A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 96: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A QUEER RACE. 98 by saying that if I stayed long enough I should doubt-. less get to know all about them, and that it was a very long story, which at present it was quite impossible for him to tell. About the island and its productions he was, however, more communicative. It contaimed some four hundred thousand acres—that is to say, it was about four times the size of the Isle of Wight. The population might be twenty or thirty thousand, though, as it was a long time since there had been a count, he could not be quite sure. The soil was very fertile, as 1 could see; and thanks to the mountain (mountain par excellence, there being no other), which enabled the inhabitants to vary their cli- mate af pleasure, they had agreat variety both of cereals and of fruit. The valleys and plains near the sea pro- duced maize, yams, cotton, sugar cane, oranges, grape- vines, peaches, and pomegranates; higher up grew wheat, potatoes, apples, and cherries. Mr. Field further informed me that, with the excep- tion of a narrow gap on the western side, the Painted Rocks extended all-round the island, and that the mist through which we had sailed was a permanent institu- tion. ‘We think it is caused by a meeting of currents, one hot and the other cold,” he said. ‘* Anyhow, it is al- ways there, and the mist and the rocks safeguard our island home far more effectually than a line of forts.” “Yes,” I said, ‘‘ yor may bombard a fort, but you would have to shoot a long time at that fog before you made any impression on it; and those rocks would defy all the ironclads in Europe. By the bye, what does that inscription, something about the Santa Anna and 1744, mean?” | ‘© Ah! you saw that, did you? It is merely the name of a vessel that was wrecked there. Some day we will have a cruise among the Painted Rocks, and you will find other records of the same sort. Several vessels have left their bones thereabouts. As I told you, the Diana is the only ship that ever got safely through, for which you may thank your stars; and though, as I was saying, there is a gap on that side, pointing westward, a wide stretch ef sand-banks, shoals, and hidden coral reefs render nav- “S (E(0) mm G JOO (E(@)