ground; are most
beautifully diversified with large lawns, which are covered with a very
fine trefoil, intermixed with a variety of flowers, and are skirted by
woods of tall and well-spread trees, most of them celebrated either for
their aspect or their fruit. The turf of the lawns is quite clean and
even, and the bottoms of the woods in many places clear of all bushes
and underwoods; and the woods themselves usually terminate on the lawns
with a regular outline, not broken, nor confused with straggling trees,
but appearing uniform as if laid out by art. Hence across a great
variety of the most elegant and entertaining prospects formed by the
mixture of these woods and lawns, and their various intersections with
each other, as they spread themselves differently through the vallies
and over the slopes and declivities with which the place abounds. The
fortunate animals too, which for the greatest part of the year are the
sole lords of this happy soil, partake in some measure of the romantic
cast of the island, and are no small addition to its wonderful scenery:
For the cattle, of which it is not uncommon to see herds of some
thousands feeding together in a large meadow, are certainly the most
remarkable in the world; for they are all of them milk-white, except
their ears, which are generally black. And though there are no
inhabitants here, yet the clamour and frequent parading of domestic
poultry, which range the woods in great numbers, perpetually excite the
ideas of the neighbourhood of farms and villages, and greatly contribute
to the cheerfulness and beauty of the place. The cattle on the island we
computed were at least ten thousand; and we had no difficulty in getting
near them, as they were not shy of us. Our first method of killing them
was shooting them; but at last, when by accidents to be hereafter
recited, we were obliged to husband our ammunition, our men ran them
down with ease. Their flesh was extremely well tasted, and was believed
by us to be much more easily digested, than any we had ever met with.
The fowls too were exceeding good, and were likewise run down with
little trouble; for they could scarce fly further than an hundred yards
at a flight, and even that fatigued them so much, that they could not
readily rise again; so that, aided by the openness of the woods, we
could at all times furnish ourselves with whatever number we wanted.
Besides the cattle and the poultry, we found here abundance of wild