MISCELLANIES. 



631 



that support it must be lopped, to 

 pievent tlieir shade from injuring 

 the fiuit. 



The betel is a species of this 

 geiius. It is a climbing; and cieep- 

 ing plant like ivy : and its leaves 

 a good deal resemble those of the 

 citron, though they are longer 

 and narrower at the extremity. 

 It grows in all parts of India, 

 but thrives best in moist places ; 

 the natives cultivate it as we do 

 the vine, pkcing props for it to 

 run and climb upon ; and it is a 

 common practice to plant it against 

 the tree th:it bears the areca nut. 



Fruits areplentifulon th.is beau- 

 tiful island ; the pine-apple grows 

 wild, while shaddocks, plantains, 

 jack-fruit, oranges, lemons, &c. 

 are reared with the greatest case. 



Though Prince of Wales s Is- 

 land exports very little of its own 

 productions, except pepper and 

 wood, yet there is a very con- 

 siderable trade carried on here, 

 from its being in a central situa- 

 tion betv,-een India, China, and 

 the Eastern Islands. 



The merchants take advantage 

 of the fleets passing and repassing, 

 to export to China, cic. opium, 

 betel, pepper, tin, rattans, and 

 various otlier articles which they 

 have already collected ; and for 

 ■which they receive either dollars, 

 or the productions of China, and 

 the Eastern Isles, which they 

 afterwards ship off to India, or 

 send home to Europe, whichever 

 they may find most advantageous. 



THE PLAGUE. 



(From Narrative of a ten Years Residence 

 in Tripoli.) 



^pril 17'85. 

 Ik the last fevv weeks several 



couriers have crossed the deserts 

 from Tunis to this city, dissemi- 

 nating the plague in their way ; 

 and consequently the country 

 round us is every where infected. 

 Even the Moors now allow it ; 

 but their precautions are rendered 

 useless by not continuing them ; 

 for though from circumstances 

 they are induced at one moment 

 to check an indiscriminate in- 

 tercourse between the sick and 

 healthy, they give way to it the 

 next. 



May 28, 1785. 



The prime minister, Mustapha 

 Serivan's house is at present as 

 much in a state of quarantine as 

 he can put it, consistent with the 

 ideas of the Moors; yet he will 

 not admit to any one, nor to the 

 Bashaw, the necessity of taking 

 precautions at the castle, where 

 he alleges sovereignty is the 

 greatest shield, and whence he 

 saj's it is necessary to give the 

 Moors an example, not to try to 

 resist the hand of fate. 



It is against the Mussulman's 

 faith to nundjer the dead, they 

 aj'e not, theiefore, exactly aware 

 of the increasing mortality : but 

 the castle is much infected ; one 

 of the princesses, a child of six 

 years old, died two days since, and 

 one of the three remaining queens 

 of the last sovereign was buried 

 to-day. By the Bashaw's orders, 

 her funeral was attended by se- 

 veral of th; ofnccrs of state, and 

 by four black slaves, freed by him 

 in compliment to this relict of his 

 father: she was buried in very rich 

 clotiics, and with all the jewels 

 found in her possession. The 

 four cnfrancliised slaves who fol- 

 lowed her were worth about four 

 hundred pounds; they cost from 



five 



