household of that sort: the servants were drawing-room), and Yorke now saw this a sad trouble; he had had to change his apartment for the first time, gorbutler three times in the last year, although geously furnished and ablaze with lights he had got a treasure at last. And then they found the ladies all more or less cooks were so troublesome, Mrs. Peevor asleep over their books and newspapers; was nearly worried out of her life by them, but although there was a general waking although the housekeeper had a high sal- up, it could not be said that the evening ary, and ought to save her from such was very lively. It was now Mr. Peevor's trouble; with her delicate health this nat- turn to be sleepy; Mrs. Peevor was lanurally made him very anxious, after his guid and silent; Miss Maria evidently past sorrows. This Yorke understood to posed as the confirmed invalid, from whom be an allusion to the premature decease of no share in entertaining company was to a former Mrs. Peevor. Then somehow be expected; the young ladies, in awe of the conversation came round to his chil- their visitor, the first colonel they had ever dren; and Mr. Peevor-although still met, were shy, and did not volunteer to meandering off at intervals into the price- lead in the conversation. But Yorke was current line - explained that although he too modest to put down the silence to had made it a duty to bring up his girls this cause; the young ladies he had been with comforts around them - indeed what accustomed to meet were mostly talkative, right-thinking father could do less?-yet not to say fast, and he put their reserve he hoped he had not spoilt them for a some- down to indifference or gaucherie. But what plainer life. The girls were girls, and observing that there was an enormous of course could not expect to be always in grand pianoforte in a corner of the room, their father's home; his first duty was he proceeded, as in duty bound, to put the towards his son, and the daughters must young ladies through their musical paces. be content with a slenderer portion of such Miss Maria, however, it appeared, neither goods as he might possess. Not indeed played nor sang; but Miss Catherine at that there would not be a trifle for each of his invitation sat down at the instrument them, if anything happened to him; in fact he might say he had not forgotten his daughters' claims upon him, and he had been able to reserve something substantial out of the means with which Providence had blessed him nor would he let a trifle more or less stand in the way of a girl's happiness. Indeed the warning he had had from poor dear Maria's sad affair would naturally make him anxious to avoid such a misfortune again. And then, while Yorke was about to express his interest in this subject, on which his sympathy seemed to be invited, the worthy gentleman rambled off in maundering strains to the china and the bronzes, while his amused guest pursued the train of ideas suggested by what had gone before. Which of the girls, he thought, does he want me to marry? And to how many single gentlemen visiting here by turns has he made a similar confidence? And under the influence of this plain speaking, the sort of interest with which he had been regarding Lucy Peevor's pretty face during dinner was succeeded by a feeling of distrust.

When the gentlemen rose at last from table, having, however, made between them a very small inroad on the contents of the five decanters, and entered the drawing-room-the yellow drawing-room as it was called (they had assembled before dinner in another called the blue

her father remarking by the way that the girls always had a course of finishing lessons from the best masters when the family was in town-and played a little piece in a more or less feeble manner; after which Miss Lucy, who sang but did not play, warbled nervously a couple of English ballads without any particular tune to her sister's accompaniment, while the guest could not help feeling sorry that she should exhibit herself to such disadvantage, for certainly she was a very pretty little girl. After this the numerous pictures on the walls naturally suggested a reference to the fine arts, and an inquiry as to the young ladies' accomplishments in this line. Miss Maria did not draw, but her sisters after a little pressing produced their portfolios - Mr. Peevor remarking parenthetically that he had secured Jenkins, A. R. A., to give them lessons during the two last seasons in town; a very rising man Jenkins, and of course as a rule he did not take pupils, but Mr. Peevor had made a special arrangement with him, which the guest readily understood to have been connected with the drawing of a cheque for an amount unusual in such transactions. Miss Catherine drew large heads of uncertain outline in chalk, Miss Lucy little landscapes in muddy water-colours, and Yorke knew so little about the matter that he was able to praise the performances (which

