built and walled round.

The inhabitants raise sufficient provisions on the island for
all their wants, being pleasant and fertile, and all covered with
corn-fields; and so abounds with flesh, fish, and all sorts of
victuals, that even in times of the greatest scarcity, there is enough
for all the inhabitants. It produces wine also, but very small, and
does not keep well, wherefore the richer people provide themselves
from Madeira and the Canaries. They want oil, salt, lime, and potters
ware, which they have to import from other countries. They have
abundance of peaches, apples, pears, oranges, and lemons, with all
sorts of vegetables and garden stuffs, and among these a plant
called _batatas_, which grows like a vine stock, but the leaves are
different. These produce roots, weighing a pound more or less, and
are so plentiful that they are despised by the rich, though of a sweet
pleasant taste and very nourishing. There is another root in this
country as large as a man's two fists, covered over with filaments of
a golden yellow colour, and as smooth as silk. The inhabitants
stuff beds with this, instead of feathers, but skilful workmen could
certainly manufacture it into fine stuffs.

There are but few birds, except canaries, quails, ordinary poultry,
and turkies, which are numerous. Several parts of this island are very
hilly, and full of thick and almost impervious woods; and travelling
is rendered very difficult, as you often find rocks a league in
length, so rugged and sharp that they cut the shoes at every step;
yet these rocks are so full of vines that they are not to be seen
in summer, being covered over by the vine leaves. These vines spread
their roots among the crannies and crevices of the rocks, which are
so small and devoid of soil, that it is wonderful how they should find
any nourishment; yet if planted in the good soil of the country, the
vines will not grow. The corn and fruits of this island will not keep
above a year; and unless the corn is buried under ground, it spoils in
four months. On this account, every inhabitant has a pit without the
town, the mouth of which is round, just large enough to admit a man,
which is covered by a flat stone and secured by a lock. Some of these
pits are so large as to contain two or three lasts of corn, the last
containing 108 bushels Amsterdam measure, and each bushel weighing
forty pounds or more. They put their corn into these pits in July,
and cover the stone wi