A True and ExaB Hiftory 



you (hall find a Cave large enough to ho'd 500 men, and the moutli. \ 

 of it cover'd with a green curtain, 40 foot high, and 200 foot long 5 

 and (o 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. 



Thefe Caves are very frequent inthelfland, and of feveral dimen- 

 (ions, fome fraall , others extreamly large and Capacious : The run- 

 away Negres, often (helter themfelves in thele Coverts, for a long 

 tiffle, and in the night range abroad the Countrey , and fteale Pigs , 

 Plantins, Potatoes, and Pullin, and bring it there 5 and feaft all dgy , 

 upon what they ftole the night before, and the nights being dark^and 

 their bodies black, they fcape undifcern'd. 



There is nothing in that Countrey fo ufeful as Liam Hounds, to 

 find out thefe Thieves. I have gone into divers of thofe Caves,totry 

 what kind of ayreis to be found there, and have felt it fo clofe , and 

 moyft withall , as my breath was neer ftopt, and I do believe , if I 

 1 ftiould remain there but one night , I ftiould never come out a- 

 jgain. 



I I have often wondred, why foch vaft Caves and Rocks ftiould not 

 I afford fome fprings of water ^ the ayre which touches them, being fo 

 very moyft, for we foe in £;?^/4w«^, where Rocks are,Springs of water 

 iffue out, and fometimes (when wet weather is) the moyfture hangs 

 upon the Rocks in drops.and fo runs, down and finds a way to vent it 

 felf into (mall bibling Springs ^ But here it does not fo , though the 

 Ayre be much moyfter than in England'^ But certainly the reafon is, 

 the extraordinary drinels, and fpungineft of the Stone, which 

 focks up all moyfture that touches it , and yet it is never fatif- 

 fied. 



i I had it in my thoughts, to make an Eflay, what Sir Franck Bacons 

 experiment folitarie, touching the making of Artificial Springs would 

 do 5 but troughs of that ftone, being of fo dry andfpungy a quality, 

 would never have been fit for it, befides,wehaveno brakes growing 

 there, which is one of the materials us'd in that experiment. 

 I Another fort of Withs we have, but they are made of the gum of 

 i trees, which falls from the boughs drop after drop , one hanging by 

 I another, till they touch ground, from whence they receive fome nou- 

 i riftiment , which gives them powerto grow larger; and if it happen 

 that three or four of them comedown fo neer one another as to touch 

 and the wind twift them together, they appear fo like ropes, as they 

 cannot be difcern'd five paces off',whether it be a rope or a Withe. I 

 have ieen ofthefe of feveral fizes, from the imalleft whipcord to the 

 greateft Cable of the Soveraine ^ and the moft of thofo timber trees I 

 have nqmed,has them; fome four, forae five, fome half a dozen, hang- 

 ing down like Bell-ropcs,from the branches to the ground, which was 

 a fight of much rarity to me at firft coming. 



Aloes we have growing here, very good, and 'tis a beautiful plant; 

 the leaves four inches broad, \ of an inch thick, and about a foot and 

 I an half long with prickles of each fide , and the laft fprout which rifcs 

 I Up in the middle, bears yellow flowers, one above another, and thofe 

 flowers are higher than any of the leaves by two foot. Thefo thick 



leaves 



