BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 41 



the improvement of the ifland, by publifliing a weeklj' eiTay under 

 the title of I'he Phmter, which was fupported for a coufiderable 

 time in a lively, entertaining manner. In a garden belonging ta 



Mrs. T s, in this town, are two trees called baobab, or the 



great-cotton, defcribcd by Adanfon, in his account of Guiney, 

 from wlience the feeds were brought and planted here. Some call 

 this likewife the capot tree ; of vvhich fpecies Bofman relates, that 

 he has feen fome capable, with their fpreading boughs, of fliading 

 twenty thouland men, if ranged clofe ; and fo tall, that a mufquet 

 fliot could hardly reach the top. At Axim, there is faid to be 

 one which ten men could not grafp ; and, in Prince's iiland, 

 another, the trunk of which could not be iurrounded by four and, 

 twenty men, their arms at full ftretch: not that the body itfelf 

 is fo enormous ; but the fprouts adhere in fuch a manner as to feem 

 to form one uniform trunk. The wood is light and porous, 

 fcarcely fit for any other ufe than making canoes. The tree bears 

 a fpecies of cotton, u(ed in Guiney by the European fadlors for 

 ituffing beds, inftead of feathers. Thcfe in Spanifh Town are as 

 yet of only a moderate bulk ; but, if they fliould fpread in time 

 into the diameter reported by thefe authors, they will require much 

 more room than has been allotted to them. The bark and leaves 

 are faid to poffefs fome virtues in the cure of fevers. And they 

 deferve to be propagated ; but the befl fcite would be the rich bank 

 of fome rivex-. 



PaflagelFort, formerly called The Pafllige, from its being the 

 place of embarkation for Port-Royal, is fituated on the Weft fids 

 of the harbour, about three quarters of a mile from the mouth of 

 the Cobre,_andiixfrQm Spaniili Town. Tf'u'as once defended by 

 a fmall fort, of ten or twelve guns, which has long fince been 

 demolifhed. It is at prefent a fmall village, confifling of about 

 fifteen houfes, chiefly inhabited by wharfingers, warehoufe-keepers, 

 and the mafters of wherries and hackney- chaifes, which conflantly 

 ply here with paflengers to and from the towns. Thefe wherries 

 generally put off" from Pafl'age Fort from fix to feven o'clock in the 

 morning, before the fca-breeze fets in, and are favoured with a 

 gentle land-wind. On their return, they go direftly before the 

 breeze, which fometimes blows up the harbour with great violence. 

 Vol. II. G They 



