286 



N A R R A 1^ I V E OF A N 



CHAP, are weighed down with the richeft clufters of odoriferous 

 fruit. Neither ftone nor brick is made ufe of here for 

 pavement, the whole being one continued gravel, not in- 

 ferior to the fineft garden walks in England, and flrewed 

 on the furface with fea-fliells. The houfes, which are 

 moftly of two, and fome of three ftories ' high, are all 

 built of fine timber, a very few excepted ; moft of the 

 foundations are of brick, and they are roofed with thin 

 fplit boards, called fliingles, inflead of flates or tiles. Win- 

 dows are very feldom feen in this country, glafs being 

 inconvenient on account of the heat, infVead of which 

 they ufe gauze frames ; fome have only the fliutters, 

 which are kept open from fix o'clock in the morning un- 

 til fix at night. As for chimnies I never faw one in the 

 colony, no fires being lighted except in the kitchens, 

 which are always built at fome diftance from the dwel- 

 ling-houfe, where the vi6luals are dreffed upon the floor, 

 and the fmoke let out by a hole made in the roof : 

 thefe timber houfes are however very dear in Suri- 

 nam, as may be evinced by that lately built by Governor 

 Nepven, which he declared had coft him above £. 1 5,000 

 flerling. There is no fpring water to be met with in 

 Paramaribo, mofl houfes have wells dug in the rock, 

 which afford but a brackilh kind of beverage, only ufed 

 for the negroes, cattle, &:c. and the Europeans have re- 

 fervoirs or ciflerns, in which they preferve rain-water for 

 their own confumption ; thofe of nicer tafte let it firfl 

 drop through a filtering-flone into large jars or earthen 

 - . - pots. 



