1024 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



ver and Ihe. mountain, there is but are gready deficient; almost every 



little to excite a traveller's curiosity, tree and shrub is of artilirial cu). 



Tlie fort sc;.'nis to be the only object ture : and tlioiigli the prospect on 



on which any attention has been etery side is luxuriantly beautiful 



bestowed; it is large, handsomely in the humble walks and vegeta- 



built, and consists of four bastioDs, tion, yet tlie eye seeks in vain for 



on which are apparently very good the thick, dark, waving forests, 



brass cannon. Another bastion is which in North America are regard - 



begun on the land side, and when ed but as natural evils to obstruct 



that is finished the fosse is to be ex- the labour of the industrious agri- 



tended a much longer way than cuifurist, but which here would be 



at present on terra firina. I h ire valued alike for their novelty and 



not much opinion of thes(rengih of beauty, and what is more for their 



tliis fort, or the force that might utility, without being subject to 



be collected to withstand any deter- the destroying axe, or more destruc- 



mined attack of the JJritish arms, tire firebrand. The Spaniards are 



It may, and I doubt not would, re- not fond enough of ;.^riculturc to 



sist any efi'ort of the Portuguese deprive themselves of shade : on the 



or native Indians; but they would contrary, tiicy have laboured to the 



not find it so easy a matter to repulse best of their abilities to supjily this 



a select body of Kngiiih soldiers and great natural defect : nor have tiiey 



sailors, determined upon conquest. laboured in vain, so favourable is 



" The church is thenext principal this soil to the band of cultivation ; 



building; it is large and clean, but and groves of almost every kind of 



has nothing remarkable about it; tree or shrub that could be imported 



the houses, many of which lie scat- now nod at one another in a very 



tered about in a very irregular man- ])lcaF-ing, though not very pictu- 



uer, with very pleasing gardens and resque, manner : atleastitappears so 



little plantations attached to them, to-' my prejudiced taste. Another 



are all low and uieanly built, very traveller might think and writ« 



widely ditVcrcnt ; but what others 

 think of a scene or a subject 



1 



few being higher than the ground 

 floor ; but their tiled tops, with the 

 green trees waving over them, have, 

 taken altogether, rather a pretty 

 eli'ect. 



never has nor ever Avill influence my 

 pen. 



" I am no draftsman ; but I have 

 "The country round has nothing taken a view of MoTite Video from 

 interesting, being, I am told, one the most favourable spot I could 



continued j^lain every way for ma- 

 ny hundreds of miles; and must 

 therefore, appear with peculiar dis- 

 advantage to me, who have been so 

 long accustomed to the rising 

 hills and majestic mountains of 

 the northern continent : and 

 forlMonte Video itself, 1 crin corn- 



select, and remit it for your edifica- 

 tion. I am only sorry the subject 

 is not more engaging. 



"Captain II requested permis- 

 sion to lodge us in the house of a 

 wine-mercliant whom he had known 

 at the Canaries, which place his 

 friend left about two years since, to 

 pare it to nothing but a solitary settle at Monte Video. The re- 

 rock in the middle of the Pacific quest was granted, and 1 was re- 

 Ocean. lu native w oods, too, they ccivcd with great hospitality. My 



uot 



