12
VOYAGE TO
Guadaloupe is less beautiful than Martinique, and did not appear to us so highly cultivated. The town of Basseterre is situated near its south-western extremity on extensive lowlands, sloping gradually upwards to the bases of an amphitheatre of mountains. We availed ourselves as usual of the opportunity of land ing for a few minutes. The principal street is wide and enlivened by fountains. An avenue of beautiful tamarind trees runs down its whole length, under which the inhabitants meet to spend their evenings. The number of military, officers of customs, guarda castas, &c. to be seen here and at Martinique, marks the difference between the French colonial system and our own. We saw few white people in Guadaloupe. The prejudice against color is probably not so strong as in our own islands, as we observed several persons, white, brown, and black, working together on a tailor's board ; we witnessed, however, a specimen of bar barism which we had not expected to find—several copper-colored boys in a boat in an entire state of nudity ; they were of Spanish-Indian and negro blood. 18th.—We were again yesterday becalmed imder the lee of Guadaloupe. To a lover of the picturesque who had no stronger impvdse to carry him onward, a detention amidst this beautiful archipelago of islands would be delightful. The hills of round, conical, and irregular figures, rising abruptly from the ocean, and cleft into the most romantic gorges and ravines, are covered with perennial verdure, and clothed to their summits with primeval forest : they are evidently of volcanic origin. In St. Vincent there is still an active volcano, and in several of the other islands are hot springs and souffr\eres. This morning we passed near Montserrat, and several of the smaller islands.