SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 13T 



Melasses were allowed to be exported to America, in re- 

 turn for supplies received thence. Mill timber and house- 

 frames, with which these forests abound, were also permitted 

 to be taken away by the inhabitants of the British West India 

 islands, as a compensation for British manufactured goods. 

 Many vessels were sent hither for cargoes of earth, by the 

 people of Barbadoes, with which they manured their lands. 

 This traffic would have been carried on to a considerable 

 extent, but great injury accrued to the vessels bottoms from 

 it; after making two or three trips, a sort of worm, which 

 is natural to the soil, introduced itself into the timbers and 

 planks, which in a short time were sure to make the vessel 

 leaky. The water-worm of the rivers on this coast is very in- 

 jurious to all ships whose bottoms are not coppered. Great 

 care and frequent application of a coat of tar is necessary, to 

 preserve the boats in any kind of order. The petroleum found 

 in Trinidad is said to be a better preservative against the worm 

 than vegetable tar. The art of disgusting insects by strong and 

 peculiar odors has been little studied. Camphor, though so 

 fatal to insects, is seldom burnt in order to displace them. A 

 mixture of cantharides, orpiment, and other drugs, boiled to- 

 gethcr, is used in Germany for the smearing of window- 

 frames, and it is said to deter flies effectually. Insects in these 

 climates are our most formidable foes. 



