CHAP. I.] tation. Then, indeed, the fairest of the islands became so many frightful solitudes; impervious and unwholesome. Such was the condition of Jamaica when wrested from the Spanish crown in 1655, and such is the condition of great part of Cuba and Porto Rico at this day; for the infinitely wise and benevolent Governor of the universe, to compel the exertion of those faculties which he has given us, has ordained, that by human cultivation alone, the earth becomes the proper habitation of man.† But as the West Indian islands in their ancient state were not without culture, so neither were they generally noxious to health. The plains or savannas were regularly sown, twice in the year, with that species of grain which is now well known in Europe by the name of Turkey wheat. It was called by the Indians mahez, or maize, a name it still bears in all the islands, and does not require very laborious cultivation. This however constituted but a part only, and not the most considerable part, of the vegetable food of the natives. As these countries were at the same time extremely populous, both the hills and the vallies (of the smaller islands especially) were necessarily cleared of un † Dr. Lind, in his "Essay on the Diseases of Hot Climates," has preserved an extract from the journal of an officer who sailed up a river on the coast of Guinea, which affords a striking illustration of this remark: "We were (says the officer) thirty miles distant from the sea, "in a country altogether uncultivated, overflowed with water, surround"ed with thick impenetrable woods, and overrun with slime. The air "was so vitiated, noisome, and thick, that our torches and candles burnt "dim, and seemed ready to be extinguished; and even`the human voice p. 64. "lost its natural tone." Part I. derwood, and the trees which remained afforded a shade that was cool, airy, and delicious. Of these, some, as the papaw and the palmeto, are, without doubt, the most graceful of all the vegetable creation. Others continue to bud, blossom, and bear fruit throughout the year. Nor is it undeserving notice, that the foliage of the most part springing only from the summit of the trunk, and thence expanding into wide-spreading branches, closely but elegantly arranged, every grove is an assemblage of majestic columns, supporting a verdant canopy, and excluding the sun, without impeding the circulation of the air. Thus the shade, at all times impervious to the blaze, and refreshed by the diurnal breeze, affords, not merely a refuge from occasional inconveniency, but a most wholesome and delightful retreat and habitation. Such were these orchards of the Sun, and woods of perennial verdure; of a growth unknown to the frigid clime and less vigorous soil of Europe; for what is the oak compared to the cedar or mahogany, of each of which the trunk frequently measures from eighty to ninety feet from the base to the limbs? What European forest has ever given birth to a stem equal to that of the ceiba, § which alone, simply rendered con The species here meant (for there are several) is the palmeto-royal, or mountain-cabbage. Ligon mentions some, at the first settlement of Barbadoes, about 200 feet in height; but Mr. Hughes observes, that the highest in his time, in that island, was 134 feet. I am inclined to believe, that I have seen them in Jamaica upwards of 150 feet in height; but it is impossible to speak with certainty without an actual measure ment. The wild cotton-tree. cave, has been known to produce a boat capable of containing one hundred persons? or the still greater fig, the sovereign of the vegetable creation,-itself a forest? | The majestic scenery of these gigantic groves was at the same time enlivened by the singular forms of some, and the surprising beauty of others of the inferior animals which possessed and peopled them. Although these will be more fully described in the sequel, a few observations which at present occur to me, will, I hope, be forgiven. If it be true, as it hath been asserted, that in most of the regions of the torrid zone the heat of the sun is, as it were, reflected in the untameable fierceness of their wild beasts, and in the exalted rage and venom of the numerous serpents with which they are infested, the Sovereign This monarch of the woods, whose empire extends over Asia and Africa, as well as the tropical parts of America, is described by our divine poet with great exactness : The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renown'd, High over arch'd, and echoing walks between! Paradise Lost, Book IX. It is called in the East Indies the banyan-tree. Mr. Marsden gives the following account of the dimensions of one near Manjee, twenty miles west of Patna in Bengal: Diameter, 363 to 375 feet; circumference of the shadow at noon, 1116 feet; circumference of the several stems, in number fifty or sixty, 921 feet. Hist. Sumatra, p. 131. Disposer of all things has regarded the islands of the West Indies with peculiar favour; inasmuch as their serpents are wholly destitute of poison, and they possess no animal of prey, to desolate their vallies. * I say this on the authority of Brown, Charlevoix, and Hughes, (ofwhom the first compiled the History of Jamaica, the second that of Hispaniola, and the last of Barbadoes),on the testimony of many gentlemen who have resided in several of the Windward islands-and on my own experience during a residence of eighteen years in Jamaica. In that time I neither knew nor heard of any person being hurt from the bite of any one species of the numerous snakes or lizards known in that island. Some of the snakes I have myself handled with perfect security. I conclude, therefore, (notwithstanding the contrary assertion of Du Tertre respecting Martinico and St. Lucia), that all the islands are providentially exempted from this evil. Nevertheless it must be admitted, that the circumstance is extraordinary; inasmuch as every part of the continent of America, but especially those provinces which lie under the equator, abound in a high degree with serpents, whose bite is mortal.-Mr. Bancroft, in his Account of Guiana, gives a dreadful list of such as are found in that extensive country; and, in speaking of one, of a species which he calls the small labarra, makes mention of a negro who was unfortunately bit by it in the finger. The negro had but just time to kill the snake, when his limbs became unable to support him, and he fell to the ground, and expired in less than five minutes.-Dr. Dancer, in his History of the Expedition from Jamaica to Fort Juan on the Lake of Nicaragua, in 1780, which he attended as physician, relates the following circumstance: A snake hanging from the bough of a tree bit one of the soldiers, as he passed along, just under the orbit of the left eye; from whence the poor man felt such intense pain, that he was unable to proceed; and when a messenger was sent to him a few hours afterwards, he was found dead, with all the symptoms of putrefaction, a yellowness and swelling over his whole body; and the eye near to which he was bitten, wholly dissolved. This circumstance was confirmed to me by Colonel Kemble, who commanded in chief on that expedition. It may not be useless to add, that those serpents which are venomous are furnished with fangs somewhat resembling the tusks of a boar: they are moveable, and inserted in the upper jaw. The crocodile, or alligator, is indeed sometimes discovered on the banks of their rivers; but notwithstanding all that has been said of its fierce and savage disposition, I pronounce it, from my own knowledge, a cautious and timid creature, avoiding, with the utmost precipitation, the approach of man. The rest of the lizard kind are perfectly innocent and inoffensive. Some of them are even fond of human society. They embellish our walks by their beauty, and court our attention by gentleness and frolic; but their kindness, I know not why, is returned by aversion and disgust. Anciently the woods of almost all the equatorial parts of America abounded with various tribes of the smaller monkey; a sportive and sagacious little creature, which the people of Europe seem likewise to have regarded with unmerited detestation; for they hunted them down with such barbarous assiduity, that in several of the islands every species of them has been long since exterminated. Of the feathered race too, many tribes have now nearly deserted those shores where polished man delights in spreading universal and capricious destruction. Among these, one of the most remarkable was the flamingo, an elegant and princely bird, as large as the swan, and arrayed in plumage of the brightest scarlet. Numerous, however, are the feathered kinds, deservedly distinguished by their splendour and beauty, that still animate these sylvan recesses. The parrot, and its various affinities, from the macaw to the parroquet, some of them not larger than a sparrow, are too well known to require description. These are as plentiful in the larger islands of the West Indies as the rook is in Europe. But the |