46 THE CBUISE OF TEE 'CUBAQOA: 



duces annually 130 tuns of oil at 22/. or 23/. a tun, payable 

 in silver coin or merchandise. Soap and white calico are 

 the articles most in request by the females, who are so 

 cleanly that they are always busy washing. 



Mr. Powell conductetl us to the shore. On our way I 

 picked up several land shells, one of which was veiy pretty. 

 My attention was called to the Tutui or candle-nut [Aleurites 

 triloba), which grows naturally in the island, and the 

 cotton plant under cultivation, which seemed to me to be 

 well grown. There is said to be a great variety of 

 wood exceedingly well adapted for wheelwright work and 

 carpentry, which was formerly used by the natives for 

 making their weapons, that are now laid aside for ours. 

 On the sides of our road grew an Asclepia, with flowers 

 of a reddish orange tint, with fruit full of a white and 

 shining silk-like substance, of the same species, it seemed to 

 me, as that which is so common in India, China, and 

 Hawaii. Musquitoes, which are abundant here, very much 

 annoyed us in our walk. I saw two white birds flying very 

 high over a valley, which I took for hawks, but which the 

 missionary asserted were terns. 



The next day, in tlie morning early, I again went on 

 shore, accompanied on this occasion by Messrs. Foljambe 

 and Veitch, with tlie intention of crossing the island to visit 

 Massacre Bay. We stopped a moment at the missionary's, 

 who was good enough to provide us with two stout natives 

 and a young boy as guides. After passing through some 

 brushwood, we crossed a brook in which women were busy 



