OP LA PEROUSE. 339 



met with feveral which paffcd within a little 

 difiance of me, flying with velocity. 



When I had afcended to ahout three hundred 

 meters of perpendicular elevation, I obferved a 

 total change in the nature of the foil. Strata of 

 calcareous Hones, of great purity, and perfectly 

 white, crowned thefe heights, which then af- 

 forded me a fight of a great extent of tolerably 

 level ground. 



I remarked here a garden furrounded by bam- 

 boo palifades, which was extremely well culti- 

 vatcdj although at a great diftance from any ha- 

 bitation : I could perceive no poflible means of 

 watering it, and yet vegetation was there very vi- 

 gorous, fo great was the humidity of the atmo- 

 spheric air in thefe elevated fpots, Vaft fquare 

 plots of ground were employed in the culture 

 of a fpecies of pimento called capjiewn groffum, 

 which the iflanders confume in great quantities. 



A fmall fhed, erected on the weft fide of the 

 garden, offered us a fhelter; under it my 

 s guides, who were dying with thirft, found fome 

 very good water in long bamboos, which I imagined 

 were intended for a very different purpofe : this 

 water had been brought from the foot of the 

 mountain, and we made ufe of it as if it had 

 been our own. 



Although it was exceflively hot, they took it 

 into their head to kindle a fire. I was far from 



z z fore- 



