Page 300 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

RE DING LESSONS,
299
called Saintes, St. Martin, and a w other specks, the entire population of which is upwards of 100,000, about half of whom are slaves, and nearly half the remainder ee persons of colour, om jet to pale lemon tinge.
2. On Friday morning we discovered the island to the west, as we had gone considerably to the east r the purpose of getting into the trade winds. The appearance of the island was very beauti l. Points-de-chateaux presented to us the appearance of four or ve bold castles rising above the horizon, and stretching o to the east om the land of Grand­ terre, which raised the dusky summit of its regular hills in a long line, till lost in the distance, and in the gray of twilight. Occasionally the hoary surf threw a mantle of white over the dark walls of these ancient rti cations. Half an hour, however, de­ tected the illusion, and showed us the work of nature, and not of art, in the masses of rock, which opposed themselves as castles to the billows of the tlantic. A strong current, of nearly half a mile wide, ran im­ petuously between the outer and the inner masses. We now had the land at a mile distant. The co ee­ trees, the sugar-cane, the cocoa, and occasionally the palm-tree, gave a beauti l verdure to a varied and broken country, richly studded with dwellings, and the hills topped by several windmills.
3. The island of Iarie-Galante now appeared, about om fteen to twenty miles to the south·, on our larboard. It is bold and lofty, and served to di­ versify the scene ; whilst a ne brig, working up r Pointe-a-Pitre, gave life and animation to the whole. This was soon increased by half a dozen small sails
of boats and little trading smacks, that run between