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* 'The village of St. Pierre ranks in size and importance 
next to that of St. Paul. It is built on a gentle slope, within 
half a mile of a commodious landing-place, formed by the 
mouth of the Rivière d^ Abord, and is furnished with bar- 
racks for three hundred men. I was less pleased with this 
village than with any that I had yet seen. The ground 
in its immediate vicinity is intolerably stony ; and the trees 
scattered through it are stunted in their growth, decayed at 
the top, and all inclined to one side, as if they had yielded 
to the impulse of a constant wind from the other. 
“ The acclivity of the mountain, reaching to the Plaine 
des Caffres, is in full cultivation, and yields to no part of 
the island in its crops of grain and coffee. This district is 
famed also for the peculiar excellence of its honey. The 
hives are made of the trunks of trees, artificially hol- 
lowed, and left in the woods, or placed near the slave- 
huts on the forest, with a swarm lodged in each. The bees 
range the forest at large, and collect their store from various 
Sorts of flowers, according to the season. But the green 
honey of St. Pierre is alleged to be the exclusive produce of 
a tree called by the Colonists * Tan rouge,’ (Weinmannia 
mellifera, C.) Were this, however, the case, all the honey 
in the island ought to possess similar qualities; as the Tan 
rouge is equally common in all parts of the forest. Be this 
as it may, the green honey is distinguished by a peculiarly 
Strong and agreeable odour, and by its imparting a green 
Colour to water in which it is diffused. 
* About twelve miles from St. Pierre, which we left early in 
the morning of the 16th, we came to a deep ravine, that 
forms the boundary of the district of St. Joseph. Here little 
of the ground has been cleared; and the proximity of the 
forest has a manifest influence on the appearance of vegeta- 
ton. A rank and luxuriant herbage, the result of frequent 
showers, and at this time loaded with the morning dew, gave 
@ peculiar freshness to the landscape. The m oat 
Opened on our view when we looked down upon the district 
of St. Joseph, is unquestionably the most picturesque in the 
Whole island; and we paused almost involuntarily to gaze on 
