620 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



projecting part of the deck which 

 covers the wheel in an Indiaman, 

 or hung over the stern ; but, in 

 that case, they must be covered 

 with a tarpauhn, or painted can- 

 vas. 



Seeds ought to be kept in a cool 

 dry place, and never put below in 

 the gun-room, hold, or lower 

 deck. 



Roots ought to be packed in dry 

 sand, after being moderately dried, 

 and dispatched in any ship that 

 sails about the close of the year. 



Account of the Mahogany Tree, 

 and of the cutting thereof at 

 Honduras. 



[From CaptaSn Henderson's Account of 

 the British Settlement of Honduras.] 



There are two seasons in the 

 year for cutting of nriahogany : 

 the first commencing shortly after 

 Christmas, or at the conclusion of 

 what is termed the Wet Season, the 

 other about the middle of the year. 

 At such periods all is activity; and 

 the falling of trees, or the truckling 

 out those that have been fallen, 

 form the chief employments. Some 

 of the wood is rough-squared on 

 the spot, but this part of the labour 

 is generally suspended until the 

 Jogs are rafted to the entrance of 

 the different rivers. These rafts 

 often consist of more than two 

 hundred logs, and are floated as 

 many miles. AVhen the floods are 

 unusually rapid, it very frequently 

 happens, that the labour of a sea- 

 son, or perhaps of many, is at once 

 destroyed by the breaking asunder 

 of a raft, and the whole of the ma- 

 hogany being hurried precipitately 

 to the sea. 



The gangs of negroes employed 



in this work consist of from ten 

 to fifty each ; few exceed the lat- 

 ter number. The large bodies are 

 commonly divided into several 

 small ones, a plan which, it is 

 supposed, greatly facilitates la- 

 bour. 



Each gang of slaves has one be- 

 longing to it, who is styled the 

 Huntsman. He is generally se- 

 lected from the most intelligent 

 of his fellows, and his chief occu- 

 pation is to search the woods, or, 

 as in this country it is termed, the 

 Bush, to find labour for the whole. 

 A negro of this description is often 

 valued at more than five hundred 

 pounds. 



About the beginning of August 

 the huntsman is dispatched on his 

 errand ; and if his owner be work- 

 ing on his own ground, this is 

 seldom an employment of much 

 delay or difficulty. He cuts his 

 way through the thickest of the 

 woods to the highest spots, and 

 climbs the tallest tree he finds, 

 from which he minutely surveys 

 the surrounding country. At this 

 season the leaves of the mahogany 

 tree are invariably of a yellow red- 

 dish hue, and an eye accustomed 

 to this kind of exercise can disco- 

 ver, at a great distance, the places 

 where the wood is most abundant. 

 He now descends, and to such 

 places his steps are directed ; and 

 without compass, or other guide 

 than what observation has im- 

 printed on his recollection, he ne- 

 ver fails to reach the exact point 

 to which he aims. 



It not unfrequently happens, 

 when the huntsman has been par- 

 ticularly successful in this journey 

 of discovery, in finding a large 

 body of wood in some remote cor- 

 ner, that it becomes a contest with 



