Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/190

Rh America the fiddler, from its one large claw, swarmed on the shore, as they had done through the whole of our course. Spite of all the beauty of the vegetation, I felt that in order for any one to live happily here in this narrow world, he must be either a crab or a humming-bird. I should have died here for want of fresh air.

We were surprised on our return by a thunderstorm of the wildest description, and notwithstanding the arched, sail-cloth covering of our boat, we were wet through, which made me very uneasy on account of Mrs. B., who was not well that day, and who is not strong. We were glad to reach home after a sail of ten hours. Our boatmen continued to pour water into themselves, and to sigh out their Ave Maria! and were to the last in good humour, and apparently unwearied; I cannot but admire their power of endurance.

We were very weary; but we had, however, seen the Canima, and I now can place the impression of its tropical scenery, beside that of the Hudson, the Savannah, the Mississippi, the Ohio, and other rivers of the Western-land, which I traversed.

And now it is evening; my last evening at Matanzas; in the morning I shall set off to Havannah. I have spent the evening alone with my young friends; I have for the last time heard Mrs. B. play La Hauta Arragonesa; have heard for the last time Adeste fideles played by Mr. B. on the organ. I asked them for these pieces, that I might bear them away with me as my latest memories of the days spent in their home; and in the morning early I part from these estimable, kind people; from Matanzas and its beautiful neighbourhood. It grieves me to leave them, but it cannot be helped. Never more shall I feel such an atmosphere; such zephyrs; never again hear such a flood of joyous music, never again behold Yumori, Canima, and Combre!