Black River, Sometime, Another Black River

Journal of a residence among the negroes in the West Indies by Mathew Gregory Lewis, author of “The Monk”, “Tales of Wonder” etc. London 1861(written in 1816), p. 23-24:

“The beauty of the atmosphere, the dark purple mountains, the shores covered with mangroves of the loveliest green down to the very edge of the water and the light coloured houses with their lattices and piazzas completely embowered in trees. (…) It was, as I understood, formerly of some magnitude, but it now consists only of a few houses owing to a spark from a tobacco pipe or a candle having lodged upon a mosquito net during dry weather; although the conflagration took place at midday the whole town was reduced to ashes. The few streets (I believe there were not above two but these were wide and angular and the houses looked very nice) were now crowded with people…