alling, the murderer withdrew
the weapon, and stabbed him a second time. He then ran away, and was
pursued by some negroes, who were also witnesses of the fact; but
whether he escaped or was taken I never heard.

The country, at a small distance round the town, which is all that any
of us saw, is beautiful in the highest degree; the wildest spots being
varied with a greater luxuriance of flowers, both as to number and
beauty, than the best gardens in England.

Upon the trees and bushes sat an almost endless variety of birds,
especially small ones, many of them covered with the most elegant
plumage; among which were the humming-bird. Of insects too there was a
great variety, and some of them very beautiful; but they were much more
nimble than those of Europe, especially the butterflies, most of which
flew near the tops of the trees, and were therefore very difficult to be
caught, except when the sea-breeze blew fresh, which kept them nearer to
the ground. The banks of the sea, and of the small brook which water
this part of the country, are almost covered with the small crabs,
called _cancer vocans_; some of these had one of the claws, called by
naturalists the hand, very large; others had them both remarkably small,
and of equal size, a difference which is said to distinguish the sexes,
that with the large claw being the male.

There is the appearance of but little cultivation; the greater part of
the land is wholly uncultivated, and very little care and labour seem to
have been bestowed upon the rest; there are indeed little patches or
gardens, in which many kinds of European garden stuff are produced,
particularly cabbages, pease, beans, kidney-beans, turnips, and white
radishes, but all much inferior to our own: Watermelons and pine-apples
are also produced in these spots, and they are the only fruits that we
saw cultivated, though the country produces musk, melons, oranges,
limes, lemons, sweet lemons, citrons, plantains, bananas, mangos,
mamane-apples, acajou or cashou apples and nuts; jamboira of two kinds,
one of which bears a small black fruit; cocoa-nuts, mangos, palm nuts of
two kinds, one long, the other round; and palm berries, all which were
in season while we were there.

Of these fruits the water-melons and oranges are the best in their kind;
the pine-apples are much inferior to those that I have eaten in England;
they are indeed more juicy and sweet, but have no flavour; I believe
them to be natives