considered myself as her neighbour. In the cities of Europe, a street,
even a simple wall, frequently prevents members of the same family from
meeting for years; but in new colonies we consider those persons as
neighbours from whom we are divided only by woods and mountains; and
above all at that period, when this island had little intercourse with
the Indies, vicinity alone gave a claim to friendship, and hospitality
towards strangers seemed less a duty than a pleasure. No sooner was I
informed that Margaret had found a companion, than I hastened to her, in
the hope of being useful to my neighbour and her guest. I found Madame
de la Tour possessed of all those melancholy graces which, by
blending sympathy with admiration give to beauty additional power.
Her countenance was interesting, expressive at once of dignity and
dejection. She appeared to be in the last stage of her pregnancy. I told
the two friends that for the future interests of their children, and
to prevent the intrusion of any other settler, they had better divide
between them the property of this wild, sequestered valley, which is
nearly twenty acres in extent. They confided that task to me, and I
marked out two equal portions of land. One included the higher part of
this enclosure, from the cloudy pinnacle of that rock, whence springs
the river of Fan-Palms, to that precipitous cleft which you see on the
summit of the mountain, and which, from its resemblance in form to the
battlement of a fortress, is called the Embrasure. It is difficult to
find a path along this wild portion of the enclosure, the soil of which
is encumbered with fragments of rock, or worn into channels formed
by torrents; yet it produces noble trees, and innumerable springs and
rivulets. The other portion of land comprised the plain extending along
the banks of the river of Fan-Palms, to the opening where we are now
seated, whence the river takes its course between these two hills, until
it falls into the sea. You may still trace the vestiges of some meadow
land; and this part of the common is less rugged, but not more valuable