six o'clock
The trail of Spain is over all the islands , and on St. Croix has left its picturesque mark in the heavy arcades which front the houses in the towns . Behind these arcades one can pass from street to street with brief egress into the awful downpour of the sun , and they give to both towns an effect of architectural beauty . At that time palms and cocoanuts grew in profusion along the streets of Frederikstadt and in the gardens , tempering the glare of the sun on the coral . Peter Lytton 's coach awaited the Hamiltons , and at six o'clock they started for their new home . The long driveway across the Island was set with royal palms , beyond which rolled vast fields of cane . St. Croix was approaching the height of her prosperity , and almost every inch of her fertile acres was under cultivation . They rolled up and over every hill , the heavy stone houses , with their negro hamlets and mills , rising like half-submerged islands , unless they crowned a height .