There are three other Trees that must not here be omitted; Which tho they bear no eatable Fruit, yet the Leaves of the one, and the Juice of the other, and the Bark of the third are very renowned, and of great benefit.

The Tallipot; the rare Uses of the Leaf.The first is the Tallipot; It is as big and tall as a Ships Mast, and very streight, bearing only Leaves: which are of great use and benefit to this People; one single Leaf being so broad and large, that it will cover some fifteen or twenty men, and keep them dry when it rains. The leaf being dryed is very strong, and limber and most wonderfully made for mens Convenience to carry along with them; for tho this leaf be thus broad when it is open, yet it will fold close like a Ladies Fan, and then it is no bigger than a mans arm. It is wonderful light, they cut them into pieces, and carry them in their hands. The whole leaf spread is round almost like a Circle, but being cut in pieces for use are near like unto a Triangle: They lay them upon their heads as they travel with the peaked end foremost, which is convenient to make their way thro the Boughs and Thickets. When the Sun is vehement hot they use them to shade themselves from the heat. Souldiers all carry them; for besides the benefit of keeping them dry in case it rain upon the march, these leaves make their Tents to ly under in the Night. A marvelous Mercy which Almighty God hath bestowed upon this poor and naked People in this Rainy Country! one of these I brought with me into England, and you have it described in the Figure. These Leaves all grow on the top of the Tree after the manner of a Coker. It bears no kind of Fruit until the last year of its life, and then it comes out on the top, and spreads abroad in great branches, all full first of yellow blossoms, most lovely and beautiful to behold, but smell very strong, and then it comes to a Fruit round and very hard, as big as our largest Cherries, but good only for seed to set: and tho this Tree bears but once, it makes amends, bearing such great abundance, that one Tree will yield seed enough for a Countrey. If these Trees stand near any houses, the smell of the blossoms so much annoyes them, that they regarding not the seed, forthwith cut them down. This Tree is within a The pith good to eat.Pith only, which is very good to eat if they cut the Tree down before it runs to seed. They beat it in Mortars to Flower, and bake Cakes of it; which tast much like to white bread. It serves them instead of Corn before their Harvest be ripe.

The Skin bears strings as strong as wyer.It bears a leaf like to that of a Betel-Nut-Tree, which is fastned to a Skin as the Betel-Nut Leaves were, onely this Skin is hard and stubborn like a piece of Board: the Skin is all full of strings as strong as Wyer; they use them to make Ropes withal. As long as the Tree is growing the leaves shed; but when the Tree is come to its full growth, they remain many years upon the Tree before they fall; and when they fall, there are no new ones come again: The top-bud, as it ripens and withers, other buds come out lower and lower every Year till they come to the bottom of the Boughs, and then it hath done bearing, and so may stand seven or ten years, and then dyeth.

The Wood; its Nature and Use.The Wood of this Tree is not above three inches thick, mighty strong and hard to cut in two, but very apt to split from top to bottom; a very heavy wood, they make pestles of it to beat their Rice with; the colour black, but looks not like natural wood, but as if it were composed of divers pieces. The budds of this Tree, as also of the Coker, and Betel Nut-Tree, are excellent in tast, resembling Walnuts or Almonds.

The Cinnamon Tree.I proceed to the third Tree, which is the Cinnamon, in their Language Corunda-gauhah. It grows wild in the Woods as other Trees, and by them no more esteemed; It is most on the West side of the great River Mavela-gonga. It is much as plenty as Hazel in England in some places a great deal, in some little, and in some none at all. The Trees are not very great, but sizable. The Cinnamon is the The Bark.Bark or Rind, when it is on the Tree it looks whitish. They scrape it and pull it off and dry it in the Sun: they take it onely from off the smaller Trees, altho the Bark of the greater is as sweet to the smell and as strong to the tast. The The Wood.Wood has no smell, in colour white, and soft like Fir. Which for any use they cut down, favouring them no more than other wild Trees in the Wood. The The Leaf.Leaf much resembleth the Laurel both in colour and thickness; the difference is, whereas the Laurel hath but one strait rib throughout, whereon the green spreads it self on each sides, the Cinnamon hath three by which the Leaf stretches forth it self. When the young leaves come out they look purely red like scarlet: Break or bruise them, and they will smell more like Cloves than Cinnamon. It bears a The Fruit.Fruit, which is ripe in September, much like an Acorn, but smaller, it neither tasts nor smells much like the Bark, but being boyled in water, it will yield an Oyl swimming on the top, which when cold is as hard as tallow and as white; and smelleth excellently well. They use it for Oyntments for Aches and Pains, and to burn in Lamps to give light in their houses: but they make no Candles of it, neither are any Candles used by any but the King.

