of this country, though we heard of none that at this
time grow wild; they have, however, very little care bestowed upon them,
the plants being set between beds of any kind of garden-stuff, and
suffered to take the chance of the season. The melons are still worse,
at least those that we tasted, which were mealy and insipid; but the
water-melons are excellent; they have a flavour, at least a degree of
acidity, which ours have not. We saw also several species of the
prickle-pear, and some European fruits, particularly the apple and
peach, both which were very mealy and insipid. In these gardens also
grow yams, and mandihoca, which in the West Indies is called cassada or
cassava, and to the flower of which the people here, as I have before
observed, give the name of _farinha de pao_, which may not improperly be
translated, powder of post. The soil, though it produces tobacco and
sugar, will not produce bread-corn; so that the people here have no
wheat-flour, but what is brought from Portugal, and sold at the rate of
a shilling a pound, though it is generally spoiled by being heated in
its passage. Mr Banks is of opinion, that all the products of our West
Indian islands would grow here; notwithstanding which, the inhabitants
import their coffee and chocolate from Lisbon.[76]

[Footnote 76: The Portuguese government, it appears, from Mr Barrow's
representation, have taken effectual measures to preserve this colony in
a state of dependance on the mother country: "It no sooner discovered,"
says that gentleman, "that sugar could be raised in any quantity, and
afforded, in the markets of Europe, at reasonable prices, than it
thought proper to impose on them an export duty of 20 _per cent._ which
operated as an immediate check on the growth of this article. When the
cultivation of the indigo plant had been considerably extended, and the
preparation sufficiently understood, so as to enable the colonists to
meet their competitors in the markets of Europe, this article was
assumed as a royal monopoly." Salt, he says, is another royal monopoly,
and yields the sum of L. 15,000 annually: But one of the immediate
effects of its being so, is the entire destruction of the valuable
fisheries. Does the reader remember the fable of the hen that laid
golden eggs? Would not certain governments do well to study the moral of
it?--E.]

Most of the land, as far as we saw of the country, is laid down in
grass, upon which cattle are pastured in gre