fee, and the transportation of it from Arabia into Europe and America, is thus related. It is said, that a flock of sheep having discovered a wood of coffee trees, loaded with the berries full ripe, began to browse upon them, and that very evening the shepherd was surprised to see his flocks returning home to the fold, frisking and leaping. He followed them; tasted the berries; found himself more lightsome and cheerful; and was surprised to find the same flavour in the kernel as in the pulp of the fruit. He dried and roasted some of them; smelt the perfume, and related his discovery to a Morlack, or priest, who took it to prevent his falling asleep during his long meditations. The use of coffee soon passed from Asia to Africa, Europe, and to both the worlds. The Dutch succeeded in raising the plants in Europe in hot houses; and having shared them with France, these sorts of magazines furnished the first seeds which were sent to America. The Island of Martinique got hers, from the Botanical Garden at Paris; but if we are to believe a tradition pretty generally known, those of Cayenne were brought from Surinam. It is said, that some soldiers of the garrison having deserted, and gone over to the Dutch colony, soon repented of their fault, and wishing to return to their colours, they brought to the government of Cayenne some grains of coffee, which then began to be cultivated in the colony of Surinam; that they obtained their pardon in consequence of the service they thereby rendered to Cayenne, and the great advantages she would derive from its culture. It is also said, that this happened so late as the years 1715 or 1716, when Mons. de ia Motte Aigron was commander in

chief.

The coffee of Cayenne is of an excellent quality. It thrives in all lands which are in an elevated situation. It very soon degenerates in a poor soil, and never arrives at perfection

but in that which is good. As there is but little of the latter in the colony, there are but few coffee plantations of any extent. The trees being planted, and attended to, with all the care which this sort of culture requires, thrive as well as those of the Dutch at Surinam and Demera; but the quality of the coffee is inferiour.

Towards the summit of the mountains, the cocoa tree extends its scattered branches; and, under its large leaves, conceals its brown fruit, surrounded with a soft, pulpy sap, enclosed in a spherical, streaked kind of cap. There is reason to believe the cocoa is a native of Guiana; at least, it is certain, that a forest of it, of considerable extent, is known here. It is situated beyond the sources of the Oyapok, on the borders of a branch of the Yari, which runs into the river of the Amazons. It is generally believ ed, that the species of cocoa cultiva. ted in the colony originally came from this forest, because the natural inhabitants of the country, settled on the banks of the Oyapok, made seve ral journeys to this part, either for the sake of visiting other nations, or when they sent expressly, to bring the seeds of cocoa, when the price of this article could easily support the expenses of these journeys, which were never much to these people.

Indigo thrives very well in some parts of the colony, more especially on the borders of the river Apfirenague, where the soil is dry and rich. These is a sort of wild indigo, which naturalists call Anil, which grows without cultivation, at a little distance from the sea. It is celebrated for its medicinal qualities, and is much used in all complaints of a billious nature.

The Roucou yields four harvests in the year. It fears neither caterpillars nor worms, which make such havock amongst the canes and cotton. Nothing but the heaviest rains ever injures it, or makes it shed. The tree which produces the roucou is always loaded with fruit and flowers. Its leaf

resembles our winter pear tree; its flower, our hedge rose; its fruit, contained in a prickly husk, like our horse chesnut, is separated into two divisions of small seeds. A roucou tree in full bearing, is a beautiful sight; but the gathering it, like the indigo, is unhealthy. The roucou is only cultivated in Guiana, by the Indians, who stain their bodies with the red colour they extract from it. The berries of the roucou are made into a paste, which is much used in colouring different stuffs.-The vanilla likewise thrives here. It is a native of the country. It is tall and luxuriant, like the vine. The fruit resembles the banana. The Indians alone cultivate it, and make it an article of commerce with the colonists.

All the tropical fruits and plants are found in Guiana in abundance. The bread fruit and the mango, from the East Indies, were introduced some years ago, and have succeeded well.

The rivers abound with various kinds of fish ; but they are also infested with swarms of alligators or crocodiles, as large as those of the Nile. They are so voracious, that they scruple not to attack boats, and often drag away the fisherman and his lines. Some of them are full thirty feet in length, and, as the interiour of the country is but little known, it is probable there are much larger ones.

The forests abound with animals and wild beasts of every description. Tigers are very numerous, and often take off cattle from the plantations. Man has many enemies on this great continent; and amongst them serpents of an enormous size. Were I to relate what many people of the colony have told as facts, relative to these reptiles, few would believe me. In the year 1773, the court of France determined to establish a spice garden at Cayenne, and caused a number of various plants to be brought there from India. Two other expeditions followed in 1784 and in 1788, VOL. II.

X X

both from the Mauritius.-The clove and cinnamon succeeded very well; the other plants perished on the passage. For a considerable length of time, the cultivation of these trees was prohibited to the colonists, which of course prevented their increase. This system having been abandoned, the court sent several plants to St. Domingo and Martinique, in 1787, and 1788. At present, the government of Cayenne is occupied in increasing the spice gardens through the colony. In the latter end of 1798, it distributed a great quantity of seed, and several plants of cloves and cinnamon to all the planters who asked for them; and the gardens of the town offer to the view alleys of the mango growing beside the clove tree.

The strait which separates the island of Cayenne from the main, is about a mile and a half wide. There are but few villages on the main. Of these the chief are Synnamari and Konamana. The latter place was fixed upon for the residence of the unfortunate deputies, priests, and others, who were transported under the sanguinary decrees of the revolutionary tyrants. It is a wretched village, consisting of a few huts, or Indian karbets, in a remote desert situation, surrounded with almost impenetrable forests, and distant about 90 miles from Cayenne. From this place the celebrated senator Barthelemi, exdirector; generals Pichegru, Willot, Ramel, and five others, made their escape, through the woods, to Surinam, in 1799, from whence they got to Barbadoes, where they were furnished with a passage to Europe by the British government. The cele brated Collot d'Herbois, well known in the bloody annals of the revolution for his cruelties and murders, died here. When he was taken ill, the surgeon, who was appointed to attend the exiles, asked what was his complaint I have a fever, and a burning perspiration."— I believe it wellYou pershire with guilt and crimes,”

acts of generosity of the Parnai, or of Mithridates, scattering gold upon the plains of Cisica, to dazzle and retard the conqueror. These great and varying passions are sustained by an indefatigable ardour; a never-ceas ing activity; by enlightened views; and means always certain, whatsoever they may be. Neither guilt nor virtue hinders him from employing both one and the other to serve his purpose, though he well knows the difference between them. Ever fearful of delay, he always lays hold of the first favourable means which offer. He appears to honour atheism, which, however, he only professes outwardly. He has a strong, sound, judgment; a most retentive memory; he is a good practical seaman; a severe administrator; an equitable and enlightened judge, when he only listens to his conscience and his understanding; an excellent man in any crisis of danger and of difficulty, when no great management is required. Although the inhabitants of Guadaloupe and Rochefontain reproach him with abuses of power, and revolutionary excesses, which decency and humanity shudder at, yet the English (and I have been a witness to it) give the highest credit to his tacticks and his bravery.

From a cabinboy Hugues became a pilot, and afterwards a baker at St. Domingo. At the first insurrection of that colony he went over to France, and was elected a member of the popular society, and of the revolutionary tribunal, at Rochefort; got himself to be appointed agent to Guadaloupe; retook that Island from the English, and, in all the Antilles, acquired the esteem of the English, and the execration of the colonists. The stormy and unsettled times, in the midst of which he lived, has completely revolutionized his spirit, and a life of peace and tranquillity is to him a sort of anticipated death.

