CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN.
"The road to the plantation was very steep in several places, and the mules that we rode had all they could do to carry us. The path wound in and out among the rocks, and under the trees peculiar to the tropics; and one of the trees came near being the cause of my falling over a high cliff."
"How was that?"
"Fruit was so abundant that the natives did not gather all of it as fast as it ripened; every little while I saw mangoes or bananas lying in the path, and the incident I mention was caused by my mule stepping on a banana and slipping to the ground. He left me sprawling just on the edge of the cliff; if he had pitched me a foot farther, I should have gone over and been dashed to death on the rocks below.
"I stayed with my friend a week, and found that he had a most delightful residence. He was fond of hunting, and was able to supply his table with meat by means of his gun and dogs. There were many wild pigs in the neighborhood, and he shot two of them while I was there, so that we had pork in abundance. Then there were several kinds of birds that were excellent eating. He had all the milk he wanted from his buffaloes, and made his own butter, raised his own rice and coffee, and smoked cigars from his own tobacco. He had ducks and chickens, and eggs in any desired quantity; his palm-trees supplied him with palm-wine and sugar, and he had nearly every tropical fruit that can be named. You see, by this account of his plantation, how well a man may live in one of the islands of the Archipelago, provided he can reconcile himself to the absence of society, and be contented with the sport that the hilly country affords.
COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN.