Nov. 1835. EXCURSION INTO THE MOUNTAINS. 489 



leaves, and with a cocoa-nut shell we drank the cool water 

 of the running stream ; and thus we enjoyed our rustic 

 meal. 



I could not look on the surrounding plants without admira- 

 tion. On every side were forests of banana; the fruit of 

 which, though serving for food in various ways, lay in heaps 

 decaying on the ground. In front of us there was an 

 extensive brake of wild sugar-cane ; and the stream was 

 shaded by the dark green knotted stem of the Ava, — so 

 famous in former days for its powerful intoxicating effects. 

 I chewed a piece, and found that it had an acrid and 

 unpleasant taste, which would have induced any one at 

 once to have pronounced it poisonous. Thanks be to the 

 missionaries, this plant now thrives only in these deep 

 ravines, innocuous to every one. Close by I saw the wild 

 arum, the roots of which, when well baked, are good to 

 eat, and the young leaves better than spinach. There was 

 the wild yam, and a liliaceous plant called Ti, which grows 

 in abundance, and has a soft brown root, in shape and size 

 like a huge log of wood. This served us for dessert, for it is 

 as sweet as treacle, and with a pleasant taste. There were, 

 moreover, several other wild fruits, and useful vegetables. 

 The little stream, besides its cool water, produced eels and 

 cray-fish. I did indeed admire this scene, when I compared 

 it with an uncultivated one in the temperate zones. I felt 

 the force of the observation, that man, at least savage man, 

 with his reasoning powers only partly developed, is the 

 child of the tropics. 



As the evening drew to a close, I strolled beneath the 

 gloomy shade of the bananas up the course of the stream. 

 My walk was soon brought to a close, by coming to a water- 

 fall between two and three hundred feet high ; and again 

 above this there was another. I mention all these waterfalls 

 in this one brook, to give a general idea of the inclination of 

 the land. In the little recess where the water fell, it did not 

 appear that a breath of wind had ever entered. The leaves 

 of the banana, damp with spray, possessed an unbroken edge. 



