called Blackheath, situated in the heart of the mountains of St. Anne.