Here are many sorts of Trees that bear Berries to make Oyl of, both in the Woods and Gardens, but not eatable, but used only for their Lamps.

The Orula, the Fruit good for Physick, and Dying.The Orula, a Tree as big as an Apple-Tree, bears a Berry somewhat like an Olive, but sharper at each end, its Skin is of a reddish green colour, which covereth an hard stone. They make use of it for Physic in Purges; and also to dy black colour: Which they do after this manner; They take the fruit and beat it to pieces in Mortars, and put it thus beaten into water; and after it has been soaking a day or two, it changeth the water, that it looks like Beer. Then they dip their cloth in it, or what they mean to dy, and dry it in the Sun. And then they dip it in black mud, and so let it ly about an hour, then take it and wash it in water: and now it will appear of a pale black. Then being dry, they dip it again into the aforesaid Dy, and it becomes a very good black.

This water will brighten rusty Iron, and serve instead of Ink.Another use there is of this water. It is this: Let any rusty Iron ly a whole night in it, and it will become bright; and the water look black like Ink, insomuch that men may write with it. These Trees grow but in some Parts of the Land, and nothing near so plentiful as Cinnamon. The Berries the Drugsters in the City there, do sell in their Shops.

The DounekaiaThe Dounekaia gauhah, a shrub, bears leaves as broad as two fingers, and six or eight foot long, on both sides of them set full of Thorns, and a streak of Thorns runs thro the middle. These leaves they split to weave Matts withal. The Tree bears a bud above a span long, tapering somewhat like a Sugar-loaf. Leaves cover this bud folding it about, like the leaves of a Cabbage. Which leaves smell rarely sweet, and look of a lovely yellow colour like gold. This bud blowes into divers bunches of Flowers, spreading it self open like a Plume of Feathers, each Flower whitish, but very small. The Roots of this shrub they use for Ropes, splitting them into Thongs, and then making them into Ropes.

The Capita.The Capita gauhah, is a shrub never bigger than a mans arm. The Wood, Rind and Leaves have all a Physical smell; and they do sometimes make use of it for Physic. The Leaf is of a bright green, roundish, rough, and as big as the palm of an hand. No sort of Cattel will eat it, no, not the Goats, that will sometimes brouze upon rank poyson. There is abundance of these Trees every where, and they grow in all Countreys, but in Ouvah. And this is supposed to be the cause, that the Ouvah Cattle dy, when they are brought thence to any other Country. They attribute it to the smell of this Tree, of such a venomous nature it is to Beasts. And therefore to destroy their Fleas, or to keep their houses clear of them, they sweep them with Brooms made of this shrub. ’Tis excellent good for firing, and will burn when it is green. There are no other coals the Goldsmiths use, but what are made of this wood.

Rattans.Rattans grow in great abundance upon this Island. They run like Honey-suckles either upon the Ground, or up Trees, as it happens, near Twenty fathom in length. There is a kind of a shell or skin grows over the Rattan, and encloseth it round. Which serves for a Case to cover and defend it, when tender. This Skin is so full of prickles and thorns, that you cannot touch it. As the Rattan growes longer and stronger, this Case growes ripe, and falls off prickles and shell and all.

Canes.Canes grow just like Rattans, and bear a fruit like them. The difference onely is, that the Canes are larger.

The Betel Tree.The Tree that bears the Betel-leaf, which is so much loved and eaten in these parts, growes like Ivy, twining about Trees, or Poles, which they stick in the ground, for it to run up by: and as the Betel growes, the Poles grow also. The form of the Leaf is longish, the end somewhat sharp, broadest next to the stalk, of a bright green, very smooth, just like a Pepper leaf, onely different in the colour, the Pepper leaf being of a dark green. It bears a fruit just like long Pepper, but not good for seed, for it falls off and rots upon the ground. But when they are minded to propagate it, they plant the spriggs, which will grow.

