watered with meandering rills, that flow from the mountain's side, clear as the crystal.

Here may be seen standing in perfect peace and amity with each other, the Hindoo temple and pagoda; the Chinese josshouse; the Christian chapel, and various other places of worship; every one enjoying the unmolested exercise of his religion.

From hence, the eye stretches over the beautiful strait that separates the island from the main; and whose glossy surface reflects the faint images of the clouds above, and lofty mountains that tower on each of its sides.

The thermometer at the bungalows, generally ranges from 70 to 80 degrees; sometimes at night, however, it stands as low as sixty-two degrees; and indeed, so cold did we feel it, that we generally slept with a blanket over us; a very rare occurrence within six degrees of the equator. As soon as it gets dark on this mountain, there arises on every side, a singular concert of birds and insects, which deprived us of sleep for the first night or two. Far above the rest, the trumpeter (a very curious animal, about an inch in length) saluted our ears regularly for a few hours after sunset, with a sound so strong, that the first time I heard it, I actually thought a party of dragoons were approaching the bungalows, nor could I be persuaded for some time, that such a diminutive creature could possibly possess organs capable of emitting such a tremendously loud note.

Deer of a very curious species, are sometimes, though rarely, found in the woods of this island;

but lions, tigers, and other ferocious animals, are unknown. A tiger did once swim across from the Queda shore, and made for the mountains here, but was shot soon after his landing; he was supposed to be the only one that ever was on the island. Birds of the most beautiful plumage, are seen on almost every branch of a tree, through this island; but nature has been so very bountiful in clothing them with her most gaudy liveries, that she has thought proper to make a drawback, by depriving them of the melodious tones which so often charm us in birds of a more homely exterior.

There is, however, one small bird on this island (whose name 1 forget), which perches among the leaves of the tall areca tree, and sings mornings and evenings, in a style far superior to that of any bird I have seen between the tropics.

The Argus pheasant is found in this island, but they are generally brought over dried, from the Malay coast, where they abound, and are here sold for a dollar each.

With respect to the domestic animals, they are but few; and those brought from the neighbouring parts: horses from Pedir, on the coast of Sumatra; buffaloes from Queda; and sheep, &c. from Bengal.

The buffaloes are brought over from the opposite coast, in a very curious manner; six or eight of them being collected together on the beach, thongs of leather, or pieces of rattan, are passed in at one nostril and out at the other, then made fast to the sides and stern of the boat, which is pushed

off

off from the shore, and the buffaloes driven into the water, along with it; these thongs, or rattans, keeping their noses above water, and assisting them in swimming, until they gain the opposite shore, unless seized on their passage by the alligator.

The buffaloe often becomes a most dangerous animal when enraged by the heat of the sun, or any other cause. At these periods the animal rushes furiously upon any thing in its way, and dashes into the houses, upsetting and breaking through all obstructions; as it is possessed of great muscular strength, and runs about with impetuous velocity, there is no mode of subduing it, but by killing the animal with spears or

shot.

A large one lately made a desperate sally through Georgetown, while the gentlemen of the settlement fired on him in all directions, from their verendahs; at length he rushed through the governor's kitchen, upsetting the cook and all his utensils; but what was still worse, a ball from a rifle, aimed at the furious buffalo, unfortunately struck the poor harmless cook; and between the fright occasioned by the animal, and the idea of being shot to boot, he very nearly died.

As these creatures have very little hair on their bodies, they are utterly unable to bear the scorching rays of the sun towards mid-day: at these times, therefore, they betake themselves to every pool and puddle in the neighbourhood, rolling themthemselves in the mud, and then lying with their nostrils just above water, until the fervency of the at

common

Alligators are very round the shores of this island, rendering it very unsafe to bathe on any part of the coast. Snakes of an immense size have likewise been found here by the early settlers, but are now very rare. Bandicotes (a species of large rat) are extremely numerous on the island, and do a great deal of mischief, as does likewise the white ant. It is astonishing what effects these very small insects are capable of producing; they will destroy the interior parts of the beams and rafters in houses; leaving a thin external shell of solid wood, that completely deceives the eye, and lulls into a false security the unsuspecting lodger, who frequently sees with astonishment the whole fabric come tumbling to the ground without any apparent cause, or perhaps is himself involved in its ruins!

When these dangerous insects find their way on board ships it becomes a very serious concern ;

as

as no one can tell where they may be making their destructive burrows, perhaps through the thin plank that separates the whole crew from their eternity!

