ecies, like the humming-bird. Parrots settle on the sour orange trees
when the fruit is ripe, and fifty may be secured by a net at a time. The
Creoles stew and eat them as we do the pigeon; the flesh is rather
tough, and as there are plenty of fine water and marsh birds about the
lagoons, which are most tender and palatable, one is at a loss to
account for the taste that leads the people to eat the parrot. The brown
pelican is very plenty on the sea-coast, like the gull off our own
shores, and may be seen at all times sailing lazily over the sea, and
occasionally dipping for fish. Here, as among other tropical regions,
and even in some southern sections of this country, the lazy-looking
bald-headed vulture is protected by law, being a sort of natural
scavenger or remover of carrion.

The agriculturists of the island confine their attention almost solely
to the raising of sugar, coffee and tobacco, almost entirely neglecting
Indian corn (which the first settlers found indigenous here), and but
slightly attending to the varieties of the orange.[31] It is scarcely
creditable that, when the generous soil produces from two to three crops
annually, the vegetable wealth of this island should be so poorly
developed. It is capable of supporting a population of almost any
density, and yet the largest estimate gives only a million and a half of
inhabitants. On treading the fertile soil, and on beholding the
clustering fruits offered on all sides, the delicious oranges, the
perfumed pine-apples, the luscious bananas, the cooling cocoanuts, and
other fruits for which our language has no name, we are struck with the
thought of how much Providence, and how little man, has done for this
Eden of the Gulf. We long to see it peopled by men who can appreciate
the gifts of nature, men who are willing to do their part in reward for
her bounty, men who will meet her half way and second her spontaneous
efforts.[32] Nowhere on the face of the globe would intelligent labor
meet with a richer reward,--nowhere on the face of the globe would
repose from labor be so sweet. The hour of rest here sinks upon the face
of nature with a peculiar charm; the night breeze comes with its gentle
wing to fan the weary frame, and no danger lurks in its career. It has
free scope through the unglazed windows. Beautifully blue are the
heavens, and festally bright the stars of a tropical night. Preeminent
in brilliancy among the constellations is the Southern Cross,