rind,
citron, fig, cocoa, lemon, rose-apple and bread-fruit. Though any of
these are eaten freely of at all hours, yet the orange seems to be the
Creole's favorite, and he seldom rises from his bed in the morning until
he has drank his cup of strong coffee, and eaten three or four oranges,
brought fresh and prepared to him by a slave. The practice is one which
the visitor falls very naturally into, and finds most agreeable. They
have a saying that "the orange is gold in the morning, silver at noon,
and lead at night." The most singular of these varieties of fruits (by
no means embracing all) is the rose-apple, which, when eaten, has the
peculiar and very agreeable flavor of otto of rose, and this is so
strong that to eat more than one at a time is almost unpleasant. It has
a very sweet taste, and flavors some soups finely. Of these fruit trees,
the lemon is decidedly the most ornamental and pretty, for, though small
and dwarfish, like the American quince, yet it hangs with flowers, small
lemons, and ripe fruit, all together, reminding one of the eastern
_Alma_,[49] and forming an uncommon and beautiful sight. This agreeable
phenomenon will surprise you at every turn upon the coffee plantations.

But the article of food most required in the island is flour, while the
importation of it is made so unreasonably expensive as to amount to a
positive prohibition upon the article. On foreign flour there is a fixed
duty of _ten dollars_, to which if we add the one and a half per cent.,
with other regular charges, the duty will amount to about ten dollars
and fifty cents per barrel. This enormous tax on flour prevents its use
altogether in the island, except by the wealthier classes. True, there
is a home-made, Spanish article, far inferior, which costs somewhat
less, being imported from far-off Spain without the prohibitory clause.
The estimate of the consumption of flour in this country gives one and
a half barrel per head, per annum; but let us suppose that the free
population consume but one. The free population--that is, the whites
exclusively, not including the large number of free negroes--numbers
over six hundred thousand; if the island belonged to this country, there
would immediately arise a demand for six hundred thousand barrels of
flour per annum, for the duty would no longer exist as a prohibition
upon this necessary article. At four dollars and fifty cents per barrel,
this would make the sum of two million seven hun