APPENDIX.] THE MAROONS. 385 



race of men, like the ancient Americans - y but a ban- 

 ditti of assassins: and tenderness towards such an ene- 

 my, was cruelty to all the rest of the community. 



Happily, in the interval between the determination 

 of the assembly to procure the Spanish dogs, and the 

 actual arrival of those auxiliaries from Cuba, such 

 measures were pursued as promised to render their 

 assistance altogether unnecessary. On the death of 

 colonel. Fitch, the chief conduct of the war, in the 

 absence of the governor, was entrusted to major ge- 

 neral Walpole, an officer whose indefatigable zeal 

 and alacrity, whose gallantry, circumspection, and 

 activity, in a very short time gave a new aspect to 

 affairs, and reduced the enemy to the last extremity. 

 Although the country to which the Maroons retired, 

 was perhaps the strongest and mr>st impracticable of 

 any on the face of the earth, it was -entirely destitute 

 of springs and rivers. All the water which the rains 

 had left in the hollows of the rocks was exhausted, 

 and the enemy's only resource was in the leaves of 

 the wild pine; a wonderful contrivance, by which 

 Divine Providence has rendered the sterile and rocky 

 desarts of the torrid zone in some degree habitable:* 



* The botanical name is Tillaudsia maxima. Iris nor, properly speak- 

 ing, a tree, but a plant, which fixes itself and takes root on the body of 

 a tree, commonly in the foi k. of the greater branches of the wild cotton 

 tree. By the conformation of its leaves, it catches and retains water from 

 every shower. Each -leaf resembles a spout, and forms at its base a na- 

 tural bucket or reservoir, which contains about a quart of pure water, 

 where it remains perfectly secure, both from the wind and the sun ; yield- 

 ing refreshment to the thirsty traveller in places where water is not other- 

 wise to be procured. 



Vol. I. 



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