n seconds, and was accompanied by violent oscillations
of the ground, and detonations like the salvos from Vesuvius, when, in
the lesser eruptions, you stand near the crater while stones are being
thrown up. I was now more than ever convinced that the centre of the
subterranean action was very near, and that the explosive steam and
glowing masses of the interior were seeking a new outlet.
The country-house of Mr. Kronmeier was still standing, but its thick
walls had been rent in so many places that it offered only an
uncomfortable and insecure shelter. From the steep cliffs on the left of
the river's bed masses of rock and earth had fallen, and the hot springs
at the foot of the hill had ceased to flow; the mill-stream was dry; one
of the cocoa-palms was prostrate, and the whole landscape, so lovely
before, had a dejected and melancholy aspect, increased, of course, by
the general flight of the inhabitants of the district.... The shocks
still went on, though they were not so frequent as on the two Easter
nights; and, as the subterranean forces were evidently struggling for a
new vent, no one could feel himself safe within the sphere of their
operations.
Many of the people whom we met, however, were leaving the place, though
not so much for any reason of this kind as on account of a prophecy of
the worthy bishop, "that before the new moon the whole district of San
Salvador, with the ruins of the city, would be swallowed up." But,
unluckily for the bishop's character as a prophet, the prediction was
not fulfilled.
SCENES IN TRINIDAD AND JAMAICA.
JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE.
[Froude is scarcely known as a traveller, his reputation being
founded in another field of literature, that of history. Yet he
is the author of two works of travel,--"Oceana," from which we
have elsewhere given a selection, and "The English in the West
Indies," from which our present selection is derived. He
visited most of the British West Indies, and has given
picturesque descriptions of them all. We append some extracts
from his account of Trinidad.]
Trinidad is the largest, after Jamaica, of the British West Indian
Islands, and the hottest absolutely after none of them. It is
square-shaped, and, I suppose, was once a part of South America. The
Orinoco River and the ocean-currents between them have cut a channel
between it and the mainland, which has expanded into a vast shallow lake
known as th
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