might have cost about a hundred guineas | And the stories came up to his mind of apiece) without hypocrisy. Miss Cathe- the different swindlers in recent years who rine brought out her portfolio in a matter- had imposed upon the public for a brief of-fact way, as if the performance were an accustomed one to be gone through; but Miss Lucy gave a toss of her little head while showing her part of the exhibition, as if she estimated it at its proper value. Then Mrs. Peevor and Miss Maria retired - invalid habits being implied in the parting ceremony and an adjournment was proposed to the billiard-room, an ample chamber fitted up with luxurious settees. Cigars of admirable aroma were now produced, and Mr. Peevor insisted upon Yorke's lighting one, notwithstanding the young ladies' presence, observing that the girls liked the smell, and that these were some very rare tobacco which he had succeeded in procuring through a friend in Spain; he did not smoke himself, but he liked to keep a tolerable cigar for his friends.

space by prodigal scattering of money which did not belong to them. Does he want to get rid of one of his daughters before the impending smash takes place? Surely, if he is really the man of substance he appears to be, it would not be necessary to seek out a stranger like myself, a mere soldier of fortune, in order to get a husband for presentable, well-portioned daughters. Such wonderful eagerness is enough to make one suspicious. But this idea was quickly dismissed. Clearly there were no marks of the adventurer about Mr. Peevor. Nothing could be more in contrast to the uneasy forced composure that would be expected in the swindler who is striving to keep up appearances till ruin and exposure should overtake him, than the easygoing indolence of the worthy host, whose mind would not run upon trifles as it did if there were graver subjects to occupy it. Yet it seemed impossible to mistake the broad hints he dropped of his anxiety to dispose of his daughters. Mr. Peevor, however, was evidently a desperate fidget; and perhaps in view of poor Miss Maria's impending fate of old-maidhood before him, he had worked himself into a craze to make any reasonable match for the others before it was too late. Miss Maria had evidently been the victim of a disappointment. Yet why should eligible bachelors be wanting in such desirable quarters? And then Yorke, half ashamed of himself for his treachery to the passion which he taken a secret pride in cherishing for so long, amused himself with speculating on the absurdity of a lovemaking from which all the usual necessary ingredients of the pursuit should be wanting. No blind passion in this case, at any rate; it must be the mere caricature of the real thing when you set off by appraising all the lady's blemishes. To think of proAs Yorke in the retirement of his luxu- fessing to make love to a girl when all the rious bedroom reflected with a sort of time you were criticising her little imperamused curiosity on the proceedings of fections! Truly this would be a droll conthe evening, he felt almost angry with clusion for a man who had prided himself himself at harbouring involuntarily a sus-on his power of romantic devotion. And picion of his generous host's honesty. And yet the suspicion would come up. Ís all this luxury and apparent wealth, he thought, a mere blind to delude the world?

The young ladies' performances at the billiard-table were not more brilliant than their efforts in the fine arts; and as Mr. Peevor himself, although careful to explain that the table was of a peculiar construction made to special order, turned out to be an indifferent player, the game was rather one-sided. But it did not last long; for as breakfast was ordered for nine o'clock the next morning on account of the hunting, Mr. Peevor soon became fidgety about his daughters not being up in time, and hurried them off to bed; and then before wishing his guest good-night at his room-door, gave a last order to the butler for the despatch of the tax-cart to Castleroyal the first thing in the morning; after which he proceeded to make the round of the house to see that all the bolts and bars were properly secured, and the warning-bells attached to all the windows, without taking which precaution nightly, he said, he should not be able to get a moment's sleep.

after all, which of the two was it to be? Even this preliminary step was not yet settled. Thus musing, Yorke fell asleep.

vicarious "attorney" (not a professional one, I may as well remark for the benefit of those unused to West-Indian nomenclatures, but the holder of a power of attorney, on the proprietor's behalf), of the merchant, of the higher official, and generally of every one belonging to this or the other of what are conveniently called the "upper classes," is a comfortable barge, painted white for coolness' sake, and propelled by oars varying in number from four to eight.

