irl, upon whom it devolves to
provide it, presents each smoker with a lump of red-hot charcoal in the
clutches of a lengthy pair of tongs. Daylight is appearing, and warns
us that we must be on the move again.

'Adelante, caballeros!' Leaving the level cane district, for the next
few hours we are winding up mountains. At every turn of the road, the
ingenio we have quitted grows smaller and smaller, till the planter's
residence, the big engine-shed, and the negro cottages, become mere toys
under our gaze. Now we are descending. Our sure-footed animals
understand the kind of travelling perfectly, and, placing their
fore-paws together, like horses trained for a circus, slide down with
the greatest ease.

Somebody ahead has exclaimed, 'Miren!' We look, and behold a distant
view of Don Severiano's 'cafetal.' The path has become narrower, and we
are encompassed by short thick hedges, dotted with red and black berries
of a form not unlike diminutive olives. I pick and open one of these
berries, and somebody observing, 'Que cafe tan abundante!' I discover
that what I have plucked is coffee in a raw state.

'Que admirable es la naturaleza!' sings a Spanish dramatist. Nature is,
indeed, much to be admired, especially when you are viewing her in
orange groves, where oranges, for the trouble of picking them, hang
invitingly over your very mouth, seeming to say, 'Eat me, stranger.'
Some are small and green as gooseberries; others are big as your head,
and of the bright hue to which they give a name. Next on the carte of
nature's dessert are the heart-shaped, smooth-skinned mangoes, with
their massive and symmetrical tree. They are followed by a procession of
lime-trees, citrons, nisperos, granadas, maranones, anones, zapotes,
mamoncillos, and a host of other fruits with strange shapes and equally
odd Hispano-Indian appellations. I grieve to relate that the king of
fruits--the princely pine-apple--is far from being the exalted personage
you would have expected him to be. Like a bachelor cabbage, he grovels
in solitary state under our feet! We play at marbles with pomegranates,
and practise tilting at the ring with citrons. Throw into the scene a
few parasite and plantain trees with slender trunks and colossal leaves;
fill in the foreground with gigantic ferns, aloes, and palmettoes, and
the background with spotless blue; select for yourself from the nearest
hot-house where specimens of exotic plants are nursed, and you are with
us