Fancy with fo bright and rapturous a glee as the greatest Philosopher had scarce ever yet the happiness to be touch'd with! In fhort, the finest Pencil dare not presume to paint out in Perfection fo lovely a Landskip, if I may be allowed the term. I do not think I ever faw there, one fingle Day, which was entirely free from Clouds; for there were always fome few to be observed towards the Evening of the very clearest, if not fooner. 2. My Friend from Chianne (which is about eight miles diftant from Baffe Terre) according to promise met and dined with me there, before we fet forwards for his House. At first we rode thorough many Sugar Plantations, till we came to the thick Woods, where now and then we paffed by a small Cotton Settlement, whose humble and temperate Poffeffor (Hermit like) lived by vertue of his own and three or four Slaves Labour, with far truer fatisfaction in his lonely Retirement, than can be found in stately Palaces, or in the most extravagant and luxurious Cities, where (to use Milton's Phrafe, book i, line 496.) The noife Of Riot afcends above their loftiest Towers, Cotton is a Shrub two yards high or better, that bears a fine Yellow Flower shaped like a Bell: When this Flower drops off, it is fucceeded by a darkish green, round, and tough Pod, of the fize of a common Walnut: The Pod, as foon as ripe, bursts open in ftrait lines that are feamed from top to bottom, in three or four several places at an equal distance, expofing the white Cotton, which is then gathered by Negroes. (N. B. I fpeak of common Cotton, for in fome kinds of it the Pods are longish.) 3. We were delightfully ferenaded all along quite thorough these Woods by an infinite number of Turtle Doves, whofe foft notes or cooing joined to the Verdure and Bloom of the Earth, Bushes, and Trees, put me in mind of that pasfage in Canticles, (viz. chap. ii. ver. 11, 12, 13.) Lo the Winter is paft, the Rain is over and gone: the Flowers appear on the Earth, the time of finging of Birds is come, and the voice of the Turtle is beard in our Land: The Fig-tree putteth forth her green Figs, and the Vines with their tender Grape give a good smell. To add to our pleasure, the Sea, at half a mile's diftance, beat gently against the Rocks, caufing fuch eafy Murmurs, as were enough to lull to fleep any one who was fo inclined. These with a fight of the Conorrhee Hills, towards which we drew near apace (and whose vast Rocks yielded Shrubs, Corritoes, and other other Plants of the Alloes kind) afforded us a quite different prospect from that of the Morning. 4. The Sun began now to peep out from under a Cloud; and indeed it foon fhone fo very warmly, that we made what hafte we could to a deep Gill near to the Conorrhee Hills, that runs upwards from the Sea shore about two hours travel. This Gill is large, and grows fteeper, the higher we go up from the Sea, being plentifully stocked with Palmetto or Wild Palm, (I never saw above two bearing Palm-trees; they were bigger than my Body and thirty foot tall, but had bore no Dates then) Piemento, Caffia Fiftula, Gum Alymnae, and other fragrant Trees, and Ever-greens, from top to bottom, which tèrminated at the Sea-fide with a long Grove of Manchineal Apple-trees. N. B. Our Trees are all Ever-greens; for as fast as one Leaf drops off another fucceeds it. Palmetto is much finaller but resembles nearly the bearing Palm-tree, which is exactly as we find it drawn out, and described by Authors. Piemento is the Tree that yields Jamaica Pepper, alias All-fpice; its Leaves can scarce be distinguished from Bay-leaves, though of a much stronger aromatick smell: We there at Christmas, ufually adorn our Churches with small Boughs of it, the Fruit being then green upon them, just as your English Churches here are decked with Holly and and Ivy at that facred Seafon; in a rich Soil it will grow to be fixty foot high; vide Woods Rogers's account of Juan Fernandez (an Island in the South Sea) whofe Words in page 129, are as follow, viz. Piemento Trees are plenty here, and we fee some of fixty foot high and about two yards thick; and Cotton Trees higher, and near four fathom round in the Stock. N. B. That at Nevis we have Cotton Trees of the fame fort, and not much less in circumference of Body; but as they yield little Cotton, and are so very tall, we content ourselves with gathering Cotton from the Shrub only, as mentioned in paragraph the second of this Letter, Caffia Fiftula is a ftrait-bodied Tree, thirty foot high, with spreading Branches, from which hang the Pods, that are of a dark brown colour, and about a foot long each; it is not unlike a Sycamore. Gum Alymnae is a very large-bodied Tree that is at least forty foot high, and the Gum oozes or distills thorough the Bark like Rofin, for about three or four yards upwards from the bottom of the Tree all around it, which puts me in mind of Milton's Description of the Trees of Paradife, book iv. line 248. viz. Groves whofe rich Trees wept odorous Gums and Balm. The Manchineal is like our English dwarf Appletree; its Leaves, in Colour, Shape and Bigness, are much the fame with English Pear-tree Leaves, but but with a very thin glutinous matter about both Sides of the Leaf: If a Leaf touches our Cheek, in riding along the Road by them, I know experimentally that it will raise an immediate Blifter which ends in a Scab; break a Bough, and there iffues out a milk-white Water, that is ftill more poisonous: the Fruit is much ranker Poison yet. The Fruit is of the fize and fhape and smell of an English Crab. 5. We travelled up the Gill or Gully about two hundred yards, and then fate down in a cool Shade, upon the moffy Banks of a very little but exceedingly transparent River, that ran the whole length of it quite down to the Sea, regaling our felves with fome of the sweetest Water I ever drank; where we indulged our Souls with foothing discourse upon the Happiness of a retired state of life, concluding that we wanted nothing just then to render the place a moft delicious Paradise, but each of us a fair Eve, and a fmall Cottage. 6. Upon discovering from thence thorough the Boughs of the Trees two large Ships pafs by towards the Island of Euftachia, I could not help repeating out of Milton, book iv. line 159. As when to them who fail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are paft Of |