WITH a subdued silvery gleam, the surest promise in these latitudes of a clear day to follow, the sun peeped through the A fresh-painted, well-kept eight-oar, with network of the forest that here does duty a cabin of the kind just described, but of for horizon on every side, when our party the very largest dimensions, the sides, mustered under the neat wooden pavilion ceiling, hangings, cushions, all white, with of the landing-place between the parade- a dash of gilding here and there; eight ground and the river, I might have not rowers dressed in loose white suits, with less correctly said the highway. For the broad red sashes round their waists, and true highways of this land are its rivers, on their heads blue caps to complete the traced right and left with matchless profu- triple colours of the national flag, make a sion by nature herself, and more commo- pretty show on the sunlit river; and the dious could scarce be found anywhere. governor's barge might, for picturesque Broad and deep, tidal, too, for miles up appearance, match the caique of a Stamtheir course, but with scarcely any varia- boul dignitary, besides being as much tion in the fulness of their mighty flow superior to the eastern conveyance in comsummer or winter, rainy season or dry, so fort, as inferior in speed. The white constant is the water-supply from its com- painted six-oar, four-oar, or even two-oar mon origin, the equatorial mountain-chain, barges too, that abound for ordinary voythey give easy access to the innermost re-aging, though of course smaller in their cesses of the vast regions beyond, east, west, and south; and where their tortuous windings and multiplied side canals fail to reach, Batavian industry and skill have made good the want by canals, straighter in course, and often hardly inferior in navigable capacity to the motherrivers themselves. On the skeleton plan, so to speak of this mighty system of water communication, the entire cultivation of the inland has been naturally adjusted; and the estates of Surinam are ranged one after another along the margins of rivers and canals, just as farms might be along highways and byways in Germany or Hungary. Subservient to the water ways, narrow land paths follow the river or trench by which not every estate alone, but its every subdivision of an estate, every acre almost is defined and bordered, while the smaller dykes and canals are again crossed by wooden bridges, main-| tained in careful repair, but paths and bridges alike are of a width and solidity adapted to footmen only, or at best horsemen; the proper carriage road is the river or canal.

In a climate like that of Surinam, bodily exertion is a thing to be economized as much as possible; and accordingly everybody keeps his carriage, I mean his boat. That of the wealthy estate-owner, of the

dimensions and less gay in their accessories, are pleasant objects to look at, and may bring to mind the gondolas of Venetian waters; with this difference, that whereas the Adriatic crews are white, or what should be white, and the boats black, here the colours are, and not disadvantageously for pictorial effect, exactly reversed.

So much for the "genteeler sort." Larger yet and more solidly built, are the great lighter-like barges, whether open or partly covered, that convey down stream from the river-side estate casks of sugar or molasses, barrels of rum, sacks of cocoa, heaped-up yams, plantains, sweet potatoes, cocoa-nuts, cassava, and the hundred other well-known but too littlecultivated products of this teeming land. Alongside of these may be often seen the floating cottages of the so-called "bush negroes,” well thatched and snug; each occupying half or more of a wide flat-bottomed boat, where two stalwart blacks in genuine African garb, that is, next to no garb (vid. the woodcuts in Winwood Reade's amusing narratives, passim), paddle rather than row; and any number of black ladies, hardly more encumbered by their costumes than their lords, with an appropriate complement of ebony chil dren, these last in no costume at all, look

tality - no unsubstantial virtue - could furnish for convivial need, and was commanded by a paragon of boat-captains—a bright-eyed, brown-faced little man, Scotch by his father's side, Indian by his mother's; himself uniting in physiognomy as in character the shrewdness and practical good sense of the former parentage with the imperturbable calm and habitual goodhumour of the latter. Under such auspices we started on our way.