The Bo-gauhah, or God Tree.I shall mention but one Tree more as famous and highly set by as any of the rest, if not more, tho it bear no fruit, the benefit consisting chiefly in the Holiness of it. This Tree they call Bo-gauhah; we, the God-tree. It is very great and spreading, the Leaves always shake like an Asp. They have a very great veneration for these Trees, worshipping them; upon a Tradition, That the Buddou, a great God among them, when he was upon the Earth, did use to sit under this kind of Trees. There are many of these Trees, which they plant all the Land over, and have more care of, than of any other. They pave round under them like a Key, sweep often under them to keep them clean; they light Lamps, and set up their Images under them: and a stone Table is placed under some of them to lay their Sacrifices on. They set them every where in Towns and High wayes, where any convenient places are: they serve also for shade to Travellers. They will also set them in memorial of persons deceased, to wit, there, where their Bodies were burnt. It is held meritorious to plant them, which, they say, he that does, shall dy within a short while after, and go to Heaven: But the oldest men onely that are nearest death in the course of Nature, do plant them, and none else; the younger sort desiring to live a little longer in this World before they go to the other.

Of their Roots, Plants, Herbs, Flowers.

The manner of their growing.There are two sorts of these Alloes; some require Trees or Sticks to run up on; others require neither. Of the former sort, some will run up to the tops of very large Trees, and spread out very full of branches, and bear great bunches of blossoms, but no use made of them; The Leaves dy every year, but the Roots grow still, which some of them will do to a prodigious bigness within a Year or two’s time, becoming as big as a mans wast. The fashion of them somewhat roundish, rugged and uneven, and in divers odd shapes, like a log of cleft wood: they have a very good, savoury mellow tast.

Of those that do not run up on Trees, there are likewise sundry sorts; they bear a long stalk and a broad leaf; the fashion of these Roots are somewhat roundish, some grow out like a mans fingers, which they call Angul-alloes, as much as to say Finger-Roots; some are of a white colour, some of a red.

Those that grow in the Woods run deeper into the Earth, they run up Trees also. Some bear blossoms somewhat like Hopps, and they may be as big as a mans Arm.

Boyling Herbs.For Herbs to boyl and eat with Butter they have excellent good ones, and several sorts: some of them are six months growing to maturity, the stalk as high as a man can reach, and being boyled almost as good as Asparagus. There are of this sort, some having leaves and stalks as red as blood, some green: some the leaves green, and the stalk very white.

Fruits for sawce.They have several other sorts of Fruits which they dress and eat with their Rice, and tast very savoury, called Carowela, Wattacul, Morongo, Cacorebouns, &c. the which I cannot compare to any things that grow here in England.

European Herbs and Plants among them.They have of our English Herbs and Plants, Colworts, Carrots, Radishes, Fennel, Balsam, Spearmint, Mustard. These, excepting the two last, are not the natural product of the Land, but they are transplanted hither: By which I perceive all other European Plants would grow there: They have also Fern, Indian Corn. Several sorts of Beans as good as these in England: right Cucumhers, Calabasses, and several sorts of Pumkins, &c. The Dutch on that Island in their Gardens have Lettice, Rosemary, Sage, and all other Herbs and Sallettings that we have in these Countreys.

Their Flowers.Of Flowers they have great varieties, growing wild, for they plant them not. There are Roses red and white, scented like ours: several sorts of sweet smelling Flowers, which the young Men and Women gather and tie in their hairs to perfume them; they tie up their hair in a bunch behind, and enclose the Flowers therein.

A Flower that serves instead of a Dial.There is one Flower deserves to be mentioned for the rarity and use of it, they call it a Sindric-mal, there are of them some of a Murry colour, and some white. Its Nature is, to open about four a clock in the Evening, and so continueth open all Night until the morning, when it closeth up it self till four a clock again. Some will transplant them out of the Woods into their Gardens to serve them instead of a Clock, when it is cloudy that they cannot see the Sun.

There is another white Flower like our Jasmine, well scented, they call them Picha-mauls, which the King hath a parcel of brought to him every morning, wrapt in a white cloth, hanging upon a staff, and carried by people, whose peculiar office this is. All people that meet these flowers, out of respect to the King, for whose use they are, must turn out of the Way; and so they must for all other things that go to the King being wrapt up in white cloth. These Officers hold Land of the King for this service: their Office is, also to plant these Flowers, which they usually do near the Rivers where they most delight to grow: Nay, they have power to plant them in any mans Ground, and enclose that ground when they have done it for the sole use of their Flowers to grow in: which Inclosures they will keep up for several years, until the Ground becomes so worn, that the Flowers will thrive there no longer, and then the Owners resume their own Lands again.

Hop-Mauls, are Flowers growing upon great Trees, which bear nothing else, they are rarely sweet scented; this is the chief Flower the young people use; and is of greatest value among them.

Of their Beasts, Tame and Wild, Insects.

Other Creatures rare in their kind.Here are also wild Buffalo’s; also a sort of Beast they call Gauvera, so much resembling a Bull, that I think it one of that kind. His back stands up with a sharp ridg; all his four feet white up half his Legs. I never saw but one, which was kept among the Kings Creatures. Here was a Black Tygre catched and brought to the King, and afterwards a Deer milk white; both which he very much esteemed; there being no more either before or since ever heard of in that Land.

The way how a Wild Deer was catched.If any desire to know how this white Deer was caught, it was thus; This Deer was observed to come on Evenings with the rest of the Herd to a great Pond to drink; the People that were ordered to catch this Deer, fenced the Pond round and plain about it with high stakes, leaving onely one wide gap. The men after this done lay in ambush, each with his bundle of Stakes ready cut. In the Evening the Deer came with the rest of the Herd to drink according to their wont. As soon as they were entred within the stakes, the men in ambush fell to their work, which was to fence in the gap left, which, there being little less than a Thousand men, they soon did; and so all the Herd were easily caught; and this among the rest.

Of their Elephants.The King hath also an Elephant spotted or freckled all the body over, which was lately caught; and tho he hath many and very stately Elephants, and may have as many more as he pleases, yet he prefers this before them all. And since I am fallen upon discourse of the Elephant, the creature that this Countrey is famed for above any in India, I will detain my self a little longer upon it.

The understanding of Elephants. Their Nature.As he is the greatest in body, so in understanding also. For he will do any thing that his Keeper bids him, which is possible for a Beast not having hands to do. And as the Chingulayes report, they bear the greatest love to their young of all irrational Creatures; for the Shees are alike tender of any ones young ones as of their own: where there are many She Elephants together, the young ones go and suck of any, as well as of their Mothers; and if a young one be in distress and should cry out, they will all in general run to the help and aid thereof; and if they be going over a River, as here be some somewhat broad, and the streams run very swift, they will all with their Trunks assist and help to convey the young ones over. They take great delight to ly and tumble in the water, and will swim excellently well. Their Teeth they never shed. Neither will they ever breed tame ones with tame ones; but to ease themselves of the trouble to bring them meat, they will ty their two fore-feet together, and put them into the Woods, where meeting with the wild ones, they conceive and go one Year with young.

The damage they do.It is their constant practice to shove down with their heads great Trees, which they love to eat, when they be too high, and they cannot otherwise reach the boughs. Wild ones will run much faster than a man, but tame ones not. The People stand in fear of them, and oftentimes are kill’d by them. They do them also great dammage in their Grounds, by Night coming into their Fields and eating up their Corn and likewise their Coker-nut-Trees, &c. So that in Towns near unto the Woods, where are plenty of them, the people are forced to watch their Corn all Night, and also their Outyards and Plantations; into which being once entred with eating and trampling they will do much harm, before they can get them out. Who oftentimes when by lighting of Torches, and hollowing, they will not go out, take their Bowes and go and shoot them, but not without some hazard, for sometimes the Elephant runs upon them and kills them. For fear of which they will not adventure unless there be Trees, about which they may dodg to defend themselves. And altho here be both Bears and Tygers in these Woods, yet they are not so fierce, as commonly to assault people; Travellers and Way-faring men go more in fear of Elephants than of any other Beasts.

Their Diseases.At some uncertain seasons the males have an infirmity comes on them, that they will be stark mad, so that none can rule them. Many times it so comes to pass that they with their Keepers on their backs, run raging until they throw them down and kill them: but commonly there is notice of it before, by an Oyl that will run out of their cheeks, which when that appears, immediately they chain them fast to great Trees by the Legs. For this infirmity they use no Medicine, neither is he sick: but the females are never subject to this.

The Sport they make.The Keepers of the Kings Elephants sometimes make a sport with them after this manner. They will command an Elephant to take up water, which he does, and stands with it in his Trunk, till they command him to squirt it out at some body, which he immediately will do, it may be a whole paleful together, and with such a force, that a man can hardly stand against it.

Ants of divers sorts.There are Ants of several sorts, and some worthy our remark.

First of all, there are the Coumbias, a sort of small reddish Ants like ours in England.

Secondly, the Tale-Coumbias, as small as the former but blackish. These usually live in hollow Trees or rotten Wood, and will sting most terribly.

