hey painted themselves red, and the bark of a
tree that contained a yellow juice, with which they stained their
garments in different parts. We began to climb the mountain while our
old man was still in sight, and he, perceiving that we made our way with
difficulty through the weeds and brush-wood, which grew very thick,
turned back, and said something to the natives in a firm loud tone; upon
which twenty or thirty of the men went before us, and cleared us a very
good path; they also refreshed us with water and fruit as we went along,
and assisted us to climb the most difficult places, which we should
otherwise have found altogether impracticable. We began to ascend this
hill at the distance of about six miles from the place where we landed,
and I reckoned the top of it to be near a mile above the river that runs
through the valley below. When we arrived at the summit, we again sat
down to rest and refresh ourselves. While we were climbing we flattered
ourselves that from the top we should command the whole island, but we
now saw mountains before us so much higher than our situation, that with
respect to them we appeared to be in a valley; towards the ship indeed
the view was enchanting: The sides of the hills were beautifuly clothed
with wood, villages were every where interspersed, and the vallies
between them afforded a still richer prospect; the houses stood thicker,
and the verdure was more luxuriant. We saw very few habitations above
us, but discovered smoke in many places ascending from between the
highest hills that were in sight, and therefore I conjectured that the
most elevated parts of the country are by no means without inhabitants.
As we ascended the mountain, we saw many springs gush from fissures on
the side of it, and when we had reached the summit, we found many houses
that we did not discover as we passed them. No part of these mountains
is naked; the summits of the highest that we could see were crowned with
wood, but of what kind I know not: Those that were of the same height
with that which we had climbed, were woody on the sides, but on the
summit were rocky and covered with fern. Upon the flats that appeared
below these, there grew a sedgy kind of grass and weeds: In general the
soil here, as well as in the valley, seemed to be rich. We saw several
bushes of sugar-cane, which was very large and very good, growing wild,
without the least culture. I likewise found ginger and turmerick, and
have broug