286 ON THE NATURE AND HISTORY 



the ordinary remittent, of which one of them died ; and at the 

 barrack on the top of the Ridge, at the height of 500 feet, and 

 still further retired from the marshes, there scarcely occur- 

 red any fever worthy of notice. 



Another property of the marsh poison, is its attraction for, 

 or rather its adherence to, lofty umbrageous trees. This is so 

 much the case, that it can with difficulty be separated from 

 them y and in the territory of Guiana particularly, where these 

 trees abound, it is wonderful to see how near to leeward of the 

 most pestiferous marshes the settlers, provided they have this 

 security, will venture, and that with impunity, to place their 

 habitations. 



The localities of the plantations situated on the windward 

 banks of the rivers that intersect Guiana, and are generally co- 

 vered by swampy woods in close vicinity, exemplify this fact 

 in a remarkable manner ; and at Paramaribo, the capital of Su- 

 rinam, the trade-wind that regularly ventilates the town, and 

 renders it habitable, blows over a considerable tract of swamp* 

 at a short distance, but which, fortunately for the inhabitants, 

 is thickly covered with umbrageous forests. Experience, be- 

 sides, has shown, that there, as in all other new lands, the cut- 

 ting down of those trees in the swamps has ever been a fatal 

 operation in itself, and in all probability would be productive 

 of pestilence to the town *. 



It would be trespassing wantonly on the time and patience 

 of the Society, to multiply further observations of the same 



kind, 



* The town of New Amsterdam, Berbice, is situated within short musket-shot 

 to leeward of a most offensive swamp, in the direct track, of a strong trade-wind, 

 that blows night and day, and frequently pollutes even the sleeping apartments of 

 the inhabitants, with the stench of the marshes, yet it had produced no endemic 

 fever worthy of notice, even amongst the newly arrived, for a period of months 

 and years previously to my visiting that colony. 



