﻿OF HINZUAN, OR JOHANNA. 79 



tinct view of it could hardly have been exhibited by 

 the best pencil : you must, therefore, be satisfied 

 with a mere description, written on the very spot, 

 and compared attentively with the natural landscape. 

 We were at anchor in a fine bay, and before us was 

 a vast amphitheatre, of which you may form a ge- 

 neral notion by picturing in your minds a multi- 

 tude of hills infinitely varied in size and figure, and 

 then supposing them to be thrown together, with a 

 kind of artless symmetry, in all imaginable posi- 

 tions. The back ground was a series of moun- 

 tains, one of which is pointed, near half a mile 

 perpendicularly high from the level of the sea, and 

 little more than three miles from the shore : all of 

 them were richly clothed with wood, chiefly fruit- 

 trees, of an exquisite verdure. I had seen many a 

 mountain of a stupendous height in Wales and 

 SwisserlanJy but never saw one before, round the 

 bosom of which the clouds were almost continu- 

 allv rolling, while its green summit rose flourishing 

 above them, and received from them an additional 

 brightness. Next to this distant range of hills was 

 another tier, part of which appeared charmingly 

 verdant, and part rather barren ; but the contrast 

 of colours cH.nged even this nakedness into a 

 beauty. Nearer still were innumerable mountains* 

 or rather cliffs, which brought down their verdure' 

 and fertility quite to the beach ; so that every shade 

 of green, the sweetest of colours, was displayed at 

 one view by land and by water. But nothing con- 

 duced mere to the variety of this enchanting pros- 

 pect, than the many rows of palm-trees, especi- 

 ally the tall and graceful Arecas on the shores, in 

 the valleys, and on the ridges of hills, where one 

 might almost suppose them to have been planted 

 regularly" by design. A more beautiful appearance 

 can scarce be conceived, than such a number of ele- 

 gant palms in such a situation, with luxuriant tops, 

 ke verdant plumes, placed at just intervals, and 



