beautiful; and its directeur, Monsieur Martin, a botanist of first-rate
abilities. This indefatigable naturalist ranged through the East, under
a royal commission, in quest of botanical knowledge; and during his stay
in the western regions has sent over to Europe from twenty to twenty-five
thousand specimens in botany and zoology. La Gabrielle is on a
far-extending range of woody hills. Figure to yourself a hill in the
shape of a bowl reversed, with the buildings on the top of it, and you
will have an idea of the appearance of La Gabrielle. You approach the
house through a noble avenue, five hundred toises long, of the choicest
tropical fruit-trees, planted with the greatest care and judgment; and
should you chance to stray through it after sunset, when the clove-trees
are in blossom, you would fancy yourself in the Idalian groves, or near
the banks of the Nile, where they were burning the finest incense as the
Queen of Egypt passed.

On La Gabrielle there are twenty-two thousand clove-trees in full
bearing. They are planted thirty feet asunder. Their lower branches
touch the ground. In general the trees are topped at five-and-twenty
feet high; though you will see some here towering up above sixty. The
black pepper, the cinnamon, and nutmeg are also in great abundance here,
and very productive.

While the stranger views the spicy groves of La Gabrielle, and tastes the
most delicious fruits which have originally been imported hither from all
parts of the tropical world, he will thank the Government which has
supported, and admire the talents of the gentleman who has raised to its
present grandeur, this noble collection of useful fruits. There is a
large nursery attached to La Gabrielle, where plants of all the different
species are raised and distributed gratis to those colonists who wish to
cultivate them.

Not far from the banks of the river Oyapoc, to windward of Cayenne, is a
mountain which contains an immense cavern. Here the cock-of-the-rock is
plentiful. He is about the size of a fantail-pigeon, his colour a bright
orange, and his wings and tail appear as though fringed; his head is
ornamented with a superb double-feathery crest, edged with purple. He
passes the day amid gloomy damps and silence, and only issues out for
food a short time at sunrise and sunset. He is of the gallinaceous
tribe. The South-American Spaniards call him "gallo del Rio Negro" (cock
of the Black River), and suppose that he