fifty feet, and are thirty feet round.  Figs, lemons, oranges, sugar-canes, gum-trees, bread-fruit, and a kind of pepper, from which a drink, called ava, is made, are very useful to the natives.  There are mines of a very rich quality, but they are as yet scarcely attended to.  The original natives are very idle, and not very well off; those who live near the sea shore, catch fish; and those in the woods, eat such animals as they can get; or climb up trees, for honey, squirrels, and opussums.

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The settlers, who are the people who have gone out from England and other countries, to dwell there, live in a very comfortable manner; they have large farms, with flocks of sheep and herds cattle, fields of waving corn, rice, and wheat; pretty huts, or shanties, as they are called, and a profusion of the most beautiful plants and creepers.  In some parts of the country there are thriving towns, with good streets, elegant shops, and fine houses, such as there are in London.

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From the West Indies, specimens of industry have also come.  Rice, fruits, sugar, metals, and plants, are among the contributions.

The West Indians send us sugar rice, currants, raisins, cloves, nutmegs, cinnamon, allspice, and mace, for puddings; nice nuts, for our little boys and girls; coffee, cocoa, and chocolate, for our breakfast and tea; and fine silk, and cotton, for our dresses.

Under the name of the West Indies, there are many countries:—­Cuba, Jamaica, Hayti, Porto Rico, Barbadoes, and others.  In Cuba, are found mines of gold, copper, and different other metals; there is a quantity of sugar grown there; and the tobacco is finer than that of most other islands.  The trees are principally ebony, cedar, and mahogany, which are hewed down, and sent to foreign countries, to be made into furniture of various sorts.  Cedar wood is also used to scent clothes and papers, on account of its sweet perfume.  The Cubans are fond of bull-fighting, and of cock-fighting, I am sorry to say.  Balls and parties are also a favourite and more innocent amusement.

In Jamaica, the principal exercise of industry is in growing sugar, indigo, coffee, and ginger.  These are cultivated in what are called plantations, which are attended to by negroes, who used to be slaves, and used to be lashed on to work unnaturally hard with whips; but they are now free in all the British colonies, as I hope they will be every where, long before any of my little friends, who read this book, may die.  For not only were men and women kept in a state of slavery, but all their dear innocent little children, both little boys and little girls were treated as slaves.