106
DOMINICA.
work regularly for wages, though he acknowlodged he had never put them to the test. We proceeded from hence to an estate belonging to the grandfather of one of our companions. It is situated immediately above the sea, and there is a parapet wall to prevent children and animals from falling down a precipice of several hundred feet into the water. This like the two prece足 ding, was a coffee plantation, in a state of transition into a sugar estate. The proprietor is eighty-five years old, and of most venerable appearance ; his long, white hair flowing down upon his shoulders. He is believed to be the oldest white person in the island. He is very infirm, but retains his mental powers, and much of his French vivacity. His wife is slightly colored, and still older than himself. He seemed delighted to see and to converse with us. His reminiscences extended over nearly three quarters of a century. Forty years ago he remembered expressing to an Irish Catholic priest, his conviction that the negros would some time or other be emancipated. He mentioned also some great lady having told him, that the nineteenth century would be distinguished by great earthquakes and commotions, which he considered to be a metaphor prophetic of Abolition. He was very much amused by one of us telling him, when asked to take wine, that he had drank only water for the last eight years. He said " t h e frogs drink water," " you are a frog," &c. Though, however, the idea of total abstinence from distilled and fermented drinks, appeared both to amuse and astonish him, yet he acknowledged he owed his advanced age to his temperance. He drank a glass of wine himself, " to the success of our good cause." This benevolent old gentleman, seemed to live in patriarchial style in the midst of his people. Some of the young children almost lived in his house, and served to amuse him