64 BLUEFIELDS. 



without including the very small ones, all closely 

 packed together in masses that could be stripped 

 bodily from the rock. 



Just on the very brow of the mountain is a small 

 plantation devoted chiefly to the Pimento or Allspice. 

 At this time, the beginning of February, the groves 

 were thickly covered with the green unripe berries, 

 just fit to be gathered and dried for exportation ; 

 and accordingly a group of children were stationed 

 around each tree, one of whom plucked the loaded 

 twigs, from which the rest stripped the berries. 

 Every part of this elegant tree is aromatic ; the 

 wood, the blossoms, the fruit, the leaves ; but the 

 seeds are especially hot in the mouth. The berries, 

 if suffered to ripen, become black, pulpy, and sweet, 

 retaining very little of their spicy character. Many 

 birds eat them when in this condition ; but even in 

 the unripe state, as when I first visited these moun- 

 tain-groves, they presented temptations to some. 

 Flocks of green Parrots and Parroquets were shooting 

 from tree to tree, screaming discordantly as they 

 went, but, with the characteristic intelligence of the 

 tribe, as quiet as mice the moment they had alighted, 

 that no sound might betray their presence, so well 

 concealed by the greenness of their plumage, while 

 they luxuriously fed upon the aromatic berries. The 

 planter, however, was warily marking them with his 

 fowling-piece, and at the instant of my passing, he 

 brought down a beautiful Yellow-billed Parrot {Psit- 

 tacics leucocephalus), which he politely presented to 

 me. The Solitaire {Ptilogonys armillatus), too, and 

 the Glass-eye {Merula Jamaicensis), both of which, 



