Aug.] 



SOIL AND CLIMATE. 



431 



heard of ; and my wife frequently tells me, in her playful manner, 

 that for her improvement in the science of housekeeping she is 

 indebted to the lessons she received from the ladies of Bergh's Group. 



Their houses are arranged in clusters, or small villages ; standing 

 in regular rows, with streets between them, about fifty fathoms wide. 

 Each house has a spacious yard attached to it, surrounded by a bam- 

 boo fence, so constructed as to admit a free circulation of the air. In 

 the centre of each village is the residence of a chief, who directs all 

 its affairs in the capacity of magistrate, and to whose judgment all 

 local disputes are submitted ; with the right of appealing from his de- 

 cision to that of the king, or head chief of the tribe. 



These islands are moderately elevated, each of them being high m 

 the centre, and gradually descending into beautiful valleys and fertile 

 plains towards the shores, at all points of the compass, with crystal 

 streams running into the sea in every direction. It will easily be 

 conceived that a group of islands thus situated, near the equator, 

 covered with a deep mellow soil, and presenting such features to a 

 tropical sun, must teem with vegetable life in rapid and perpetual suc- 

 cession. Indeed, I doubt if the last word be appropriate where blos- 

 soms and ripe fruit adorn the same trees, and even the same branches, 

 interspersed with the same kind of fruit in all its different stages and 

 gradations of existence. Every falling leaf is merely pushed from 

 its stem by a newly formed successor, while the full-seeded plants, 

 grass, and vegetables are compelled to give place to a premature off- 

 spring. Spring, summer, and autumn are here in perpetual conten- 

 tion for the supremacy. Winter merely takes a hasty peep at the 

 contest, and retires with an animating smile even sweeter than theii* 

 own. 



Were the inhabitants of these islands only possessed of a little 

 agricultural knowledge, and would exercise it with a tithe of the skill 

 and ingenuity which they display on self-taught arts of less import- 

 ance, these islands might soon become the richest gardens of the 

 world. I hope and trust that I have been instrumental in laying the 

 foundation of such a desirable revolution. I communicated all the 

 information on the subject which our brief intercourse would permit, 

 through interpreters whose native dialect was so similar to their own 

 that they could converse together without the least difficulty. I also 

 furnished them with a variety of seeds, which they promised to plant 

 and cultivate according to my directions. Among these were, apples, 

 pears, peaches, plums, melons, pumpkins, yams, potatoes, onions, 

 cabbages, beets, carrots, parsnips, beans, pease, <fcc. I have no doubt 

 but coffee, pepper, sugar-cane, and spices of various kinds would 

 thrive on these islands with little or no trouble. 



The thick and heavy growth of the forests is evidence of sufficient 

 weight to prove the richness of the soil which clothes the surface of 

 these beautiful islands. I know that the uplands produce sandal-wood, 

 but in what quantities I was not able to ascertain. A great number 

 and variety of beautiful plants are found in every direction ; not only 

 in the valleys and plains, but also on the hills, to their very summits. 

 Many of these were strangers to me, and such, I presume, as are not 



