I WALKED between my guards without offering any resistance, which would
indeed have been hopeless; we ascended the shoulder of a hill on the
western side of the plain, and then my escort sat down for a brief
period of repose. As we did so I cast a last lingering look at the
setting sun which would never rise again for me on this earth.
My guards rose to their feet, and I followed their example, and we
descended into a little dell, the beauty of which under any other
circumstances would have filled me with admiration. A mountain stream
ran through the bottom of the dell, which by its refreshing coolness
produced a thick and luxuriant growth of vegetation, and fell into one
of those dark blue lakes with which the hills of St. Domingo abound. How
often in happier days have I sat and dreamed on the borders of these
beautiful lakes in the twilight hour, when beneath the influence of the
moon their deep azure changed into a sheet of silver, or when the
reflections of the stars sowed the surface with a thousand golden
spangles! How lovely this valley appeared to me! There were magnificent
plane-trees of gigantic growth, closely grown thickets of _mauritias_, a
kind of palm, which allows no other vegetation to flourish beneath its
shade, date-trees, and magnolias with the goblet-shaped flowers, the
tall catalpa, with its polished and exquisitely chiselled blossoms,
standing out in relief against the golden buds of the ebony-trees. The
Canadian maple mingled its yellow flowers with the blue aureolas of that
species of the wild honeysuckle which the negroes call _coali_. Thick
curtains of luxurious creepers concealed the bare sides of the rocks,
whilst from the virgin soil rose a soft perfume, such as the first man
may have inhaled amidst Eden’s groves.
We continued our way along a footpath traced on the brink of the
torrent. I was surprised to notice that this path closed abruptly at the
foot of a tall peak, in which was a natural archway, from which flowed a
rapid torrent.
A dull roar of falling waters, and an impetuous wind issued from this
natural tunnel. The negroes who escorted me took a path to the left
which led into a cavern and seemed to be the bed of a torrent that had
long been dried up. Overhead I could see the rugged roof, half hidden by
masses of vegetation, and the same sound of falling waters filled the
whole of the vault. As I took the first step into the cavern, the Obi
came to my side, and whispered in a hoarse voice, “Listen to what I have
to predict: one of us two only shall leave by this path and issue again
from the entrance of the cave.”
I disdained to make any reply, and we advanced further into the gloom.
The noise became louder, and drowned the sound of our footfalls. I
fancied that there must be a waterfall near, and I was not deceived.
After moving through the darkness for nearly ten minutes, we found
ourselves on a kind of internal platform caused by the central formation
of the mountain. The larger portion of this platform, which was of a
semicircular shape, was inundated by a torrent which burst from the
interior of the mountain with a terrible din. Above this subterranean
hall the roof rose into the shape of a dome, covered with moss of a
yellowish hue. A large opening was formed in the dome through which the
daylight penetrated, and the sides of the crevice were fringed with
green trees, gilded just now by the last rays of the setting sun. At the
northern extremity of the platform the torrent fell with a frightful
noise into a deep abyss, over which appeared to float, without being
able to illuminate its depths, a feeble portion of the light which came
through the aperture in the roof. Over this terrible precipice hung the
trunk of an old tree whose top-most branches were filled with the foam
of the waterfall, and whose knotty roots pierced through the rock two or
three feet below the brink.
This tree, whose top and roots were both swept by the torrent, hung over
the abyss like a skeleton arm, and was so destitute of foliage that I
could not distinguish its species. It had a strange and weird
appearance; the humidity which saturated its roots prevented it from
dying, whilst the force of the cataract tore off its new shoots, and
only left it with the branches that had strength to resist the force of
the water.