67
TRINIDAD. Ce trait de feu qui des yeux passe a l'ame, De l'ame aux sens.
She is poetical if not a poet, her imagination is high and chivalrous, and she speaks the language in which Romance was born. It is a favorite subject of exultation with me, that twenty-two* millions of people speak English or Spanish in the New World. Their grammar and accent are perfectly pure in Trinidad, but, like all the South Americans, they have deflected from the standard of Castilian pronunciationtSoledad ! thou wilt never read this book; few of those who will can ever know thee, and I shall never see thee again on this side of the grave. Therefore I write thy name whilst I yet remember thy face and hear thy voice, thou sweet and ingenious girl! And so having shaken hands with kind Antonio and his lady, with Patrica, and Dolores, and Lorenza, and all of them, we mounted our horses, and took our leave. We returned by another route through the woods, ascended a narrow pass called the Saddle, if I recollect right, and came in at the head of Maraval. We rode quite through this most lovely valley, and got back to St. Ann's * So says the all accomplished Humboldt, and it cannot be much less. t They sound c as s, and z as in English, thus approaching towards the dialect of Portugal. B y dialect I mean language, for Portuguese is as ancient and independent a derivative of Latin as Castilian itself. I F
2