eading out into the thick feather-like tuft of fresh green, by
which they are distinguished from every other kind of palms, and,
lastly, the jungle in the back-ground, compose a most beautiful
landscape, and which appears doubly lovely to a person like myself,
just escaped from that prison ycleped Canton, or from the dreary
scenery about the town of Victoria.

The whole island is intersected with excellent roads, of which those
skirting the sea-shore are the most frequented, and where handsome
carriages, and horses from New Holland, and even from England,
{120a} are to be seen. Besides the European carriages, there are
also certain vehicles of home manufacture called palanquins, which
are altogether closed and surrounded on all sides with jalousies.
Generally, there is but one horse, at the side of which both the
coachman and footman run on foot. I could not help expressing my
indignation at the barbarity of this custom, when I was informed
that the residents had wanted to abolish it, but that the servants
had protested against it, and begged to be allowed to run beside the
carriage rather than sit or stand upon it. They cling to the horse
or vehicle, and are thus dragged along with it.

Hardly a day passed that we did not drive out. Twice a week a very
fine military band used to play on the esplanade close to the sea,
and the whole world of fashionables would either walk or drive to
the place to hear the music. The carriages were ranged several rows
deep, and surrounded by young beaux on foot and horseback; any one
might have been excused for imagining himself in an European city.
As for myself, it gave me more pleasure to visit a plantation, or
some other place of the kind, than to stop and look on what I had so
often witnessed in Europe. {120b}

I frequently used to visit the plantations of nutmegs and cloves,
and refresh myself with their balsamic fragrance. The nutmeg-tree
is about the size of a fine apricot-bush, and is covered from top to
bottom with thick foliage; the branches grow very low down the stem,
and the leaves shine as if they were varnished. The fruit is
exactly similar to an apricot covered with yellowish-brown spots.
When ripe it bursts, exposing to view a round kernel about the size
of a nut, enclosed in a kind of net-work of a fine deep red: this
network is known as mace. It is carefully separated from the nutmeg
itself, and dried in the shade. While undergoing this process, it
is fr