148 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



been certain of its quality, have been worth 1000/. 

 Mahogany of remarkable fineness is very costly, as 

 we shall shew when we come to speak of fancy-woods. 



As is the case with much other timber, the finest 

 mahogany trees, both for size and quality, are not in 

 the most accessible situations ; and as it is always 

 imported in large masses, the transportation of it for 

 any distance overland is so difficult, that the verjbest 

 trees, both on the islands and on the main land — 

 those that grow in the rich inland vallies — defy the 

 means of removal possessed by the natives. Masses 

 of from six to eight tons are not very easily moved in 

 any country ; and in a mountainous and rocky one, 

 where much attention is not paid to mechanical 

 power, to move them is impossible. In Cuba, the 

 inhabitants have neitlier enterprise nor skill adequate 

 to felling the mahogany trees, and transporting them 

 to the shore ; and thus the finest timber remains 

 unused. 



The discovery of this beautiful timber was accidental, 

 and its introduction into notice was slow. The first 

 mention of it is that it was used in the repair of some 

 of Sir Walter Raleigh's ships, at Trinidad, in 1597. 

 Its finely-variegated tints were admired; but in that 

 age the dream of El Dorado caused matters of more 

 value to be neglected. The first that was brought to 

 England was about the beginning of last century ; 

 a few planks having been sent to Dr. Gibbons, of 

 London, by a brother who was a West India cap- 

 tain. The Doctor was erecting a house in King- 

 street, Covent Garden, and gave the planks to the 

 workmen, who rejected it as being too hard. The Doc- 

 tor's cabinet-maker, named WoUaston, was employed 

 to make a candle-box of it, and as he was sawing up 

 the plank he also complained of the hardness of the 

 timber. But when the candle-box was finished, it out- 

 shone in beauty all the Doctor's other fiirniture, and 