His very name was dreaded through the colony; his arrival was looked upon as the coming of a wild beast;

the sound of joy gave place to those of terrour and dismay. He was so well convinced of the odium which attended him, that when he was appointed to the command of Cayenne, he got a letter of recommendation from Jeannett, who succeeded him at Guadaloupe, of which, on his arrival, he caused copies to be circulated in every district. The following is a copy of it :

"Worthy inhabitants of Cayenne, lay aside your fears. I know that citizen Hugues appears terrible in your eyes; he will restore happiness to your colony; he asks no more of fortune. He will cause you, by his clemency, to forget the miseries which Guadaloupe experienced under his government. It will be his chief ambition to deserve your confidence and esteem."

Most people took this letter for a piece of sarcastick irony, and very few indeed, gave faith to it.

His policy began to manifest itself on his arrival. He permitted the banished deputies to visit the Island of Cayenne, with proper passportswhich was never done by former agents. He even visited their hospitals. The government, he said, had ordered him to treat them with attention. He praised those inhabitants who had done acts of kindness to them. He wished, he said, to restore peace and order. He made no change in the system of police, as left by Burnel; because the consular government had only appointed him provisionally. He paid off the debts of the colony, and corrected the errours of his predecessor. He gave balls and splendid entertainments. The troops which had disembarked along with him were a mixture of deserters from all nations-men ready to undertake any thing, if the thermometer of politicks should again descend to anarchy. Whenever prizes were brought in, he had their produce shared most equitably He put the black soldiers on the same footing as the white; new modelled their dis

cipline, and brought them to perfection. Yet, notwithstanding all this, for the first six months he could gain no friends. He had even the precaution to get himself praised in some of the Paris journals, that the colonists might see how he was respected in France.

It would appear difficult to reconcile such rigorous measures as he adopted, with the good he has done the colony; and still less, with the praises which certain journals bestow upon him. He revived trade and commerce, by making himself a merchant. He opened, in his own name, a mercantile concern, in which he sometimes figured as a merchant, and sometimes as an agent, to set what value he thought proper on the different articles.

In the course of his long residence at Guadaloupe, he has amassed a considerable fortune. Some say he is not worth less than eighty, or a hundred thousand pounds sterling, most part of which, it is said, he has well secured in America; dreading, perhaps, were he to place it in France, some pretext would soon be found to make him disgorge some of his illgotten wealth.

Yet, in spite of his activity, he has experienced several losses. Famine has visited the colony no less than three times during his agency. He was never disconcerted. He caused the police to be observed with the utmost severity, and kept the ne groes in subjection, more by the terrour of his name, than by his proclamations.

SIR,

AS the present destructive war on the continent holds out no inducement to visit regions annually manured with human blood, I occasionally amuse myself with turning over a few foreign publications imported into this country.

That your readers, however, may not be disappointed, I think it necessary to inform them, that my taste for reading is confined chiefly to natural history, and the useful, domestick arts; insomuch that I have, for a long time, held politicks, metaphysicks, and all speculative branches of knowledge, in utter detestation.

Among the works I lately received by way of Hamburgh, I met with a very extraordinary French pamphlet, on the ingenuity of spiders; and I much doubt, whether any of your fair or unfair readers might conjecture, how this frightful little animal has, in an essential manner, contributed to the conquest of Holland, by the French! A proposition so extraordinary requires a satisfactory explanation.

It is well known that several anis mals, such as frogs, cats, cocks, &c. are influenced by the electricity of the atmosphere, and that they are undoubtedly sensible of the approaching changes of the weather. The spider, that gloomy companion of the afflicted and wretched in cells, is peculiarly susceptible of impressions originating from the different states of the air; and according to an account* given us by M. D'Isjonval, that insect is, perhaps, the most curious and entertaining in animated nature.

In the commotions which took place in Holland, when the stadtholder was reinstated by the Prussian

*Sur la découverte du rapport constant entre l'apparition ou la disparition, le travail ou le non-travail le plus ou le moins d'étendue des toiles, ou des fils d'attache des arraignées des différentes espèces; et les variations atmosphériques du beautems á la pluie, du sec á l'humide, mais principalement du chaud au froid, et de la gelée á glace au véritable dégel; par le Citoyen Quatremere D'Isjonval, á la Haye, 1795, chez van Cleef.