They grew
in the same proportion as the two young persons, of an unequal height; but
they rose, at the end of twelve years, above the cottages. Already their
tender stalks were interwoven, and their young branches of cocoas hung over
the basin of the fountain. Except this little plantation, the nook of the
rock had been left as it was decorated by nature. On its brown and humid
sides large plants of maidenhair glistened with their green and dark stars;
and tufts of wave-leaved hartstongue, suspended like long ribands of
purpled green, floated on the winds. Near this grew a chain of the
Madagascar periwinkle, the flowers of which resemble the red gilliflower;
and the long-podded capsicum, the cloves of which are of the colour of
blood, and more glowing than coral. The herb of balm, with its leaves
within the heart, and the sweet basil, which has the odour of the
gilliflower, exhaled the most delicious perfumes. From the steep summit of
the mountain hung the graceful lianas, like a floating drapery, forming
magnificent canopies of verdure upon the sides of the rocks. The sea birds,
allured by the stillness of those retreats, resorted thither to pass the
night. At the hour of sunset we perceived the curlew and the stint skimming
along the sea shore; the cardinal poised high in air; and the white bird of
the tropic, which abandons, with the star of day, the solitudes of the
Indian ocean.
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