322 
DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. XX.— B.p. 
aqueous inhabitants; and our anchor, although resting 
in six fathoms of water, seemed swollen several times 
its size, and in dangerous proximity to the ship’s 
bottom, threatening as it were to knock a hole in it on 
the smallest provocation. 
Great Corn Island cannot be called even hilly, 
the highest elevation, facetiously termed “ Mount ” 
Pleasant, attaining the magnificent altitude of 870 
feet; but nevertheless it would be difficult to find 
a more beautiful and picturesque spot in any 
other part of Central America, or the West Indies. 
The sea, as stated above, is transparently clear, and 
of the brightest blue • the beaches are of the whitest 
of white sand, diversified by occasional rocky head¬ 
lands, just sufficiently prominent to give variety to the 
landscape • the whole coast-line is fringed with waving 
cocoa-nut-trees, above which rise all sorts of tropical 
foliage; conspicuously the noble oak-like trunk of 
the breadfruit-tree,* with its great dark green leaves 
and generous crop of golden fruit. 
And of the creature comforts procurable I must also 
* The early voyagers speak in raptures of this valuable tree, and the 
facility with which it produces “ a cheap loaf.” So important was its 
introduction to our own colonies considered, that the English Govern¬ 
ment sent the ‘Bounty’ to Otaheite, to take a number of slips on board 
with orders to distribute them amongst the various British settlements 
over the globe; 1151 were taken on board in 1791, the first attempt 
in 1789 having failed through the well-known mutiny on board the 
‘ Bounty. These trees flourish all over the West Indies and the 
Spanish Main, and are the greatest boon to the inhabitants; they begin 
to bear about three years old, the fruit often attaining the size of a 
quartern loaf; it is eaten fried or boiled according to taste, and either 
way is delicious. 
