MAN'S FOOTPRINTS. 271 



native plants. The others, on the contrary, endure 

 for a time according to circumstances, and are 

 sometimes found existing in abandoned settle- 

 ments for a long while after they have been 

 deserted. Now and again we come upon the 

 lime or citron growing in what a stranger would 

 call the virgin forest but what we know to be 

 " second growth." Once there was a clearing 

 here, but man relinquished his efforts to keep 

 nature in subjection, with the result that the 

 forest has resumed its sway, and will ultimately 

 smother every intruder; If the soil is wet this 

 result will be produced all the sooner, as hardly 

 any cultivated plants can endure flooding. In 

 congenial situations, however, where the land is 

 high and not too rich, they may live for a very 

 long time, getting hardier as years roll on but 

 becoming almost useless as fruit-bearers, only 

 serving to indicate that at some former period 

 an European settlement existed on the spot 



Coming down to a later period, we find that 

 useful plant the bamboo introduced from the East, 

 followed by the mango, bread-fruit, and a few others. 

 At that time the plantations were established 

 to the distance of about a hundred miles up the 

 principal rivers and almost the whole facade on 

 either bank was cleared of forest. Then the 



