ease and enj'y the lovely fruits that the Almighty have provided for the
refreshment of poor sea-worn mariners."

"Then, baint there no Spaniards to Trinidad, Mr Dyer?" demanded one of
the men.

"Not yet there baint," answered Dyer. "Doubtless in time they'll find
their way there; but at present they'm so eager after gold that they
only settles where gold is to be found. And there's no gold in
Trinidad, nothin' but harmless Indians, and fruit in plenty--and snakes.
You'll have to be wary and keep a good look out for snakes, when you
gets ashore to Trinidad; but that du hold good of all the Indies."

So the men settled down again to wait in patience for the appearance of
the earthly paradise promised them by Dyer, and, sure enough, the dawn
of the second day after passing Barbados revealed high land on the
larboard bow, serrated in outline, and tree-crowned to its very summit.
As the ship stood on, driven smoothly forward by the good trade-wind,
bringing the saw-like ridges back toward the beam, it was seen that the
land consisted of two islands instead of one, the nearer and lesser of
which is to-day known as Tobago. But Dyer knew nothing of Tobago,
whereas he had been inside the Gulf of Paria once before; therefore the
_Nonsuch_ held steadily on until Tobago drew out clear upon the larboard
quarter, when a break in the continuity of the land ahead was descried,
and presently this break revealed itself as an opening full ten miles
wide, in the eastern half of which stood three islands--or four, rather,
for upon a still nearer approach it was seen that the middle island was
divided into two by a channel so narrow that at a little distance it
looked as though a man might leap across it. And upon either side of
the opening, up sprang the land sheer out of the sea to a height of
eighteen hundred feet, steep, and shaggy, with tropical foliage of the
most varied and glorious tints.

Straight for the centre of the passage between the middle and the most
easterly island steered Dyer, and when presently the ship entered the
passage and her sails were almost becalmed by the intervention of the
high land to windward, the amazed seamen found themselves entering a
magnificent land-locked gulf so deep and so wide that they could not
determine the limits of it. It was not until some time afterward that
they found it to measure some fifty miles deep by ninety miles wide!
And thus they got their first glimpse of the wonderful Gu