Two Years in the French West Indies

... A long, narrow, graceful steel steamer, with two masts and an orange-yellow chimney,--taking on cargo at Pier 49 East River. Through her yawning hatchways a mountainous pili...

The first attempt made to colonize Martinique was abandoned almost as soon as begun, because the leaders of the expedition found the country "too rugged and too mountainous," an...

He who first gave to Martinique its poetical name, _Le Pays des Revenants_, thought of his wonderful island only as "The Country of Comers-back," where Nature's unspeakable spel...

One returning from the country to the city in the Carnival season is lucky to find any comfortable rooms for rent. I have been happy to secure one even in a rather retired stree...

I cannot teach Cyrillia the clock;--I have tried until both of us had our patience strained to the breaking-point. Cyrillia still believes she will learn how to tell the time so...

In the village of Morne Rouge, I was frequently impressed by the singular beauty of young girls from the north-east coast--all porteuses, who passed almost daily on their way fr...

It is only half-past four o'clock: there is the faintest blue light of beginning day,--and little Victoire already stands at the bedside with my wakening cup of hot black fragra...

Nothing else in the picturesque life of the French colonies of the Occident impresses the traveller on his first arrival more than the costumes of the women of color. They surpr...

... More finely than any term in our tongue does the French word _frisson_ express that faint shiver--as of a ghostly touch thrilling from hair to feet--which intense pleasure s...

When you find yourself for the first time, upon some unshadowed day, in the delightful West Indian city of St. Pierre,--supposing that you own the sense of poetry, the recollect...

Night in all countries brings with it vaguenesses and illusions which terrify certain imaginations;--but in the tropics it produces effects peculiarly impressive and peculiarly...

One might almost say that commercial time in St. Pierre is measured by cannon-shots,--by the signal-guns of steamers. Every such report announces an event of extreme importance...

Whoever stops for a few months in St. Pierre is certain, sooner or later, to pass an idle half-hour in that charming place of Martinique idlers,--the beautiful Savane du Fort,--...

Almost every night, just before bedtime, I hear some group of children in the street telling stories to each other. Stories, enigmas or _tim-tim_, and songs, and round games, ar...

St. Pierre is in one respect fortunate beyond many tropical cities;--she has scarcely any mosquitoes, although there are plenty of mosquitoes in other parts of Martinique, even...

I. LES PORTEUSES II. LA GRANDE ANSE III. UN REVENANT IV. LA GUIABLESSE V. LA VÉRETTE VI. LES BLANCHISSEUSES VII. LA PELÉE VIII. 'TI CANOTIÉ IX. LA FILLE DE COULEUR X. BÊTE-NI-PI...