366 
THE GARDEN. — COTTON. — MAIZE. 
Oct. 
land under tillage is much less than it ought to be, considering the 
facilities of the country and their own necessities ; and it can 
hardly be said that during the preceding six years, the number of 
cultivated acres has been increased : to justify which, it was com- 
plained that in some places the ground has been found on trial, to be 
of too saline a quality. 
The garden belonging to the missionaries, contained about an 
acre, or more, of very good soil ; and was enclosed from the edge 
of the mead, by banks of earth and a hedge of dead bushes. A rill 
of water was led through it for the purpose of irrigation ; and every 
thing appeared in a thriving state. I saw in it a few trees of peach, 
almond, fig, vine, and walnut, together with a young orange-tree ; all, 
excepting the two last, were just beginning to yield fruit. The peach 
trees were in the most luxuriant growth, and seemed to promise a 
' plentiful crop ; but a late frost, which happened on the 6th of October 
while the fruit was just forming, caused the whole to drop off 
prematurely. 
Some seeds of cotton, which I had brought with me to Africa, 
for the purpose of sowing them at different convenient places in the 
Interior, were planted in this garden. Several plants came up fFom 
them, and, as in January 1813, I saw it in flower, I have no doubt 
that they afterwards produced good seed. 
Of esculent vegetables, I saw small quantities of potatoes, cabbage, 
French-beans, peas, lettuce, onions, beet, cucumbers, pumkins, cala- 
bash, musk-melons, water-melons, millet, and some others. The com- 
mon hemp, called dakka, was here raised for the purpose of being 
given as presents to the Bushmen, who smoke it instead of tobacco ; 
as do also many of the Hottentots ; but it is considered more dele- 
terious and inebriating. 
Maize, or Indian corn, was cultivated for the poultry ; but the 
half-ripe heads, when boiled, made a very agreeable and wholesome 
dish. When their store of coffee became low, the ripe grains, roasted 
and ground, were mixed with it ; but the beverage made from this 
mixture, though not unpleasant to the taste, had a heating quality 
which would not agree with every stomach. This corn, sowed in 
