overtakes us.

We awake early next morning to find that we have already anchored off
Mayagueez.

Mayagueez is an important sea-side town on the Porto Rico coast, and is
surrounded by the loveliest tropical scenery that I have yet beheld in
the West Indies. One long, broad and perfectly level street runs in a
direct line from the quay to the confines of the town. Branching off
from this formidable thoroughfare are a few narrow streets which
terminate in small rivers and streams, across which innumerable little
bridges are thrown.

As we are destined to halt at this delightful spot for several hours, we
make the most of our time. After calling upon our vice-consul--who is
also the English postal agent, and has an office in one of the numerous
warehouses which face the quay--and after having partaken of some
refreshment at a cafe, my companion and I hail a quaint dilapidated
vehicle of the fly species and drive through _the_ street of the town.
This street beginning with shops, continues with tall private dwellings,
which, in turn, are succeeded by pretty villas, till the open country
suddenly appears.

I am amazed to find that for our drive through the town, half a mile
beyond it and back again, we are charged the astonishingly modest fare
of two-pence half-penny!

We have embarked again and are off to Santo Domingo, where we land on
the following day.

Santo Domingo--the capital of the island of that name--is an antiquated
city, with brown, sombre-looking stone houses intermingled with quaint
towers and gateways, tropical trees, shrubbery and ruins. We reach the
city in a small boat, passing up a long river called the Ozana, and
after Don Fernandez has deposited his mail bags at the post-office, we
wander over the town. My companion knows every part of it well, having,
as he tells me, visited it at least twice a month for the past three
years. Acting, therefore, as a cicerone, he conducts me through the
Calle del Comercio, which is the principal street in the city, but which
has a very dismal and deserted aspect. The cathedral is an ancient
building, and has resisted wind, weather, earthquake, and revolution for
upwards of three hundred years. The interior is full of interest for the
artist and the antiquarian, containing, among other objects, the first
mausoleum of Christopher Columbus. Don Fernandez tells me that the
remains of the great discoverer were originally brought from Spain and
deposited here, and that