1774« ROUND THE WORLD. 59 



eight or ten yards square ; and near it were some fig- 

 trees, which spread their branches over a part of it, 

 and seemed to like their situation. We thought that 

 this extraordinary heat was caused by the steam of 

 boiling water, strongly impregnated with sulphur. I 

 was told that some of the other places were larger 

 than this ; though we did not go out of the road to 

 look at them, but proceeded up the hill through a 

 country so covered with trees, shrubs, and plants, 

 that the bread-fruit and cocoa-nut trees, which seem 

 to have been planted here by nature, were in a man- 

 ner choked up. Here and there we met with a 

 house, some few people, and plantations. These 

 latter we found in different states ; some of long 

 standing ; others lately cleared ; and some only clear- 

 ing, and before any thing had been planted. The 

 clearing a piece of ground for a plantation seemed to 

 be a work of much labour, considering the tools they 

 had to work with, which, though much inferior to 

 those at the Society Jsles, are of the same kind. 

 Their method is, however, judicious, and as expe- 

 ditious as it can well be. They lop off the small 

 branches of the large trees, dig under the roots, and 

 there burn the branches and small shrubs and plants 

 which they root up. The soil, in some parts, is a 

 rich black mould ; in other parts, it seemed to be 

 composed of decayed vegetables, and of the ashes 

 the volcano sends forth throughout all its neighbour- 

 hood. Happening to turn out of the common path, 

 we came into a plantation, where we found a man at 

 work, who, either out of good-nature, or to get us 

 the sooner out of his territories, undertook to be our 

 guide. We followed him accordingly, but had not 

 gone far before we came to the junction of two roads, 

 in one of which stood another man with a sling and a 

 stone, which he thought proper to lay down when a 

 musket was pointed at him. The attitude in which 

 we found him, the ferocity appearing in his looks, 

 and his behaviour after, convinced us that he meant 



