Six months in the West-Indies, in 1825

196 ST. CHRISTOPHER'S. increase in height towards the north, and thicken together in enormous masses in the centre of the island. The apex of this rude pyramid is the awful crag of Mount Misery *, which shoots slantingly forwards over the mouth of a volcanic chasm like a huge peninsula in the air. It is bare and black and generally visible, whilst the under parts of the mountain are enveloped in clouds. The height is more than 3700 feet, and is the most tremendous precipice I ever beheld. But the ruggedness of this central cluster only renders the contrast of the cultivated lands below more striking, and the entire prospect is so charming, that I could not help agreeing with the captain's clerk, who said he wondered that Colon, who was so delighted with this island as to give to it his own name, should not have made a full stop upon its shores. I do not uphold the pun, but upon the whole it was well enough for a hot climate and a captain's clerk.

Basseterre is a large town, with many good houses in it, and one spacious square, which, with some labour and taste expended upon it, might be made a very fine thing. Trees should be planted regularly on every side, an esplanade * ' H e (Columbus) was engaged to give it (St. Christopher's) this name from a consideration of the figure of its mountains, the island having on its upper part, as it were upon one of its shoulders, another lesser mountain, as St. Christopher is painted like a gyant, carrying our Saviour upon his, as it were a little child.'—Davies.