174 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



him to fome part of the iiland, where there were 

 objefls to diflipate his melancholy. For this pur- 

 pofe, I condufted him to the inhabited heights of 

 the quarter of Williams, where he had never been 

 before. Agriculture and commerce then fpread 

 much buflle and variety over this ifland. There 

 were many companies of carpenters, who fquaied 

 the trees into logs, and others who were fawing 

 them into planks : carriages came and went along 

 the roads : large flocks of oxen and horfes fed in 

 the extenlive paftures, and the fields were filled 

 with habitations. The elevation of the foil, in fe- 

 veral places, admitted of the cultivation of many 

 kinds of European vegetables. You might fee, 

 here and there, harvefts of corn in the plain, beds 

 of ftrawberries in the openings of the woods, and 

 hedges of rofe-trees along the highway. The cool- 

 nefs of the air, by giving tenfion to the nerves, 

 was even favourable to the health of the whites. 

 From thefe heights, fituated in the middle of the 

 ifland, and furrounded with thick woods, you can 

 difcover neither the Sea, nor Port-Louis, nor the 

 church of PamplemoufTes, nor any thing which 

 could recal to Paulas mind the remembrance of 

 Virginia. The very mountains, which prefent dif- 

 ferent branches on the fide of Port- Louis, offer 

 nothing to view on the fide of Williams-Plain, but 

 a long promontory, in a ftraight and perpendicular 

 line, out of which many lofty pyramids of rocks 



elevate 



