nscionable cheats. The markets at Nice are
tolerably well supplied. Their beef, which comes from Piedmont, is
pretty good, and we have it all the year. In the winter we have
likewise excellent pork, and delicate lamb; but the mutton is
indifferent. Piedmont, also, affords us delicious capons, fed with
maize; and this country produces excellent turkeys, but very few geese.
Chickens and pullets are extremely meagre. I have tried to fatten them,
without success. In summer they are subject to the pip, and die in
great numbers. Autumn and winter are the seasons for game; hares,
partridges, quails, wild-pigeons, woodcocks, snipes, thrushes,
beccaficas, and ortolans. Wild-boar is sometimes found in the
mountains: it has a delicious taste, not unlike that of the wild hog in
Jamaica; and would make an excellent barbecue, about the beginning of
winter, when it is in good case: but, when meagre, the head only is
presented at tables. Pheasants are very scarce. As for the heath-game,
I never saw but one cock, which my servant bought in the market, and
brought home; but the commandant's cook came into my kitchen, and
carried it of, after it was half plucked, saying, his master had
company to dinner. The hares are large, plump, and juicy. The
partridges are generally of the red sort; large as pullets, and of a
good flavour: there are also some grey partridges in the mountains; and
another sort of a white colour, that weigh four or five pounds each.
Beccaficas are smaller than sparrows, but very fat, and they are
generally eaten half raw. The best way of dressing them is to stuff
them into a roll, scooped of it's crum; to baste them well with butter,
and roast them, until they are brown and crisp. The ortolans are kept
in cages, and crammed, until they die of fat, then eaten as dainties.
The thrush is presented with the trail, because the bird feeds on
olives. They may as well eat the trail of a sheep, because it feeds on
the aromatic herbs of the mountain. In the summer, we have beef, veal,
and mutton, chicken, and ducks; which last are very fat, and very
flabby. All the meat is tough in this season, because the excessive
heat, and great number of flies, will not admit of its being kept any
time after it is killed. Butter and milk, though not very delicate, we
have all the year. Our tea and fine sugar come from Marseilles, at a
very reasonable price.

Nice is not without variety of fish; though they are not counted so
good in their k