At night, however, there is often a perfect deluge, which floods the
houses and gardens, turns the streams into torrents, but washes and
refreshes the vegetation, and leaves the landscape brighter and
greener than before.
At half-past seven the horses were put to, and we were just ready for
a start, when down came the rain again, more heavily than before. It
was some little time before it ceased enough to allow us to start,
driving along grassy roads and through forests, but progressing rather
slowly, owing to the soaked condition of the ground. If you can
imagine the Kew hot-houses magnified and multiplied to an indefinite
extent, and laid out as a gentleman's park, traversed by numerous
grassy roads fringed with cocoa-nut palms, and commanding occasional
glimpses of sea, and beach, and coral reefs, you will have some faint
idea of the scene through which our road lay.
Many rivers we crossed, and many we stuck in, the gentlemen having
more than once to take off their shoes and stockings, tuck up their
trousers, jump into the water, and literally put their shoulders to
the wheel. Sometimes we drove out into the shallow sea, till it seemed
doubtful when and where we should make the land again. Sometimes we
climbed up a solid road, blasted out of the face of the black cliffs,
or crept along the shore of the tranquil lagoon, frightening the
land-crabs into their holes as they felt the shake of the approaching
carriage.
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