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ends. He says that the foliage is of a dirty-green colour. 

 Thei'e are those, however, who would dispute this point with 

 him, and maintain, on the contrary, that tropical scenery 

 exhibits a greater variety of tints than that of temperate 

 regions. The foliage of all trees becomes darker the longer 

 it stands; and as the young leaves are pushing off the old 

 throughout the year, there is a constant variety of shades, 

 from a glowing yellow or purple, to a dark green. This is 

 the beautiful in landscape, so far as depends on foliage. The 

 Europaean partakes more of the sublime. The periodical 

 decay of the whole vegetable world impresses the mind with 

 a sentiment of melancholy; and would be felt by a native 

 of a tropical climate, on seeing it for the first time, with some- 

 what of the same sensation as if he had passed over a 

 country whose population had been swept off by a pes- 

 tilence. 



" Port-Louis appears to be the outline of an extensive and 

 magnificent plan, commenced in a hurry, and relinquished 

 with precipitation. Spacious magazines, the foundation of 

 which is built of stone, the superstructure of wood ; — strong 

 batteries for the protection of the town, without any accom- 

 modation for troops to defend them; — lines of defence, in 

 some parts twenty feet high, and rivetted with hewn stone, 

 in others a mere earthen embankment, incompetent to check 

 either men or cattle; — a piece of ground enclosed for barracks, 

 where eight or ten thousand troops might be accommodated, 

 but which barelj' serves to lodge a couple of regiments ; — an 

 hospital for the reception of several hundred patients; — the 

 foundation, in cut stone, of an extensive encampment for 

 Government slaves, but never covered in ; — a foundry for 

 casting cannon; — a mill for manufacturing gunpowder; — 

 cast-iron pipes for transmitting water from the distance of two 

 miles to the town, but never put to use; — a spacious cathedral 

 half finished, and now in ruins; — a lyceum without either 

 masters or pupils; — an extensive botanical garden, for rear- 

 ing and distributintj the useful and ornamental exotics of 

 tropical climates, but which has degenerated into a spice- 

 plantation for the emolument of the gardener. Such are 



