The Other Fruits Of This Island, Being Well Known Or Described By
Various Authors, Need Not Be Here Mentioned.
The nutmegs here are very
large and good, but the natives do not care for propagating them, being
afraid lest the Dutch, who monopolize the spice islands, should be
induced to pay them a hostile visit.
This island also produces abundance
of animals, both wild and tame, as horses, cows, buffaloes, goats, wild
hogs, deer, monkeys, and others; also guanas, lizards, snakes,
scorpions, and centipeds. These last are not thicker than a goose-quill,
but five inches long, and they sting fiercer even than scorpions. Of
tame fowl, they have only ducks and hens; but have plenty of wild birds,
as pigeons, parrots, parrakeets, turtle-doves, bats as large as our
kites, and an infinite number and variety of small birds. Their wild
hogs feed in the woods in prodigious herds, and have thick knobs growing
over their eyes. There are mountains in the interior of this island,
which afford considerable quantities of gold. Their chief fish are
bonitos, snooks, cavallies, breams, and mullets; and they have abundance
of sea-tortoises; and the island has many harbours, creeks, and rivers.
Considering the situation of this island, so near the Line, its climate
is by no means excessively hot, especially near the sea, where the
sea-breeze cools the air by day and the land-breeze at night. The wind
blows from the east between October and May, and then blows from the
west till October.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 439 of 825
Words from 118839 to 119092
of 224764
