Wilhems Plains .] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
437 
found near the skirts of the plantations, and further in the woods 
there are some deer and wild hogs. Monkeys are more numerous, 
and when the maize is ripe they venture into the plantations to steal ; 
which obliges the inhabitants to set a watch over the fields in the 
day, as the maroons and other thieves do at night. There are some 
wood pigeons and two species of doves, and the marshy places are 
frequented by a few water hens ; but neither wild geese nor ducks 
are known in the island. Game of all kinds was at this time so little 
abundant in the woods of Vacouas, that even a creole, who is an in- 
trepid hunter and a good shot, and can live where an European 
would starve, could not subsist himself and his dogs upon the pro- 
duce of the chase. Before the revolution this was said to have been 
possible; but in that time of disorder the citizen mulattoes preferred 
hunting to work, and the woods were nearly depopulated of hares 
and deer. 
Of indigenous fruits there are none worth notice, for that pro- 
duced by the ebony scarcely deserves the name ; a large, but almost 
tasteless raspberry is however now found every where by the road 
side, and citrons of two kinds grow in the woods. A small species 
of cabbage tree, called here palmiste, is not rare and is much esteemed; 
the undeveloped leaves at the head of the tree, when eaten raw, 
resemble in taste a walnut, and a cauliflower when boiled ; dressed 
as a sallad they are superior to perhaps any other, and make an 
excellent pickle. Upon the deserted plantations, peaches, guavas, 
pine apples, bananas, mulberries and strawberries are often left 
growing ; these are considered to be the property of the first comer, 
and usually fall to the lot of the maroons, or to the slaves in the 
neighbourhood who watch their ripening; the wild bees also furnish 
them with an occasional regale of honey. 
With respect to noxious insects, the scourge of most tropical 
countries, the’wet and cold weather which renders Vacouas a disagree- 
able residence in the winter, is of singular advantage ; the numerous 
musketoes and sand flies, the swarms of wasps, the ants, centipedes. 
1805. 
September* 
4 