out from the cabin doors. In their wake | pleasing and being pleased to the best of follows a raft of cut timber, green-heart our opportunities. Our boat was well probably, or brown-heart, or purple-heart, supplied, too, with whatever Dutch hospior balata, or letter-wood, or locust-wood, or whatever other forest growth finds its market in town; and standing on it, one or more statuesque figures, that look as if they had been cut out of dark porphyry by no unskilful hand, and well polished afterwards, guide its downward course. Most numerous of all, light corials, that have retained the Indian name as well as build, each one hollowed out of a single tree-trunk, with sometimes a couple of extra planks roughly tacked on to the sides by way of bulwarks, paddle past us, under the guidance of one or two ragged negro labourers, or husbandmen, who exchange shouts, sometimes of jest, sometimes of quarrel, with their fellows in other boats or on the shore. These little skiffs, drawing scarce a foot of water when deepest laden, pass through the narrowest ditches that divide almost every acre of cultivated land on the estates from the other, and are the chief means of passage for the working folks on their way to and fro between country and town. When not in actual use they are kept sunk in water just deep enough to cover them, and thus preserved from the sun-heat, which would otherwise soon split the unseasoned wood. Lastly, a few clumsy boats of the ordinary longshore type, in the service of trade with the ships that lie anchored, giving out or taking in cargo off the town-wharf, mix up with the rest, and add their quota of variety to the river-crafts of Surinam.

However, on the present occasion it is neither barge, plain or gay, nor a boat, not even a corial, that is waiting to receive our party. A flat-bottomed river-steamer, one of the three that belong to the service of the colony, lies off the wharf; she draws about ten feet of water, and her duty is just now to convey us up the Commeweyne River, and its main tributary the Cottica, where lies the district which his Excellency has selected for our inspection, because affording the greatest variety of scenery and cultivation within easy reach of Paramaribo. I have said that the colony possesses three of these boats; the largest of them makes a voyage along the seacoast as far as Georgetown twice every month; the two smaller confine their excursions within the limits of river naviga

tion.

In a few minutes we were all on board, a merry party, Dutch and English, official and non-official, military, naval, civilian and burgher, but all of us bent alike on

To enter the Commeweyne River we were first obliged to retrace a portion of the route by which I had arrived three days before, and to follow the downward course of the Surinam River for about eight miles, passing the same objects, no longer wholly new, but now more interesting than before, because nearer and better understood. Here is a plantation, seen by glimpses through the mangrove scrub that borders the river's bank; a narrow creek, at the mouth of which several moored barges and half-submerged corials are gathered, gives admittance to the heart of the estate. It is a vast cocoagrove, where you may wander at will under three hundred and fifty continuous acres of green canopy that is, if you are ready to jump over any number of small brimming ditches, and to cross the wider irrigation trenches on bridges, the best of which is simply a round and slippery treetrunk, excellently adapted, no doubt, to the naked foot of a negro labourer, but on which no European boot or shoe can hope to maintain an instant's hold. Huge pods, some yellow, some red, the former colour is, I am told, indicative of better quality-dangle in your face, and dispel the illusion by which you might, at first sight of the growth and foliage around you, have fancied yourself to be in the midst of a remarkably fine alder-tree thicket; while from distance to distance broad-boughed trees of the kind called by the negroes "coffee-mamma," from the shelter they afford to the plantations of that bush, spread their thick shade high aloft, and protect the cocoa-bushes and their fruit from the direct action of the burning sun. Moisture, warmth, and shade these are the primary and most essential conditions for the well-doing of a cocoa-estate. Innumerable trenches, dug with mathematical exactitude of alternate line and interspace, supply the first requisite; a temperature that, in a wind-fenced situation like this, bears a close resem

