A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 | Page 6

them to the extensive plantations that terminate the view of the country, as seen from the ships.
These plantations consist of the tarrow[4], or eddy root, and the sweet potatoe, with plants of the cloth tree, neatly set out in rows. The walls that separate them are made of the loose burnt stones, which are got in clearing the ground; and being entirely concealed by sugar-canes, planted close on each side, make the most beautiful fences that can be conceived. The party stopped for the night at the second hut they found amongst the plantations, where they judged themselves to be about six or seven miles from the ships. They described the prospect from this spot as very delightful; they saw the ships in the bay before them; to the left a continued range of villages, interspersed with groves of cocoa-nut trees, spreading along the sea-shore; a thick wood stretching out of sight behind them; and to the right an extent of ground, laid out in regular and well- cultivated plantations, as far as the eye could reach.
Near this spot, at a distance from any other dwelling, the natives pointed out to them the residence of a hermit, who, they said, had formerly been a great chief and warrior, but had long ago quitted the shores of the island, and now never stirred from his cottage. They prostrated themselves as they approached him, and afterward presented to him a part of such provisions as they had brought with them. His behaviour was easy and cheerful; he scarce shewed any marks of astonishment at the sight of our people, and though pressed to accept some of our curiosities, he declined the offer, and soon withdrew to his cottage. He was described as by far the oldest person any of the party had ever seen, and judged to be, by those who computed his age at the lowest, upward of 100 years old.
As our people had imagined the mountain not to be more than ten or twelve miles from the bay, and consequently that they should reach it with ease early the next morning, an error into which its great height had probably led them, they were now much surprised to find the distance scarce perceptibly diminished. This circumstance, together with the uninhabited state of the country they were going to enter, made it necessary to procure a supply of provisions; and for that purpose they dispatched one of their guides back to the village. Whilst they were waiting his return, they were joined by some of Kaoo's servants, whom that benevolent old man had sent after them, as soon as he heard of their journey, laden with refreshments, and authorised, as their route lay through his grounds, to demand and take away whatever they might have occasion for.
Our travellers were much astonished to find the cold here so intense; but having no thermometer with them, could judge of it only by their feelings, which, from the warm atmosphere they had left, must have been a very fallacious measure. They found it, however, so cold, that they could get but little sleep, and the natives none at all; both parties being disturbed, the whole night, by continued coughing. As they could not, at this time, be at any very considerable height, the distance from the sea being only six or seven miles, and part of the road on a very moderate ascent, this extraordinary degree of cold must be ascribed to the easterly wind blowing fresh over the snowy mountains.
Early on the 27th they set out again, and filled their calibashes at an excellent well about half a mile from their hut. Having passed the plantations, they came to a thick wood, which they entered by a path made for the convenience of the natives, who go thither to fetch the wild or horse-plantain, and to catch birds. Their progress now became very slow, and attended with much labour; the ground being either swampy, or covered with large stones; the path narrow, and frequently interrupted by trees lying across it, which it was necessary to climb over, the thickness of the underwood on both sides making it impossible to pass round them. In these woods they observed, at small distances, pieces of white cloth fixed on poles, which they supposed to be land-marks for the division of property, as they only met with them where the wild plantains grew. The trees, which are of the same kind with those we called the spice-tree at New Holland, were lofty and straight, and from two to four feet in circumference.
After they had advanced about ten miles in the wood, they had the mortification to find themselves, on a sudden, within sight of the sea, and at no great distance from it; the path having turned