In these cases there is no method of destroying them, but by sinking the vessel in shallow water for some days, until they are all drowned.

The principal useful trees, shrubs, and plants, on this island, are those that bear the cocoa-nut, areca-nut, pepper, and betel. The cocoa-nut tree is raised by burying the nut (stript of its fibrous root) at some depth in the ground; and it is very singular that the stem is nearly as thick when it makes its appearance above ground, as it ever becomes afterwards, though it sometimes rises to the height of fifty or sixty feet.

The areca-tree makes averyhandsome appearance; its branches are small, but its leaves are very beautiful, forming a round tuft at the top of the trunk, which grows as strait as an arrow to the height of twenty-five or thirty feet. The shell which contains the fruit is about the size of a wall-nut, and of a yellowish red colour outside, and rough within; when ripe it is astrigent, and not unpleasant to the taste.

It is needless to say how much this nut (when mixed with leaves of the betel and chunam) is used in chewing by all classes of the natives. This composition is called Penang (whence the name of the island), and though it has an agreeable flavour, it gives the mouths of the natives, who use it, a most d'abolical appearance, rendering what few straggling teeth they have as black as jet;

while their disgusting chaps seem as gory as if they had been mangling a piece of raw flesh.

The pepper-plant is a shrub whose root is small, fibrous, and flexible; it rises into a stem which requires a tree or prop to support it; its wood has the same sort of knots as the vine, and when dry it exactly resembles the vine branch. The leaves which have a strong smell and pungent taste, are of an oval shape, but they diminish towards the extremity, and end in a point. From the flower buds, which are white, and sometimes placed in the middle, sometimes at the extremities of the branches, are produced small bunches resembling those of the currant tree; each of these contains from twenty to thirty corns of pepper; they are com)monly gathered in October, and exposed to the sun seven or eight days. The fruit, which is green at first, and afterwards red, when stripped of its covering, assumes the appearance it has when we see it; it is not sown, but planted; a great nicety is required in the choice of the shoots; it produces no fruit till the end of three years, but bears so plentifully the three succeeding years, that some plants yield six or seven pounds of pepper in that period. The bark then begins to shrink, and in twelve years time it ceases bearing.

The culture of pepper is not difficult; it is sufficient to plant it in a rich soil, and carefully to puli up the weeds that grow in great abundance round its roots, especially the three first years. As the sun is highly necessary to the growth of the pepper plant, when it is ready to bear, the trees

that

that support it must be lopped, to prevent their shade from injuring the fruit.

The betel is a species of this genus. It is a climbing and creeping plant like ivy and its leaves a good deal resemble those of the citron, though they are longer and narrower at the extremity. It grows in all parts of India, but thrives best in moist places; the natives cultivate it as we do the vine, placing props for it to run and climb upon; and it is a common practice to plant it against the tree that bears the areca nut.

Fruits are plentiful on this beautiful island; the pine-apple grows wild, while shaddocks, plantains, jack-fruit oranges, lenions, &c. are reared with the greatest ease.

Though Prince of Wales's Is land exports very little of its own productions, except pepper and wood, yet there is a very considerable trade carried on here, from its being in a central situation between India, China, and the Eastern Islands.

The merchants take advantage of the fleets passing and repassing, to export to China, &c. opium, betel, pepper, tin, rattans, and various other articles which they have already collected; and for which they receive either dollars, or the productions of China, and the Eastern Isles, which they afterwards ship off to India, or send home to Europe, whichever they may find most advantageous.

THE PLAGUE.

The prime minister, Mustapha Serivan's house is at present as much in a state of quarantine as he can put it, consistent with the ideas of the Moors; yet he will not admit to any one, nor to the Bashaw, the necessity of taking precautions at the castle, where he alleges sovereignty is the greatest shield, and whence he says it is necessary to give the Moors an example, not to try to resist the hand of fate.

It is against the Mussulman's faith to number the dead, they are not, therefore, exactly aware of the increasing mortality: but the castle is much infected; one of the princesses, a child of six years old, died two days since, and one of the three remaining queens of the last sovereign was buried to-day. By the Bashaw's orders, her funeral was attended by several of the officers of state, and by four black slaves, freed by him in compliment to this relict of his father: she was buried in very rich

in Tripoli.)

April 1785. In the last few weeks several

The

found in her possession. four enfranchised slaves who followed her were worth about four hundred pounds; they cost from