sallad,
or dressed as greens. In all which ways they are good; and, together
with the fish, with which we were constantly supplied, they formed a
sort of refreshment, perhaps little inferior to what is to be met with
in places most noted by navigators for plentiful supplies of animal and
vegetable food.

Amongst the known kinds of plants met with here, are common and rough
bindweed; night-shade and nettles, both which grow to the size of small
trees; a shrubby speedwell, found near all the beaches, sow-thistles,
virgin's bower, vanelloe, French willow, euphorbia, and crane's-bill;
also cudweed, rushes, bull-rushes, flax, all-heal, American nightshade,
knot-grass, brambles, eye-bright, and groundsel; but the species of each
are different from any we have in Europe. There is also polypody,
spleenwort, and about twenty other different sort of ferns, entirely
peculiar to the place, with several sorts of mosses, either rare, or
produced only here; besides a great number of other plants, whose uses
are not yet known, and subjects fit only for botanical books.

Of these, however, there is one which deserves particular notice here,
as the natives make their garments of it, and it produces a fine silky
flax, superior in appearance to any thing we have, and probably, at
least, as strong. It grows every where near the sea, and in some places
a considerable way up the hills, in bunches or tufts, with sedge-like
leaves, bearing, on a long stalk, yellowish flowers, which are succeeded
by a long roundish pod, filled with very thin shining black seeds. A
species of long pepper is found in great plenty, but it has little of
the aromatic flavour that makes spices valuable; and a tree, much like a
palm at a distance, is pretty frequent in the woods, though the deceit
appears as you come near it. It is remarkable, that as the greatest part
of the trees and plants had at this time lost their flowers, we
perceived they were generally of the berry-bearing kind; of which, and
other seeds, I brought away about thirty different sorts. Of these, one
in particular, which bears a red berry, is much like the supple-jack,
and grows about the trees, stretching from one to another, in such a
manner as to render the woods almost wholly impassable.

The birds, of which there is a tolerable stock, as well as the vegetable
productions, are almost entirely peculiar to the place. And though it be
difficult to follow them, on account of the quantity of unde