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imported into Great Britain is derived from the Honduras, 

 where it is unquestionably produced in most abundance, and 

 where it constitutes so important an article of trade that I 

 could not but feel anxious to procure information from the / 

 West India merchants of this country respecting the mode 

 of its being cut, and its transportation. It is to James 

 Ewing, Esq. LL.D. of Glasgow, — a gentleman who unites to 

 the most extensive commercial engagements such a love of 

 literature and the arts as is rarely combined in the same 

 individual, — that I owe the following interesting history of the 

 mahogany trade ; which I think my readers will thank me 

 for making generally known, and which Mr. Ewing had ex- 

 tracted in a measure from the Honduras Almanack for 1827- 



The first discovery of the beauty of mahogany wood is 

 attributed to the carpenter on board Sir Walter Raleigh's 

 ship, at the time that vessel lay in some harbour in the Island 

 of Trinidad, in 1595. Dr. Gibbons brought it into notice in 

 England. He was an eminent physician about the end of the 

 17th or beginning of the 18th century ; and a box for hold- 

 ing candles, and then a bureau, made of a block of mahogany, 

 were given to him by his brother, a West Indian captain. 



At Honduras, a period of two hundred years is considered 

 to be necessary from the time of the plant springing from seed 

 to that of its perfection and fitness for cutting ; an opera- 

 tion which commences about the month of August. The gangs 

 of labourers employed in this work consist of from twenty to 

 fifty each ; but few exceed the latter number. They are com- 

 posed of slaves and free persons, without any comparative 

 distinction of rank ; and it very frequently occurs that the 

 conductor of such work, here styled the captain, is a slave. 

 Each gang has also one person belonging to it, termed the 

 Huntsman, who is generally selected from the most intelli- 

 gent of his fellows ; and his chief occupation is to search the 

 woods, or, as it is called in this country, the bush, to find cm- 