blance for humid warmth to that of an ac- | Asiastic; but to this conclusion, desirable curately shut hothouse, assures the sec- or not, there is for the present no apparond; and the "coffee-mamma," a dense- ent tendency, either in Surinam or elseleaved-tree, not unlike our own beech, where. As to the Indians of these reguarantees the third. Thus favoured, a gions, they keep to themselves, and their Surinam cocoa crop is pretty sure to be incapacity of improvement, combined with an abundant one. Ever and anon, where hereditary laziness and acquired drunkenthe green labyrinth is at its thickest, you ness, will, it seems, soon render them a come suddenly across a burly creole ne- mere memory, poetical or otherwise, of gro, busily engaged in plucking the large the past. pods from the boughs with his left hand, and holding in it so, while with a sharp cutlass held in his right he dexterously cuts off the upper part of the thick outer covering, then shakes the slimy agglomeration of seed and white burr clinging to it into a basket set close by him on the ground. A single labourer will in this fashion collect nearly four hundred pounds' weight of seeds in the course of a day. When full the baskets are carried off on the heads of the assistant field-women, or, if taken from the remoter parts of the plantation, are floated down in boats or corials to the brick-paved courtyard adjoining the planter's dwelling-house, where the nuts are cleansed and dried by simple and inexpensive processes, not unlike those in use for the coffee-berry; after which nothing remains but to fill the sacks, and send them off to their market across the seas.

Soil, climate, and the conditions of labour, all here combine to favour the cocoaplant; and accordingly, out of the thirty thousand acres actually under cultivation in Dutch Guiana, we find that a sixth part is dedicated to its production. More would be so, but for the time required before a fresh plantation can bear a remunerative crop; five or six years must, in fact, elapse during which no return ll is made, "which is a consideration also, though in an opposite sense to that quoted above.

Cocoa prospers; but after all said and done, sugar, the one thing that for two centuries and more has been to the West Indies - Dutch, French, Spanish, or English what cloth is to Manchester, cutlery to Sheffield, or beer to Bavaria, is even now, despite of emancipation, freetrade, beetroot, prohibitive regulations, American tariffs, and the whole array of A Guiana cocoa-plantation is an excel- adversities mustered against it for the last lent investment. The first outlay is not fifty years, the "favourite" of the agriculheavy, nor is the maintenance of the plan- tural racecourse, and holds with regard to tation expensive-the number of labour other products, however valuable, the ers bearing an average proportion of one same position as the queen of the chessto nine to that of the acres under cultiva- board does when compared with the retion. The work required is of a kind that maining pieces. Indeed in some - Denegroes, who are even now not unfrequent-merara, for instance-sugar reigns, like ly prejudiced by the memory of slave days Alexander Selkirk on his island, not only against the cane-field and sugar-factory, supreme, but alone; while in Surinam, undertake willingly enough; and to judge where, more than in the generality of by their stout limbs and evident good West-Indian regions, she has many and, condition, they find it not unsuited to to a certain extent, successful rivals to their capabilities. More than four mil- contend with, she vindicates a full half of lian pounds' weight of cocoa are yearly the reclaimed soil for her exclusive doproduced in Surinam, "which is a consid-main. Previous to emancipation, foureration," as a negro remarked to me, fifths at least were her allotted share. No labourously attempting to put his ideas fuller evidence of her former sway need into English, instead of the Creole be sought than that which is even yet mixture of every known language that everywhere supplied by the aspect of the they use among themselves. Neither great houses, gardens, and all the belongcoolies nor Chinese are employed on ings of the old sugar-plantations, once the these cocoa-estates, much to the satisfac- wealth and mainstay of the Dutch colony. tion of the creoles, who though tolerant | The garb is now too often, alas, “a world of, or rather clinging to, European mas- too wide for the shrunk shanks" of the tership, have little sympathy with other present, but it witnesses to the time when coloured or semi-civilized races. Some it was cut to fitness and measure. authors have indeed conjectured that the West-Indian labourer of the future will be a cross-mixture of the African and the LIVING AGE. VOL. XIII. 668

And here on our way, almost opposite the cocoa-plantation with its modern and modest demesnes that we have just visited,