Two Years in the French West Indies   By: Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904)

TWO YEARS

IN THE

FRENCH WEST INDIES

By LAFCADIO HEARN

AUTHOR OF "CHITA" ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

" La façon d'être du pays est si agréable, la température si bonne, et l'on y vit dans une liberté si honnête, que je n'aye pas vu un seul homme, ny une seule femme, qui en soient revenues, en qui je n'aye remarqué une grande passion d'y retourner. " LE PÈRE DUTERTRE (1667)

À MON CHER AMI LEOPOLD ARNOUX NOTAIRE À SAINT PIERRE, MARTINIQUE Souvenir de nos promenades, de nos voyages, de nos causeries, des sympathies échangées, de tout le charme d'une amitié inaltérable et inoubliable, de tout ce qui parle à l'âme au doux Pay des Revenants.

PREFACE

During a trip to the Lesser Antilles in the summer of 1887, the writer of the following pages, landing at Martinique, fell under the influence of that singular spell which the island has always exercised upon strangers, and by which it has earned its poetic name, Le Pays des Revenants . Even as many another before him, he left its charmed shores only to know himself haunted by that irresistible regret, unlike any other, which is the enchantment of the land upon all who wander away from it. So he returned, intending to remain some months; but the bewitchment prevailed, and he remained two years.

Some of the literary results of that sojourn form the bulk of the present volume. Several, or portions of several, papers have been published in HARPER'S MAGAZINE; but the majority of the sketches now appear in print for the first time.

The introductory paper, entitled "A Midsummer Trip to the Tropics," consists for the most part of notes taken upon a voyage of nearly three thousand miles, accomplished in less than two months. During such hasty journeying it is scarcely possible for a writer to attempt anything more serious than a mere reflection of the personal experiences undergone; and, in spite of sundry justifiable departures from simple note making, this paper is offered only as an effort to record the visual and emotional impressions of the moment.

My thanks are due to Mr. William Lawless, British Consul at St. Pierre, for several beautiful photographs, taken by himself, which have been used in the preparation of the illustrations.

L. H. Philadelphia, 1889.

CONTENTS

PART ONE A MIDSUMMER TRIP TO THE TROPICS

PART TWO MARTINIQUE SKETCHES:

I. LES PORTEUSES II. LA GRANDE ANSE III. UN REVENANT IV. LA GUIABLESSE V. LA VÉRETTE VI. LES BLANCHISSEUSES VII. LA PELÉE VIII. 'TI CANOTIÉ IX. LA FILLE DE COULEUR X. BÊTE NI PIÉ XI. MA BONNE XII. "PA COMBINÉ, CHÈ" XIII. YÉ XIV. LYS

XV. APPENDIX: SOME CREOLE MELODIES (not included in this transcription)

ILLUSTRATIONS.