76 



THE ISLAND OF 



cultivate the canes. Here are mines of copper, which furnlfli the Spantjh 

 plantations with metal for all their brafs gnns ; and gold duft having been 

 formerly found in the fands of the rivers, it is conjcfftured, that there are mines 

 of gold, if not of filver too, in the mountains, of which there runs a large 

 ridge from the eall to the weft end of the ifland ; but the Spaniards having 

 deftroyed all the natives, they cither never difcovered where the mines were, 

 or never opened them for fear of an invafion. 



Adjacent to this ifland are great conveniences both for making fait, and 

 catching fi(h. The ifland abounds with horfes, mules, (heep, wild boars, 

 hogs, and cattle of a larger and better breed than in any other part of America ; 

 parrots, partridges v/ith blue heads, and large tortoifes. Here are quarries 

 of flints, and fountains of bitumen, which is ufed for fliips inftead of pitch. 



The black cattle, brought hither by the Spaniards, have multiplied to fuch 

 a prodigious degree, that large herds of them run wild in the woods for want 

 of people enough to eat their flefh, though great numbers of them arc 

 yearly killed for their hides and tallow. 



Upon the whole, it is a very pleafant, rich, and fertile ifland ; but has 

 at prefent more churches than farms, more priefts than planters, and more 

 lazy bigots than ufeful labourers : and to this it is owing, that the largeft 

 ifland in the Weji-Indies^ with a luxuriant foil, befides food for its inhabi- 

 tants, which is eafler produced and obtained here than perhaps in any other 

 part of the world, does not produce for exportation, including even their 

 hides and tallow, tobacco and fnuff", near the value of our little ifland of 

 Antigua. So great is the diflTerence between floth and indufliry, tyranny and 

 liberty. 



The ifland has feveral towns j and Sant Jago de Ciibay though a fmall place, 

 is called the capital, it being the fee of the bifliop, though he generally refldes 

 at the Havana^ which, as it is the chief city, we fliall begin with, and 

 proceed round the eaftern and fouthern coaft of that ifland. 



The 



