866 
APPENDIX 
resident there, have vied with each other in 
the elegant and convenient arrangement of their 
dweUing-houses and stores, all which are built 
with stone or brick, and roofed with slates or 
shingles. 
The soil of the island is a red or light colour- 
ed sand, with little appearance of clay or mould, 
but from its having furnished the natives of the 
adjacent country, and the inhal^itants of a small 
town which formerly stood on the island, with 
rice previously to our taking possession of it, I 
am satisfied it would, by proper management, 
bring all the productions of the country to per- 
fection ; and, no doubt, be rendered as conge- 
nial to the culture of some of our garden vege- 
tables as Senegal or Sierra-Leone. 
The edges of the creeks which intersect the 
island, and the low grounds about them, are 
thickly covered with mangroves, which are ra- 
pidly decreasing in being turned to advantage 
for fuel both in the houses and for the burning 
of lime. The palm tree, the monkey-bread, or 
baobab, and several other kinds of large trees, are 
thickly scattered all over the high grounds, and 
with an abundance of shrubs and ever-greens 
give the place a cool, refreshing, though wild 
appearance. 
Sarah Creek, so called by the natives, is from 
twenty-five to forty yards wide, and at ebb tide 