Thirdly, the Dimbios, great red Ants. These make their nests upon the Boughs of great Trees, bringing the Leaves together in clusters, it may be as big as a mans head; in which they lay their Eggs and breed. There will be oftentimes many nests of these upon one Tree, insomuch that the people are afraid to go up to gather the Fruits lest they should be stung by them.

A fourth sort of Ants are those they call Coura-atch. They are great and black, living in the ground. Their daily practice is to bring up dirt out of the ground, making great hollow holes in the Earth, somewhat resembling Cony-Burrows; onely these are less, and run strait downwards for some way, and then turn away into divers paths under ground. In many places of the Land there are so many of these holes, that Cattle are ready to break their Legs as they go. These do not sting.

These Ants a very mischievous sort.There is a sixth sort called Vaeos. These are more numerous than any of the former. All the whole Earth doth swarm with them. They are of a middle size between the greatest and the least, the hinder part white, and the head red. They eat and devour all that they can come at; as besides food, Cloth, Wood, Thatch of Houses and every thing excepting Iron and Stone. So that the people cannot set any thing upon the ground within their houses for them. They creep up the walls of their houses, and build an Arch made of dirt over themselves all the way as they climb, be it never so high. And if this Arch or Vault chance to be broken, they all, how high soever they were, come back again to mend up the breach, which being finished they proceed forwards again, eating every thing they come at in their way. This Vermin does exceedingly annoy the Chingulays, insomuch that they are continually looking upon any thing they value, to see if any of these Vaeos have been at it. Which they may easily perceive by this Case of dirt, which they cannot go up any where without building as they go. And wheresoever this is seen, no doubt the Ants are there.

The curious Buildings of the Vaeos.In places where there are no houses, and they can eat nothing belonging to the people, they will raise great Hills like Butts, some four or five or six foot high; which are so hard and strong, that it would be work enough to dig them down with Pick-Axes. The Chingulays call these Humbosses. Within they are full of hollow Vaults and Arches where they dwell and breed, and their nests are much like to Honeycombs, full of eggs and young ones. These Humbosses are built with a pure refined Clay by the ingenious builders. The people use this Clay to make their Earthen Gods of, because it is so pure and fine.

The manner of their death.This sort of creatures as they increase in multitudes, so they dy in multitudes also. For when they come to maturity they have wings, and in the Evening after the going down of the Sun, (never before) all those that are fledged and ripe, will issue forth in such vast numbers, that they do almost darken the Sky, flying to such an height, as they go out of sight, and so keep flying till they fall down dead at last upon the Earth. The Birds that tarry up late, and are not yet gone to roost, fly among them and make good Suppers of them.

The People in this Land never feed their Poultry. But they feed upon these Ants, which by scraping among the leaves and dirt they can never want; and they delight in them above Rice or any thing else. Besides all these Ants already mentioned, there are divers other distinct sorts of them.

Bees of several kinds.But we will proceed to a more beneficial Insect, the Bee. Of which there be three sorts. The first are the Meemasses, which are the right English Bees. They build in hollow Trees, or hollow holes in the ground, which the Vaeo’s have made. Into which holes the men blow with their mouths, and the Bees presently fly out. And then they put in their hands, and pull out the Combs, which they put in Pots or Vessels, and carry away. They are not afraid of their stinging in the least, nor do they arm themselves with any cloths against them.

The third sort they call Connameia, signifying a blind Bee. They are small like a Fly, and black. They build in hollow Trees; and their honey somewhat tarrish: and they make such small quantities of it, that the people little regard it. The Boyes will sometimes cut a hole and take it out.

The people eat the Bees, as well as their honey.When they meet with any swarms of Bees hanging on any Tree, they will hold Torches under to make them drop; and so catch them and carry them home. Which they boyl and eat, and esteem excellent food.

Leaches that ly in the grass, and creep on Travellers Legs.There is a sort of Leaches of the nature of ours, onely differing in colour and bigness. For they are of a dark reddish colour like the skin of Bacon, and as big as a Goose quill, in length some two or three inches. At first, when they are young, they are no bigger than a horse hair, so that they can scarce be seen. In dry weather none of them appear, but immediately upon the fall of Rains, the Grass and Woods are full of them. These Leaches seize upon the Legs of Travellers; who going barefoot according to the custom of that Land, have them hanging upon their Legs in multitudes, which suck their blood till their bellies are full, and then drop off. They come in such quantities, that the people cannot pull them off so fast as they crawl on. The blood runs pouring down their Legs all the way they go, and ’tis no little smart neither, so that they would willingly be without them if they could, especially those that have sores on their Legs; for they all gather to the sore.

