3 ENGLAND TO RIO DE JANEIRO CHAP. I 
screw. By this means and this only they make their wine, 
and by this probably Noah made his when he had newly 
planted the first vineyard after the general destruction of 
mankind and their arts, although it is not impossible that 
he might have used a better, if he remembered the methods 
he had seen before the flood. 
It was with great difficulty that some (and not as yet all) 
of them were persuaded not long ago to graft their vines, 
and by this means bring all the fruit of a vineyard to be of 
one sort. Formerly the wine had been spoiled by various 
inferior kinds of vines, which were nevertheless suffered to 
grow, and taken as much care of as the best, because they 
added to the quantity of the wine. Yet they were perfectly 
acquainted with the use of grafting, and constantly practised . 
it on their chestnut trees, by which means they were brought 
to bear much sooner than they would have done had they 
been allowed to remain unimproved. 
Wheeled carriages I saw none of any sort or kind; 
indeed their roads are so intolerably bad, that if they had 
any they could scarcely make use of them. They have, 
however, some horses and mules wonderfully clever in 
travelling upon these roads, notwithstanding which they 
bring every drop of wine to town upon men’s heads in 
vessels made of goat-skins. The only imitation of a carriage 
which they have is a board slightly hollowed in the middle, 
to one end of which a pole is tied by a strap of white 
leather, the whole machine coming about as near the perfec- 
tion of an European cart as an Indian canoe does to a boat ; 
with this they move the pipes of wine about the town. I 
suppose they would never have made use even of this had 
not the English introduced vessels to contain the wine, 
which were rather too large to be carried by hand, as they 
used to do everything else. 
A speech of their late Governor is recorded here, which 
shows in what light they are looked upon even by the 
Portuguese (themselves, I believe, far behind all the rest of 
Europe, except possibly the Spaniards). “It was very 
fortunate,” said he, “that the island was not Eden, in which 
