114 
TRAVELS IN 
fome diftance from each other, in two lines, forming a kind of 
ftreet. At the upper end ftands the houfe of the landroft, built 
alfo of mud, and a few miferable hovels that were intended as 
offices for the tranfadtion of public bufmefs : moft of thefe have 
tumbled in ; and the reft are in a ruinous condition and not 
habitable. The jail is compofed of mud walls and roofed with 
thatch J and fo little tenable, that an Englifh deferter, who had 
been fhut up in it for amufmg the country people with an 
account of a converfation he had held with fome French officer, 
made his efcape the firft night through the thatch. The mud 
walls of all the buildings are excavated, and the floors under- 
mined by a fpecies of termes or white ant, which deftroys every 
thing that falls in its way except wood ; and the bats that lodge 
in the thatch come forth at nights in fuch numbers as to extin- 
guifh the candles, and make it almoft impoffible to remain in a 
room where there is a light. 
The village is chiefly inhabited by mechanics, and fuch as 
hold fome petty employment under the landroft. Its appear- 
ance is more miferable than that of the pooreft village in Eng- 
land. The neceflaries of life are with difficulty procured in it ; 
for, though there be plenty of land, few are found induftrious 
enough to cultivate it. No milk, no butter, no cheefe, no 
vegetables of any kind, are to be had upon any terms. There 
is no butcher, no chandler, no grocer, no baker. Every one 
muft provide for himfelf as well as he can. They have neither 
wine nor beer ; and the chief beverage of the inhabitants is the 
water of the Sunday river, which, in the fummer feafon, is 
ftrongly impregnated with fait. It would be difficult to fay 
what 
