The Maroon (e-book) (used book) | Mayne Reid | bookbook.eu

Description

A sugar estate, and one of the finest in the "land of springs," is that of "Mount Welcome." It is situated about ten miles from Montego Bay, in a broad valley, between two rounded ridges. These ridges, after running parallel for more than a mile, and gradually increasing in elevation, at length converge with an inward sweep-at their point of convergence, rising abruptly into a stupendous hill, that fairly merits the name which it bears upon the estate-the "mountain." Both the ridges are wooded almost down to their bases; the woods, which consist of shining pimento trees, ending on each side in groves and island copses, pleasantly interspersed over a park-like greensward. The "great house" or "buff" of the estate stands under the foot of the mountain, just at the point of union between the two ridges-where a natural table or platform, elevated several feet above the level of the valley, had offered a tempting site to the builder. In architectural style it is not very different from other houses of its kind, the well-known planter's dwelling of the West Indies. One storey-the lower one, of course-is of strong stone mason-work; the second and only other being simply a wooden "frame" roofed with "shingles."