The remedies they use against them.Some therefore will tie a piece of Lemon and Salt in a rag and fasten it unto a stick, and ever and anon strike it upon their Legs to make the Leaches drop off: others will scrape them off with a reed cut flat and sharp in the fashion of a knife. But this is so troublesom, and they come on again so fast and so numerous, that it is not worth their while: and generally they suffer them to bite and remain on their Legs during their Journey; and they do the more patiently permit them, because it is so wholsome for them. When they come to their Journeys end they rub all their Legs with ashes, and so clear themselves of them at once: but still the blood will remain dropping a great while after. But they are most annoyed by them when they go out to stool a-Nights, being small and of the colour of their bodies, so that they can neither see nor feel to pull them off. And these, tho they be in such quantities in some of these Countreys, yet in others there are none at all, nor ever were known to have been. But besides these, there are Water Leaches the same with ours.

Before I make an end of my discourse of their Beasts, it may be worthwhile to relate the ways they use to catch them. At which they are very crafty.

How they catch wild Beasts.For the catching of Deer or other wild Beasts, they have this ingenious device. In dark Moons when there are drisling Rains, they go about this design. They have a basket made with canes somewhat like unto a funnel, in which they put a potsheard with fire in it, together with a certain wood, which they have growing there, full of sap like pitch, and that will burn like a pitch-barrel. This being kindled in the potsheard flames, and gives an exceeding light. They carry it upon their heads with the flame foremost; the basket hiding him that is under it, and those that come behind it. In their hands they carry three or four small bells, which they tingle as they go, that the noyse of their steps should not be heard. Behind the man that carries the light, go men with Bowes and Arrows. And so they go walking along the Plains, and by the Pond sides, where they think the Deer will come out to feed. Which when they see the light, stand still and stare upon it, seeing onely the light, and hearing nothing but the tingling of the bells.

The eyes of the Deer or other Cattle first appear to them glittering like Stars of light or Diamonds: and by their long experience they will distinguish one Beast from another by their eyes. All Creatures, as Deer, Hares, Elephants, Bears, &c. excepting onely wild Hogs, will stand still, wondering at this strange sight, till the people come as near as they do desire, and so let fly their Arrows upon them. And by this means they seldom go, but they catch something. The blades of their hunting-Arrowes are at least a foot or a foot and an half long, and the length of the staff of their Arrowes is a Rian, that is about two cubits.

Again, they will observe where a Deers haunt is to break over their Hedges into the Corn Grounds. There they will set a sharp pole like a Spear full against the Haunt. So that the Deer when she leaps over thrusts her self upon the point of it.

If a Tyger chance to come into their Grounds and kill a Cow, they will take notice of the place thro which he passed, and set a Cross-bow there ready charged. The Tyger coming that way again touches something that is fastned to the tricker of the Cross-bow, and so it discharges upon him.

How they take the Wild Boar.The wild Hog is of all other the hardest to be caught; and ’tis dangerous to attempt the catching of him. For the people make valour to consist in three things, one is to fight against the Enemy, another to hunt the Elephant, and the third to catch Hoggs. Yet sometimes by their art they entrap them. And that they do after this manner. They dig an hole in the Earth of a convenient depth, and fix divers sharp stakes in the bottom of it. Then they cover it over lightly with Earth and Leaves, and plant thereupon roots which the Hog loves, as Potatoes or such like, which will grow there. And the pit remains, it may be sometimes months or half a year, till at last an Hog comes, and while he is rooting his weight betrayes him and in he falls.

Again, sometimes they will set a falling trap of an exceeding weight, and under it plant Roots and such like things, which the Hog delights in. There are contrivances under the weeds and leaves, which when he goes to eat by touching or treading upon something fastned to the trap, it falls down upon him. These are made so artificially, that people sometimes have been caught and destroyed by them. Once such a trap in my remembrance fell upon three women and killed them. Who having been stealing Cotton in a Plantation, and fearing to be catched went to creep out at a hole, where this Trap stood.

And thus I have related some of their ways of taking wild Cattel. They are good also at catching Birds and Vermin; In fine, they are the cunningest people in the World for such kind of traps and gins. And all of them they make onely by the help of their Knives with green sticks and withs that grow in the Woods. And so much of their Beasts.