Volcanic Mountain in St. Vincent's. iq 



furprifed when one of the negroes I had with me told me, it 

 was the habitation of a Mr. Gasco, a Frenchman. What 

 could induce a ftout healthy man in the prime of life, and a 

 good mechanick, with feveral negroes, to take up his refidence 

 among rocks and precipices, excluded from the whole world, 

 is a my fiery to me. Befides, by ev^cry torrent of rain that 

 happens, he may expe6t hlmfelf and all his habitation to be 

 wafhed over the rocks into the ocean. Notwithftanding his 

 fingular fituation, I found him an intelligent man^ and I expe- 

 rienced every hofpitality his poor cottage could afford. 



The difficulty of going through woods in the Weft Indies, 

 where there are no roads or paths, is far beyond any thing an 

 European can conceive. Befides tall trees and thick under- 

 wood, there are hundreds of different climbing plants twifted 

 together like ropes, and running in all diredions to a great ex* 

 tent, and even to the tops of the higheft trees ; by pufhing on 

 they cannot be broke, and many of them with difficulty cut ; 

 befides a fpecies of grafs, the Schoenus Lithofpermos, with fer- 

 rated leaves, that cuts and tears the hands and face terribly. 

 With fuch obftruclions as thefe it was above two hours before 

 we got on the ridge, where I was in hopes our paffage would 

 have been eafier ; but I foon found my miftake, for I was fur- 

 rounded with a thick foreft, much more difficult to get through 

 than before, on account of the large piles of trees broken down 

 by the hurricanes, to pafs which in many parts we were obliged 

 to creep on our hands and feet to get below them, and in other 

 places to climb a great height above the furface of the ground, 

 to get over large trunks lying on one another, and thefe being 

 frequently rotten, occafioned us to tumble headlong down to a 

 great depth, among rotten wood and grafs, fo that it was with 

 great difficulty I and the negroes could extricate ourfelves. By 



D 2 con- 



