een 
93 
ATrne and Exaé Hiftory | 
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Pot hire hae ae 
| would never have been fit for it 5 befides,we have no brakes growing 
you (hall find a Cave large enough to hold 500 men, and the mouth 
of it. cover'd with a greencurtain, 40 foot high, and 200 foot long 5 
and fo clofe a Curtaine it is(the vines being wrapt and interwove one 
into another) as without putting it afide, you can hardly have light to 
read by. 3 
Thele Caves are very frequent inthe Ifland, and of feveral dimen 
fions, fome {mall , others extreamly large and Capacious: The run- 
away. Negres , often-fhelter themfelves in thefle Coverts, for a lon 
time, and in the night range abroad the Countrey, and fteale Pigs , 
Plantins, Potatoes, and Pullin, and bring it there; and feaft all day, 
upon what they ftole the night before; and the nights being dark,and 
their bodies black, they {cape undifcern’d. 
Thete is nothing in that Countrey fo ufeful as Liam Hounds, to 
find out thefe Thieves. I have gone into divers of thofe Caves,to try- 
what kind of ayreis tobe found there; and have felt it fo clofe , and 
moylt withall, as my breath was neer ftopt; and I do believe, if I 
ou i -one night, IE fhould never come ont a= 
I have often wondred, why fuch vaft Caves and Rocks fhould not 
afford fome fprings of water, the ayre which touches them, being {6. 
very moyi{t; for we fee in Evgland, where Rocks are,Springs of water 
iflue outs and fometimes (when wet weather is) the moyfture hangs. 
upon the Rocksin CHOP fo runs down, atic fice y to vent it 
felf into {mall bibling Springs >but ‘here it does not fo , though the 
Ayre be much moyfter than in Exgland : But certainly the reafon is, 
the extraordinary drinefs, and fpunginefS of the Stone, which} 
fucks up all moyfture that touches it; and yet it is never fait 
8 Pee . SER aa ea eo ae 
Thad it in my thoughts, to make an Effay, what Sir Francis Bacons 
éxperiment folitarie, touching the making of Artificial Springs would 
do ; but troughs ofthat f{tone, being of fo dry and fpungy a quality, 
there, which is one of the matetials usd in that expetirient. 5 
| Another fort of Withs we have, but they are made of the gum of — 
trees, which falls from the boughs drop after drop, one hanging by | 
another, tillthey touch ground; from whence they receive fome nou- 
rifhment , which gives them power to grow larger: and if it happen} 
that three or four of themcome down fo neer one another as to touch, 
and the wind twift them together, they appear fo like topes, as they 
' cannot be difCern‘d five paces off,whether it be a rope or a Withe. I 
“Alocs we have growing here, very good, and ‘tis a beautiful plant; 
the leaves four inches broad, % of aninch thick, and abouta foot and 
_an halflong,with prickles ofeach fide 5 and the laft fprout which rifes 
up in the middle, bears yellow flowers, one above another, and thofe 
flowers are higher than any ofthe leaves by two foot. Thefé'thick 
. . _ leaves} 
